Last week, we received a rather large package in the mail from Hewlett-Packard, a new HP SpectreONE All-in-One. For Christmas, the Sprucettes asked Santa for a new computer since Clar, Meredith, Alejandra, and I communally use one desktop for checking out customers, reading blogs, looking up fabrics, etc., etc. Meredith and I bring our own laptops to help with the deficiency, but there’s always an odd man out. So you can imagine how delighted I was to receive an email the week before Christmas asking if I’d like to use and review the HP SpectreONE All-in-One. Yes, please!
We’re obsessed with well-designed furniture and objects around here. The HP SpectreONE All-in-One is SUPER easy to set up. Think one cord, people! And it’s sleek design is a great change from the typical bulky PC we currently have. There’s no tower to find a place for, dust around, or run cords from. Every part is housed in the monitor. There’s also a mouse and a touch pad, making my transition from my MacBook Air even easier.
As soon as I got the HP SpectreONE All-in-One set up, I got straight to work on financial planning and supply spreadsheets…NOT. Actually, Meredith, Katherine, and I went straight to E!Online for a recap of the Golden Globes. This 23″ HD screen is plenty big for 1 or several people, and it streamed video beautifully. Look at those gowns flow across the red carpet.
And Skyping is like talking to a life-size version of your counterpart. I wanted to reach out and grab Kate (my baby niece). It’s a much better experience video chatting with a screen bigger than the palm of my hand.
While Meredith was deep into end-of-year taxes, I plugged in my headphones and privately caught up on After the Jump with Grace Bonney while pinning outfits for Altitude Summit next week.
Later in the day, the HP SpectreONE All-in-One serenaded the Sprucettes out loud while we did busy work. You can even use your phone as a remote to control volume and skip from one song to the next. And yes, we still have a filing cabinet. Busted!
With all of our furniture transformations, we have quite a pile of photos to edit. The HP SpectreONE All-in-One came with Adobe Photoshop Elements already installed! One less step and expense for getting this new machine up and running.
It has a plethora of features I’m still working out, like the Touch Zone that allows one tap transfer of information from your smart phone to the computer, or vice versa. I downloaded this free app (HP Recipe Box), found dinner for tonight, and transferred the grocery list to my iPhone in about five minutes.
My only awkward moments with the HP SpectreONE All-in-One have been with Windows 8. I often feel like I’m aimlessly clicking the mouse to go from one window/application to the next, as many of the standard functions for operating a PC are different. Part of the learning curve comes from my long-time MAC use, which makes Windows 8 even more of a challenge to navigate. With any change comes a lot of learning and some struggle, so I’m happy to trudge my way through Windows 8 to use the HP SpectreONE All-in-One.
Next week, Meredith and I bundle up and head to Salt Lake City for Altitude Summit where HP will post mine and others’ experience boards from the last few weeks of HP SpectreONE All-in-One usage, so stay tuned for more feedback, video footage, and inspiration from other folks as well as myself for this brand new HP computer.
For additional specs and information about the HP SpectreONE All-in-One, visit the HP website here and here.
I wrote this review while participating in a program on behalf of HP and received the HP SpectreONE AiO and other products as a thank you for my participation.