HP TouchSmart 610

Is it just us or do all-in-ones seem to be having a moment? Over the past two months, we've seen Toshiba make a belated jump into the market, while Lenovo went and added one to its family of Think-branded laptops and desktops. And that's not even counting models by old-timers like Apple, Dell, and MSI. And then there's HP, which has been making touchscreen all-in-ones for three years -- long before they were a thing. The company's had plenty of time to fine-tune its finger-friendly TouchSmart software, and now, its newest model, the TouchSmart 610 ($899 and up), ushers in a fresh design, highlighted by a hinge that allows the display to slide down and lie nearly flat. Although it's been shipping since this spring, it's only been available with Sandy Bridge for about a month now. We took one of these tricked-out beasts into our living room and got reacquainted with the comforts of not-so-mobile computing. At the risk of spoiling everything, we think this should be on your shortlist if you're considering an all-in-one, especially one with a big 'ol touchscreen. Read on to find out why.

All told, HP has come a long way with its TouchSmart software, though there is undoubtedly still room for it to beef up the selection -- not to mention, make the quality and usefulness of the apps uniformly good. It just so happens, though , that the TouchSmart 610 is an excellent Windows computer, so even if you don't plan on using this feature 24 / 7, you might still think of it as a pleasant add-on separating it from the pack.
On the multimedia front, HP also included its own LinkUp software, which allows you to wirelessly share media with other PCs running on the same WiFi network. Since these computers all have to have LinkUp installed, you'd better be prepared for a one-time chore. Other than that, as far as bloatware goes, you won't find much extra software other than the (admittedly large) array of HP-branded utilities. These additional apps include Bing Bar, LabelPrint, Power2Go, Microsoft 2010, and Norton Internet Security.