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HP is unveiling a new PC today that looks far more like a speaker than a desktop computer. And that’s kind of the point: HP is hoping that by cramming a computer into a small package that might even look like furniture around your house, you’ll be a lot more willing to set it out in the open on your desk.
The computer is called the HP Pavilion Wave. The Wave is tall triangular prism with curved sides, covered nearly edge to edge in a woven black and white fabric that makes it look like the outside of a speaker. The only interruptions are for a USB and headphone jack on the front and then for a strip of ports down the back, which includes more USB ports (one of which is USB-C), an HDMI port, and an SD cart slot, among others.
While the Wave isn’t a speaker, HP is still advertising its prowess as one. The computer has a large central speaker, which has its sound sent out in all directions by blasting against the sloped top cover of the PC. It’s a neat trick — and, during a brief demo in a small space, it did appear to get pretty loud — but it’s probably not a replacement for a dedicated speaker.
Some specs: it can have from an i3 to an i5 Skylake processor, a 1TB hard drive or a 128GB SSD, between 8 and 16GB of RAM, and either integrated graphics or AMD’s R9 M470 GPU. With integrated graphics, the machine is supposed to be capable of running either two quad HD displays or a single 4K display. It also comes with a pair of built-in mics to support Cortana on Windows 10.
It goes on sale next month starting at $529.99. HP is hoping it’ll be a fit for "older millennials" looking for a shared PC, especially for use with young kids.
