The A Seriesdesktops are part of Lenovo’s ThinkCentre product line. Formerly an IBM brand, Lenovo acquired the ThinkCentre desktop brand following its purchase of IBM’s Personal Computing Division (PCD) in 2005.[1] The first desktop in the A Series was the ThinkCentre A50p. Lenovo has released A Series desktops in multiple form factors, ranging from traditional tower, to small form factor, and all-in-ones (AIOs).
2010
A70
The A70 was released by Lenovo in 2010 with the following specifications:
Engadget reported that the A70z was easy to set up and offered a 35-second boot time, in-line with Lenovo's claims.[3] The A70z was capable of handling high-definition video and running Adobe Photoshop with ease, making it suitable for everyday business use.[3] However, the presence of the integrated graphics card prevented 3D gaming on the desktop.[3]
The ThinkCentre A70z received positive reviews from Inc., Desktop Review, and Hardware Central. Inc. ranked the ThinkCentre A70z third on its list of ‘Best New Business Desktops’.[4] Desktop Review listed the A70z desktop on its list of ‘Top 10 Desktops for Back to School’.[5] Hardware Central awarded the desktop 12 out of 15 stars, with 4 of 5 stars for features, performance, and value respectively.[6]
A58
Announced in March 2010, the ThinkCentre A58 desktop was equipped with the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 processor with a speed of 2.5 GHz,
up to a Core 2 quad q9x50. 3 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a 250 GB 7200 RPM SATA hard disk drive up to 1 TB 7200 RPM and an 160 GB 10,000 RPM drive, Integrated HD audio with a built-in mono speaker, Intel GMA 4500 integrated graphics, Microsoft Windows Vista Business, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 2 PS/2 inputs, and 2 headphone and microphone audio jacks with line out.[7] Desktop Review listed the pros of the desktop as being the build quality, legacy ports, and power saving software.[7] The cons were listed as wasted internal space, the absence of card readers, and the limited port selection.[7]
2007
A55
PC World indicated that the ThinkCentre A55 small form factor desktop, announced in January 2007, was a “pure business PC.".[8] The desktop incorporated a mid-range processor, the Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo with a speed of 1.83 GHz, and offered a maximum of 4 GB of DDR2 667 MHz RAM on 2 DIMM slots.[8] PC World noted that the desktop scored 89 on its World Bench 5 test, indicating that it could run most software packages available at the time with ease.[8]
A61e
The ThinkCentre A61e desktop was announced in September 2007[9] and was called “the company's smallest, quietest and most energy-efficient desktop yet”.[10] The A61e was equipped with an AMDAthlon X2 BE-2350 processor with a speed of 2.1 GHz, 2GB RAM, a 180GB hard disk drive, the ATI Radeon X1200 graphics card, and Microsoft Windows Vista Business.[11]
PC Mag listed the pros of the desktop as its compact size, energy efficiency, processor, quiet operation, affordable price, ThinkVantage utilities, case design, and light weight.[11] The cons were listed as being the slightly reduced performance compared to other business systems, the lack of internal expansion for PCI/PCIe slots, notebook-class RAM, and external power supply.[11]
2006
A60
The ThinkCentre A60 desktop was announced in August 2006[12] by Lenovo following the company’s acquisition of IBM’s Personal Computing Division in 2005.[1]
It was categorized a mid-range desktop by PCMag.[13] The desktop was praised for its useful utilities, a toolless chassis designed for upgrades, Athlon X2 dual core processor, spacious hard disk drive and the fact that it still had a floppy disk drive.[13] The cons were that the desktop had shared video memory despite the use of Windows Vista and that it was slower than desktops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors.[13]
A53
The ThinkCentre A53 and A55 desktops were announced in September 2006 by Lenovo.[14] The A53 desktop featured an Intel Pentium D 945 3.4 GHz dual core processor, SiS662 chipset, up to 2 GB DDR2 Non-ECCSDRAM, an 80 GB SATA-300 7200 RPM hard disk drive, an integrated High Definition Audio sound card, and built-in speakers.[15]
A55
The ThinkCentre A55 desktop was equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 541 Processor, 512 MB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory, an 80 GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive, 48x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive, Intel GMA 3000 Integrated Graphics with 128MB Shared Memory, Integrated AC'97 Audio, and six USB 2.0 Ports.[16] Both processor and storage were criticized by About.com, with software bundle being complimented.[16]
Launch in 2003
A50p
The first ThinkCentre A Series desktop was the A50p. It was designed as a business machine, as observed in a review by About.com.[17] This was because of the storage space on the desktop, which was limited to 40 GB – sufficient for business documents and applications, but not for images and video.[17] The A50p had an Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Processor, 256 MB PC2700 DDR Memory, 40 GB 7,200 RPM Hard Drive, 48x CD-ROM Optical Drive, SoundMAX Cadenza (AC'97) Audio, Intel Extreme 2 Integrated Graphics with 64 MB of Shared Memory, a 10/100 Ethernet Port, and six USB 2.0 Ports.[17]
The A50p was called a "high-end consumer PC" by PC Magazine.[18] The machine was indicated to be a capable home-office machine to which multimedia applications could be added.[18] The specifications of the A50p desktop were: Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard disk drive, and a 17 inch LCD screen.[18]
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