HP's new EliteBoard made me consider in keyboard computer systems once more

A keyboard pc has at all times been on my wishlist — that’s, a pc the place the whole machine was stuffed right into a keyboard. Maybe I caught a glimpse of the Commodore 64 at an impressionable age, however regardless, the concept has at all times been intriguing to me. At CES 2026, HP is bringing that idea again with the brand new EliteBoard G1a, which is dubbed a “Subsequent Gen AI PC.”

It is an IT administrator’s dream: It appears to be like a typical desktop keyboard, but it surely has the complete energy of a Copilot+ AI PC inside. You possibly can equip it with Ryzen 5 or 7 CPUs and their embedded Radeon 800 GPUs, as much as 64GB of RAM and as a lot as 2TB of NVMe SSD storage. All you should do is add a monitor and a mouse, and you have got a full-fledged desktop setup.

The extra I give it some thought, the extra unhappy I’m that the arc of the computing trade trended in the direction of standardized desktops and laptops. There was a quick spark of curiosity with the UMPC (extremely cellular PC) pattern within the 2000’s, which Engadget coated extensively as a younger weblog, in addition to ASUS’s Eee keyboard. However they could not survive the rise of the smartphone and pill. It seems placing a whole pc behind a display was extra compelling than stuffing them right into a keyboard.

I used to be capable of check out an early EliteBoard prototype, and whereas the expertise wasn’t excellent, it is nonetheless an intriguing computing possibility. I had bother setting it up initially as a result of it solely had two USB-C ports on its rear, which meant I needed to discover a strategy to energy it by way of one port and move a video sign by way of the opposite. Fortunately, my Anker USB-C charging hub was capable of juice it up, and I additionally had a USB-C hub with an HDMI port, which allowed me to connect with my monitor.

Sadly, the general setup was a jumble of wires, and never the clear format I anticipated from a keyboard PC. As soon as I used to be capable of begin up Home windows although, I used to be much less aggravated and extra amazed that the keyboard contained a whole pc. I suppose I should not be too shocked, as Intel’s Compute Stick positioned a purposeful PC in a a lot smaller case, however in contrast to the failed product, the EliteBoard truly felt usable. I used to be capable of load up a number of browser home windows with tabs, edit just a few photographs and even play just a few gentle video games, like Vampire Survivors. And sure, typing on it felt fairly nice too.

Since I used to be testing out prototype {hardware}, I agreed to not benchmark the EliteBoard. However from the efficiency I noticed, it felt about the identical an entry-level laptop computer. Mainly, it is completely suited to its foremost activity: Being a boring workplace pc. Again in my IT days, I definitely would have most popular deploying just a few gentle keyboards as an alternative of the tank-like Dell desktops we sometimes ordered.

Whereas the EliteBoard is focused at business customers, HP is contemplating it an experiment to see how individuals reply to a keyboard PC. There’s an opportunity we may see one which’s ultimately meant for mainstream customers. I am undecided if that is precisely, needed, although. The entire idea of a desktop PC primarily appeals to tinkerers and IT people. And for anybody who desires to get their palms on an EliteBoard quickly, there’s actually nothing stopping you.