Electronics

What are the best all-in-one desktop computers?

5
Options 
Considered
0
User 
Recs.
Last 
Updated

HP Envy 27 All-In-One b145se vs Apple iMac (27-inch) vs ASUS Zen AiO All-in-One ZN241IC

 vs Microsoft Surface Studio vs Lenovo Ideacentre AIO 520S-23IKU vs HP ENVY Curved All-in-One vs Asus Zen AiO Pro

Specs

RAM

16GB

Storage

256GB SSD + 2TB HDD

GPU

GeForce GTX 950M

CPU

Intel Core i7

Display

QHD

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

-

Screen size

-

Processor

-

Touchscreen

-

Operating System

-

Monitor Type

-

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

-

RAM

8GB-64GB RAM

Storage

1TB-2TB Fusion Drive

GPU

Radeon Pro 570/575/580

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

5120x2280

CPU

7th Generation Intel Core i5

Resolution

-

Screen size

-

Processor

-

Touchscreen

-

Operating System

-

Monitor Type

-

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

-

RAM

-

Storage

-

GPU

-

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

-

Screen size

-

Processor

-

Touchscreen

-

Operating System

-

Monitor Type

-

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

-

RAM

-

Storage

-

GPU

-

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

-

Screen size

-

Processor

-

Touchscreen

-

Operating System

-

Monitor Type

-

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

-

RAM

-

Storage

-

GPU

-

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

-

Screen size

-

Processor

-

Touchscreen

-

Operating System

-

Monitor Type

-

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

-

RAM

12 GB (upgradeable to 16 GB)

Storage

1128 GB (HDD, SSD)

GPU

-

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

3440 x 1440

Screen size

34''

Processor

Intel Core i7-6700T (2.8 GHz)

Touchscreen

No

Operating System

Windows 10

Monitor Type

LED Widescreen

Graphics

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960A

Graphics Card

-

RAM

16 GB

Storage

1512 GB (HDD, SSD)

GPU

-

CPU

-

Display

-

Display Resolution

-

CPU

-

Resolution

3840 x 2160

Screen size

23.8''

Processor

Intel Core i7-6700T (2.8 GHz)

Touchscreen

Yes

Operating System

Windows 10

Monitor Type

LED Widescreen

Graphics

-

Graphics Card

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Handles old games pretty well

This all-in-one is perfectly capable of playing older games like Civilization V at good framerates without any problem.
Comment

Pro
 Great sound quality

The speakers are placed at the front of the base and at a good angle for the sound to hit the user's ears as much and efficiently as possible. The sound itself is quite loud and clear and is perfect for listening to music or watching movies.
Comment

Pro
 Great for editing photos, videos, or any doing any other visual tasks

The 16GB of RAM and the i7 CPU provide excellent power for most resource-intensive tasks such as photo or video editing. The screen is a great fit for graphic-related work as well with extremely crisp images and lifelike colors.
Comment

Con
 The mouse feels rather cheap

While the arched design of the mouse looks really cool, it unfortunately feels rather low-quality and cheap. The buttons are mushy and don't provide good feedback which makes it hard to understand whether you actually pressed a button or not.
Comment

Con
 Ports are difficuilt to access

In order to make the case look as clean as possible, the ports have been moved to the back which unfortunately means that they are hard to reach and every time you need to plug a USB or HDMI cable you need to move all the desktop.
Comment

Con
 Not an ideal choice for gaming

The GeForce GTX 950M GPU is not ideal for graphic-intensive games.
Comment

Pro
 The screen offers exceptional image quality

The 27-inch 5K screen is one of the best displays on the market, not only for all-in-one PCs but in general as well. For one it's very bright, reaching a maximum of 496nits. Secondly, it supports one billion colors, covering 167% of the sRGB color gamut and it's extremely color-accurate, having a 0.06 delta-E score (0 is ideal).
Comment

Pro
 Great performance for creative professionals

Can be configured to have a Radeon Pro 570, 575, or 580 graphics card. Each one of them, especially the Radeon Pro 580 offers great graphics capabilities which is great for creative professionals who have to do GFX, photo, or video editing work.
Comment

Pro
 Great multitasking performance

You can customize the RAM to be up to 64GB. That can be an overkill for most people's needs. 16GB should be enough for most people for even the most resource-heavy tasks. With 16GB of memory and a 7th generation Intel Core i5, the iMac has more than enough horsepower for daily tasks. It can handle almost everything you throw at it without any issues. Browsing with 20+ tabs open for example does not strain this PC at all.
Comment

Con
 Ports are in an awkward position

All the ports are in the back of the PC, which makes it annoying to insert USB/Ethernet cables since you have to either get up, or turn the screen around to insert a cable.
Comment

Con
 Can't use the mouse when it's charging

The Lightning cable has to be plugged into the bottom of the mouse. This makes it unusable while charging.
Comment

Con
 No touchscreen variant

There's no touchscreen variant for the Apple iMac.
Comment

Pro
 The speakers offer great sound quality

Especially bass-heavy tracks sound rich and full. The volume is great as well.
Comment

Pro
 Great for video editing

The 5K display lets you do full resolution 4K video editing and still have all your toolbars and sliders on the screen.
Comment

Pro
 Produces very enjoyable sound

Directed toward the user, the speakers are able to produce loud audio without getting distorted even at high volumes.
Comment

Pro
 The keyboard is very comfortable to type on

The default wireless keyboard is very comfortable. The keys have decent travel distance and offer great feedback when typing.
Comment

Pro
 Bright and colourful screen

The screen is very bright with lifelike and warm colours. Although images are not very sharp or as colour-accurate as some more expensive options.
Comment

Pro
 Good performance for the price

With a 7th generation i5, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, the Zen AiO offers great performance for day-to-day tasks such as browsing the web, editing documents, programming, and even some light photo editing. It also manages to handle some low-resource games such as Civilization V quite decently. At $970 it's also one of the best all-in-one PCs as far as the price/performance ratio goes.
Comment

Con
 The keyboard and mouse are powered by disposable batteries

The built-in wireless keyboard and mouse are powered by disposable batteries instead of rechargeable cells.
Comment

Con
 Extremely expensive for the internal hardware

For $3000 starting price you'd expect to get the bleeding edge of performance. But you don't. The internal graphics is either a nVidia GeForce GTX 965M (2GB) or the 980M (4GB), which are mobile graphics from last generation. There is no USB type C or Thunderbolt connections. The base model also starts at an i5 (the specs page doesn't list the specific version) processor.
Comment

Pro
 Amazing accessories

The Surface Pen (included) is back with the Studio, but a new addition is the Surface Dial (sold separately for $99). This dial provides haptic feedback, and can rotate. It has a grippy rubber base, which means you can place it on the screen and it will stay there. Rotating it can do different things - rotate the image on the screen, change colors of the pen while drawing a continuous line, or rotate images in a 3D space (which Microsoft is pushing in their next update in early 2017). The Surface Pen works similar to previous versions - it can measure pressure sensitivity, and there are buttons on the side that allow for selection or other functions.
Comment

Pro
 Large, versatile, amazing display

The 28" display has an interesting aspect ratio of 3:2, and it has an extremely high resolution of 4500x3000 (slightly more than 4K). It also has different modes (built into the software) to display Adobe sRGB or Vivid Color Profiles. This allows content creators to both see the true colors, but also how they will likely be displayed on an average display. This display has a pixel density of 192ppi, which allows you to get very close to it without being able to see individual pixels. The screen is also a touchscreen, with sensors for both the Surface Dial as well as the Surface Pen. In addition to all of this, they are marketing it as the thinnest display on any AIO (all in one) desktop which is technically true - it is the thinnest, however most of the internals are housed in the base.
Comment

Pro
 Hardware capable of handling the display's demands

On the ENVY you can play demanding games flawlessly on medium settings. It’s only if you tweak the settings to maximum quality that some strain on the system starts to be noticeable. This is quite impressive for an all-in-one, given how the competition performs. All this is ensured by the hardware that supports the display: the ENVY comes with an Intel Core i5-6400T CPU, 12 GB of RAM (upgradeable to 16GB) and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A card. These feed the display with all the computing power it needs to function perfectly and ensure the user gets a fluid and problem-free experience.
Comment

Pro
 Ultra-wide high-quality screen

The 34'' curved screen has a high-resolution of 3440x1440 and is Technicolor certified: this certification ensures it meet's certain standards (color accuracy and consistency, for example) set to ensure a better experience for the consumer. It's large width makes using it an experience equivalent to using screens side-by-side, only better, because it eliminates the seam between screens. This allows for an optimized use of screen space and a better experience for working, gaming, and content creation.
Comment

Pro
 HDMI-in port makes it possible to use this PC as a display for other systems

There's a HDMI-in port that can be used to plug in a video game console or an entertainment system, effectively turning the computer into an external display. for those systems. It's very interesting that this is offered as a possibility, especially if you're an avid gamer or a movie lover.
Comment

Con
 The curved display takes time to get used to

The whole setup of this computer, while advantageous in the long run, takes a while to get used to, especially because of the curvature of the display, which may feel quite weird during this habituation period. However, in the long run, everyone will appreciate the optimized use the ENVY promotes.
Comment

Con
 Difficult use of misplaced ports

There are ports on the lower side on the computer that aren't very practical to use. These ports would be more appropriately placed on the lateral sides, which go unused.
Comment

Pro
 Good performance under demanding graphic benchmarks

The quad-core Intel Core i7-6700T CPU and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card make it easy for the Asus AiO Pro to do very well on demanding performance tests, making it a good option for things such as gaming and 3D rendering for those looking to avoid high-end alternatives. The kind of graphic computing power offered by this all-in-one is more than enough to satisfy most users.
Comment

Pro
 Quality 4K touch screen

The Asus AiO Pro features a 23.8’’ UHD resolution touch screen: this high resolution is a valuable feature for those working with photography and video editing, both at amateur and professional levels.
Comment

Con
 No HDMI-in port for pluging in other systems

This all-in-one doesn't feature a HDMI-in port, so using this computer as a screen for external devices like a console or a Blu-ray player is a no-go. This seems a waste of the opportunity to offer an interesting extra feature to those also interested on a new screen for their entertainment systems.
Comment

Con
 The screen is extremelly reflective

The Zen AiO Pro's screen is very reflective, with sunlight it's basically a mirror. What's curious is that it isn't the display itself that causes this, since it has a matte coating: it's the touch panel that's so reflective, and for the kind of use most people give to this kind of all-in-one, probably many people won't be using the touch feature. In short, many would gladly give up the touch screen to get rid of the reflective properties of the screen.
Comment
undefinedurl nextprice drop