All-in-One PCs for Everyone

For the Home Office: A Workaholic's Tool of Choice

Having a powerful, dependable computer in your home office will keep you productive when you're away from the cubicle farm. As seasoned travelers know, Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops offer business-centric software and functionality designed to keep the machines running smoothly. If you're looking for the familiar ThinkPad touch in a large, powerful package, Lenovo's ThinkCentre M90z all-in-one has you covered.

Much like the laptops in Lenovo's ThinkPad line, the ThinkCentre M90z is a sleek, black box. It's attractive in its simplicity, with a spacious 23-inch display sitting on metal brackets. A 3.2GHz Core i5-650 processor powers the computer, which packs 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. The M90z netted a score of 117 on our WorldBench 6 test suite: Few all-in-ones have more muscle, other than the significantly more expensive Apple iMac.

Toolbox Extras

The ThinkCentre M90z comes bundled with Lenovo's ThinkVantage Toolbox software. Like the corresponding utilities on Lenovo's business laptops, the ThinkVantage tools help keep your ma­­chine in working order--always handy, since your home office lacks a dedicated IT staff. The Toolbox can automate data backups and monitor your software and hardware drivers to ensure that they remain up to date.

The Toolbox tools regularly scan and analyze the M90z's hardware as well, to verify that the All-in-One's innards are working as expected, cataloging any hardware or software changes. That way, if something goes wrong, you'll have a concise timeline of critical events, which should make troubleshooting your software or rolling it back to an earlier, trouble-free state less of a hassle.

Saddled with integrated graphics, the M90z is inadequate for serious gaming. The display offers a native 1080p resolution, and HD video playback is smooth and stutter-free, but images are far from vibrant. Colors appear muted even at the brightest display settings--which tends to leave images looking a bit dull. You'll also want to replace the lackluster built-in speakers with a set of headphones or proper speakers.

The M90z comes with a total of six USB ports to accommodate external de­­vices. Notably absent, however, are ad­­vanced connectivity options like Fire­Wire and eSATA, a disappointment for storage buffs. A multiformat card reader makes getting photos onto the M90z a snap, and the unit also offers a DVD burn­­er. Built-in Wi-Fi connectivity helps reduce cable clutter, and VGA and DisplayPort connectors invite you to add a second monitor to your workstation.

Lenovo's ThinkCentre M90z packs a lot of muscle into a svelte package. The home-theater experience is a bit lackluster, despite excellent video playback, due to subpar speakers and a dull picture. But for a work-focused PC user, the M90z combines strong performance and a robust software platform in a package that will simplify your workspace.