HP Omni 27 all-in-one PC

A very well built PC with good features, but plenty of unnecessary bloatware

PC World

  • Review
  • Specs
  • Images
  • User Reviews
  • Buy Online

Pros

  • Excellent build quality and features
  • Great screen, powerful specifications
  • HDMI input (with Game mode)

Cons

  • Graphics card is mediocre
  • Loaded with HP bloatware

Bottom Line

If you love the look of a new iMac, but don't want to change away from Windows, HP's Omni27 is a near-perfect solution. It's big, pretty and powerful with few flaws.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 2,499.00 (AUD)

Special Offers

HP Omni27: Specifications and performance

The HP Omni27 is well equipped in the CPU, RAM and hard drive departments, sporting a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-2600S, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 2TB 7200RPM SATA drive, but stumbles in graphics with a middling AMD Radeon HD 6550A with 2GB of memory.

Putting this into perspective, a 27in Apple iMac ‘specced up with a 3.4GHz Core i7, 8GB of DDR3, a 2TB hard drive and a (superior) Radeon HD 6970M 1GB graphics card, costs $2549 — $50 more than the Omni27 configuration we tested for a machine we think is marginally better. HP starts the Omni27 at $1999 for a Core i5 model, where Apple’s basic iMac is $1699 (for an inferior processor); the two models are largely competitive on price but considering Apple is seen as a premium brand we would have expected the Omni27 to be a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than it is, and a better graphics card would have been a good selling point.

HP Omni27 all-in-one PC review

The HP Omni27 is no slouch when it comes to multimedia performance, blazing through an eight-thread Blender render in 18 seconds. We don’t have any performance figures from the iMac to compare, but we’d expect the Core i7 model to be similar around the 20 second mark and the Core i5 models to be in the region of 35 seconds and above — so the Omni27’s performance here is good. Our standard iTunes encoding test, converting 54min of WAV files to MP3, was over in 35sec — an impressive result.

Graphics performance is uninspiring. The Omni27 will make a more than capable machine for basic home use, for Blu-ray movie watching or for basic 3D games, but any blockbuster titles from the last year will probably have to use low settings or a reduced resolution to remain playable. Our 3DMark06 results for the HP Omni 27 of 7746 3DMarks show that performance is reasonable but not outstanding.

A Windows Experience Index score of 5.9 (out of a possible 7.9, with the lowest score 1.0) overall sums up the HP Omni27’s performance aptly: pretty good for a general consumer desktop PC, but not anything ground-breakingly fast. If you’re an average user who doesn’t play too many modern video games (or if you’ve got a console for that, which the Omni27 would love to have plugged in), this all-in-one should handle your needs with ease.

HP Omni27: Conclusion

The HP Omni27 is weakest in the graphics performance department, but gives generally good results in all other areas. It’s got a great screen, is well built, has the convenience of good speakers and a HDMI input, and is comparably (if not competitively) priced against its main Apple rival.

Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the PC World newsletter.

lachlan

1

i was just looking at one of these the image quality is stellar but was just wondering, i am looking for somthing that would be space saving and well performing with my digital painting on photoshop,would this perform well for me?
thanks

Post new comment

Users posting comments agree to the PC World comments policy.

Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.

Most Popular

What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
Samsung’s 2013 Smart TVs: everything you need to know
How do I connect my TV to the Internet?
Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?
Windows 7 Home Premium vs. Windows 7 Professional

Best Deals on PCWorld

Printers & ScannersView all »
NotebooksView all »
TabletsView all »
Mobile PhonesView all »
Networking, Wireless & VoIPView all »