Hardware Geeks

Is there such a thing as an all-in-one monitor, I know there are all-in-one printers but a monitor? A monitor that doubles as a television, photo frame, media player, USB hub, speaker and desk lamp? If there is such a thing as an all-in-one monitor than the HP w2558hc is just that because it has everything I just listed.

When I first saw the HP w2558hc I thought great another monitor *sarcastic* and I initially thought most of its features were gimmicks, aside from the 25.5” widescreen display, I couldn’t think of any practical use for some of the features it offered especially the task light. After all who needs their monitor to have a light?

Well apparently I needed my monitor to have a light, because I am hooked on the task light that the HP w2558hc has built-in, I personally used the light on the monitor more than my desk lamp or office light, especially at night when I write into my journal. Yes I have a journal, I think it’s good to put your thoughts to paper, and it also helps me keep my hand writing up to par, as I noticed when I did not put pen to paper my handwriting got pretty bad.

Anyway, back to talking about the monitor.

The monitor probably has one of the most elegant designs for any monitor I have used, it rivals the Samsung T260HD which for a while I thought was the best looking monitor around and envy Radiris daily that she has one and I don’t. The w2558hc can pretty much go anywhere as it will match any décor in your home.

The HP w2558hc not only has elegance but it has a great picture. The picture quality for me is amazing, the colors were vibrant, reds were reds, and blacks were blacks. I had my Acer AL2016W next to it looking at the same desktop (mirrored dual video card) and I noticed the difference in the picture quality instantly. It made me wonder if HP accidently sent me one of their Dream Color displays to test out.

When I connected the monitor to my cable box via one of the two HDMI ports, the picture quality was amazing and as good as the picture quality on my Sharp Aquos Television. Even when playing Blu-Ray movies or Playstation 3 games the monitor performed wonderfully each and every time the picture was great.

Something I really liked about the monitor is the ambient light sensor, it detects if the room you are in is bright or dark and adjust the brightness on the monitor accordingly. It worked great in my office, where I have a window directly behind me.

Early in the morning when the sun shines brightly through my office window, on my traditional monitor the screen is washed out because of the brightness of the sun, I pretty much am lazy to adjust the brightness settings to later have to revert them so I would just go about doing something else until around 10am when the sun no longer shined through my window. But with the w2558hc and its ambient light sensor, it automatically lowered the brightness level and allowed me to view the screen clearly regardless if the sun was over my shoulder or not, and as the day progressed and day turned into night the monitor got brighter and sometimes you can notice the instant change in the brightness level.

But the elegance and picture quality aren’t the only thing to rave about, as I have already mentioned it’s an all-in-one monitor. It has a built in 4 port USB hub which comes in handy. If you place it on your desk you can easily connect your peripherals to it and or USB flash drives. No more bending under your desk to connect your digital camera to a USB port on the back of your system, when there are two USB ports in the back of your monitor and two on the side.

Or if you want you can stick the memory card from your camera into the 15 in 1 memory card reader, and use the monitor as a picture frame. For the last 2 weeks I had the monitor my television was damaged due to my hyper active dog, so I used the w2558hc as a television in my bed room. When I wasn’t watching TV I set it to be a picture frame and play a slide show of some pictures I had on a memory card. It was easy and straight forward and I liked seeing pictures flash across the screen instead of nothing. The monitor will also play music and videos from your memory cards and or USB flash drives.

The monitor also comes with a handy remote that allows you to scroll through your pictures, rotate them play music and or video stored on any connected storage device. Although since the monitor doubles as a television, I was a bit disappointed the remote wasn’t a bit more elaborate, but then again it is a monitor first and a television second.

There are also integrated speakers which deliver good sound quality. The sound quality from the speakers were better than I expected. I kind of expected the speakers to be as good as laptop speakers, but they were better and the sound they delivered was clear, nothing to complain about.

The speakers aren’t the only thing integrated into the w2558hc, it also has a built in 1.3 mega pixel webcam, not the greatest picture quality but more than enough for video conferences and quick webcam shots.

Something that I need to mention about the monitor is how easy it is to adjust to various viewing angels, the stand that it comes with is sturdy and pretty much will allow you to position it in any position you want, it is also easy to remove so that you can wall mount it. The way the stand is set up though, it would have been cool if it could have doubled as a wall mount.

Overall the monitor is great and probably one of the few if not the only true all-in-one monitor. This monitor is perfect for people with limited space, as it is a computer monitor, television, picture viewer, music player, USB hub, and web cam all in one. Perfect for the college student, to the bed room of a elementary school student, and for the $549 price tag, well worth it for everything it does, we would like to award the w2558hc our 5 Must Have award!

The HP w2558hc monitor is available now directly from HP and at major retailers.

Credit Photos: HP

Post Tags: hp  reviews  monitor  w2558hc 

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