HP SpectreONE review

Initially, we wondered how HP had managed to cram a full PC into such a slim case – in fact, it hasn’t. The entire system is enclosed in the SpectreONE’s 291mm-wide stand, a clever solution that means there’s some degree of user upgradability. Remove a plastic panel and you’ll find a single memory and mSATA socket free, and even the hard disk caddy is easily accessible.

The one thing you can’t get at is the processor, but performance is perfectly adequate. The SpectreONE is powered by an Intel Core i5-3470T, a low-power Ivy Bridge part that runs at 2.9GHz, and it scored 0.73 in our application benchmarks. That’s enough to deliver a snappy Windows 8 experience, and more grunt than the Sony VAIO Tap 20, which scored 0.63 in the same tests.

There’s a discrete graphics chip, but it doesn’t meet the demands of high-end gaming. The Nvidia GeForce 610 is the weakest desktop core in Nvidia’s current range, and scored 54fps in our Low quality Crysis test – a score that outpaces the 21fps result of the Sony with its integrated Intel graphics chip, but falls far behind the 141fps score of the iMac, which has an Nvidia GT 650M.

The screen isn’t bad either. The 23in screen has the same 1,920 x 1,080 resolution as the 21.5in iMac, and although it looked bluish and rather dim when we first switched it on, a bit of tinkering with the settings soon sorted it out. Using HP’s My Display software, we adjusted the contrast from 50% to 75%, and changed the screen’s mode from “cool” to “warm”.

That done, the situation improved drastically: brightness hit a respectable 248cd/m2, colours became far more vivid and lifelike, and the contrast ratio of 1,180:1 gave images a depth and solidity that wasn’t there before. It still hasn’t got the measure of Apple’s iMac, due to visible backlight bleed along the display’s bottom edge and poor vertical viewing angles, but it’s more than a match for the average all-in-one PC.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the HP SpectreONE. It looks gorgeous, the screen is decent, and there’s even a modicum of upgradability, which is unusual in an all-in-one. The one sticking point is the £1,200 price tag – it’s more expensive than the cheapest 21.5in iMac, which has a superior display and far faster graphics card. HP has taken aim at Apple with its latest all-in-one, and the SpectreONE is impressive – but our top all-in-one is still the iMac.