HP Pushes PC-in-a-Keyboard for Businesses With Hot Desks (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0180526741
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/06/1420211/hp-pushes-pc-in-a-keyboard-for-businesses-with-hot-desks
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/06/hp_keyboard_pc/
The device connects to a USB-C monitor for both video output and power delivery over a single cable, and HP includes a USB-to-HDMI adapter for displays that lack USB-C input. Inside runs an AMD Ryzen AI 5 or 7 processor paired with AMD Radeon 800 integrated graphics and an NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, qualifying it as a Copilot+ PC by Microsoft's standards.
The device can be configured with up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. The keyboard weighs between 1.49 and 1.69 pounds depending on configuration and measures 14.1 by 4.7 by 0.7 inches, lighter than most laptops but longer and thicker than some. An optional 32Wh battery offers up to 3.5 hours of unplugged use. The EliteBoard G1a ships in March.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/06/hp_keyboard_pc/
Surely a laptop is better. (Score:5, Insightful)
Attach to a docking station with a USB-C cable - easy. Also usable when not at a desk - which a keyboard-puter is not.
Re:Surely a laptop is better. (Score:5, Funny)
A laptop would be better, this thing HP is peddling is all lap and no top (monitor)
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Yeah, what use is a keyboard without a screen?
Unless it switches to a 'dumb' keyboard for a phone, letting you post to Slashdot on the go!
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This is probably aimed more at corporate where they want to provide desktop PCs that users won't take home but don't want to fork out for a proper one, instead hope most people won't fancy taking a keyboard home in their bag.
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I suppose the key point would have to be some price advantage for not including a display, touchpad, hinge, and a smaller battery than usual laptop. I'm skeptical, especially now where RAM costs likely make the rest of all of that a rounding error....
I suppose one *could* argue that use with an external monitor would be less awkward. Using a PC with external monitor as your focus can be pretty weird, and generally it's easier to have a separate keyboard which is more desk space.
However a tiny PC mounted b
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Yeah, I'd rather it be a tiny PC in a little nondescript rectangle. Like imagine a raspberry pi but optimized for desktop computing, or the guts of a smartphone but without the radios and not built around a screen. Give it an internal battery that can run for a few tens of minutes and an external port where you can slot in a USB-C battery (Intended to be easily swappable and can double as extra battery to charge your phone from). Couple of USB connections, maybe a mini HDMI port for a bigger monitor and I t
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Frankly, in that scenario, I'd want my phone to be that system. Unfortunately, all the phone vendors that tried royally sucked at providing decent window management/desktop shell with zero ability to run alternative desktop shells.
Unfortunately, Android is at the behest of Google who just can't make a decent desktop shell to save their lives and also won't use an external one. I'll begrudingly say that Windows might have done an "ok" job, if they had gotten Windows 10 done earlier, though still not my favo
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> Frankly, in that scenario, I'd want my phone to be that system.
I'd rather the computing be separate from everything else. Once you don't have to build around a screen it frees up a lot of design constraints. I definitely could see it running a phone-like OS and being able to connect a phone-sized touchscreen to it though.
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It's less wasteful as you don't need to throw out a whole display when the hardware is outdated. Plus no need for a battery. As long as you don't need computing on the go and just need to play musical chairs in the office, it could be a nice solution. Hopefully the storage is an m2 drive that can just be swapped between keyboards when the time comes for a compute refresh.
USB-C Cable Always Not Easy (Score:2)
> Attach to a docking station with a USB-C cable - easy.
Not so easy as one might hope. There was a time when docking stations used proprietary connectors, and while not "universal", they worked extremely well.
Since manufacturers have switched to USB-C, it's become a crapshoot. This is because USB-C defines the physical connection, not the protocol . That USB connector on your laptop might be USB 3.2, USB 4, Thunderbolt, or one of several other possibilities. In my experience with so-called "universal" docking stations, the results are just as varied. Sometimes ev
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For my work (from home) setup, I have a notebook with a dock, connected to a pair of monitors and a real keyboard and mouse. I never use the notebook screen because it's small and at an awkward distance, and the keyboard/touchpad just take up desk space. If it's only ever designed to be used with a dock, there's no need for any battery.
Eliminating (or at least reducing) the compromises that go into fitting everything into an ultra-slim case probably makes for a better system too (don't have to try to have f
What goes around... (Score:5, Insightful)
... comes around. Seems like we've arrived back in the 1980s this time.
Re:What goes around... (Score:4, Funny)
I still have a Vic-20 in my garage. Maybe I should get it back out!
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My TI-99/4a is in a tub in the back of a closet.
Would take a stack of adapters to get it working with a flat screen, I think.
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That was my first thought, with the revival of Commodore and the new C64U, as well as other retro platforms' efforts, it feels like HP is trying to ride the wave.
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> it feels like HP is trying to ride the wave.
You could get PCs in keyboards as well - they were popular in the 90s for retail systems. Had a 486 PC in a very thick PC keyboard case with a floppy drive on the side and all the ports on the back. Contained a hard drive inside of it as well, so it was a PC with a standard full size keyboard that was the height of the original C64 breadbin unit.
Re: What goes around... (Score:2)
This is, idea-wise a Raspberry Pi 400 (and yes, a VIC-20, A C64, a TRS-80, a TI-99/44, an Atari 800XL, an Amiga 1200...).
What I wanna know is whether HP brings back B. Dalton and Egghead so you can get programs on cassette tape!
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VIC-20 had 20KB ROM. So I guess this is the HP-2000000000 .
Component Costs (Score:4, Funny)
> The device can be configured with up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.
Oh, so this will be a $1,800 keyboard.
Re:Component Costs (Score:4, Insightful)
And a keyboard is a wearing part and prone to damage...
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> And a keyboard is a wearing part and prone to damage...
Exactly this. Just pitch the whole thing in the trash when a keyswitch goes bad. The absolute ultimate in disposable gear.
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Pulling a good mobo from a bad keyboard would be easier than detaching a good screen from a bad laptop.
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I guess the real question is: how many Losers do not graps that "the keyboard is the computer" ... and just consider it a low value item.
Actually I want to place a Raspery Pi into my old MacIntosh SE Keyboard, but that is a different story ...
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So you dont have a laptop because the keyboard can break?
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When a C64 breaks it is usually not the keyboard. And those are more than 40 years old.
The TRS-80 all over again (Score:2)
Another famous computer that had it's guts in the keyboard.
As someone above said, A) why not a laptop? and B) I don't trust HP anymore.
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RPi 400, except with Windows.
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> Another famous computer that had it's guts in the keyboard.
> [1]Forbes [forbes.com] called it a "modern-day Commodore 64".
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2026/01/05/the-hp-eliteboard-g1a-is-a-modern-day-commodore-64/
Who does this? (Score:1)
Is "hot desking" just a sort of variation on the open office theme that (afaik) basically everyone HATED?
I recognize that my case is not necessarily universal, but I'm genuinely curious if anyone has this at their workplace and likes it, or at least finds it useful.
Our corporate HQ in EU did the whole open office thing just before covid and frankly people were pretty angry. No personal desks (in reality, people self-organized informally where they could expect to sit) and if you were going to have an exten
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It works for the company looking to fit as many bodies in as little area as possible.
I'm just waiting for some tech company to pitch upgraded stacked mortuary cabinets as the next level of 'collaboratve workspace'
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They did that at Otellini's Intel in Chandler AZ when I was there around 2009 or so.
The round foam couches and glass cubes, 70's colors, and a new age relaxation room with two massage chairs (really).
A game room with a big flat panel on the wall hooked up to a Wii as a bro detector, mostly used by the sales weasels. It always smelled in there.
Sitting in the middle of the floor, with no walls, was this massive Cisco teleconferencing system built into a curved wood veneer conference table with multiple 1080p
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My company does this for the work from home crowd, when they have to come in (1-2 days in a month).
Currently we have thin clients connecting to window VMs but I see the use case for these.
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> Is "hot desking" just a sort of variation on the open office theme that (afaik) basically everyone HATED?
Unfortunately, many of those in positions to force that abomination on the rest did not hate it at all.
problem already solved 40 years ago (Score:2)
Putting the computer in the keyboard was a cost-cutting measure and FCC emissions loophole in the 1970's and 1980's. You don't need to do that anymore.
There's a reason mini-PCs have VESA mounts. And the vast majority of all-in-one computers have been built into the display, not the keyboard.
With most people using hot desks having access to a laptop. A keyboard-computer is just going to be in the way most of the time. While I can plug my laptop in my work's hot desk, and a simple monitor with two inputs woul
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The only reason I can think of, especially with a lot of storage, is that the keyboards could be "sticky" for a person, but the monitor fixed to the desk. I'd say HP missed the mark on this one; going minimal specs and having the big stuff either with the screen or centralized would be much easier.
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> The only reason I can think of, especially with a lot of storage, is that the keyboards could be "sticky" for a person, but the monitor fixed to the desk. I'd say HP missed the mark on this one; going minimal specs and having the big stuff either with the screen or centralized would be much easier.
The keyboard could also be good. Like with mechanical keys and a satisfying thunk or thonk or click or whatever floats your boat. But I expect that it won't be that. The keyboard will be horrible.
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I like a keyboard that is easy to position and fits in a keyboard drawer for proper ergonomic height.
Worst of all worlds ... (Score:2)
Who asked for this form factor?! If you really need to move a computer between workspaces (or work/home) a much more convenient form factor is just a Raspberry Pi (in a case) size (and easily achievable nowadays even in Intel/AMD world). But nobody wants that, everyone wants a laptop, that can be used by itself too without any shenanigans.
This has been tried in many forms, with Samsung's DeX (Microsoft Continuum and some other attempts earlier), Android Desktop now, whatever Apple's equivalent is too - it's
Interesting idea (Score:3)
Interesting idea. Though probably a PC-in-a-dock would have been a better idea.
Keyboards (and mice) were always the most disposable parts of a PC - for a reason.
I mean, with this device, you now can spill coffee on your PC too.
Plus all the hygienic hazards. (I would never want to use keyboard/mouse of some of my colleagues.)
Cheap keyboard PC works. This? (Score:2)
A cheap keyboard PC works for some folks. But what they're suggesting sounds like a rather upper-scale PC built into a keyboard. Just make it a damned laptop if you expect to sell it. Having it be an expensive, non-useable its own PC built into an inconvenient form-factor seems a non-starter in a world where PC laptops and tablets with click-on keyboards exist. It's like they're trying to invent a product for a demand that does not, and never will, exist.
Which seems completely on-point for this particular j
Should Have Remained a "What if?" Conversation (Score:2)
What we have now: Laptops.
* Low power consumption
* Lightweight
* Variable keyboard sizes, but generally compact
* Self-contained battery the entire computer for hours at a time
* Easy plug-and-play with USB C docks
* Integrated monitor
* Price: $500 - $1,500 for most business/student laptops.
* Sales Pitch: A fully capable computer wherever you need to be.
What they're offering: Screenless Laptop.
* LowER power consumption than a laptop (no monitor).
--- This doesn't matter though because almost no one will ever use
Is USB C sufficiently reliable for power? (Score:2)
I, too, am dubious if there is a niche for this kind of product, but you also touched (twice) on the power topic. I think that may be a more important problem than it seems. So I'll throw this question out here:
Is anyone else noticing "slow charging" problems with USB C devices? In my case that's smartphones and a Chromebook. It seems to be getting worse over the months. Initially I suspected the cables, especially the connectors, but I've swapped too many cables to support that hypothesis and I think there
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When I had a mac studio, my Dell 5k monitor powered it 24x7 via USB-C, the monitor can pump out up to 100 watts .... I never used the power cable the studio came with. 1 wire to rule it all.
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I have my wifes work computer set up like this. LG 2k 32" with 140w adapter to Dell corpobook. I call it the 'god wire'. Hell my 4k 32" can put out 200+ watts. I didnt even realize it could do that until i started setting it up and going 'why the fuck is the power brick so big???'
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Latest USB 3 PD spec allows for up to 240W (48V @ 5A), which should be plenty for just about any laptop. My current laptop draws up 180W through USB-C no problem, other than the laptop itself getting uncomfortably hot.
The problem is usually a bad cable, assuming your power supply is rated for the output. You can get a little inline power meter you can put between the cable and the device if you suspect a bad cable, something like this: [1]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5... [amazon.com] .
If you are willing to spend more yo
[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5W5NKKN
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Charging via USB-C is DC.
So the frequency is irrelevant.
If a USB-C cable supports high power charging depends on the cable ... look at the connectors. There is a symbol for high power charging.
How fast a device is charging, is usually up to the device. So when it gets older, and the battery gets bad, it intentionally charges slower. Has nothing to do with your cable.
Let me say this (Score:2)
I have seen tickets come through where the person has said they don't know how to plug the cable from the docking station into the side of the laptop.
No way in hell these people will be able to use this keyboard.
Looking forward (Score:2)
Looking forward to these being dumped on eBay for the cheap when the companies stupid enough to buy them realize their mistake. We have a supposed DDR5 shortage and this is where they decide to solder it in? Also, HP, nope, nope, nope.
Interesting though with problems.. (Score:2)
Interesting if this could be paired with high quality VR googles.
I am a potential user - I have monitors everywhere - I am not really using my notebooks screen.
But I can see 2 problems:
1. price - though this may not be a problem once it flops and we got plenty on ebay
2. keyboard is the part that breaks most often in my case - possibly this is HP's idea too - tie PC upgrade to the part that breaks most...
no (Score:2)
What we want is our own keyboards, especially since all HP keyboards (whether dedicated or part of a laptop) are shit. The last decent example was on the EliteBooks before they shrank them and ruined them too.
and just to ram that home (Score:3)
As the story says, this keyboard only has 2mm travel. A real keyboard has 3.4-4mm travel. That's why they are so much nicer to type on.
I use the same keyboard at work and home, Redragon Devarajas (K552USB) with Silent Peach switches. It's worlds better than any keyboard HP ever sold for any system. It's about a billion times better than the keyboard built into the laptop - a later model HP EliteBook. It does have backlighting, which is nice, but everything else about typing on it is terrible.
Ergonomic keyboard version? (Score:2)
exists?
If not I guess I would have a keyboard plugged into my keyboard.
hp keyboard computers (Score:2)
HP has been providing mini-pc/nooks for years. This is just another version. When most users are just web driven desk jocking running various web apps, why put a full PC on the desk.
Raspberry Pi 400 (Score:2)
Cheaper and doesn't come with Microslop.
If laptops aren't the answer (Score:2)
... and they usually are, why not make it simple and use the device you already carry with you? While I'm not a Samsung fan they had a good idea with DeX. Upper tier smartphones have all the computing power needed for your typical desk jockey needs. Obviously Microsoft wouldn't be invited to the party until they and businesses let go of the Windows as your OS incumbency. Pretty clear that's where it's headed, Microsoft in the workplace will finish the evolution to a set of delivered services where the hardw
RPi 500 (Score:3)
The Raspberry Pi 500 would be fine for a 'office' PC where all you need is a web browser and generic office software. It is a shame they don't populate the PoE circuit present on the PCBA yet. Then all would need to bring to your would be the RPi 500 and mouse with the assumption of an monitor, HDMI cable and RJ45 cable to a PoE switch being present at the desk.
I bet the HP PC-in-a-keyboard will also be a lot more expensive that a RPi 500.
Battery (Score:2)
What use is an optional battery for use when it isn't plugged in ? When it isn't plugged in there isn't a monitor either.
Considering their Ink & printer business (Score:3)
I would not no nowhere near that money pit
Re:Considering their Ink & printer business (Score:4, Informative)
IIRC, the printer division is a [1]completely separate company [reuters.com] these days.
The computer company has its issues, but nothing like the shit show that is the printer company.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/business/hewlett-packard-board-approves-split-into-two-companies-idUSKCN0RV4FL/
Re:Considering their Ink & printer business (Score:5, Informative)
HPe is servers, networking, enterprise software that manages the servers or the network, and the like.
HP without-the-e is the printers, desktops, calculators, printer ink, and related business practices involving breaking kneecaps for using unapproved ink cartridges.
With that in mind, this is the bad HP.
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Still, it could be worse. It could be Dymo.
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I don't know that there is a 'good' HP anymore...
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Some of the bad HP's non consumer stuff, like Z workstations, aren't that bad. They can't peddle rubbish to IT departments as easily as they do to customers in places like PC World.
In the case of this, the experiment will be done. If it works well, better ones will come along. This one looks like it has a terrible keyboard: unlike Thinkpad T's, which are lovely, this thing doesn't look like a keyboard I'd like to do much with. So I'd plug another keyboard into it to work, which is silly. But that's kind of
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HP without-the-e is the printers, desktops, calculators, printer ink, and related business practices involving breaking kneecaps for using unapproved ink cartridges.
Well HP with-the-e got into the assassination game. What's most surprising is not that they tried but somehow managed to not fuck it up spectacularly. I can only assume that somehow and completely by accident, they hired a competent junior executive who knew a (wise) guy.