emember when a home computer was just a plastic wedge that you plugged directly into the back of your television? HP clearly remembers, and they are charging three thousand dollars for the trip down memory lane. As reported by Wccftech, the company has started to deploy the latest Ryzen AI Pro 400 series into its EliteBoard series, dusting off a form factor straight out of the nineteen-eighties. If you thought the idea of cramming a full computer inside a keyboard died out decades ago, HP is here to prove you wrong—and to charge you a minor fortune for the privilege.
The resulting machine is the EliteBoard G2a, a dedicated keyboard PC series from HP that now brings the Ryzen AI Pro 400 series processors, according to Wccftech. This refreshed Zen 5 mobile family replaces the previous generation, which started at a much more grounded eight hundred ninety-nine dollars. Now, as Wccftech details, even the 6-core variant starts at a hefty price tag of $3,053. That is nearly a threefold jump in price for a computer that still requires you to find a separate monitor, a mouse, and a power outlet just to see what you are typing.
What Squeezes Inside That Plastic Wedge
For your three thousand dollars, HP manages to pack a respectable amount of silicon into a chassis that weighs roughly 1.49 pounds and sits easily on a desk, as noted by Wccftech. The EliteBoard G2a starts with the Ryzen AI 5 Pro 435 processor and is available in five variants, though there are only two system-on-chip options: the Ryzen AI 5 Pro 435 and the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450, per Wccftech. The base 6-core and 12-thread chip gives users up to 50 AI TOPS of power for local workloads alongside Radeon 840M integrated graphics, while the step-up Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450 brings two additional cores, four more threads, and a noticeably stronger Radeon 860M graphics engine, according to Wccftech.
Memory and storage are flexible if you are willing to open up the case. These chips are paired with at least 16 gigabytes of DDR5 memory, and up to 32 gigabytes of capacity will be available at a significantly higher price, though the keyboard PC can be upgraded to 64 gigabytes of DDR5 capacity using dual SO-DIMM slots as well, as Wccftech detailed. For files and applications, the G2a comes with 512 gigabytes of solid-state storage out of the box, but can be upgraded to 2 terabytes, per Wccftech. Connectivity is handled by a modern set of ports, including a USB Type-C 40 Gbps port with DisplayPort Alt Mode and a USB Type-C 10 Gbps port that also supports DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery, according to Wccftech.
Who Is This Actually For?
I would not buy this, and neither should you unless your desk space is measured in square inches and you despise cable management with a religious fervor. The entire pitch of the EliteBoard G2a relies on absolute minimalism—shrinking a desktop tower until it disappears entirely beneath your fingertips. Yet paying over three thousand dollars for a 6-core processor strapped to a keyboard makes zero financial sense when standard mini-PCs and laptops offer identical or superior horsepower for a fraction of the cost.
Buying this machine means paying a massive luxury tax for an obsolete shape. You get the portability of a keyboard, sure, but you lose the built-in screen of a laptop and gain the cumbersome tether of external peripherals. It is an idea born entirely from nostalgia that completely forgets the practical realities of spending your own hard-earned money.
An expensive novelty for those who prefer form over financial sense. Leave it on the shelf.