HP Pavilion MS225

HP Pavilion MS225 Review

We learn in our review that HP's latest Pavilion MS225 all-in-one makes just the right compromises, delivering solid value at a very low price point.Few companies have done as much to advance the popularity of all-in-one PC designs as HP (except for maybe Compaq, and that was long before HP acquired the company). While the HP Pavilion MS225 doesn’t have all the sexy features found in HP’s more expensive TouchSmart series—it’s not endowed with a touchscreen, obvioulsy—but it’s a much better value than some of the other inexpensive all-in-one PCs we’ve seen lately. Read on to find out why.Put simply, the difference lies in HP’s component choices. A number of manufacturers have elected to use inexpensive CPUs, such as Intel’s Atom series, in order to hold down costs. That choice, paired with just one or two gigabytes of memory, keeps price tags low, but it also leads to unpalatable performance and usability compromises. HP could never offer the Pavilion MS225 at just $600 without making its own dive into the bargain bin, but at least it comes up with a full-fledged desktop processor: AMD’s Athlon II X2 250u running at a modest 1.6GHz.