HP is bringing touch to business as it unveils its latest commercial desktops to market. HP’s EliteOne and EliteDesk 800 series are desktop PCs that are designed for the needs of businesses today. HP’s latest business PCs are designed to be touch-enabled and are powered by Intel’s 4th generation Core processors.
While everyone at the office is thinking about their summer vacation, businesses are starting to think about their IT needs and for that HP is bringing its latest in commercial desktops. Although desktop computers may be a dying breed for consumers, they are still a pillar in the business world.
With Windows 8 now established in the consumer market it and new devices are starting to find their way into the corporate sector. We are beginning to see HP and other companies offering touch-enabled options to their corporate clients that take advantage of Windows 8 user interface.
For corporate clients security and ease of servicing their systems is of paramount importance. Bob Ducey HP’s Worldwide Marketing Manager for Commercial Desktops remarks they’ve made it so “you can have HP services come in and replace any component in your product right there, so the unit never goes anywhere so that’s one of the key features for designing for the commercial market.”
HP’s EliteOne comes in 2 variants touch and non-touch with the EliteDesk 800 being their desktop tower counterparts for those companies that just need the computer not the monitor or inputs. TheEliteDesk 800 takes several familiar forms, from that of a tower which has the most expandability and its the largest of the three to 2 horizontal desktop form factors with one of them being an ultra-slim desktop. The ultra-slim has the least amount of expandability and is basically the all-in-one without the monitor. With the all-in-one and desktop options HP offers an entire range for whatever their corporate clients need.
HP is powering these desktops with Intel’s 4th generation Core processors, they feature USB 3.0 ports for speeder data access and faster charging for your mobile devices. On the security front HP supports Intel’s vPro security in addition to HP’s own Client Security to keep your computers protected from prying eyes.
The centre piece of the HP business lineup is their commercial all-in-one the HP EliteOne. It has a stylish look but unlike other all-in-one computers that doesn’t come at the expense of its serviceability. The EliteOne is “the only commercial all-in-one that supports dual hard drives,” according to Ducey.
These computers support an optional integrated near-field communications (NFC) technology to further support custom applications that take user authentication to a new level for the very security conscious. They also use Intel’s Smart Response Technology (SRT) which is a disk cache solution to provide an almost solid state drive performance from a traditional hard drive with the added benefit of their large capacities.
I asked about touch and Ducey took a second and went on to say that although “touch is not an office productivity tool today” it is useful for specialized purposes like kiosks. He goes on to say that for it’s for “anything that makes a complex task easier via touch.” It may not be a general office productivity today but given the changes we’ve seen in technology in the past decade who knows what it will be used for in the future.
Along with the HP EliteOne and EliteDesk 800 are the HP ProOne 600 G1 and ProDesk 600 G1 which mirror the former and are targeted towards smaller SMBs instead of corporate customers. The main difference is they don’t support Intel’s vPro or SRT technology and the ProOne has a slightly smaller screen size than its EliteOne cousin.
HP’s commercial desktops will release later this month in the USA and Canada, with the Canadian pricing for the EliteOne 800 starting at $1129 for non-touch and $1329 with touch. The Canadian prices are slightly higher than in America which stand at $1099 (non-touch) and $1299 (touch) respectively. The EliteDesk 800 series Canadian pricing starts at $839, while their American pricing begins at $815.
*Updated with pricing information as of 3:08 pm EST, June 10, 2013*
