HP has been impressing us lately with some of its system design—the new Spectre laptop is particularly eye-catching. A new all-in-one desktop announced today is similarly striking. The name is a little ungainly—the HP Pavilion All-in-One with Micro-Edge Display—but while not rolling off the tongue, it sure is descriptive. The 23.8-inch non-touch IPS display has a narrow bezel of just 6.4 mm, bringing the same kind of slimline look that we've been fans of since the Dell XPS 13 came onto the scene.
In the flesh, the machine is extremely good looking, and the narrow bezels make it really stand out. It's a system that'll look good both at home or in the office, with the narrow bezel almost imperceptible.
With prices starting at $749.99, the Pavilion offers a range of Intel Skylake processors, and optional Nvidia GT 930A graphics. This isn't going to be the fastest system ever built, but it should be more than able to handle most things that people throw at it, even light gaming at its native 1920×1080 resolution should be within reach. It can be equipped with up to 16GB RAM and 1TB hybrid disk. Connectivity includes USB Type-C, traditional USB 3.0, Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and HDMI out.
One of the biggest problems with the XPS 13 is that the narrow bezel affords no room for a webcam at the top edge of the screen. HP has a neat and privacy conscious solution for its all-in-one. Rather than putting a webcam in the bezel itself, the system has a sprung pop-up unit. When depressed, the camera unit is completely hidden within the machine. It's also physically disconnected, disabling both the camera and microphone. Push down on the camera unit and it pops out, connecting the webcam and its microphone.
This neatly solves the "where to put the webcam" issue, and from a privacy point of view is a great deal more elegant than taping over the camera's lens. The webcam can also offer security; it can optionally be upgraded to an Intel RealSense depth-sensing camera. This is compatible with Windows Hello, so you can log in to the machine just by sitting down in front of it and having it recognize your face.
