Lenovo IdeaCentre A600

The IdeaCentre A600 is Lenovo's premium all-in-one desktop PC, and some of its highlights include a 21.5-inch full-HD monitor, multifunctional remote controller, and a nifty wireless keyboard with touchpad. It attempts to blur the line between your PC and TV, and has an impressive combination of features and performance with a price tag to match.

All-in-one Design:
There is no separate cabinet, and the IdeaCentre A600's centrepiece is its slim screen. It's glossy, 21.5-inch wide and supports a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels; perfect for high-definition movie playback. The screen is curved inwards below the bezel which is secured firmly to a stand. The extended curved bezel also houses the onboard speakers, with a sub-woofer placed on the back panel. On either side of the curved bezel there is a combination of connectivity ports and an optical drive, and touch-sensitive settings button on the front. Like any other monitor, you can adjust the IdeaCentre A600's angle by tilting it forward and back.

Features and Specs:
The Lenovo A600 has an impressive list of features. It's powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2-GHz processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 640GB (7200rpm) hard drive. It also has an in-built TV tuner with a socket placed on the back panel to plug in your cable TV connection. Equipped with a Radeon HD3650 graphics card, Dolby Home Theater surround sound and Windows Media Center, the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 is a very good candidate for a home theater system. It also comes with extra accompaniments: 4-in-1 remote controller, wireless mouse and keyboard (with a touchpad).
The IdeaCentre A600 doesn't include an HDMI port, but all other input-output ports are well accounted for: 6 USB ports, Firewire, multicard reader, Gigabit Ethernet, Wireless 802.11n, DVD writer, headphone and microphone ports round things up on the connectivity front. It has an option to include a Blu-ray ROM drive to further enhance its high-definition playback potential.

Usability and Performance:
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A600's keyboard is slim-and-light and very well built. And the inclusion of a touchpad and mouse buttons couldn't be more convenient, allowing you to control it within a range of 25 feet. If the wireless keyboard takes the cake, with regards to peripherals accompanying the IdeaCentre A600, then the 4-in-1 remote controller takes the cherry on top. It lets you control your PC as an air mouse - point the remote at the screen and move it left or right to replicate the mouse-pointer movement on the screen. You can use it as a phone with VOIP services like Skype, and play bundled games just like on a Nintendo Wii. Serve for real while playing tennis, stoop and bowl while bowling, and more, with 3D motion detection via the remote: it's devilishly addictive. Watching movies, playing games - the A600 is a very good overall performer.
It also comes with Lenovo's proprietary VeriFace face-recognition technology and OneKey backup solution. With a WorldBench score of 87, and 3D Mark 06 score of 3086, it scored very well in our benchmarks, too.

Conclusion:
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 is a very good attempt to fuse together a television set with a PC, and it's highly recommendable to anyone interested in having the best of both worlds. And with the added bonus of Wii-like gaming with the wonder remote, it's a unique product, thoroughly justifying its premium price tag of Rs. 69,500.