Customer Ratings & Reviews

The desktop is dead, long live the desktop! With the Wave, HP does a laudable job putting a new spin on a stationary/desktop PC. With 8GB of RAM, a 3.2GHz i3-6100T CPU, and embedded B&O audio -- the HP Wave looks good on your desk, in your office, and maybe even your living room. Though not a slouch by any means, the main sell of the HP Wave is not its performance, but is its non-standard attractive physical design. Wrapped in audio-fabric, It looks almost exactly like a small-ish speaker and could easily be mistaken for one. The only giveaway is the USB port and Headphone jack on the front-bottom-center. All the other controls and ports, including the power button, are on the back -- out of sight from at least the perspective of the user in most cases. The i3-6100T 3.2GHz model is not a runaway performer, but with it's 8GB of RAM a 1TB 7200RPM hard drive it's a solid and capable workhorse for day-to-day computing and looks good while doing it. What stands out: USB-C: As the owner a phone that has a USB-C connector, having a native USB-C port on the back of the HP Wave is a welcome sight. that I can only hope becomes more common. I was pleased as well to see that it's a full-power USB-C port and that my phone indicates "Charging rapidly" when connected to it. B&O Audio: This is one area in which was a little disappointed. I'm a musician and audio hobbyist so my standards are pretty high. I wasn't expecting the built-in audio to shake the windows, but I was expecting more than what this delivers. The overall volume is fine but I found the bass to be disappointing thin relative to the size of the unit. And even if I turned up the bass with the included B&O audio equalizer, the result was more that the audio became muddy. To compare, and to eliminate that it was acoustics of the room, I hooked the Wave up to my small single-speaker Bose SoundLink Color II speaker; All else being equal, the SLCII (not a big speaker by any stretch) produced much richer sound at the same volume in the same environment -- the B&O audio is, frankly, just kind of weak. This is my second exposure to embedded B&O audio in an HP computer and both times I have been left wanting. It's a functional and clean audio setup though, and if you just want a hassle-free setup and basic audio at moderate volume it'll be fine. But if you think the B&O audio in the HP Wave could be the center of your living room or SOHO audio, think again. The biggest benefit I perceive of the integrated B&O audio is that it's "good enough" and helps reduce cable clutter -- the entire basic setup has just 3 cables; Power to the HP Wave, power to a monitor, and a video cable to connect them. Quiet: One of the best design elements is the ventilation, which quietly ventilates through the same opening as the integrated audio "umbrella" on top. The Wave was whisper quiet when running -- the only sound I heard was the sound of the hard drive seeking as I opened apps, etc. Other than that it was a stealth-ninja and I didn't hear a thing. Wireless keyboard and mouse: The Wave includes a pre-paired wireless keyboard and mouse. No USB dongle is required, they are factory-paired with the system and "just work". The keyboard is a bit compact and takes some getting used to in order to not hit the wrong key when, say, trying to pick out certain keys -- home, pgup, pgdn, end, and the arrows in particular. This is often the nature of compact keyboards though so no marks down for this, just informational -- and if you don't like it you can just use a different keyboard. The included mouse on the other hand looked good but was, in my experience, clunky and uncomfortable and failed to redeem itself after making a full work-day of effort to get used to it. Despite weaker B&O audio then expected and the clunky mouse I enjoy the Wave. It's a streamlined, affordable, attractive, and even very portable setup -- and more than powerful enough for SOHO and light gaming.

This computer system has exceeded my expectations, used daily for various business related activities and applications. Has great processing speed with multiple applications/programs open at once!

Works great, real happy. I would recommend. Have set up with two monitors and use at work. It is a great value.

surprisingly cool engineering for an HP machine. be forewarned, the receiver for the mouse and keyboard is already on the motherboard, so you won't find a dongle in the box!

As long as you're not doing anything that needs an exstensive amount of memory, this machine is great.

When I heard that this was essentially a speaker with a computer stuffed inside, I thought that it could be a nice, space-saving media server. Testing the system out with audio proved what I had already suspected beforehand, given the fact that the speaker servers as the computer's case, the quality of the sound was not as good as a dedicated speaker. However, after I stopped expecting it to sound as clear and bass-y as my Bose Soundcolor, I realized that the audio was really not that bad. Over time, I've come to appreciate the speakers' integration with the desktop tower, since I don't have to waste desk space on speakers anymore. Another surprise is the computer's performance in itself. With 3.7 GHz i3-6100T processer, even though it only has 2 cores, 4 threads, it can still lift its share of the workload. Granted, I don't use this particular system for anything too intensive (I have a much more powerful laptop that I use as my main system), but it's been able to hold its own for most tasks asked of it. Having worked with various laptops and desktops that include an integrated 802.11 n/ac card, I learned not to expect much of connection speeds. I have to say that this system surprised me in that department too. I've been seeing download speeds that rival my wired connections at times. Aside from the 8 gb of ram included (which is good because the system cannot be upgraded over included equipment) and the speedy network card, I'm also happy to see the use of 3x USB 3.0 ports AND a USB-C port. While the "computer within a speaker" gimmick may wear off, these features help to future-proof the system and ensure its usefulness for some time to come.

This is an impressive small form factor home computer. It is by no means a gaming computer but if you are in the market for a new home computer this is an excellent choice. Its size makes it easy to fit anywhere in your home office or computer desk. Hardware specs are perfect for a home computer. An i5 processor would have been nicer but having the 8GB of memory, a 1TB hard drive, and a 64bit version of Windows 10 is very nice. There are adequate peripheral ports for its size and having having the memory card reader port is a bonus. It is nice to have both a wired and wireless networking option. The wireless connectivity isn't great but it works well enough and it is nice that is an AC adapter. I was a little confused with the included wireless mouse and keyboard combo as both the mouse and keyboard instructions call out for connecting and using a USB dongle for its connection. There was a small piece of paper in the bottom of the box that explained that the two peripherals were already connected and synced with the internal Bluetooth adapter. The internal speaker and sound is OK. It takes a little tweaking with the Bang and Olufsen sound utility to get it the way you like for the audio options you will be using it for. You can easily add a Bluetooth wireless headset or use the front headphone jack is you are looking for something better. Software wise there wasn't a lot of bloatware pre-installed (which was surprising). Initial setup of the OS took about 15 minutes and downloading and installing the latest HP drivers took about another 20+ minutes (done easily with the HP Support Utility). My only complaint is with the pre-installed software is with the McAfee security software (1 month free trial). It was immediately apparent that it was bogging down the performance of the computer while I was installing Windows Updates and the new HP drivers. You could easily see this in Task Manager while it was performing these tasks.

I pick this pc up for one of my customers who primarily will use for email, Facebook, and trading stocks. He is extremely happy with the style and power of CPU.

Was recommended this desktop by sales rep at the store after I described my needs. Am glad I took his advise, this system is perfect for me.

It is not a gaming PC, but enough power to get everything done and then some.

Start with this is not a PC for a power user. It is marketed towards the general user who will never open the PC to upgrade it and only look to use it for office use. The core I3 chip and 8 GB of Ram will be fine for the user who only looks to browse the internet or work with Microsoft office applications. The big plus for me is the look. It's nice to see a small form factor PC that can sit on your desktop without looking like an ugly rectangular box. It has plenty of ports and a nice addition of a SD slot which is good for people like me who like to download pictures. The cons for me are that it does not have, at the least, a DVD player and you would need to purchase an external one. It is understandable that HP did this because they wanted to keep this as a small form factor PC and the shape doesn't really allow adding one in. The other cons is the power button on the back. I found that very inconvenient to turn the system on. HP touts the speaker system and the surround sound of it. I found that it worked well listening to Pandora but when I used it to watch a movie on Vudu I could hear the sounds of the hard drive and cooling system during pauses in talking on the film. It took away from the quality of the movies I watch. All in all I would recommend this more as an office PC for users who have no need to upgrade the PC and generally buy a PC as a workhorse to do their on-line finances, documents, and spreadsheets. The new look makes it fit in nice on top of a desk where you used to hate to see your PC sitting. All and all it is an adequate PC for probably 70% of the people who buy a PC in this price range.

I've had this computer for like two years. Hasnt failed yet.

It's not super powerful, but it is absolutely for day-to-day work.

This pc looks amazing works fast and the speaker sounds amazing

i like this computer very much，but i3 is not good enough toto me

The computer Was a gift and worked really well for grandma

good system seems to be for the price - quality looking

Bought this for an office environment for mainly Microsoft office, internet, and light use. Love it so far.

The HP help line is terrible and Best Buy was no help at all. In fact I spoke directly ....finally...with someone at HP who said that my Paviliion Wave needed an external microphone headset for montonaccess Cortona. WRONG!!!!

I honestly didn't do my research before, and the store employees was very helpful.