HP Omni 27 PC Review

The HP Omni 27 PC is an all-in-one desktop featuring a 27' screen, a powerful quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and built-in Beats audio. So how perfect would this PC be for your office or home? Matt Mira and Kevin Pereira take a look.

What You Need To Know

• The HP Omni 27 has a huge 27" screen, which is the biggest we've seen in any all-in-one PC.
• The panel is pretty slim but the whole thing has a bit of heft to it because of the steel stand.
• The computer weighs 35 lbs.
• The screen is adjustable but not as much as we'd like.
• You can swap out the stand for any standard VESA mount.
• This computer definitely has an emphasis on media with a decent amount of ports.
• The side has a card reader, two USB 3.0 ports and Beats certified audio.
• The back has four USB 2.0 ports and digital audio out.
• There's also an option for an HDMI input, which allows you to use this display as a monitor for your PS3 or Xbox but that's a $50 upgrade.
• We even like the included mouse and keyboard, which has a Beats logo on it in a very appropriate spot.
• The 27" screen has a 1920x1090 resolution, which isn't nearly as high res as the iMac display 9which is 2560x1440).
• For media, this is a better display because most videos these days are 1080p, and that's the native resolution of this display.
• This means full HD video is scaled perfectly on this computer.
• That said, colors were not as good as the iMac display and the color saturation was a little disappointing.
• Overall, this is a great display for consuming video.
• The recommended configuration has an Intel core i5 quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and Intel integrated graphics.
• You can upgrade the model with a Core i7, discrete graphics and a solid state drive, but a lot of people won't need this.
• We played COD: Modern Warfare 3 on this and the results were pretty much what you expect from an integrated graphics card.
• Serious gamers will definitely want to pay the extra bucks for the better graphics card.
• If you want to turn this PC into an even bigger media powerhouse, you can pay another $100 to add a Blu-ray player.
• Thanks to Beats audio, all the media sounds great.
• This computer comes with HP's Magic Canvas software, which is basically the TouchSmart interface but for a mouse and keyboard.
• It replaces the standard Windows 7 interface with the intention to be more user-friendly.
• We didn't find it to be that much more intuitive than the default interface.
• We applaud HP for attempting to make an alternative to the boring Windows 7 look but Magic Canvas is nothing great.

Price

• Starts at $1,199.

Rating

• 4 Seals of Approval out of 5. (How do we rate gadgets?)
• You get a lot of display for what you pay for.
• Full HD video looks phenomenal on the screen.
• The option for an HDMI input makes this the perfect PC to buy for any dorm room or small apartment.
• What holds this back from a better rating is that all the things you want are not in the stock model.

 Want something reviewed on Gadget Pr0n? Email us your suggestions to gadgetpron@g4tv.com.