HP Pavilion All-in-One Desktop MS214in

HP Pavilion All-in-One Desktop MS214in

Rohan Naravane, Feb 15, 2010 1624 hrs IST

A strictly average desktop PC from HP

Good looks, comfortable mouse, fairly low power consumption

Screen brightness slightly low, external power adapter, not a value for money option, No Wi-Fi 802.11n support

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Continuing with our reviews on space-saving All-in-one desktop PCs, today we have the HP Pavilion MS214in, which is a middle tier model that seems to be better than the NetOns. Let's put it through its paces to see what it can deliver.

Design and Build

The HP MS214in has the same design as most HP laptops and desktops. The combination of glossy black with silver has become a trademark of HP now, and makes it looks quite elegant. The design of the stand is similar to that of the Apple iMac. It isn't carved out of metal, but the build of the plastic body is pretty decent.

The 18.5-inch widescreen has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and the display portrays colors quite well. HD movie looked pretty good on it but we felt that the maximum brightness was a bit too low for our liking. This is especially evident when you're sitting in a sunny room. A speaker strip placed right below the LCD panel emits fairly audible sound with decent clarity. A webcam above the screen delivers decent clarity and a speedy frame-rate.

The peripheral ports are placed conveniently at the sides. On the left, we got two USB ports, a card reader and headphone/microphone jacks. On the right, we have a tray-loading DVD writer and buttons to increase or decrease brightness. There isn't a button to turn the display off though, which is slightly disappointing. The rest of the ports, including a LAN, four USB, and an S/PDIF are placed at the back.

Another sore point that needs to be mentioned is that, unlike most all-in-one PCs we've seen, the HP Pavilion is powered by a chunky adapter that adds to table clutter. We'd rather have liked it to be integrated into the body so that a single power cable would run to the electric socket.

Unlike the HP Touch-smart 300, this model comes with a wired keyboard/mouse set. The keyboard provides an average tactility but the mouse is quite comfortable to hold and operate.