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The PC disguised as a Mac I like Macs. I've played with Macs in Mac shops and I like their simplicity of design, their small footprint, their great aesthetics and super displays. The problem is that I've always been a PC user. I am familiar with PCs and I don't want to change operating systems. Yes, I know that Macs can run Windows but that doesn't seem the right thing to do. If you use a Mac then it is only right that you use the Mac OS. I could change but there is another problem. I have several PCs and I don't want to run mixed operating systems on my main and backup PCs. It's a problem. But then the Lenovo A300 came along.
Brief Description The A300 is one of the new generation of all-in-one PCs. The main component is a stunning iMac-like high contrast 21.5" 16:9 1920x1080 pixel Full-HD Glossy LED-backlit widescreen display, which is only about 0.75" thick. I enjoy photography and do a fair amount of work with digital images. The A300, with such a great display, is ideal for this type of work. The All-In-One designation refers to the display unit (white on the back with a black frame at the front bordering the screen), the white base unit, and a chromed bracket joining the two pieces. These components cannot be separated. The system components are housed in the base unit. There is no internal power supply. Power is supplied via an external laptop-type black box transformer which is a little larger than normal laptop power supplies. The cable from the external power supply is the only one there is. This is quite a change from PCs from just a few years ago that always had a rat's nest of cables at the back. The mouse and keyboard are wireless (connected using Bluetooth) and there is an integrated Wi-Fi connection, as there is with all computers these days. It looks great. Performance I read a few reviews that knocked the A300 on performance. The implication was that performance had been sacrificed for looks and a small footprint. There were some accusations that laptop parts have been used to keep the base unit small but this has resulted in poor performance. One review said the machine was the slowest in its class. My own experience has been different but I don't play computer games and I am not constantly comparing the latest PCs from all manufacturers. For what I do, the A300 flies. In the past I never used to shut down my computers between sessions because they took too long to boot up again. I just used to put them into sleep mode. I now shut down the A300 because it boots so quickly. It runs all my applications quickly - including some processor intensive image editing applications. The A300 makes my old IBM ThinkPads seem pedestrian in comparison. Personally, I do not have any issues at all regarding performance doing the things I do. Input Devices The keyboard and mouse are connected using Bluetooth. The initial set up was straightforward and I've not had any connection issues. The input devices use AA batteries to power their wireless connection. Obviously, batteries don't last forever so it is advisable to keep a few spares because they will decide to die just when you are in the middle of a vitally important document. To save battery power, the mouse and keyboard go to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity. When you go to use them next time they don't wake up immediately. If you are using the mouse to make selections and then decide to use the Alt or Shift key on the keyboard to assist you, but the keyboard is asleep, will not get what you want because the keyboard hasn't woken up. This can be a bit of an irritation but when you get used to what is happening you make sure to 'wake up' the keyboard or mouse beforehand. The keyboard is fairly small and one review I read said it was cramped. It's fine for me and when I look at Mac keyboards the A300 keyboard actually looks bigger. Optical Device There isn't one! The iMac has an optical drive incorporated into the display but there is nothing anywhere in the A300. Neither did any of my IBM X-Series ThinkPads have an optical drive. I bought an external CD/DVD drive to load up my ThinkPads and this is what I used to load up the A300. Is this a problem? In my opinion, no. I normally only use an optical drive to load software and then I don't use it again. If I need an optical drive I just plug my external drive into one of the USB ports. If you plan on buying an A300 and don't already own an external optical drive, remember to budget for this as well. I use a small LaCie drive which has always worked reliably. Inputs and Outputs The A300 is well configured in this respect. There are four USB 2.0 ports, a multi-format memory card slot (no built-in Compact Flash card reader, unfortunately), microphone and headphone jacks, HDMI in and out, TV input (to the built-in TV tuner), Firewire, Ethernet.
Windows 7 At least one Mac user and internet commentator I can think of has made the comment that professionals use Macs because with Windows you spend half your time trying to fix viruses and bugs. Rubbish. This guy can't have used a PC since Windows XP was introduced. Windows 98 was the last bad Windows operating system and I was forever suffering with 'Blue Screens of Death'. That problem disappeared with Windows XP and I ran XP for many years (I still do on my laptops) with no problems at all. Windows Vista was an aberration. I don't know what happened. I bought a used ThinkPad X-Series running Vista and it was so buggy that I was forced to take it back and exchange it for an older model running XP. Windows 7 is great. It is very stable, fast and fairly intuitive. An indication of the stability is that there seem to be very few regular updates. Some of the security stuff is a bit annoying and with big external hard drives it has taken a long time to update the security updates so that my applications can use them. This is a departure from XP and not a very welcome one. I'm sure the Mac OS is very good but when you hear Mac users talking about the problems with Windows, the problems are never as bad as they make out.
Bloatware Computer manufacturers are paid to install trial versions of third-party software. The software companies hope new users will like their products and then pay for licences. I wish this didn't happen but it does. My A300 came with McAfee security software installed and one of my first tasks was to remove it via the Windows control panel. After removing it I then couldn't turn on the Windows Firewall. The reason wasn't apparent at first but further investigation revealed it was because Windows thought McAfee was installed even though I'd removed it. I then had to find and download the exec to clean up the mess McAfee had left on my machine. This is not just annoying but unnecessary. Apart from that, there wasn't too much pre-installed bloatware on the machine. Lenovo Utilities The A300 comes with the usual Lenovo Rescue and Recovery stored in a hidden partition. I've made use of this in the past several times so quite like it. If you check your HDD usage and the total doesn't add up to what you expect, the missing disk space is probably this. Incidentally, the hard disk arrives already partitioned into C and D drives. The C drive is shown as being 49.90GB and the D drive as 390GB. You can either reallocate the partitions or, if not, you need to point some applications at the D drive because most applications will automatically use the D partition. Lenovo Enhanced Experience In conjuntion with Microsoft, Lenovo have incorporated system performance improvements, such as faster start up and shut down, on Lenovo machines running Windows 7 that have the Lenovo Enhanced Experience sticker. For more details see: Lenovo Enhanced Experience PCs for Windows® 7
Specs Here are the basic specs:
Problems The Lenovo A300 I am using is not my first, but actually my third. The first one didn't work. Upon turning it on, the fan ran at its highest speed and the disk wouldn't boot. It went back to the shop. The second one booted and seemed OK initially but as I was updating Windows (the first task I performed) the screen went blank. I tried to persevere and I loaded all the latest drivers, etc, but the problem didn't go away. The screen went blank as if it had gone into sleep mode but it wouldn't wake up. The only way to get it back was to reboot the machine. This machine also went back. the third one, touch wood, has been fine. I don't know whether this is a Lenovo QC problem, or if the problems occurred in transit after the machines had left the factory. Summary This is the way forward for Windows desktop machines. Finally, PC users can buy a machine that rivals the 21.5" iMac in terms of aesthetics and display quality. The performance may still not be quite as good as a Mac but this situation will change quickly. |
