The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (starts at $1,099.99; $1,749.99 as tested) is a handsome, modern desktop that checks a lot of boxes for all-in-one buyers—sleek design, stellar touch display, and strong performance.
The 520 features a desktop Core i7 rather than the mobile processor found in most AIOs, and a 2TB hard drive teamed with 16TB of Intel Optane memory for some of the speed of a solid-state drive.
But it lacks the interior accessibility and upgradeability of our Editors' Choice midrange AIO, the HP EliteOne 1000.
Worse, in order to keep the Lenovo's powerful components running smoothly, its cooling fan runs constantly—and that can get annoying.
Our test unit is the flagship in Lenovo's IdeaCentre 500 all-in-one line.
Below it are a 27-inch Core i5 model ($798.99 at Lenovo) ; 24-inch and 21.5-inch systems, the latter offered in both Intel and AMD flavors; and a 23-inch slimline dubbed the 520S.
In addition to the 2.9GHz Core i7-7700T CPU and 2TB drive, our 520 comes with 16GB of RAM, Intel integrated graphics, and a 2,560-by-1,440 resolution touch screen.
Hey, Good Lookin'
The IdeaCentre 520 AIO is slim and trim for a 27-inch all-in-one.
A narrow half-inch bezel frames the display, and a 1.7-inch-tall speaker bar sits below it.
Despite housing both a hard drive and an optical drive, the system is only 2.7 inches thick.
This is not a bulky system, and it sits on a compact-yet-sturdy base.
The back panel and speaker bar grille are charcoal-gray plastic, but the stand and display arm are made of steel.
The round base measures 9.8 inches in diameter.
The fixed display arm looks classy and helps keep the screen firmly rooted in place.
There is a bit of display wobble when you bump the system or the desk it's on, but the effect is minimal.
The tradeoff for the simple elegance of the display arm is a lack of adjustment.
It offers tilt but not height adjustment or swivel.
The 27-inch IPS display is the main attraction of the IdeaCentre; it offers a bright image with wide viewing angles and rich colors, and the touch panel feels responsive.
The system's 1440p resolution places it in between 1080p and 4K panels.
The added pixels create a crisper image, especially when seated directly in front of the display.
A 4K touch panel would be sharper still, but add considerable extra cost.
You will need to put up with glare and reflections; the touch display's glossy coating is a magnet for such annoyances.
Lenovo outfits the system with a pair of 3-watt stereo speakers.
That doesn't sound very impressive, but the difference from most AIOs' and laptops' 2-watt speakers can definitely be heard.
Without the assistance of a subwoofer, the 520's audio isn't going to rattle the windows, but it offers fairly full sound that will fill a small room.
Movies and YouTube videos sound loud and clear, and music playback sounds respectable even if the bass response is predictably lacking.
Bells and Whistles
The system's webcam has a few tricks up its sleeve.
For starters, it hides in a panel above the display so you can be assured of privacy when it's not in use.
Just press down on the panel and the 1080p camera will pop up.
It provides a clean, well-balanced image with natural-looking skin tones for videoconferencing.
The webcam is also an IR camera, so you can use it with Windows Hello to log into your PC via face recognition.
Lenovo claims the 520 is the first all-in-one to feature a far-field microphone, which lets you give Windows' Cortana assistant voice commands from across the room—up to 5 meters away by Lenovo's math.
I found the range was roughly triple that; in an admittedly quiet house, the system heard me utter "Hey Cortana" from two rooms or about 15 yards away.
The IdeaCentre offers a useful selection of expansion ports as long as you don't need a DisplayPort connection.
On the back panel, you'll find HDMI-in and -out ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 Type-C port, and an Ethernet jack.
Oddly, there is no mode button that would let you switch the video input between the PC and whatever video source you plug into the HDMI-in port.
Without such a button, you'll need to unplug or turn off your external HDMI device to return to PC mode.
The lone port on the left side is a USB 3.0 port, and around the corner from it on the bottom panel are a headphone jack and an SD card reader.
With the small degree of tilt adjustment, you can't push the display back far enough to see where the ports are located without bending over and practically putting your head on your desk to see where to insert your headphones or flash card.
On the right side is a tray-loading DVD burner.
This is a system for home users who have no desire or need to get inside the case.
Lenovo makes it nearly impossible to remove the back panel, though you can pry it off in painstaking fashion to get to the internal components.
Some all-in-ones find room for an internal power supply, but the 520 is on the thin side, which must be its excuse for using an external power brick.
Still, it's not a huge brick and not too difficult to lug around with the system.
Lenovo bundles a wireless keyboard and mouse with the system.
They are black, plastic, and generic.
The 520 comes with a one-year warranty.
Proud But Loud
The Lenovo posted an impressive score of 3,380 (2,500 is good and 3,000 is excellent) in our PCMark 8 benchmark, which measures a system's suitability for productivity apps.
That tops not only the Core i5-powered HP EliteOne 1000 but the Acer Aspire Z3 ( at Amazon) , which has the same Core i7-7700T processor, and the Dell Inspiron 27 7000, which has a mighty eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700 chip.
The Dell's extra cores gave it the win in our CPU-intensive Cinebench measurement and Handbrake video-editing workload, but the IdeaCentre wasn't too far behind, and even tied the Inspiron ( at Dell) (and the 27-inch 5K Apple iMac ($4,999.99 at Best Buy) ) in our Adobe Photoshop image-editing exercise.
The 520's only disappointing results came in our graphics tests, where its integrated graphics disqualify it from the game grid—it's all right for casual or solitaire games, but nothing more demanding than that.
See How We Test Desktops
But throughout benchmark testing and everyday use, the IdeaCentre 520 AIO relied on a spinning cooling fan to keep its thermals in check.
It's not terribly loud, just ever-present.
The fan noise is easily drowned out by the system's audio if you're playing music or watching videos, but it will grate on you when you're working in silence.
Breaking Through the Noise
If you don't mind word processing or Web surfing with a whirring soundtrack, or you wear headphones often, the 520 is an appealingly styled, reasonably priced strong performer.
But if you'd like something quieter and more easily serviceable, and can sacrifice the touch screen, the HP EliteOne 1000 remains our Editors' Choice in the category.
Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (27-Inch)
Cons
Constantly whirring cooling fan.
Hard-to-reach ports and slots.
Next to impossible to access interior.
The Bottom Line
The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO boasts an attractive design and many modern amenities, but the nonstop whoosh of its cooling fan dampens our enthusiasm.
The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (starts at $1,099.99; $1,749.99 as tested) is a handsome, modern desktop that checks a lot of boxes for all-in-one buyers—sleek design, stellar touch display, and strong performance.
The 520 features a desktop Core i7 rather than the mobile processor found in most AIOs, and a 2TB hard drive teamed with 16TB of Intel Optane memory for some of the speed of a solid-state drive.
But it lacks the interior accessibility and upgradeability of our Editors' Choice midrange AIO, the HP EliteOne 1000.
Worse, in order to keep the Lenovo's powerful components running smoothly, its cooling fan runs constantly—and that can get annoying.
Our test unit is the flagship in Lenovo's IdeaCentre 500 all-in-one line.
Below it are a 27-inch Core i5 model ($798.99 at Lenovo) ; 24-inch and 21.5-inch systems, the latter offered in both Intel and AMD flavors; and a 23-inch slimline dubbed the 520S.
In addition to the 2.9GHz Core i7-7700T CPU and 2TB drive, our 520 comes with 16GB of RAM, Intel integrated graphics, and a 2,560-by-1,440 resolution touch screen.
Hey, Good Lookin'
The IdeaCentre 520 AIO is slim and trim for a 27-inch all-in-one.
A narrow half-inch bezel frames the display, and a 1.7-inch-tall speaker bar sits below it.
Despite housing both a hard drive and an optical drive, the system is only 2.7 inches thick.
This is not a bulky system, and it sits on a compact-yet-sturdy base.
The back panel and speaker bar grille are charcoal-gray plastic, but the stand and display arm are made of steel.
The round base measures 9.8 inches in diameter.
The fixed display arm looks classy and helps keep the screen firmly rooted in place.
There is a bit of display wobble when you bump the system or the desk it's on, but the effect is minimal.
The tradeoff for the simple elegance of the display arm is a lack of adjustment.
It offers tilt but not height adjustment or swivel.
The 27-inch IPS display is the main attraction of the IdeaCentre; it offers a bright image with wide viewing angles and rich colors, and the touch panel feels responsive.
The system's 1440p resolution places it in between 1080p and 4K panels.
The added pixels create a crisper image, especially when seated directly in front of the display.
A 4K touch panel would be sharper still, but add considerable extra cost.
You will need to put up with glare and reflections; the touch display's glossy coating is a magnet for such annoyances.
Lenovo outfits the system with a pair of 3-watt stereo speakers.
That doesn't sound very impressive, but the difference from most AIOs' and laptops' 2-watt speakers can definitely be heard.
Without the assistance of a subwoofer, the 520's audio isn't going to rattle the windows, but it offers fairly full sound that will fill a small room.
Movies and YouTube videos sound loud and clear, and music playback sounds respectable even if the bass response is predictably lacking.
Bells and Whistles
The system's webcam has a few tricks up its sleeve.
For starters, it hides in a panel above the display so you can be assured of privacy when it's not in use.
Just press down on the panel and the 1080p camera will pop up.
It provides a clean, well-balanced image with natural-looking skin tones for videoconferencing.
The webcam is also an IR camera, so you can use it with Windows Hello to log into your PC via face recognition.
Lenovo claims the 520 is the first all-in-one to feature a far-field microphone, which lets you give Windows' Cortana assistant voice commands from across the room—up to 5 meters away by Lenovo's math.
I found the range was roughly triple that; in an admittedly quiet house, the system heard me utter "Hey Cortana" from two rooms or about 15 yards away.
The IdeaCentre offers a useful selection of expansion ports as long as you don't need a DisplayPort connection.
On the back panel, you'll find HDMI-in and -out ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 Type-C port, and an Ethernet jack.
Oddly, there is no mode button that would let you switch the video input between the PC and whatever video source you plug into the HDMI-in port.
Without such a button, you'll need to unplug or turn off your external HDMI device to return to PC mode.
The lone port on the left side is a USB 3.0 port, and around the corner from it on the bottom panel are a headphone jack and an SD card reader.
With the small degree of tilt adjustment, you can't push the display back far enough to see where the ports are located without bending over and practically putting your head on your desk to see where to insert your headphones or flash card.
On the right side is a tray-loading DVD burner.
This is a system for home users who have no desire or need to get inside the case.
Lenovo makes it nearly impossible to remove the back panel, though you can pry it off in painstaking fashion to get to the internal components.
Some all-in-ones find room for an internal power supply, but the 520 is on the thin side, which must be its excuse for using an external power brick.
Still, it's not a huge brick and not too difficult to lug around with the system.
Lenovo bundles a wireless keyboard and mouse with the system.
They are black, plastic, and generic.
The 520 comes with a one-year warranty.
Proud But Loud
The Lenovo posted an impressive score of 3,380 (2,500 is good and 3,000 is excellent) in our PCMark 8 benchmark, which measures a system's suitability for productivity apps.
That tops not only the Core i5-powered HP EliteOne 1000 but the Acer Aspire Z3 ( at Amazon) , which has the same Core i7-7700T processor, and the Dell Inspiron 27 7000, which has a mighty eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700 chip.
The Dell's extra cores gave it the win in our CPU-intensive Cinebench measurement and Handbrake video-editing workload, but the IdeaCentre wasn't too far behind, and even tied the Inspiron ( at Dell) (and the 27-inch 5K Apple iMac ($4,999.99 at Best Buy) ) in our Adobe Photoshop image-editing exercise.
The 520's only disappointing results came in our graphics tests, where its integrated graphics disqualify it from the game grid—it's all right for casual or solitaire games, but nothing more demanding than that.
See How We Test Desktops
But throughout benchmark testing and everyday use, the IdeaCentre 520 AIO relied on a spinning cooling fan to keep its thermals in check.
It's not terribly loud, just ever-present.
The fan noise is easily drowned out by the system's audio if you're playing music or watching videos, but it will grate on you when you're working in silence.
Breaking Through the Noise
If you don't mind word processing or Web surfing with a whirring soundtrack, or you wear headphones often, the 520 is an appealingly styled, reasonably priced strong performer.
But if you'd like something quieter and more easily serviceable, and can sacrifice the touch screen, the HP EliteOne 1000 remains our Editors' Choice in the category.
Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO (27-Inch)
Cons
Constantly whirring cooling fan.
Hard-to-reach ports and slots.
Next to impossible to access interior.
The Bottom Line
The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre 520 AIO boasts an attractive design and many modern amenities, but the nonstop whoosh of its cooling fan dampens our enthusiasm.
