Like:
Massive screen; Ready for any task; Quite the
looker; Included AV inputs;
Dislike:
Rather expensive; Awkward 3D viewing angle;
Hideous mouse; Unpleasant remote;
Windows 8 has a lot to answer for, doesn't it?
Forget Microsoft's drive towards hypnotic
coloured squares and u-turn design policies; it's
the insistence on touch that's made the most
impact on the market. Just about every PC
manufacturer worth its salt is saturating the
market with wacky touchscreen designs and form
factors that we potentially don't need.
The Lenovo IdeaCentre B540p doesn't slide into
the same odd niches as, say, the Asus Taichi or
Dell's twisty screened XPS 12 - which will end up
as artefacts when people later come to analyse
the crazy decisions made in this decade - but it
is kin nonetheless.
It's a stab at something new, a bucket of
features poured into a PC mould. It might seem
to have been cast from the iMac imprint, but it's
far removed.
The Lenovo IdeaCentre
B540p is a huge all-in-
one PC, and when we
say huge, we mean we
had to roll our chair far
from our desk in order
to work on its
enormous 23-inch
screen comfortably.
Of course it has a
touchscreen, that most
vital of components; in a desk context, this is
absolutely unnecessary and ungainly, though it
wouldn't be undue to suggest that the desk isn't
the Lenovo B540p's most native environment. It
wants to live on a dresser, on a kitchen counter,
on a stand in your living room. It's a touch-
enabled TV wrapped in a PC shell, with coax
aerial and HDMI inputs for all your entertainment
needs.
Equally, the Lenovo IdeaCentre B540p is a
capable PC performer, with a reasonable Intel
Core i5 processor in the version we reviewed
(though there's a Core i7 model available too), a
huge cache of RAM, a decent Nvidia GeForce
graphics card and a passive 3D panel.
Pinning it down to one function feels utterly
impossible. Forget the Dell Inspiron One or the
HP Pavilion TouchSmart line, if any machine
deserves the 'all-in-one' title, it's this.
The big question is whether 2013's scad of
innovations has built up to the peak of PC
versatility, or a muddled, pointless mess priced at
£1,350 / US$1,200 (around AU$2,210). Let's
look at exactly what's inside this black slab of
technology.
Specifications
Let's start from the outside and work our way in.
The whole front of the Lenovo IdeaCentre B540p
is a slick pane of glass, meaning the multi-touch
screen is completely edge-free. We'll forgive it its
hefty bezel, because it's quite an attractive
machine, and the bottom edge conceals touch-
sensitive buttons for volume, brightness and
screen configuration.
The unit is propped up by an adjustable stand
that clicks between two primary positions, and
you can angle the screen between these by
putting a disconcerting but effective amount of
additional stress on the rear leg.
The sides harbour the
extras you might
expect. There's an
optical drive, Blu Ray
on most models (and
we wouldn't
recommend plumping
for the DVD-only
version, because
scrimping when you're paying this much for a PC
is lunacy), along with a couple of USB ports, a
multi-card reader, and audio in and out.
At the back you'll find four more USB ports,
HDMI in and out, and a coax socket for the built-
in digital TV tuner. It's software only, sadly, so
you'll need to be booted into Windows 8 to
watch anything.
So, to the inside. Lenovo hasn't skimped. The
screen is luscious and bright, a 23-inch 1080p
panel with passive 3D capabilities, although its
polarised viewing angle is rather shallow so
you'll need to pick the perfect spot in the room
to watch it from.
The webcam sensor is 720p and surprisingly
ungrainy compared to many, even in low light. A
pair of Dolby-enhanced speakers blast sound
from the base of the unit, and while Windows'
internal volume isn't linked to the core volume
control of the unit, they produce a satisfying
sound, which is something that can't be said for
most all-in-one desktop PCs, or even many
dedicated TVs.
There's more in the box besides. There's a
couple of pairs of polarised 3D goggles - yes,
they'll make you look stupid, but they fit over
conventional glasses so we'll give them a pass.
Plus there's a remote control - it's horrible, of
course, but it at least has proper buttons so it's
nowhere near as horrible as some - and a
wireless mouse and keyboard combo.
Lenovo really likes its keyboard. We don't. Sure,
it's slim and perfect for use on a lap. And it
doesn't feel cheap, as such. But typing is quite
unpleasant, and the placement of the arrow keys
means that right-shift aficionados will have a
hard time. The mouse, conversely, does feel
cheap, small, and although we didn't break it
completely, we were tempted to crush it
underfoot.
Windows 8 comes pre-installed, and there's a
cache of bloatware to keep Lenovo's sponsors
happy. The important bits - PowerDVD 10 for
discs, AVerMedia TV Player for keeping up with
your favourite shows, CyberLink YouCam for
taking silly pictures of yourself - are fine. The
rest is easily ignored.
Performance
Guts-wise, our review unit sported a quad-core
Ivy Bridge Intel Core i5 processor, which is no
slouch in processing terms, and a previous-
generation Nvidia GeForce 650M graphics card
with 2GB RAM onboard.
Benchmarks
3DMark:
Ice Storm: 67009
Cloud Gate: 7444
Fire Strike: 1218
The benchmark results show that Lenovo's
spread of focus means the IdeaCentre B540p falls
behind most desktop computers in technical
terms.
It's not nearly as zippy as a comparably priced
gaming laptop such as the Samsung Series 7
Gamer , and it pales in comparison to proper
desktop constructions under the 3DMark
benchmark.
But while its combination of components might
not have the same grunt as a desktop processing
set, we found them to be perfectly adequate in
the context, and more than enough to at least
run every game we tested. The 12GB of RAM in
the PC probably didn't hurt matters, either.
It's not really fair to
focus too much
attention on graphical
performance, though.
This is primarily an
entertainment device,
and it does its job well.
The speakers boom, the
3D screen displays 3D
perfectly well if you're
the kind of masochist
that enjoys that sort of thing, and Windows 8
boots quickly enough that the lack of a dedicated
TV tuner component doesn't feel like that big a
deal.
If you don't power it down completely, the
Lenovo IdeaCentre B540p's startup from standby
is as close to instant as you'll possibly get -
certainly aeons faster than most living room TVs.
The fact that you can switch the PC on and off
with the included remote is just, as they say in
the rap game, gravy.
The touchscreen is responsive and slick - though,
as we've said, it's a recipe for gorilla shoulder
and ruined eyes if you want to use it in desktop
form. In fairness that's not a direct fault with the
Lenovo B540p itself, more an issue with its
context. Stand up to poke it then sit back down
and it's just about perfect.
This is a PC that might struggle to find a niche in
your life, though. Are you looking for a TV? You
can go and buy a much more capable 50-inch
TV, with smart features and internet connectivity
and a 3D screen, for much less money. Are you
looking for a powerful PC? You can find one for
half the price and wire it up to a comparable TV.
Is a touchscreen so important that you absolutely
must invest in a heavy 23-inch one that's
tethered to a wall socket? Good luck to you. But
if regular portability isn't important and you want
a PC that does just about everything to a decent
level, this might, just might, be for you.
Verdict
The Lenovo IdeaCentre
B540p could well be
Lenovo's flagship home
desktop PC. It's less
stuffy than its ThinkPad
business laptops, less
gimmicky than its flip-
over Yoga laptop-tablet
hybrids, and vastly
superior to its previous
line of all-in-one
machines.
It's absolutely
crammed with features,
and although it's
pitched at a high price
point it seems to
deserve its billing.
We liked
Lenovo's IdeaCentre
B540p isn't as big as the TV you might have in
your living room, but its range of media features
make it the perfect TV for a bedroom or kitchen.
It's got HDMI-in, a digital tuner of its own, an
integrated Blu-ray drive, hefty rich speakers and
a 1080p touchscreen 3D-capable panel, which
means it can cater for just about every media
whim.
But it's not just a TV. The competent selection of
components within mean it'll play just about any
game with reasonable settings, and its wireless
peripherals combined with that massive 23-inch
panel mean you'll be able to perform most tasks
from a distance. You'll have to, to be fair,
because sitting close to a panel that bright is not
the most pleasant experience.
We normally baulk at do-it-all PCs. They're
usually jacks of all trades, master of none. We
wouldn't pin the 'master' badge on the Lenovo
B540p, but we'd highly commend it in just about
every aspect of its form. Plus, it's rather nice to
look at - something most all-in-one computers
seem to forget about.
We disliked
Conversely, there are
some imperfect things
about the Lenovo
B540p. The remote
control is full of tiny
buttons unsuitable for
the massive thumbs of
overweight tech
journalists. The
keyboard is unpleasant
to type on, the mouse a
flimsy plastic shell that
feels cheap and begs
for instant replacement.
There are plenty of better ways to spend your
money, too, if this isn't the exact bit of hardware
you're looking for. As a TV it's small, as a PC it's
not all-powerful, and the 3D features suffer from
a rather restrictive viewing range.
Final verdict
If you're absolutely sure you want a PC/TV
combo, and you've got the money in your pocket,
we can see no reason to buy any all-in-one other
than the Lenovo IdeaCentre B540p. It's just
about the pinnacle of the genre, and we reckon
the impetus is now on Lenovo's competitors to
catch up.
If our ethical compass weren't so finely attuned,
we'd hang on to our review model forever. But
we probably wouldn't shell out the cash, because
we're cheap.
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