Hands on: Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One 23 review

A nifty, boring device

What is a hands on review?
Lenovo Tiny in one 23 review

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Unfortunately, the design only works with Lenovo's current ThinkCentre Tiny PCs (starting at an additional $249, £157, AU$285) , so you're married to Lenovo if you decide to make this your monitor fleet.

Lenovo Tiny in one 23 review

That isn't the only issue you'll have with this monitor. For starters, it doesn't offer touchscreen functionality. Forget using Windows 8 or Windows 10. You're stuck with your traditional mouse and keyboard usage for the time being when all of your competitors will be upgrading to more advanced and forward-looking navigation.

Even though the monitor comes with a slot for webcams, it doesn't offer any audio or video/photo support. The slot is simply there to remind you that your monitor can't do much but accept small form-factor Lenovo Tiny PCs.

Lenovo Tiny in one 23 review

And when I say it can't do much, it can't do much. With companies now offering affordable 4K displays, you'll feel cheated using this 1920 X 1080 monitor, especially for 350 bucks. When I got to inspect this monitor, Lenovo didn't have it turned on, so I can't say with any certainty that it is or isn't a mediocre display compared to other monitors on the market.

However, with a 5-millisecond response time and only 16.7 million colors, this isn't exactly the kind of monitor you'd buy to play FIFA 15 on.

But I guess that isn't the point.

Early verdict

The Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One 23 is meant to be convenient and to take up little space in an office environment. Tasks accomplished. I'm just not sure anyone is going to want to shell out the money to see this All-in-One in use.

What is a hands on review?

Hands on reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a piece of kit based on spending some time with it. It may be just a few moments, or a few hours. The important thing is we have been able to play with it ourselves and can give you some sense of what it's like to use, even if it's only an embryonic view. For more information, see TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.