It is undeniable that All-in-One PCs have (AiO) gained in popularity, and many were even sold out during the 2016 Holidays. The HP Envy Curved AiO 34 b010 is a 34-inch all in one PC that has a generous base which contains both computer and sound system, and a super-wide 3440×1440 curved display.
The base of the Envy Curved AiO 34 b010 is large enough to accommodate a powerful Intel Core i7-7700T CPU and an AMD Radeon RX 460 GPU (4GB VRAM). If you are wondering, there should be an NVIDIA GPU option as well, although the details remain unclear at the moment.
HP offers two storage types, with 256 GB of PCIe NVMe SSD (M.2 format) and 1TB of HDD (7200 rpm). We don’t think that the storage options are designed to be user replaceable, but that would have been a nice option to have, given the relative size of the base.
Speaking of the chassis, it does contain a B&O sound system (or more likely, B&O worked on tweaking the audio settings with HP). There are four speakers with two additional passive radiators that are there to increase the bass response of the speakers. The main point of those radiators is to increase the bass power, without increasing the size of the speaker chassis. It’s a proven concept that I had not seen applied on a PC before.
At the bottom right, there is a volume dial, which also has a touch sensor that lets you swipe left and right to skip songs. On the left side of the chassis, there’s a built-in wireless charger for smartphones, a very nice touch for users who have a wireless enabled phone such as the Galaxy S7.
This computer has plenty of ports: 4 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB C 3.1, HDMI Out, HDMI In. Note that the presence of an HDMI In port means that you can use the computer as a monitor, which is useful if you have a game console in your room, just to cite one example. Curiously, there isn’t an Ethernet port listed, and that’s surprising because they remain very useful for high-speed, low latency and no-hassle network connectivity – especially when copying hundreds of GBs worth of files.
The star of the show is the 34-inch ultrawide display. It looks beautiful, and the image quality (99% sRGB color gamut) is very decent. HP has designed the display to feature very thin bezels, and it has a retractable webcam at the top of the screen for hack-proof privacy. Note that Technicolor vouches for the color gamut of this display.
The HP Envy Curved AiO 34 b010 is a very interesting take on a PC market segment that is increasingly getting popular as the design value of PCs continue to rise in the minds of potential buyers. AiOs are more powerful than ever, and their performance is deemed “good enough” for more and more users. At the same time, their design allows a serious reduction in room/office clutter.
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