There’s a revolution of sorts taking place in desktop computers...specifically in the one category that interests me the most, all in one computers.
I’ve been a fan of all in ones since the form factor’s earliest days in May of 1980 when Apple introduced its Apple 3. And later with the Apple Lisa and its less tubby Macintosh.
While it was a far cry from today’s powerhouse all in ones, the Apple3 was the product of Apple marketing aiming at the corporate market. But all it was really was a souped up Apple // with a built in floppy disk drive and a bundled monitor atop the case.
Technology has come a long way since then and the all in ones of today have become thoroughbred computers capable of making difficult tasks simple functions. And some of them are nearly as expensive as the custom built cad/cam workstations of the 1990s.
Case in point my current favorite, the high end of Microsoft's desktop Surface line, the$4,800 Surface 2.
Right out of the box, this tippy top-of-the category all in one comes with 32 gigs of system memory, a current Intel multi core processor with a boosted speed of 3.9GHz and enough expansion ports to accommodate digitizer pads, studio quality audio devices, and a very crisp 27 inch monitor
Close behind is HP’s Envy 312-a0035, which has only 16gb of memory but is built a round a Monstrously large and wonderfully crisp 32-INCH SCREEN. AT $1,7549 the 32-INCh screen HP Elite IS LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE OF theMi Microsoft Surface2.
There’s a third entry in the high end all-in one category, Lenovo’s $2,600Yoga A940, which also sports a 27-inch screen.and ships standard 32 gigs of RAM. One of the things that sets the Lenovo A940 apart from other all-in-ones in this category is its AMD Radeon graphics, which I suspect could make its way to otherr off the shelf all-in ones in the very near future.
In the last decade and a half, all in ones have morphed from portable computer motherboards repackaged in desktop computer cases, to full on raging racehorses that are aesthetically pleasing and powerful enough to render complex graphics, or to control musical recording systems.
Two revered editors of mine, Mike Edelhart and Chris Shipley both asked me the same rhetorical question: “How many revolutions can you live through?”
Mike and Chris,. Hang on, you ain’t seen anything like this yet!--Jim Forbes on 12 October, 2020.
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