HP TouchSmart 520-1050y

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y

Hewlett-Packard missed the mark with its retail-only HP TouchSmart 520-1050y. Yes, this system hits most of the major notes I expect of a $1,049 all-in-one, but the fact is that you can buy an identical version of the TouchSmart 520 directly from HP for $50 less. You can also buy a more useful, though slower, Toshiba all-in-one for $899, which--unlike this HP system--has a versatile HDMI input. Or you can add an HDMI input to the TouchSmart 520 on HP.com to bring the price back up to $1,049. In short, as I hope is obvious by now, I can't recommend that you buy this retail model when you can get the same thing for less directly from HP. The TouchSmart 520-1050y is the lower-end cousin of the TouchSmart 520xt we reviewed a few weeks ago. We found that model bumped up too closely to HP's flagship TouchSmart 610 line, but had HP sent me a 520 configuration around $1,000 or so, it would have seemed just about right for a midrange all-in-one. Too bad, then, that HP didn't get the pricing right on this in-store-only TouchSmart 520, since it mostly makes sense on paper. Next to the competing Samsung Series 7 all-in-one and Toshiba's lower-end $899 DX735, the TouchSmart 520-1050y seems reasonably, almost aggressively priced given its Blu-ray drive.