Lenovo IdeaCentre B305
- Category: Desktop Computers
November 1, 2010
Editor's Rating
- Compact, sleek design
- Multi-touch 1080p display
- HDTV tuner
- Good performance
- No HDMI ports
- No wireless keyboard included
- Poor speakers
The Lenovo IdeaCentre B305 is a multimedia all-in-one desktop computer that has a 2.2GHz AMD Athlon CPU with 4GB of RAM and many multimedia features. The display is multi-touch enabled and has a 1080p high-definition resolution.
This all-in-one desktop model has a glossy black plastic body with some chrome accents throughout. In total, the computer measures 20.7 x 4.4 x 16-inches (wdh) and weighs 24.7-pounds and it fits in nicely with any home setup. The widescreen is 21.5-inches and has a resolution of 1080p. It is also multi-touch enabled, meaning you can use your fingers to interact with the computer in addition to the keyboard and mouse. The screen is very bright and looks pleasing to the eye. Touch gestures worked well with the installed Microsoft Windows 7.
In terms of ports, on the back you get four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port, audio in, Ethernet, TV coaxial in, and a PS/2 port for a keyboard. There is no HDMI inputs on this computer for any devices that you may have. The side has 2 USB ports for easy connectivity. Bluetooth is also included, which means you can purchase a wireless keyboard/mouse combo and use that if you want. The TV tuner is able to pick up over-the-air HDTV programming and in testing, worked quite well and displayed good quality picture. A remote is also included with the system, but you have to plug in an included dongle into one of the USB ports to make it work.
Some of the internal specifications include an AMD Athlon II X4 (2.2GHz), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a dual-layer DVD+/-RW optical drive, a 640GB 7200RPM hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics processor, and Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).
The discrete graphics card, the 5450, provides 512MB of separate video memory, which means you can play today's 3D-intensive games on this computer without worry of a performance issue. The integrated speakers provide only mediocre audio quality, so watching DVDs or playing games will probably require some better external speakers. 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi is also built-in, so that's another plus as well.
In terms of performance, the Lenovo IdeaCentre B305 did quite well, but isn't the fastest out there. However that doesn't mean this computer isn't worth it, because it is. Subjective performance was quite good, perhaps better than some competitors. Video encoding tests were performed very well and will work just fine for most. Gaming performance was quite good too, with older 3D games, but more newer games require the visual settings to be turned down slightly.
Lenovo has to be commended on their inclusion of only one piece of bloatware: a 60-day trial of Office 2007. Many other PC makers are notorious for loading up their computers with bloatware, or trial software programs and other advertising.
