Laptops are awesome. They’re convenient, portable, and relatively powerful: the perfect combination for college. But sometimes you just want the comfort of a display, a full-sized keyboard and mouse, and speakers that don’t make every singer sound like a screaming banshee.
Well, you have two choices: You can get a traditional desktop computer and a stand-alone display and speakers, or you can buy an all-in-one that integrates the computer, display, and speakers into a single chassis. A desktop might cost a little less (don’t forget to factor in the price of a display and speakers), but it won’t move well. All those internal components can be jarred loose in transit, creating major troubleshooting headaches every time you set it up in your next domicile. And if you’re a typical college kid, you’ll be moving—again and again—for the next several years.
Do you really have room for a box this size, plus a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and a pair of speakers? If the answer is yes, do you want to cart all that stuff with you every time you move? Fortunately, all-in-ones have become more powerful and dropped in price over the past several years. The five all-in-ones we’ve gathered here are perfect for college students: They have large touchscreens, good speakers, solid media editing and encoding capabilities, and big hard drives. Those are features you’ll be thankful for when finals—and parties—come around.
All-in-one PCs just make more sense—even if your dorm room will never ever be featured in an issue of Architectural Digest. Each of these computers can easily handle productivity tasks—word processing, number crunching, and Web surfing—without breaking a sweat, but they can also deliver excellent audio and video experiences when you’re ready to relax. Yes, there are more powerful AIOs on the market, and the ones we’ve picked might not be the best choice for graphic design or media-production majors, but any one of them will help you manage your school work and watch Netflix.
Acer Aspire A5600U-UB13(Reference)HP Pavilion TouchSmart
23-f260xt
I used several criteria to evaluate these all-in-ones, including benchmark performance, multimedia experience, storage capacity, touchscreen quality, overall attractiveness, and price. Each model is based on a third-generation Intel Core processor, but no two have the same CPU. PCWorld uses a Core i5-powered Acer Aspire A5600U-UB13 as its desktop PC performance baseline.
It’s true that the cloud offers almost limitless storage, but wouldn’t you feel more comfortable keeping your school projects, photos, and videos close at hand, just in case? Keep a backup in the cloud, by all means, but all of these machines provide plenty of local storage. Each of the computers I evaluated came with a 1TB, 7200 rpm hard drive. An SSD—or at least an SSD cache—would deliver even better performance, but that’s a feature you won’t find in this price range.
Acer Aspire A5600U-UB13(Reference)HP Pavilion TouchSmart
23-f260xt
As with budget notebooks, budget all-in-ones have limited graphics capabilities. None of the AIOs in this roundup, for instance, has a discrete video card, which means none of them excel at graphics-heavy tasks such as video editing and hard-core gaming. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to play any games, but you will need to make some resolution and image-quality concessions.
All five of these computers have big, bright, 20- to 23-inch touchscreens. Some are better than others, but none of them are poor. You’ll have no problem watching movies, juggling multiple windows, and tapping your way through Windows 8 on any of them.
Your computer will inevitably become the focal point of your dorm room, so industrial design is an important consideration. Unfortunately, some PC-makers have become so obsessed with looks that they’ve sacrificed usability. The sleek, ultra-modern keyboards and mice that come with some of these systems are beautiful to look at, but not all that comfortable to use. I also encountered I/O ports in locations that were difficult to access.
Each of these all-in-ones has its strengths and weaknesses. Some are prettier, some are more powerful, but each has something unique to offer. Once you’ve decided where your priorities lie, you’ll have a gorgeous AIO sitting on your desk in no time.
If you like HP’s picture frame design, but you’d prefer something a bit more polished, the Acer Aspire Z3-605-UR22 ($900 as of 8/29/13) is another AIO with a space-saving chassis. The Z3-605 sports an Intel i3-3227U processor; 4GB of DDR3/1600 RAM; and a 1TB, 7200rpm hard drive. It has integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters, a 23-inch touchscreen with a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and a wireless mouse and keyboard.
Acer had the best budget notebook in our earlier roundup, but its inexpensive all-in-one offering leaves us cold. The Aspire Z3-605-UR22 has a frame design similar to the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 23, with a glossy edge-to-edge glass display surrounded by a frame that extends past the bottom of the screen to rest on your desktop. The screen is propped up by an easel-like stand that’s very easy to adjust thanks to a spring-loaded hinge.
Unlike the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 23, the Aspire only has one slim bezel under glass. This gives the machine a much more minimalist and streamlined look, though it is slightly disrupted by the system’s convenience ports. Instead of being located neatly on the side of the machine or out of sight on the rear panel, the Z3-605’s convenience ports—a card reader, a USB 3.0 port, and headphone and microphone jacks—are located right up front, just below the display. The placement sounds convenient, until you plug in an external drive or a headset and end up with cables draped over your keyboard.
Performance-wise, the Aspire is the weakest AIO of this bunch. It scored just 89 in our Desktop WorldBench 8.1 test, which means it’s 11 percent slower than our baseline (which happens to be its sibling, Acer’s Aspire A5600U-UB13). That also puts it 20 points behind the second-to-last contender, Dell’s Inspiron One 20. The Aspire won’t have any problem with basic productivity apps, and it will stream HD video, but you might have trouble when you try to multitask.
PCWorld's Desktop Worldbench 8.1 benchmark suite measures performance with a number of productivity, creation, and entertainment programs. The Aspire Z3-605-UR22 also delivered an appallingly low score with our suite of media editing and encoding tests (it finished last, and by a very wide margin), so we were surprised that it performed as well as it did in our gaming tests. This AIO managed to produce Dirt Showdown at 33.2 frames per second, and BioShock Infinite at 21.0 frames per second (both games set to a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, with visual quality set to Low). It’s no gaming powerhouse, but it performed better than most of the PCs in this roundup.
The Aspire Z3-605 does have one of the better-looking touchscreens in our roundup. Its glossy 23-inch touchscreen offers 10-finger multitouch with smooth, accurate gestures; bright, vibrant colors; and crisp, clear text. The only minor issues I saw during my testing was some minor artifacting—even in still or nearly-still images—and softening of details in photos and film. In some shots, people looked a bit featureless and oversaturated.
The Z3-605 has very nice wireless peripherals. Its keyboard is soft and noiseless but still comfortable and easy to type on, and its mouse is just the right size and ergonomically curved to fit your hand. While these peripherals aren’t as striking as the Toshiba’s silver-accented ones, they are far more usable and comfortable.
Pros
Comfortable mouse and keyboardSlim, space-saving designQuick startup timeCons
Weak performanceOversaturated displayPoor price/performance ratioBottom line
Acer's Aspire Z3-605-UR22 is an attractive machine, but its performance leaves us wanting.
Rating
2 stars
I’m a big fan of Dell’s Inspiron One lineup of all-in-one PCs. These computers manage to be gorgeous, sturdy, and versatile while remaining relatively budget friendly. The Inspiron One 20 reviewed here has a smaller display than the Toshiba, but it costs more than $300 cheaper ($699 as of 8/29/13). It’s equipped with an Intel Core i3-3240T processor; 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory; and a 1TB, 7200rpm hard drive. It also has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters, and a 20-inch capacitive touchscreen.
Design-wise, the Inspiron One 20 Touch is tough to beat, though the Toshiba PX35t-A2210 has a slightly more premium look. This all-black AIO features an edge-to-edge glass screen, which gives it a bezel-less appearance and also makes for easy swiping when performing common Windows 8 gestures (such as swiping from the side to pull up the charms bar). The minimalist bezel sports a small, mirrored Dell logo at the bottom and a built-in webcam at the top. The system’s speakers are just below the screen. There are no buttons or ports on the front of the One 20 Touch, these are all relegated to the system’s sides and back.
Dell's Inspiron One 20 Touch boasts a great design, but its performance leaves a bit to be desired. The One 20 Touch’s great-looking design is slightly marred by its below-average peripherals. The system comes with a wired mouse and keyboard, both of which are utterly basic (though mostly comfortable to use). The keyboard offers very light tactile feedback, which can make accurate typing difficult. The mouse is large but comfortable, and offers an average input experience.
As for performance, the Inspiron One 20 Touch is good, but not great. It will get you through schoolwork and basic entertainment, such as streaming HD movies and playing music, but it won’t handle PC games or media-editing software very well. This Inspiron scores a very average 109 on WorldBench 8.1, which means it’s just nine percent faster than our Acer baseline model . Compared with the other AIOs in this roundup, the One 20 Touch is solidly in the middle – it comes in fourth, but it’s just one point below our third-ranked HP Pavilion TouchSmart 23 (110).
In our graphics tests, the One 20 Touch performed as expected: It managed a playable, if far from excellent, 30.7 frames per second on our Dirt Showdown test, and but only 14.8 fps with the more demanding BioShock Infinite (with both games, resolution was set to 1024 by 768 pixels, and image quality was set to Low). In other words, it can handle low-end PC games at an acceptable frame rate, but it’s about as far from a gaming powerhouse as a Commodore 64. HD video looks just okay—there’s quite a bit of artifacting and foreign objects in scenes with a medium amount of motion—and skin tones have a tendency to look burnt and oversaturated. Audio is also somewhat disappointing: The speakers aren’t very loud, and music lacks depth, even when all the software enhancements are turned on.
This chart indicates how well each all-in-one PC performed with a variety of media editing and encoding tasks. If this is an important consideration for your,the PCs with the shorter bars are your best choices. The Dell Inspiron One 20 Touch is a nice starter machine for those who like the Inspiron One look and feel. The touchscreen remains one of the better touchscreens that I’ve used, with smooth, accurate touch and a nice glidey feel to the glossy display. I especially like the adjustable stand, the minimalist design, and the overall sturdiness of the chassis. But it has its issues, including cheap, basic peripherals; mediocre performance; and weak speakers.
Pros
Attractive, sturdy designAccurate, smooth touchscreenMinimalist bezel/faceCons
Mediocre performanceLow-volume speakers with little depthVery basic, wired peripheralsBottom line
The Dell Inspiron One is a sturdy, no-nonsense all-in-one. But Dell's ho-hum component choices deliver equally ho-hum benchmark performance.
Rating
3.5 stars
On the next page: Reviews of HP's Pavilion TouchSmart 23, Lenovo's C540 Touch, and Toshiba's PX35t-A2210
Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
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