Review: Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Rethinks The All-In-One Desktop PC

The Strengths

By far, the standout feature of the A720 is its ability to fold its screen display (adjustable from a -5 to 90 degree angle). This unique capability makes a touchscreen truly useful. In a situation where a user plans on using the touchscreen extensively, you can simply fold it down flat or at a comfortable angle to work with it more like a tablet. As the included air hockey game demonstrates, the design opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for two users to interact with the machine simultaneously, from opposites ends of a table or desk, when the screen is lying flat.

The touchscreen itself is responsive and accurate, making it easy to select menu options on the screen without accidentally selecting the wrong item. Lenovo claims it has 10-point multi-touch capabilities.

When using the wireless keyboard and mouse, I find them comfortable as well. The keyboard features Lenovo’s now standard sculpted chiclet keys and includes a numeric keypad. Key layout is fairly standard, although the home, end, page up, and page down keys are put in a single row to the right of the backspace and enter keys. As rarely as most people use those keys, I don’t believe that placement will pose a big problem.

Another plus, in my opinion, is the fact that Lenovo promises future Windows 8 support for this machine. With Windows 8’s new focus on support for touchscreen-capable devices, the IdeaCentre makes an ideal platform for it. At the very least, purchasing one today doesn’t put an owner at high risk of incompatibilities preventing an upgrade in the near future.

I also like Lenovo’s decision to put the system board, speakers, and Blu-ray drive in the base of the unit versus the approach of putting everything in the display housing. This arrangement should help dissipate heat more efficiently and makes the system easier to work on. (By contrast, replacing a hard drive on a modern Apple iMac involves lifting out the LCD display panel with suction cups to access the hardware behind it.)

I also like the way Lenovo places status indicators in the bottom left corner of the display. A power indicator, hard disk activity light, Bluetooth, and WiFi status lights remind me of what’s usually seen across a plastic strip above the keyboard on a typical notebook computer. With them moved to the corner of the screen, they’re subtle yet still easily visible. (If Lenovo placed them on the base of the system instead, the status indicators might be obscured by the display when it’s folded down flat.)

The Weaknesses

As I mentioned earlier, the slow hard disk performance really hurts what would otherwise be an excellent user experience. Although Lenovo offers an option to purchase an A720 with a 64 GB SSD drive in addition to the 1 TB hard drive, I suspect that arrangement amounts to little more than a Band-Aid for the sluggish 1 TB drive. Personally, I’d like to see this computer offered in a configuration with a 512 GB SSD in place of the primary 1 TB drive.

Although only a relatively minor complaint, I’m not pleased with the Lenovo Vantage Tools. The virtual card stacks of applications can be moved around the display with your finger, but they don’t adequately take advantage of multi-touch gestures. Pressing and holding a finger on card stack causes it to slowly rotate, but attempts to use two or three fingers to spin it the opposite direction did nothing. Furthermore, I’m not sure why the application is necessary to begin with. It seems as though all of the applications you can launch through the Vantage Tools can also be presented with the IdeaTouch application.

The 27″ glossy screen display exhibits considerable glare, too. I understand it’s the nature of these screens, and it’s a tradeoff made in exchange for more vibrant presentation of colors. That said, I have to turn off an overhead light behind me so I could use the computer without washing out part of the display, and on dark backgrounds, I could see my own reflection. At the very least, it’s an issue to consider when deciding where to place one of these computers in a room.

I would prefer it if the keyboard and mouse had a little bit higher quality materials. Perhaps Lenovo assumed the IdeaCentre had enough alternatives for input (with both the touchscreen and the remote control) that the keyboard and mouse aren’t such a high priority. But despite having the sculpted, easy to type on keycaps, the keyboard itself feels like an inexpensive afterthought. Backlit keys would be a nice feature, for starters. Even something as simple as the battery door feels cheap, with a little plastic tab to push down with a fingernail to release it.

The wireless mouse is no different. Being an optical laser mouse, it performs just fine, but its thin plastic shell feels no better than a generic $10 mouse from a discount store. Additionally, the mouse requires a small USB receiver be removed from under the battery lid and inserted in one of the available USB ports on the A720. This makes the whole affair less integrated than if the machine simply communicated with the keyboard and mouse via a built-in Bluetooth transmitter.

Summary

Overall, the IdeaCentre A720 is a solid machine. At its suggested retail price of $1,600, it offers good value. The IdeaCentre will likely really shine when Windows 8 is released and Lenovo updates its device drivers for it, too. I suggest uninstalling the trial version of McAfee Anti-virus and going with a free alternative (such as Microsoft Security Essentials, which Microsoft offers via Windows Updates as an optional update, whenever it detects you have no other anti-virus product installed). I’d also seriously consider investing in a fairly large capacity SSD and swapping out the 1 TB hard drive, to boost performance. (Any good computer technician should be able to handle this procedure if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself.)

The A720 seems almost ideal for users looking for a computer to put on a desk in a bedroom or college dorm, because it doubles as a 27″ television with digital recording, DVD, and Blu-ray disc playing capabilities. Built-in speakers aren’t anything special, but they sound no worse than what I’ve heard from several brand name LCD TVs currently on the market. And just like a flat panel TV, nothing stops you from adding on external speakers for better sound, if desired.

Power users or hardcore gamers are advised to consider a tower PC configuration instead of an all-in-one like the IdeaCentre. That’s because these machines are built around notebook computer internals, which means you won’t have expansion slots allowing video card upgrades, and there aren’t any extra RAM expansion slots allowing a memory upgrade beyond the included 8GB. Otherwise, this Lenovo makes a fine choice.