HP PAVILION WAVE
Yes, HP has built a computer into a speaker case. Audio sounds great, but note the inevitable sacrifices
While our homegrown system-builders know what they’re doing when it comes to selecting components for a powerful PC, one thing they lack is the R&D budget for products as innovative as HP’s Pavilion Wave. With its squat, triangular design and fabric covering, it looks more like a wireless speaker than a desktop PC – because that’s exactly what it is.
HP has built a small-form factor PC inside the body of a B&O-branded speaker, with a single upward-firing driver working with the parabolic reflector on the top. With a metal coating, this spreads the mono sound around the room to give an impression of 360-degree audio, and it’s more effective than you might suspect.
In fact, the Wave dishes out a big, powerful sound that’s ideal for games and movies, although dedicated speakers from the likes of Bose or Sonos have a definite edge when it comes to music, where a congested mid-range and a slight lack of treble detail let the Wave down. It also has a very effective built-in microphone for voice calls and Cortana.
Great audio isn’t the only thing to recommend it. At just 235mm tall, it’s compact and near-silent, not to mention frugal on power consumption: the external power brick used around 29W in normal operation and 51W when pushed. And while there’s not a lot of connectivity, it covers all the bases, with USB-C, Gigabit Ethernet and DisplayPort alongside three USB 3 ports. It also comes with a decent wireless mouse and keyboard combo.
Of course, there are two downsides. One is a lack of expansion potential. With a 128GB Samsung SSD and a 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk, storage won’t be a problem, but the casing isn’t designed to be opened by end users, and the only meaningful upgrade would be an extra stick of RAM. The other is performance. The Wave’s Core i3-6100T inside is an old Skylake low-power processor offering mediocre 2D performance and not enough 3D horsepower to run Rise of
the Tomb Raider at 1,366 x 768 with detail settings set to low. There is no dedicated GPU. For basic computing, image editing and media streaming, this won’t be a problem, but if you’re looking for a powerhouse, be warned.