HP Sprout Strives to Put New Creative Tools in PC Users’ Hands

by Don Reisinger

While HP has spent most of its time talking about the unique features built into the Sprout, the device should be viewed first as an all-in-one PC. The Sprout may have some neat features that beam images from the Touch Mat to the screen and include multiple cameras, but it’s a computer first.

For enterprise customers, the Achilles heel in Sprout may just be its operating system. The device is running Windows 8.1, which is a major turnoff for an enterprise market that has shunned the OS. HP is trying to negate that problem by focusing on its hardware, but it’s something some companies won’t be able to overlook.

While the videos promoting the Sprout have been almost entirely focused on its touch functionality, the device does come with a keyboard and mouse. In fact, the all-in-one PC can be used just like any other computer on the market. HP says that the Sprout comes with “premium wireless Chiclet-style keyboard” as well as an optical mouse.

The HP Touch Mat is the secret sauce built into the Sprout. The Touch Mat screen measures 20 inches diagonally and is 20-point touch-enabled for full tactile integration. The Touch Mat’s display comes from a projector that’s mounted atop the display. By flicking a finger from the Touch Mat up to the screen or vice versa, an item is immediately transferred. The Touch Mat is also where users place items, like an origami creation, and an image of that is then transferred up to the display.

As noted, the HP Touch Mat comes with a 20-inch display. However, the Sprout’s built-in screen is 23 inches. It’s rather odd that they don’t match. After all, if work can be done on both screens and they fully interact, it would only make sense that they would be the same size. HP has decided against that, however, and how that translates to the device’s functionality is unknown.

In order to do all of the interesting things that are built into the Sprout, users will need the Sprout Workspace App or other programs that are designed for its functionality. The Sprout Workspace app is what’s featured in the device’s promotional video and does everything, from allowing users to modify content to creating items from the Touch Mat. It’s integral to the product’s functionality.

HP has smartly realized that in order to go after parts of the consumer market and parts of the enterprise space, it needed to bundle some high-powered specs into the Sprout. The computer comes with the fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4790S processor, an Nvidia GeForce GT 745A graphics chip with 2GB of memory and 8GB of on-board memory. It also has a 1TB Serial ATA/solid-state hybrid drive.

Because of the Touch Mat, a stylus is a necessary component in the Sprout. The device comes with what’s called the Adonit Jot Pro stylus that is attached magnetically to the side of the Sprout display. The stylus allows users to write and draw on the Touch Mat and then have that translated to the screen.

There are few apps built for the Sprout right now. Most of the apps are creative or consumer-focused in nature and include everything from Pianotime for playing music to a Fuse Character Creator to several drawing apps. Right now, however, HP is calling on developers to build apps for Sprout. Whether they will remains to be seen.

Given all its components—the big screen, the solid processors and the integrated cameras—it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Sprout is expensive, compared with other Windows-based all-in-one PCs on the market. The device goes for $1,899.99 on HP’s site. Over time, that number might come down, but for now, HP believes that it can sell the device at that figure. We’ll see if it can.