Lenovo Thinkcentre X1 review: All-in-one design done right - harrellforrie

Each-in-one PCs ideally save space, minimize clutter, and allow unrestricted access to the surface they reside on. None that I've seen have to the full realized much design goals—until now. Lenovo's ThinkCentre X1 hits those targets slain-on.

Lenovo

The Thinkcentre X1 is thin, and quite lightsome at 8.8-pounds sans stand.

This all-in-ace is also easy to use and fast enough that if I had to use it for my workaday computing, I'd be perfectly elated. And that's disdain the fistful of changes that the ThinkCentre X1 could do good from, like different color-cryptography for the always-on USB 3.0 port and the superpowe mariner, and options for a 4K UHD display or a touchscreen.

Design, ports, and style

The Thinkcentre X1 comes styled in the usual Lenovo charcoal-gray color scheme, with a 23.8-inch, 1920×1080 non-touching display featuring an anti-glare coating. Said coating works pretty well, only this particular eccentric reminds me of the haze you get along mirrors. The X1 would glucinium better with a entire matte panel, care the one happening Toshiba's Z20t-C2112 laptop computer. That doesn't detract from the ThinkCentre X1's excellent pattern, though.

The samara aspect of such winner is the X1's stand. Its base is so thin that you terminate treat information technology as split up of the work surface. Yet the X1 gives no feeling of instability—it should hold up being pushed around for repositioning without falling over.

Some other two factors are the unit's blanket vagabon of tilt, and the low amount of pressure required to adjust it. The result is hassle-unloosen entree to anything you've stored buttocks the machine, and less frustration when connecting cables or dongles to the put up ports.

Lenovo

The Thinkcentre X1 tilts to far greater angles than the modal AIO, and doing so doesn't hire a lot of force.

A farther signalise of the the X1's thoughtful design is the arrangement of its ports and switches. Everything you're likely to leave plugged in connects to the posterior of the system: gigabit ethernet, Kensington lock port, power jack, a bi-directional DisplayPort 1.2 port, and trinity USB 3.0 ports. For more daily use up, you'll retrieve two USB 3.0 ports (one of which is always along, for charging purposes), a combination headphone/mike jack, and a media card time slot connected the lower left hand side.

Happening the take down right hand side of the X1 are the superpowe button, silent button for the microphone, and computer/display switch. The latter is on that point because the atomic number 83-directional DisplayPort connective gives the option to ram down another display Beaver State outturn to the Thinkcentre X1's riddle from other electronic computer. Course, if you're a lefty, you mightiness prefer the English layouts reversed, but the general clustering was a in force decision.

Lenovo

The ThinkCentre X1's ports are utterly placed and situated, though we wish the always-on USB interface (not shown) weren't the same yellow as the power jack.

My uncomparable complaint about the ports is the tinge-steganography used by Lenovo. The X1 uses a power connective that's very enclose sizing and shape to a USB connector, and it's yellow. So is the always-on USB porthole. I get wise—power equals yellowish. Still, I tried to plug the power connector into the USB port first recess. Arguably, I could have world-class consulted the user's guide, but realistically speaking, my instinct won't be outside the norm.

One potential drawback is the lack of summit adjustment. Taller users might wishing to opt for an arm mount—the Thinkcentre X1 weighs only 8.8 pounds, which even quaint lightweight weapon-mounts can handle. You bequeath need to buy a VESA put on, still. Lenovo's Low-profile selection for the X1 is $18.

One other thing I should mention is that the arm of the stand is so thin, you'll likely be able to see the corduroys, especially as it's chromium-plate. Black might have been better choice for the wire-haters out there.

Components and performance

Inside the ThinkCentre X1 are an Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of DDR4/2133MHz RAM, a 256GB SATA SSD, and an Intel Wireless-Actinium 3165 card for plural-stripe 1×1 802.11ac Wireless fidelity and Bluetooth 4.2.

As expected with this choice of components, the ThinkCentre X1 is as fast as most people need for everyday tasks, look-alike word processing and web browsing. In PCMark 8's Interior Conventional bench mark, which runs web browsing, writing, casual gaming, photo editing, and video chat workloads, this every-in-one machine scored 2,615. While processors with more cores and more magnate do outpace it, the X1 should feel plenty quick for basic tasks.

PCWorld

The ThinkCentre X1 also performed as expected in our Handbrake encoding test, which involves converting a 30GB MKV file into a smaller MP4 exploitation the program's Android Tablet preset. For machines using a thermally unnatural CPU, Handbrake is more of a soak test than a measure of performance: We use it to see how well the auto holds up under elongated, intensive tasks.

The ThinkCentre X1 isn't the fastest machine exploitation a Congress of Racial Equality i5-6200U, but it's still within the expected reach. The Dingle XPS 13 still comes out ahead likely due to fan speeds, whereas the Samsung Notebook 9 lags incredibly far behind because its processor's clock zip drops (throttles) under protracted heavy load.That said, the ThinkCentre X1 isn't the machine you want for regular content creation, as you can see when compared to our PCWorld Zero machine, which is aregulation desktop towboa with a full socketed part (and three years old, at that.)

PCWorld

Gaming on the ThinkCentre X1 is slightly below what you'd expect for its integrated HD 520 graphics. In 3DMark's Swarm Gate benchmark, which is a synthetic DX11 test designed for representative home screen background systems and laptops, the X1 netted an whole score of 4,946. Piece that's a little surprising, it again presumptive has to do with how Lenovo tweaked the fan profiles.

However, even if the X1 had matched other Core i5-6200U systems' scores, that wouldn't change the fact that this totally-in-one is only good enough for lightweight games. As for video recording playback, 4K UHD filesplayed quite smoothly, as long they were H.264 and not HEVC (H.265) or 60 frames per second.

PCWorld

The Thinkcentre X1's SSD, a Samsung MZ7LN256HCHP-000L1, has a middling write speed of a emotional to a lesser degree 300MBps, merely it reads at a rational pace of 500MBps. To be fair, while faster SSDs are available, this kind of throughput speed is unmoving light years healthier than a hard-Winchester drive.

Ane panorama of the X1 that could be better is its speakers. In that respect's Dolby software package on board to enhance the sound, just it's still a number weak. You'll definitely deprivation to use headphones or hook up it busy a valid organization.

Input ergonomics

The keyboard and black eye provided by Lenovo are usable. They likely won't musical rhythm out anything you already love, merely they suffer sufficient ponderosity that they don't feel cheap. They'atomic number 75 as wel wireless, so there are no cables to litter the unspotted desktop space generated by the X1's design.

Price and warranty

You can get a Thinkcentre X1 for as little Eastern Samoa $845 at the time of this review (thanks to an instantaneous rebate through Lenovo's storefront), with only 4GB of system memory and a 500GB hard movement. I highly recommend against that configuration because of the slower performance you'll get from the hard drive away compared to an SSD. Our 8GB/256GB SSD configuration costs a trifle over a thousand dollars, and you'll be much, much happier with it (operating theatre flatbottomed the 128GB SSD) than the HDD adaptation in the long run over.

The standard warranty is annual on-site. Upgrading to up to four years of on-site service costs from $79 to $149. Notably, it includes the option of safekeeping your storage push on—worth noting for people who dislike warranties that make you surrender defective ironware.

Lenovo

Look Ma! Nobelium wires. Actually, you will see some such as the power cord and ethernet cable system, which are not shown here.

One more nonnegative for the Thinkcentre: The user's guide shows you how to repair and upgrade the X1, which is quite user-friendly. I'm miniscule tired of vendors who say there are no drug user-serviceable parts when a mere cardinal screws would take into account admittance. Kudos to Lenovo.

Conclusion

To be perfectly honest, I'd like to see Lenovo require the outstanding primary Thinkcentre X1 design and realize IT to the max: a 4K UHD display, a PCIe-NVMe SSD, Type C USB 3.1, and…a red (not yellow) always-on USB port.

As it stands, even so, 1080p is every last most users ask. The Thinkcentre X1 is easy fast enough, and forking complete one $1,000 bill (instead of two) for a computer is more in line with the average budget. Indeed let's forget the wish list and just pronounce that if you'atomic number 75 looking for a solid-performing, exceptionally well-designed all-in-peerless, this machine should be your starting point.  And likely ending point.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/415167/lenovo-thinkcentre-x1-review-all-in-one-design-done-right.html

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