A Closer Look At The HP DreamScreen And Other All-In-One PCs

The release of the Hewlett-Packard DreamScreen is indicative of the increased attention being devoted to All-in-One PCs. These desktop machines run the gamut as far as internal specs are concerned and offer a wealth of style-conscious designs. Some All-in-One PCs are designed for specific functions, such as interacting with social media or checking e-mail, and are built with relatively low horsepower. Still, other vendors believe that the All-in-One market can and should extend into the enterprise in order to reduce space while providing everything an employee needs.





While Apple may or may not have pioneered the All-in-One PC, it's hard to deny that its iconic iMac certainly put it on the map. This early version of the iMac Flower Power shows just how far the industry has come.

The HP DreamScreen takes a different approach to the All-in-One PC. Rather than having internal hardware similar to the PC, such as a processor and storage, for example, HP's product is focused on the Web. The DreamScreen is available in a 10.2- and 13.3-inch model and can come with up to 2 GB of built-in memory to run the machine. The HP DreamScreen is intended mostly for cloud-based applications such as social networking on Facebook or Twitter or uploading photos to Flickr or Snapfish. While the DreamScreen isn't a traditional All-in-One along the same lines of the iMac Flower, it may represent the next step in the evolution of the devices to rely almost exclusively on cloud computing.

Sometimes a picture really does say it all, so take another look at the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 All-In-One Desktop. Traditionally, desktops were bland-looking towers, bogged down by cords and cables. Rarely would a desktop work as the focal point of the room. But the A600 is a sleek desktop with a 21.5-inch frameless screen that is 1.06-inches thin. For entertainment enthusiasts, it offers a high-definition, 16:9 aspect ratio screen for cinema-like viewing and support for 1,920 x 1,080 full HD resolution. A digital tuner is built in, letting users watch and record television on the A600. No tower, no cords or cables, and 4-in-1 remote control will really impress your friends.

Acer seems to have its fingers in every aspect of the PC market. The Acer Veriton Z280G-EA27CP is the company's consumer play, with an emphasis on lightweight computing and design. The 18.5-inch LCD monitor is only 2.14-inches deep and is powered by an Intel N270 processor. Even though the Veriton is designed for consumers, the PC is robust enough to handle some office applications as well. The hardware has 160 GB of storage and 2 GB of memory. The five USB 2.0 ports let information move on and off the Veriton easily and the 802.11 b/g WLAN ensures this All-in-One PC can connect easily to the Web.

The Dell Vostro All-in-One PC is something of an outlier on this list because it can be designed for the enterprise. The Vostro eschews the Intel Atom processor for the more robust Intel Core 2 Duo and up to 4 GB of memory. Unlike some of the other All-in-Ones, the Vostro can be preloaded with Windows Vista Business instead of Home. Storage space on the Vostro also is large, with the PC being capable of storing up to 250 GB worth of information. Overall, the Dell Vostro can fit easily into a work environment and hold its own against some other enterprise hardware.

One of the major selling points is that the VPC100 is a compact design, with a 35mm-thick monitor that is thinner than many displays on the market. The 18.5-inch display features a 16:9 aspect ratio LCD screen. In addition, the company is touting the PC as more eco-friendly than many desktops because it is one unit instead of two -- a monitor and tower PC -- which means the VPC100 uses about 50 percent less plastic. In addition, the computer cuts energy consumption -- it runs on 45 percent less power than a traditional computer set.







The VPC100 has 1 GB of RAM, a 160-GB hard drive, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor with Microsoft Windows XP Home, wireless connectivity within any 802.11b/g Wi-Fi network, four USB 2.0 ports, two built-in 2.5-watt speakers, an integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam, a 4-in-1 card reader for file transfers, DVD/CD Super multi-RW optical disk drive and an included full-size keyboard and optical mouse.

If you're looking to pay a premium price for hardware, going with the original might not be a bad move. The current version of Apple's All-in-One computer, the iMac, is beefier than any of the other contenders on the list. The iMac is built with processor speed up to a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and up to 4 GB of DDR3 memory. The options for the screen are bigger as well, with Apple offering 20- and 24-inch models. Storage on the iMac goes up to 1 TB. Bluetooth, firewire, USB 2.0 ports, built-in speakers -- all the premium features that most users have come to expect from Apple are present in the current iteration of the iMac. Of course, as with most things Apple, you pay for what you get, with the iMac starting around $1,199.