Showing posts with label centrecom review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label centrecom review. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Lenovo A320 All-in-one Review!

Lenovo A320 77465CM
All-in-one desktop for the stylish user!
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/77465cm-lenovo-a320-77465cm-p-55613.html?sort=2a

Features

Today I’ll be looking at another all-in-one for the desktop user, this time a Lenovo A320. This mid-range desktop has the potential power to be the perfect replacement to suit the needs of the whole family, and even might entice some professional business end users for its slick design and simplicity.
Let’s take a look at what it’s got under the hood.


Model: A320 77645CM
OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU:
Intel® Core™ i5-2410M (2.3GHz)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 (1333MHz) (Upgradable to 8GB)
Hard Drive(s):
750GB 5400RPM
Optical Drive(s):
External USB DVDRW
Networking:
Gigabit Ethernet
Graphics:
Intel HD3000
Display:
21.5” Full-HD LED (1920x1080 Resolution)
Audio:
Stereo Speakers
Coms:
802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth
Inputs:
2x USB2.0, 2x USB3.0, 1x Microphone, SD/MMC Card Reader, 1x HDMI-in, TV-In
Outputs:
1x Headphone Out, 1x VGA, 1x HDMI-Out

Looks pretty good on paper, however if I was to nit-pick I really would have liked a dedicated nVidia or ATI chip on the board and the fact it is using a mobile processor instead of a full-fledged desktop based CPU could be a bit off putting. Basically what it means is it has the guts of a laptop in the shape of a desktop.

Loaded on the PC is a nifty little webcam software package that lets you play around with some fun and quirky tools. The quality of the webcam seemed quite good and took a pretty neat picture.  
One thing I did notice though it does not come partitioned with a data drive, so unless you partition the drive yourself, remember to always backup your data, as a full restore will erase everything off your computer.

One of the important features to have on an all-in-one design is the ability to switch off the display to save power, the Lenovo A320 has this feature but in a poor action. To turn off the display you need to go into the menu of the monitor and navigate your way around to switch off the display. A little button on the edge of the screen somewhere I think would have been much better and more user-friendly.
The menu itself is a bit laggy and slow. When pressing a button, you need to give it a second or so to respond. This shouldn’t really happen with today’s monitors.

The keyboard has 3 large circle buttons on the top right hand corner for software shortcuts. Each button launches the default application for your Media Player, Internet Browser and the 3rd button launches the Lenovo Vantage Technology Start Center. Basically it has all the Lenovo built-in tools in one place including One-Key Recovery.  The recovery feature is fantastic and superfast. The one thing I love about Lenovo products is their recovery software is fantastic and always works a treat and is simple enough for even the most novice of users to operate.
On boot up every time you’ll get the Bluetooth manager application appearing telling you your mouse and keyboard aren’t connected.  Don’t panic! You need to move the mouse around and hit a few keys to activate the Bluetooth devices, bit annoying and unnecessary. I’ve used wireless devices before on Bluetooth without the need to do this.

Design

The unit comes nicely packed into a white box with several small cardboard boxes holding all the extra accessories like keyboard, mouse, power cable and the external DVD drive.
The unit is very slick and stylish, with a white and silver glossy plastic casing. The screen is elevated from the base with silver covered plastic tubing which is very sturdy and strong. Now, Lenovo market it being ultra-slim at just 18.5mm deep, but this is the depth of the actual monitor and not base, the base measures up at around 190mm (19cm) in depth. 

The base itself is the heart of the unit. All the parts packed into a very tight space, something I think could have used a better design. Although it looks very good, it’s quite impractical at times. Firstly, the need for an external drive. Once you plug in the external DVD drive, it changes the whole slick look of the unit. I would have opted for a slightly larger base that could hold a slim DVD drive. It also uses one of the 4 USB ports, so, there goes a waste of a port. The 2 USB ports on the side of the unit are USB3.0 and the rear ones are your USB2.0. The ones on the side I found to be quite badly placed. The angle in which I have my monitor kind of sits right over the ports, so when I tried to plug in a device, my average sized hands found it a bit difficult to get in there to plug it in. The rear ones were no better having me stand up to be able to reach over the monitor. The base should have been made to stretch the width of the monitor so users can easily access the ports. The size of the base is smaller than majority of laptops so I think Lenovo definitely had the chance to make it a bit bigger and fit better options into it.
At the rear of the base I notice the Ethernet port, power port and TV-in to be side by side. This could be problematic if you wanted to use all three at the same time because the power plug is a 90-degree plug, which means if you have it on either side of it, it is going to block one of the ports on the side of it. Your only option is to go up! This contradicts the sleek design.

The keyboard and mouse are wireless Bluetooth components and are fantastic. The mouse looks pretty ugly I must admit but feels amazing under your hands and is extremely comfortable. The keyboard is no less, though it is a compact design, typing on it feels wonderful and even packs its own number pad with the use of the Fn button. I’m not quite sure why they added this in considering there is a row of numbers beneath the F keys, but it does seem encouraging to see Lenovo haven’t left things out.
Overall, though the base of the unit lacks good design fundamentals, when put together, it looks fantastic and would add a stylish and modern look to your home or office. It comes with a plethora of inputs and outputs which give good connectivity options for its users.

Performance

Featuring a mobile 2nd Gen Core i5 Processor, this unit has a lot to prove itself. Out of the package the unit was a breeze to setup and initialize, and like many other machines, comes loaded with a bunch of software (which in many scenarios you’ll never use).

Booting the unit came in at 1min 17s, this was a not the result I was hoping for. I was expecting a slightly better performance result than this. Many of the laptops I have reviewed in the past absolutely cream this result, including Lenovo’s own Y560p which proved to be a possible desktop replacement. However I did notice that boot time was lengthened after Windows initialization which leads me to believe the excess software and start-up services were tugging this machine down, so I did a bit of tweaking, uninstalling and general cleaning up (a brand new machine) and got the boot down to 1min 5s, which is reasonable. A reduction of 12s is fairly large although I do believe if I had this unit formatted with a fresh clean copy without all the excess baggage; it would come down even more.
Some of you may be asking, why am I referring to laptop results in comparison, well the fact is the unit has a mobile processor which is used in laptops and comes with a 5400RPM hard drive, which is identical to the majority of notebooks. The specs in this unit are those used in laptops, so it is a fair comparison.

General software tasks like Office & Excel were usual as expected, nothing out of the ordinary performance wise. Video editing and photo manipulation was a breeze on the desktop. The processor was quick in rendering and the 4GB memory means working with fairly large Photoshop files handle easily.

The 21.5” LED display looks very sharp and clear. There are no blotchy spots or blurriness anywhere on the screen. Full HD videos looked very nice and the colours were rich and vibrant. The displayed showed blacks very well and I didn’t see any pixilation in dark areas when watching movies. This is useful for those wishing to use the screen as a secondary monitor thanks to its HDMI and TV inputs. People can easily hook up their PS3’s to the monitor which provides an awesome close up gaming experience.

The noise level on this unit was quite comfortable and not until the unit is fully loaded for a lengthy amount of time does it start getting a bit louder, however it never reaches an uncomfortable level and most users will find the quietness pleasing.
Audio was very good. Watching movies gave a nice sound and music sounded evenly well. Though it lacked lower sub levels altogether, it doesn’t over do the higher levels and give you that tinny sound like many other low quality speakers do. It gives a nice flat comfortable and loud sound.

Our Cinebench software gave us the following test results:

CPU: 2.51pts
OpenGL: 7.87fps

Nothing unusual about these results, the OpenGL performed as it should have considering it has an Intel HD3000 graphics processor. The CPU results sit perfectly in between the mobile i3 and i7 processors which are more than expected of it to. 

Our PCMark07 benchmark gave a result of 2059 PCMarks. |
Our 3DMark11 produced a result of Nothing. The lack of DX11 hardware didn’t allow the test to begin, so I gave a test using 3DMark06 and it scored 2986 3DMarks

Temperatures were interesting in the unit. It was a bit too hot for my liking. The machine idled in around 45-50 degrees for the CPU and peaked in around the 80 degree mark. This is a big jump in temperature from idle to load. The problem I think stems from the plastic covered base with no decent ventilation or exhaust. If you use this unit in a hot environment and the CPU hits the 100 degree mark, you’re looking at a system failure shutdown and potential permanent damage. Though I must make it clear it is very difficult to achieve such high temperatures on any computer. So don’t be discouraged by what I’ve written. It is my duty to ensure you, the customer, know everything about the unit before purchasing.



 
Conclusion

The Lenovo A320 has a few design flaws that could have been avoided with a bit more thought into its design, but it is constantly overshadowed by the beauty and performance capability of the unit. It looks and feels fantastic to use and I believe they are important factors when it comes to all-in-one desktops. Lenovo has given customers the perfect replacement for that box sitting under your desk with a well built, stylish and comfortable desktop unit that though has a few design flaws and interesting choices in internal hardware, proves to perform above expectations. This unit can also be beneficial to business owners who need the power of a full sized desktop in a compact, stylish and modern look. 

By Sahin Selvi
sahin.s@centrecom.com.au

The benchmark results may differ from user to user depending on what background software you are running and versions of benchmark software. These results aren’t portrayed to be seen as exact performance figures but merely as a rough estimate on the performance of the machine. These results are in no way bias to any company or person and are here to provide the end user in depth details and to provide extra assistance of potential purchases. All information on this page is subject to copyright. Please do not copy any parts of this article.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Lenovo Y560P (4397M2M) Laptop Review


Features       
               
Today I have my hands on a Lenovo Y560P. This 2nd Gen Core i7 laptop is quite beefy in the specs department and sits very competitively in the market, priced at $899. Before I get into it, let’s take a look at what’s under its hood:

Model: Y560P (4397M2M)
OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
CPU:
Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM (2GHz Quad Core)
Memory: 8GB DDR3 (1066MHz)
Hard Drive(s):
750GB 5400RPM
Optical Drive(s):
Super Multi DVD R/W
Networking:
Gigabit Ethernet
Graphics:
ATI Capilano XT 6570M 1GB DDR3
Display:
15.6” HD LED Glossy (1366x768 Resolution)
Audio:
JBL Stereo Speakers
Coms:
802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth
Inputs:
3x USB2.0,  1x Microphone, SD/MMC Card Reader, eSATA
Outputs:
1x Headphone Out, 1x VGA
Battery: 6 Cell

Quite decent looking machine! Opening the box I was equally impressed! Accessories and power cables come in its own white box with pockets for each item. I was quite impressed with it. While other manufacturers tend to stick with cardboard moulds to hold the laptop inside the box, Lenovo have gone one better and made it foam! Maybe I’m getting a little too excited over foam, but it sure does add a bit more unique feeling to it, it’s as if your opening a brand new 60” television, except it’s a 15.6” laptop.

The laptop comes with a one key recovery placed on top of the power button. Even though it’s quite small, I could imagine little kids coming and pressing it repeatedly. However, if you did want to restore your unit, the One Key feature provides a very simple and effective solution. Its menus are also easy to understand, so even new computer users can easily restore their laptops without external support.


The track pad feels solid and nice. It is quite smooth and responsive and supports multi-finger gestures.

Above the keyboard there’s some sort of track which I figured out to be shortcuts to simple things. Running your finger along the extruded lines you get a menu come up with different applications linked to the progress of your finger on the bar. Swiping your finger across the length of the bar locks up your screen in a unique zipper fashion. Quite impressive but will it be a popular feature to use? Not so sure.

Design

The laptop looks fantastic. The screen lid has a brushed look but feels smooth as can be. Opening the lid I was exposed to its shiny casing, matte keys and larger than normal laptop speaker. Besides the left hand side of the Keyboard you have your power button and recovery ley slightly above it. On the opposite side there are handy volume control buttons (Up, Down, Mute). This can be quite useful and I found myself pretty fond of the buttons and used it regularly. I think, having simple volume buttons directly on the unit itself is a big feature to have. Using a laptop is more hands on, so you want to be able to do simple things, with your hands!  Even brightness controls would be quite handy feature to have.

 
The keyboard is quite easy and comfortable to use. All the keys have inner bevels which let your fingers sit in nicely with each keystroke. The keys are tightly packed in together so you won’t have y our fingers clipping the corners of others, although they do have tiny gaps in between them which for crumbs is the perfect hideout place.

The notebook is your standard 15.6” Screen sized laptop, although due to the keyboard being so tightly packed in together, the extra space on either side of it makes it feel a bit larger than normal. It weighed in at 2.7Kg, might be a bit of a workout for some people, but it is quite normal for a unit of its specs.

The inputs and outputs on the unit are all placed wisely and conveniently. You have you VGA, HDMI, Network, 2x USB and audio jacks on the left hand side of the unit, on the right hand side you have your power plug, a DVD drive, eSATA port and your 3rd USB port. On the front bevel you’ll find a SD card slot, with a dummy SD card sitting in the slot to give the unit a nice unified design and protect the slot from dust and other small annoyances. I found this to be a pleasant layout. I didn’t have any power cable issues like the previous laptop I reviewed, there no interferences or distractions. It was all quite easy to use. 




Performance

Packed into the unit is a 2nd Generation Core i7-2630QM running at 2GHz and massive 8GB of memory. This combination is pretty good on paper. The fast quad-core processor with large RAM puts this laptop up to be quite the performer in power hungry applications.
Booting the unit came in at 45s, which is a fantastic result. I do think though with a bit of tinkering could bring that down even more.

The display of the unit is very sharp and clear. Playing back 1080p MKV files, the videos looked crisp and very well coloured. The unit had no issues scrubbing and 10GB video files.
Sound is fantastic. The stereo JBL speakers put out a decent sound which is very handy. Majority of laptops will make your ears bleed when listening to music, but the Y560P seems to do quite the opposite and is very pleasant experience. Watching the 1080p videos, the sound was amazing. I could put up the volume with no discomfort what so ever.

Photoshop on the unit ran like a breeze. The powerful CPU coupled with plenty of memory is very useful for multimedia applications and users.

My 700MB test file opened within 20secs and was comfortable to work throughout. File saving was no issues as it took roughly the same time to save it. For a laptop with a slower hard drive, it performed fantastically, and as a Multimedia Designer, I found it to be surprising and welcoming.

Call of Duty Black Ops
The game played absolutely flawlessly. Throughout the gaming I experienced no lag. I was averaging 43fps which is more than acceptable for smooth gameplay.

Crysis 2
Though it was still playable, the cut scenes suffered a bit and were occasionally laggy. The gameplay itself was more than playable though and though it did struggle a bit during heavy action scenes, overall, this laptop produced pretty impressive results. With a bit of graphic tweaking, I’d imagine most gamers would be able to improve its performance. Our Crysis 2 averaged 27fps


Our Cinebench software gave us the following test results:
CPU: 4.83pts
OpenGL: 33.81pts

The CPU performs more than double the amount of an i3 processor which is quite big difference. It was only .17pts slower than a desktop Intel i7 860 CPU.
OpenGL on the other handed absolutely creamed all other previous tests and blitzes its competitors.

Our PCMark07 benchmark gave a result of 2189 PCMarks.
Our 3DMark11 benchmark produced a result of P1217 3DMarks.

Temperatures were very impressive for the unit. Though it produced pretty warm results, at no time was the heat radiating through the keyboard area, so I felt no discomfort in using the unit. This could be due to the fact it has vents scattered all over the bottom of the unit, and quite powerful exhaust on its left hand side. So if you are intending to use this laptop on your lap, while performing CPU heavy tasks like 3D simulations and gaming, you’ll probably end up cooking your legs quite regularly, not only that, but using a laptop while its warm, and sitting on a bed or something that smothers the exhausts, can shorten the lifespan of your unit and cause damage. So, get a laptop cooler, or use it on a flat desk!


The unit was on the loud side a bit. During idling it was very comfortable and barely audible, but as soon as anything heavy begun, you really could hear the unit working up its fans. 

Conclusion


This is a brilliant unit overall. It has powerful features, gorgeous display and an amazing sound system. If you’re after a desktop replacement, this could be one to have a look into. It offers power at an unbelievable price. There are really no bad points that come directly to mind with this unit, it hasn’t let me down with whatever I’ve chosen to do with it. Even with gaming, it managed to perform remarkably well.  I used it for an entire day and was very happy to have it on my desk.

sahin.s@centrecom.com.au