Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3i Review

In today’s ever-changing environment where component costs fluctuate wildly, all-in-one computers (AIO for short) are as viable as ever. Lenovo’s IdeaCentre AIO 3i (prices start at $529, $599 as tested) is focused on productivity and includes a DVD drive, long lost in many devices today. A closer look under the hood reveals the trappings of a typical budget machine, such as a low-end Pentium processor with integrated graphics, but it’s interesting to note that a cool 16GB of memory and 1TB of Backed by an SSD. Lenovo offers different configurations to match the theme (less memory, hard drive instead of SSD), but we like this one. Affordably upgrade your home office and earn an Editors’ Choice Award for Budget AIO.

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catch this 22 inch

The IdeaCentre AIO 3i is a compact machine all covered in matte black plastic with a 22-inch display on a small stand. The stand features an indentation to keep your mouse, spare change, keys, or small office supplies out of the way.

Simply put, the computer holds a pretty decent display here, with surprisingly thin bezels on all sides that do a respectable job of maximizing screen space. Height adjustment is also not available, but the monitor allows for a healthy tilt for vertical adjustment.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Most of the AIO’s ports are on the back. There you’ll find four USB ports: two 2.0 ports and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (all Type-A), an Ethernet jack, a power connector, and an HDMI output. That’s not all. There’s a webcam on top that slides in and out of the monitor housing like a Sega Genesis cartridge.

Further to the left is a classic DVD optical disc drive. A little further down is a small rubber cover in the left corner that hides his 3.5 mm port for headphones. Sure, a high-res webcam, Blu-ray drive, or even a USB-C port would be a huge advantage, but what you have here is more than acceptable for budget AIO.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The 22-inch display is manageable at just 22 pounds and 15.9 x 19.3 x 7.3 inches (HWD). It’s definitely heavier than the big-screen top AIO of a few years ago, the HP Pavilion 24 AIO, and as far as the 22-inch AIO is concerned, it weighs more than a few pounds more than the HP Chromebase All-In-One. 22. Still, this Lenovo AIO is almost untouchable.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Our $599 review configuration comes with an Intel Pentium Gold 7505 processor, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB SSD, DVD drive, Windows 11, and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Lenovo sells about 10 configurations ranging from as low as $529 to as high as $800. The top option includes a whopping 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, but the processor and integrated graphics remain the same.

A quick word about Pentium Gold processors: As far as CPUs are concerned, the Pentium series is close to Intel’s bottom tier of processors, close to the Intel Celeron chips (the lowest) and AMD’s Athlon. While you can’t expect much from these parts (which we’ll cover in our benchmarking analysis), the combination of an SSD and a good amount of RAM at least gives some performance gains as productivity is concerned. But don’t expect advanced gaming or video editing from this machine.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The two downward-firing 3-watt speakers deliver decent sound at high levels without losing too much quality. It’s loud, without the tiny screeches and chassis vibration feedback found in lower-end budget laptops and Chromebooks. The included keyboard and mouse also work better than you might think.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The full-size keyboard is lightweight, with feet that fold outward for added grip and height. The mouse is a basic compact 2-clicker with a small scroll wheel in the middle. Its plastic feet actually work well on multiple surfaces. The slides are much smoother than the recent Dell Bluetooth Travel Mouse we recently reviewed.

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Decent display and reliable amount of memory

As you might have guessed, the advantage of AIO over a typical desktop is the fact that AIO comes with a monitor and IdeaCentre comes with a pretty effective monitor for the price. Lenovo says its Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) anti-glare IPS display delivers 250 nits of brightness (we dispute this claim in the benchmarks section below).

There’s also a touchscreen variant for those who might prefer it. The monitor has no display setup connected and no HDMI input, so I can’t connect a game console to play on this AIO.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

While in use, the extra RAM allows you to run multiple apps at once without significantly slowing down. Spreadsheets, email, and Twitter (or Mastadon feeds) are all easily managed.

While the screen space may be smaller than mainstream budget monitors (you can find a perfectly good 24-inch standalone panel for under $150), the AIO’s compact nature means it can fit in tight spaces and clutter. Perfect for apartments. and micro office. Video and audio are also very reliable, and the number of ports is a welcome one. All in all, the IdeaCentre AIO 3i is a formidable value with a tandem of 16GB/1TB of RAM and an SSD, but how does it compare to its contemporaries?

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Testing the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3i: Perspective is everything

Lenovo’s exclusive IdeaCentres lineup has many budget options to choose from. Don’t want to worry about adding computer accessories like monitors, keyboards and mice? Then the all-in-one option is the best (hence the name). Do you like swapping out accessories or opening up your desktop for an upgrade? The classic tower-style desktop method is probably right for you.

In any case, to see how Lenovo’s IdeaCentre AIO 3i compares to the other budget contenders, we’d like to put its place in the decision more fully by comparing it to both AIOs and budget mini PCs. I’ve understood.

What’s more, AIO’s releases are fairly low, and the benchmark suite changed very recently, so we don’t have numbers to accurately compare AIO alone. All machines here are similarly priced and feature entry-level gear that’s in the same ballpark as each other.

Productivity test

The first two tests are arguably the most important. UL’s PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content creation workflows to measure the overall performance of office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, and the web to keep the CPU at its paces. Test with browsing, and video conferencing. We also ran the PCMark 10 full system drive test to assess desktop storage load times and throughput.

To put more pressure on the CPU, the next two benchmarks are Maxon’s Cinebench R23, which uses Maxon’s Cinema 4D engine to render complex scenes, and its popularity for everything from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs that simulates an app with .

Finally, run PugetBench for Photoshop from Puget Systems. This uses Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s image editor to evaluate PC performance for content creation and multimedia applications.

IdeaCentre holds its own here. It doesn’t reach the top of the scoreboard, but it’s not far behind, beating the Geekom Mini Desktop and the Asus M241. For PCMark 10, numbers between 4,000 and 5,000 are ideal and indicate good productivity in everyday apps like Word and Excel. For this purpose, IdeaCentre is lacking, but not by much. IdeaCentre has only 444 points, so the full system drive test score is not the best. Solid state drives offer plenty of capacity for an affordable SSD, but they are noticeably slower.

Neither CPU benchmark is the IdeaCentre winner here. Because both take advantage of multiple cores on his CPU. With just two cores, the Intel Pentium Gold 7505 can’t keep up with demanding content creation tasks. That said, neither are most budget machines. And if you’re going to do that kind of work, you’re probably better off with a Mac or a dedicated content creation desktop anyway, as evidenced by his PugetBench score on IdeaCentre. That’s not what Pentium CPUs are for.

graphic test

IdeaCentre utilizes integrated Intel graphics, which has made great strides in recent years. Honestly, you’re unlikely to play graphics-intensive games on IdeaCentre, but thanks to Xbox Game Pass integration in Windows 11, playing on your computer has never been easier.

Run two DirectX 12 game simulations from UL’s 3DMark to be hard to beat. Night Raid (more discreet, suitable for PCs with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). We also run two OpenGL benchmarks from the cross-platform GFXBench, running off-screen to accommodate different display resolutions.

IdeaCentre scores on par with typical UHD graphics in both 3DMark tests. AIO can potentially handle very low-end browser games and streaming. Don’t expect high frame rates and such from games that require real rendering. Unfortunately, it is not possible to run the GFXBench tests on your computer (it’s a conflict with the tests, not a defect).

Display brightness and color test

Finally, I used the Datacolor SpyderX Elite calibration tool to test the display in its default image mode with an SDR signal and was pretty impressed with the results. It delivers black levels and achieves a contrast ratio of 840:1. The lower the contrast, the lighter or grayer the blacks and the more washed out the image. Overall, these results are better than some of his 1080p gaming monitors we reviewed recently, such as ViewSonic’s VX1755.

Switching to the SpyderX Elite color gamut test, IdeaCentre covers 96% of the sRGB palette, 75% of Adobe RGB, and 76% of DCI-P3. Solid color range and accuracy, especially for screens that are probably an afterthought for most potential buyers.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

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Verdict: Ace Budget AIO, if you get the right bits

This Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO offers nifty extras like a webcam, disk drive and four extra USB ports, as well as plenty of performance for its price and does a lot. Due to the ample amount of RAM and SSD in our test model, we’re probably lenient on that shortcoming, but it’s definitely worth it here. increase.

Are there better AIOs? Sure; see the HP Envy 34 AIO as one great example. But if you’re looking for an affordable computer, peripherals included, for Internet browsing, office work, and watching movies (perhaps straight from DVD!), and it’s cool considering the budget machine caveats, the IdeaCentre AIO 3i is the best. Worth putting on the shortlist. It won our Editors’ Choice award for the best all-in-one desktop for the tightest budgets.