I never actually intended on buying one of these little gems, but after a hands-on demonstration in John Lewis from an enthusiastic salesman, I was sold and £800 the poorer, I walked out with my new HP Touchsmart under my arm.

In general it has been fantastic, the touch screen, although far from necessary - more a gimic than anything, is nonetheless great fun to play with (and show off with to your friends) and has come in very handing when drawing pictures/logos when you need to explain your idea to someone. That is certainly something you can't do with a conventional laptop and it avoids time-consuming scanning.

I would also say that the sound quality (Altec Lancing) and visual display are very also very good and being able to swivel the screen does often come in handy in the office, but let's face it, is it really necessary?!

I have had problems with viruses (probably my fault) and a couple of times, the laptop seemed to refuse to switch on, but later began behaving itself so be wary of that.

Overall I would recommend buying one of these touchsmart devices if you are looking for a highly portable laptop with loads of interesting and fun features. It would be particularly useful for graphic designers. However if you are price conscious then you could get an equally powerful laptop for about half the price and you simply need to decide, how much do I really need touchscreen....