It’s fairly obvious that Lenovo is aiming for the design-conscious consumer with the A300. It’s also obvious that the company has lifted more than a little from Apple in the design department. The PC’s 21.5-inch screen couldn’t look much more like an iPhone/iPad without adding a Home button on one side. The white, slim frame and Bluetooth peripherals add to the Mac-like aesthetic. Still, the A300 does manage to be the best-looking non-Mac-made all-in-one PC we’ve seen, while also looking a fair bit different than the current-generation iMac. A TV tuner also sweetens the system’s entertainment abilities. But as far as features and performance are concerned, the A300 lags well behind its AIO competition in this price range.

First we’ll talk aesthetics, since that’s obviously this system’s strong suit. The glossy, silver-trimmed 1080p screen looks great at about half-an-inch thin, but it isn’t this system’s only wow-inducing element. A chrome arm (which both swivels and tilts), connects the screen to the flat, inch-thick, glossy white base section that houses the A300’s other components.  The screen is anchored to the PC on the right side, as opposed to the center. And the base, rather than being a simple rectangle, is an off-kilter trapezoid that’s wider on the right side than the left.

The asymmetrical design and slim profile certainly are striking, but don’t come without some sacrifices. Most importantly, the system has no optical drive, which may come as a shock to those buying from Lenovo directly, as the company’s product page pushes CD/DVD-based software like Office and Quicken on your way to the checkout page. The limited space also led Lenovo to use laptop internals for this desktop PC, a practice that’s not uncommon for AIO machines, but here it leads to performance that, while up to the tasks of watching video, surfing the Web, and performing Office tasks, is well below similarly priced all-in-one systems we’ve seen of late.

Before we get to performance though, it’s worth noting that the port selection on the A300 doesn’t disappoint. Despite the base section’s small size, you’ll find a pair of USB ports, audio jacks and a multi-format (Memory Stick Pro, xD, SDHC, MMC) card reader along the left edge. The rear left corner is equipped with a security slot for locking the system to a desk. Around the back are another pair of USB ports (for a total of just four), as well as FireWire, a TV tuner port, Gigabit Ethernet (802.11n WiFi is also on board), and the power jack. Unsurprisingly given the system’s slim form factor, the power brick is external.

The real rear-port treat, though, comes in the form of not one, but two HDMI ports. One is HDMI out, for connecting the system to a second monitor or HDTV, while the second is HDMI in, for connecting the screen to a gaming console, cable box, or other device. The HDMI ports make this system an enticing option for dorm dwellers or those just generally cramped for space. Between the TV tuner, PC, and HDMI-in port, this system could easily serve as your sole HD viewing device. But as our test results show, that’s only the case if your PC needs are light, and don’t include much gaming beyond Web-based titles.

In our Cinebench 10 test, which is designed to tax all available CPU cores, the A300’s Core 2 Duo chip couldn’t match up to the Athlon II CPU in the Gateway One ZX4300-01e. The Gateway is an AIO with the same-sized screen (and a larger hard drive, though no TV tuner) that sells for $250 less than the Lenovo system. The A300 scored 4,858, while the Gateway system managed 5,389. To see how that transfers into real-word performance, we ran our iTunes MP3-to-AAC conversion test. The A300 converted our 11 files in 4 minutes and 7 seconds, while the Gateway slid in at 3:40.

With no optical drive and Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics, don’t expect to be doing much more than playing Flash games with the A300. Again, the Gateway system, with its ATI Radeon HD 4270, is much more powerful, but still by no means a powerful gaming system. If you’re itching for a gaming-friendly AIO, Lenovo’s IdeaCentre B500 is the best we’ve seen so far, though its stealth-bomber aesthetics are about the polar  opposite of the A300.

In PCMark Vantage, a synthetic test designed to measure overall system performance, the A300’s score of 3,565 again trailed behind the Gateway’s showing of 4,457. These differences aren’t huge, but remember that the Lenovo here costs $250 more than the Gateway. For $50 more than the asking price of this model of the A300, you can get the larger version of the Gateway, the ZX6900, which sports a 23-inch screen, a Blu-ray optical drive, and a newer Core i3 CPU which makes the Gateway almost twice as fast in our tests. So there’s no denying you’re making some serious performance sacrifices for the Lenovo A300’s svelte style.

Also not working in the Lenovo’s favor is a fair amount of pre-installed bloatware, which slowed boot times to over a minute on our test system. The most notable offender here, though, is Lenovo’s Idea Notes software, which “provides information about product upgrades, marketing offers, product management and security tips.” The only tip we saw from Idea Notes in our time with the A300 was a pop-up ad for a Lenovo notebook that showed up (blessedly infrequently) after bootup. This software is thankfully easily disabled with a couple of clicks, but we weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of a just-purchased desktop being pre-configured to nag you to buy another PC before you even get all the packaging plastic off the first one. Lenovo’s Idea Central software, a pre-installed video and news portal, is also filled with offers for software and peripherals.

If you do a lot of typing, you may actually want to take Lenovo up on the peripheral offer. The Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo that ship with the system look good, and feel solidly constructed. But the keyboard feels cramped. And we had similar problems getting the PC to recognize the keyboard as we did with the ThinkCentre A70z. It took several attempts to get the PC to recognize the keyboard before the pairing screen finally popped up, instructing us to enter the pairing code. We had no similar problems with the mouse.

We’re sure plenty of people will be wowed by the A300’s design. Those looking for a PC to match their white iPhone certainly won’t be disappointed, at least in the style department. And with HDMI in and out ports, this system is an enticing option for those looking for a space-saving PC with one HD screen to handle all entertainment needs. While the A300’s performance doesn’t come close to other all-in-one systems in its price range (indeed, it’s outmatched by systems that cost 20 percent less), it’s still capable of handling video playback and productivity tasks with ease. If you’re willing to spend extra for style over substance, the Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 is one of the most stunningly designed PCs we’ve seen. On the other hand, if you’re into the Mac-like aesthetic, it should also be noted that the entry level iMac, with its optical drive, much-faster processor, and multi-touch Magic Mouse starts at just $250 more than the A300.

If you like the A300′s aesthetics, but are looking to spend less, a $750 model of the A300 with a smaller hard drive, half the RAM, and no TV tuner was available at the time of this review at Office Depot. That model is also equipped with an older Pentium Dual Core CPU, but it has the same clock speed as the more expensive model. So it will still be fast enough for video playback, Web tasks, and basic productivity. If you can live without the TV tuner, this model is a better value.

Price (at time of review):

$949 (direct, as configured)

www.lenovo.com

877-338-4465

See all of our Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 (40181OU) coverage

See all of our Lenovo coverage

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