14 DAY TRIAL // When hearing of a new all-in-one from any of the top PC suppliers, end-users are no doubt accustomed to seeing capabilities like multitouch, Full HD resolutions, large memory capacities and good graphics at prices of over $1,000. Not all AiO PCs are like that, however, some even deciding to forgo certain functionality in order to strike a lower price point. This, it can be said, is what HP intended to accomplish when it developed the Compaq Presario CQ1-1020 All-in-One desktop.
While this may come as a surprise to some, the new PC from HP is actually built based on the Pine Trail platform. This is unusual, considering that nettops and netbooks are the devices usually known to use it. The CPU employed is the Intel Atom D410, which has a clock speed of 1.66GHz. There is also 1GB of RAM, the Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150 integrated graphics, a hard disk drive with a storage space of 160GB, built-in speakers and an 8x DVD writer. As for connectivity, there is the common 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi.
It has become obvious that HP made a point of reaching as low a price point as possible, instead of launching just another Windows 7 machine in need of more money than most people have. In fact, it could be said that the overall specs are in no way superior to those of most netbooks, the only difference being the large screen area of 18.5 inches. Multitouch is also absent, although it wouldn't exactly work well on Windows XP SP3. This means that the only advantage of the Compaq Presario, among its peers, is its price tag of only $429.99.
End-users that don't exactly see the large screen as a must may decide to buy a netbook instead of this product, especially considering the similar price points. Those that do like their screens large, however, will still have to wait a while, considering that the product page lists this system as out of stock.