Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (27-Inch) - Review 2022

The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (starts at $1,099.99; $1,749.99 as tested) is a handsome, mod desktop that checks a lot of boxes for all-in-i buyers—sleek design, stellar touch display, and stiff performance. The 520 features a desktop Core i7 rather than the mobile processor establish in most AIOs, and a 2TB hard drive teamed with 16TB of Intel Optane memory for some of the speed of a solid-state drive. Merely it lacks the interior accessibility and upgradeability of our Editors' Option midrange AIO, the HP EliteOne g. Worse, in club to go along the Lenovo's powerful components running smoothly, its cooling fan runs constantly—and that tin go abrasive.

Our test unit is the flagship in Lenovo's IdeaCentre 500 all-in-1 line. Below it are a 27-inch Core i5 model; 24-inch and 21.5-inch systems, the latter offered in both Intel and AMD flavors; and a 23-inch slimline dubbed the 520S. In addition to the 2.9GHz Core i7-7700T CPU and 2TB drive, our 520 comes with 16GB of RAM, Intel integrated graphics, and a two,560-by-1,440 resolution touch screen.

Hey, Expert Lookin'

The IdeaCentre 520 AIO is slim and trim for a 27-inch all-in-one. A narrow one-half-inch bezel frames the brandish, and a 1.7-inch-tall speaker bar sits beneath information technology. Despite housing both a hard drive and an optical bulldoze, the system is only 2.7 inches thick. This is not a bulky organization, and it sits on a compact-withal-sturdy base. The back panel and speaker bar grille are charcoal-gray plastic, but the stand and display arm are made of steel. The round base measures nine.8 inches in bore.

The fixed display arm looks swish and helps go along the screen firmly rooted in identify. There is a flake of display wobble when you bump the system or the desk it's on, but the effect is minimal. The tradeoff for the simple elegance of the display arm is a lack of adjustment. Information technology offers tilt but not height aligning or swivel.

The 27-inch IPS display is the main allure of the IdeaCentre; it offers a bright image with broad viewing angles and rich colors, and the touch panel feels responsive. The system'southward 1440p resolution places it in betwixt 1080p and 4K panels. The added pixels create a crisper image, specially when seated straight in front of the display. A 4K touch on panel would exist sharper still, but add together considerable extra cost. Y'all will need to put upwards with glare and reflections; the touch display'due south sleeky coating is a magnet for such annoyances.

Lenovo outfits the arrangement with a pair of three-watt stereo speakers. That doesn't sound very impressive, just the difference from most AIOs' and laptops' ii-watt speakers can definitely be heard. Without the assistance of a subwoofer, the 520's audio isn't going to rattle the windows, just it offers adequately total sound that will fill a small room. Movies and YouTube videos audio loud and articulate, and music playback sounds respectable even if the bass response is predictably lacking.

Bells and Whistles

The organisation's webcam has a few tricks up its sleeve. For starters, information technology hides in a console in a higher place the display then you can be assured of privacy when it'due south not in apply. Just press down on the console and the 1080p camera will popular up. Information technology provides a clean, well-balanced prototype with natural-looking peel tones for videoconferencing. The webcam is also an IR camera, and then you can employ it with Windows Hi to log into your PC via face recognition.

Lenovo claims the 520 is the first all-in-one to feature a far-field microphone, which lets you requite Windows' Cortana assistant vox commands from beyond the room—upwards to 5 meters abroad by Lenovo's math. I found the range was roughly triple that; in an admittedly quiet house, the system heard me utter "Hey Cortana" from ii rooms or virtually 15 yards abroad.

The IdeaCentre offers a useful option of expansion ports as long as you don't demand a DisplayPort connexion. On the back panel, yous'll discover HDMI-in and -out ports, two USB 3.0 ports, ii USB ii.0 ports, one USB three.0 Blazon-C port, and an Ethernet jack. Oddly, there is no fashion push button that would let you switch the video input between the PC and any video source you plug into the HDMI-in port. Without such a button, you'll need to unplug or plough off your external HDMI device to return to PC mode.

The lone port on the left side is a USB 3.0 port, and around the corner from it on the bottom panel are a headphone jack and an SD card reader. With the pocket-sized degree of tilt adjustment, you can't push the display dorsum far enough to see where the ports are located without bending over and practically putting your head on your desk to see where to insert your headphones or flash carte du jour. On the right side is a tray-loading DVD burner.

This is a arrangement for home users who have no desire or need to get inside the case. Lenovo makes it most impossible to remove the dorsum panel, though you tin can pry it off in painstaking fashion to go to the internal components.

Some all-in-ones discover room for an internal ability supply, but the 520 is on the thin side, which must be its excuse for using an external power brick. Nonetheless, it's not a huge brick and non too difficult to lug effectually with the arrangement.

Lenovo bundles a wireless keyboard and mouse with the arrangement. They are black, plastic, and generic. The 520 comes with a one-year warranty.

Proud Merely Loud

The Lenovo posted an impressive score of 3,380 (2,500 is skilful and 3,000 is first-class) in our PCMark viii criterion, which measures a system'due south suitability for productivity apps. That tops non only the Core i5-powered HP EliteOne g but the Acer Aspire Z3, which has the same Core i7-7700T processor, and the Dell Inspiron 27 7000, which has a mighty eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700 fleck.

The Dell'south actress cores gave it the win in our CPU-intensive Cinebench measurement and Handbrake video-editing workload, but the IdeaCentre wasn't also far behind, and even tied the Inspiron (and the 27-inch 5K Apple iMac) in our Adobe Photoshop image-editing exercise. The 520's only disappointing results came in our graphics tests, where its integrated graphics disqualify it from the game grid—it'south all right for casual or solitaire games, but nothing more enervating than that.

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Just throughout benchmark testing and everyday apply, the IdeaCentre 520 AIO relied on a spinning cooling fan to go on its thermals in cheque. Information technology's not terribly loud, simply always-present. The fan noise is hands drowned out past the system's sound if you're playing music or watching videos, only it will grate on you when you're working in silence.

Breaking Through the Noise

If you lot don't heed word processing or Web surfing with a whirring soundtrack, or y'all wearable headphones ofttimes, the 520 is an appealingly styled, reasonably priced strong performer. Simply if y'all'd like something quieter and more easily serviceable, and can cede the bear upon screen, the HP EliteOne 1000 remains our Editors' Selection in the category.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/desktops/20452/lenovo-ideacentre-520-aio-27-inch

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