LAS VEGAS - Lenovo’s Yoga A940 isn’t just a promising desktop PC for artists — it’s also one of the most feature rich all-in-ones we’ve seen yet.
Packing a ton of handy features for both content creation and entertainment for nearly $1,000 less than Microsoft’s Surface Studio 2, the A940 could be the ultimate artist all-in-one when it launches in March 2019 for a starting price of $2,199.
The first thing you’ll notice about the A940 is a stunning 27-inch 4K touch display, which can be adjusted down 25 degrees for when you need a less vertical surface for drawing or sketching. Speaking of drawing, the desktop supports Lenovo's Active Pen, which felt smooth and responsive as I made some sloppy doodles in Sketchbook.
But the real highlight of Lenovo’s PC is the Precision Dial — a programmable knob with two dials and one button that allows you to quickly perform actions in your creative app of choice. For example, when using Sketchbook, you can use the knobs to adjust pen thickness and undo and redo actions, while using the button to change pens. Better yet, the dial automatically recognizes which app you have open, and lets you customize its actions on a program-by-program basis.
The Precision Dial seems like a compelling alternative to Microsoft’s $99 Surface Dial, since it plugs into either side of the screen instead of laying on top of it like Microsoft’s version. This gives you a completely clean screen while still making it easy to make adjustments on the fly.
But the A940’s artist-friendly features are just the tip of the iceberg. The desktop’s base is comprised of a Dolby Atmos speaker, and features a removable cover for swapping out components. The base of the PC also doubles as a handy dock for stowing away the included mouse and keyboard when you want to move the screen front and center, and even features a wireless charging mat for juicing up your phone while you work.
If that’s not enough functionality for you, the speaker also doubles as a stand-alone Bluetooth speaker, and you can use the display as a standalone monitor for your existing PC or streaming device.
As far as guts go, the A940 gets you an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, AMD Radeon RX 560 graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage.
The Yoga A940 is one of the most feature rich all-in-ones we’ve gotten our hands on, and at a starting price or $2,199, it could prove to be a compelling alternative to Microsoft’s $3,500 Surface Studio 2. We look forward to seeing how the final model stacks up later this year.
