IdeaCentre Lenovo A720

A beautiful multimedia-optimised all-in-one PC with touch technology

The price tag makes you think before you want to look at the machine, but this all-in-one PC with its beautiful 27-inch high-definition multi-touch display that can bend over and look like a table top, powerful 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 6 GB of RAM, 1 terabyte hard disk drive, NVIDIA GT 630 graphics card with 2 GB of dedicated graphics memory, and yes, Windows 8 to top it all, makes you look and think: should I place this on my Want-List or should I get it now?

So, let’s look a bit further and see if the price tag is justified. The Lenovo A270 has more things up its sleeve; it also has a Blu-ray drive, an HDMI port and USB 3.0 ports for your expansion. If you want to play a game or the piano, tilt the screen; want to go back to your email, tilt it back up, touch, and you are at it. From ‘Game’ mode, to ‘Entertainment’ mode, to ‘Business’ mode, this can go anywhere, and no other all-in-one computer really comes close to it.

If you are used to an iPad, you will love this 10-point multi-touch huge big screen to do your computing. Its drive is a slot load one, and there are even memory card slots just in case you want to plug your camera’s memory card into a photo app. The power button is on the side of the screen. The only thing that bothers me are indicators up front on the glass panel.

There is also an integrated TV tuner, and its inbuilt stereo speakers support Dolby Home Theatre version 4, making this a good machine to watch videos off the internet, TV or even a Blu-ray disc.

Lenovo right now does not offer an upgrade to a solid-state drive (SSD), and I am not sure if this can be done by a direct swap at your end. This is one feature I would miss.

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