Packing a crisp 2,560-by-1,440-pixel (QHD) screen, the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i ($1,239.99) is a 27-inch all-in-one desktop with surprisingly impressive performance from its midrange 12th Generation Intel Core i5 processor and a meager 8GB of memory. While we believe any AIO priced north of $1,000 should have 16GB of RAM, we are more than satisfied with its speed. We're also delighted by the QHD display that delivers a superior image to that of 27-inch AIOs with merely 1080p Full HD (FHD) panels. Lenovo's overall design is underwhelming but, if you are looking for a peppy 27-inch AIO with a sharp display, the IdeaCentre AIO 5i is a smart bet. For that, we give the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i our Editors' Choice award for midrange all-in-one desktops.
The Design: A Buttoned-Up Look
Our test system is sold at Best Buy for $1,239.99 with the aforementioned Intel Core i5-12500H CPU, 8GB of RAM, integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and a 512GB solid-state drive. All of this sits behind a 27-inch QHD display that’s rated for a sufficient 350 nits of brightness.
The IdeaCentre AIO 5i sits on a sturdy rectangular base that keeps its roomy 27-inch display firmly in place. The only adjustment the stand is capable of is tilt; you’ll need to employ books or other objects to raise the height of the display. The two arms that connect the display to the stand are affixed to the back of the base, which gives you a convenient spot below the display to stow the keyboard when you aren’t using it—with a touch panel, you might not always use the keyboard. In the same area you'll find a narrow trough that runs along the front edge of the stand, designed to prop up your smartphone. (I fear it will collect dust, dirt, and grime.)
Overall, the system looks rather corporate. This isn’t an all-in-one like the iMac that will turn heads. You'll find nothing egregious about the design, but it’s pretty buttoned up, with dark gray plastic surfaces accompanied by a wireless black keyboard and mouse combo. The two arms supporting the display have a chrome finish for a splash of excitement.
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The base measures 11.8 inches wide by 6.6 inches deep, and the display is only 24.2 inches wide by 15 inches tall. That’s about as compact as a 27-inch AIO gets, thanks to razor-thin bezels on the top and sides of the display. A thicker bezel runs along the bottom edge. It would appear to be a speaker grille, but the speakers actually face downward and fire from the bottom edge of the display toward the stand (and not your ears).
Lenovo's speakers produce fairly loud sound—more than enough to fill a small room. You will likely not need to listen at maximum volume when seated directly in front of the system. You won’t want to either, as the quality of the sound degrades and the lack of bass becomes more apparent as you reach full volume. I am disappointed in the sound for music playback but satisfied with how movies, shows, and YouTube videos sound.
The Display: QHD for the Win
Naturally, the display is the star of Lenovo's IdeaCentre AIO 5i show. I was pleasantly surprised by the QHD resolution. Given the modest component lineup and price, I would have guessed it would have only an FHD resolution, which can look a little fuzzy on a 27-inch panel. Previous AIOs near it in price—the Acer Aspire C27 and Dell Inspiron 27 All-in-One—featured 27-inch displays with a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel resolution that looked a bit grainy when seated a few feet away, which is the typical usage scenario for an all-in-one. In those, the dreaded screen-door effect would be visible, which is where you can see individual pixels in images and text, making the edges of images and text look blurry.
This QHD display provides four times the number of pixels as an FHD display for a much sharper picture. Even when sitting up close to the screen, text and images look crisp. With a 100Hz refresh rate, video moves a bit more smoothly than the typical 60Hz display. Meanwhile, tapping and swiping on the touch panel feels accurate and responsive. In short, this is a superior display to many AIOs at this price that provide lower-resolution panels.
Along with the stellar display, the IdeaCentre AIO 5i supplies a stellar webcam. It’s a 1080p camera that produces a clear well-balanced image for video conferencing. Plus, when it’s not in use, you can depress the webcam module and hide it behind the display to protect your privacy. Check and check with the webcam: a 1080p camera with physical privacy protection.
All of this AIO's ports are located on the back panel with the exception of a lone USB-A port on the left edge. Save for the audio jack, all ports are easily accessible on the back panel. Assembling in an orderly row are HDMI-in-and-out ports, a pair of USB-C ports, two more USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The USB-C ports lack Thunderbolt 4 support, and only one is the latest USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 variety with the other being a slower USB-C 2.0 port. It’s the same arrangement with the USB Type-A ports, with one being a faster USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and the other a USB-A 2.0 port. The ports are clearly labeled, but it’s not always easy to see what’s what when you are reaching around the back to plug in a USB device. It would be much easier if all of the USB ports supported the latest USB standards.
As I've mentioned, the other complaint I have about the ports is the location of the audio jack. It would be much more convenient to connect a pair of headphones if this port were located on the side—or even the bottom edge—of the system.
Testing the IdeaCentre AIO 5i: Carried by Intel Core H
Our Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i test system features the Core i5-12500H CPU, 8GB of RAM, integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and a 512GB SSD. The Core i5-12500H is a member of Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake H series of 45-watt mobile chips. The H series is the high-powered processor in Intel’s lineup, with the 28W P series in the middle and the efficient 15W U series at the other end. The Core i5-12500H works with Intel’s new hybrid architecture: It has four Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, and a total of 16 processing threads.
To put the IdeaCentre AIO 5i’s performance in context, we compared it with other midrange AIOs. The Dell Inspiron 27 All-in-One features a 12th Gen Core i5 from Intel’s efficient U series of chips, and the Acer Aspire C24 houses a 12th Gen U-series Core i3 processor. The Acer Aspire C27 includes a Core i7 CPU from Intel’s previous 11th Gen family of chips. The Aspire C27 is also the only system with dedicated graphics (albeit a low-end GeForce MX330 GPU). The IdeaCentre AIO 5i and Aspire C24 are equipped with only 8GB of memory, while the Inspiron 27 All-in-One and Aspire C27 have twice that amount inside.
With a 12th Gen Core i5 processor, only 8GB of RAM, and an integrated graphics processor (IGP), we began our benchmark testing with tempered expectations. The IdeaCentre AIO 5i far exceeded our predictions. Its application and multimedia test results were outstanding, although the system’s IGP does limit its graphics capabilities. On the whole, the PC felt fast and responsive and handled various Windows multitasking scenarios without a hiccup. The cooling fans were required under heavy loads to keep thermals in check, but that’s the tradeoff with using a high-powered H-series CPU. With a more efficient U-series part, the system would probably be able to run a bit more quietly but with inferior performance.
Productivity Tests
The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a desktop's storage.
Three more benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro by Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our last productivity test is PugetBench for Photoshop by Puget Systems, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
The IdeaCentre AIO 5i took top honors on PCMark 10 by a safe margin, besting every other AIO here with its H-series CPU. It was faster than both systems with 12th Gen U-series parts as well as the even-older Core i7 inside the Aspire C27, naturally. The desktop also cruised to victory on our multitasking benchmarks with the exception of the Aspire C27 in the Photoshop test, which held onto the highest score in large part due to its 16GB of RAM (double the Lenovo's 8GB) and dedicated GeForce MX330 GPU.
Graphics Tests
We test Windows PC graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for AIOs with IGPs) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).
We also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.
Despite relying on an IGP, the IdeaCentre AIO 5i had the highest score on 3DMark Time Spy, whereas we expected a clean sweep on our 3DMark tests by the Aspire C27 and its GeForce MX330 GPU. The Aspire C27 did trounce the IdeaCentre AIO 5i on the 3DMark Night Raid test by more than 1,600 points. Like many PCs with integrated graphics, the IdeaCentre AIO 5i was unable to complete the 1440p GFXBench Aztec Ruins test. It scored fairly well on the lower-end GFXBench 1080p Car Chase test, trailing the Aspire C27 by 9fps. In the end, none of these midrange AIOs will hold any interest to gamers, but the IdeaCentre should handle editing home photos without much issue.
Display Tests
To benchmark AIO displays, use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure its screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
The IdeaCentre AIO 5i is rated for 350 nits of brightness, and our display testing confirmed that figure: Its screen registered 364 nits at peak brightness in labs testing. It also did well on our color gamut or palette measurements, covering 100% of the sRGB, 81% of the Adobe RGB, and 86% of the DCI-P3 color spaces. Color representation at this level, coupled with decent IGP performance, furthers this AIO's capability as a decent home photo editing machine.
Verdict: A Hidden Gem Among Midrange All-In-Ones
It would be a shame to overlook the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i because of its plain design. If you don’t need the slickest-looking all-in-one, then the IdeaCentre AIO 5i provides a roomy high-resolution display that’s sharper than what you’ll find with most midrange AIOs. It’s bigger than 24-inch models and with a sharper picture than 27-inch FHD panels. The QHD resolution is fitting for its size, resulting in crisp images and text. Plus, with that 12th Gen Core i5 CPU, it's an excellent value, even if it can be a bit noisy at times to keep thermals in check.
If you are able to look past its drab exterior, you’ll find the IdeaCentre AIO 5i to be a versatile and reliable home computer. As satisfied as we are with its performance, we still believe that 8GB of memory is lacking, however. Regardless, the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i stands out among its closest rivals, earning it an Editors' Choice award for midrange all-in-one PCs.
The 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i is a standout among midrange all-in-one desktops for its peppy performance and its roomy high-resolution display.
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