HP's TouchSmart IQ506 is a media center computer-in-a-screen built around a 22-inch 1440 x 900 touchscreen LCD monitor. On the lower end of the lineup, the desktop system lacks the wall-mounting support of more expensive 25.5-inch TouchSmarts. At the heart of the IQ506 is an Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 processor running at 2.16GHz and with 4GB DDR2 memory. For graphics power, the system uses a DirectX 10-compatible 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS - the card supports Blu-ray acceleration, but the IQ506 will need an external drive to take advantage of it as it ships with a DVD drive only - HP's higher end IQ816 addresses the issue with the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive.

The IQ506 sports a bevy of inputs, including five USB ports, a flash card reader, firewire, and an antenna connection for use by its ATSC digital HDTV tuner. For networking options, the system offers gigabit Ethernet and draft-N wireless interfaces. Storage comes in the form of a single 500GB SATA drive and DVD combo burner. HP installs the system with a 64-bit copy of Vista Home Premium with an additional UI that takes advantage of the touchscreen, providing easy navigation through media libraries. All together, the IQ506 is essentially the same as the 25.5-inch IQ804, just with a smaller screen and no mounting options.