HP Spectre ONE 23-e010se Pro Reviews

HP's Spectre One 23 is a bit of a mixed bag. It's undeniably impressively designed, considering the system's thin profile and the fact that most of the components are accessible with a couple of common household screwdrivers. And in our $1,606 configuration, the system flew through our productivity benchmarks, making it a good fit for video editing or other CPU-intensive tasks. But the low-end Nvidia graphics aren't up to the task of serious gaming at the screen's 1080p resolution. And considering the price, we think the mSATA cache drive and a better IPS panel should be included in the price. Most frustrating, though, is the lack of a touch screen. In the days of Windows 7, touch was far from a necessity. But after spending some time swiping and tapping though the tiles of the Windows 8 Start screen, we have a hard time being happy without it.

Lacking a touchscreen, some might bypass the Spectre One, but it's a good performer, decently styled and will serve most users just fine. Buy it with the minimal amount of memory and upgrade yourself if needs be.

If there was any doubt about the importance of design in the PC world, the recent spate of beautifully made all-in-one desktops, like the Apple iMac 21.5-Inch (Late 2012), and the Asus ET2300INTI-B022K should make it clear that the look and feel of a PC is often the difference between a failed clunker and a successful new form-factor. The HP Spectre One 23-e010se epitomizes the power of an aesthetically pleasing PC, with a gorgeous design marred only by a rather large power brick. It has a solid feature set that includes a quad-core CPU and discrete Nvidia graphics, but it’s midrange performance doesn’t fully justify its premium price.

If there was any doubt about the importance of design in the PC world, the recent spate of beautifully made all-in-one desktops, like the Apple iMac 21.5-Inch (Late 2012)$1,299.00 at Apple Store, and the Asus ET2300INTI-B022K should make it clear that the look and feel of a PC is often the difference between a failed clunker and a successful new form-factor. The HP Spectre One 23-e010se epitomizes the power of an aesthetically pleasing PC, with a gorgeous design marred only by a rather large power brick. It has a solid feature set that includes a quad-core CPU and discrete Nvidia graphics, but it's midrange performance doesn't fully justify its premium price.