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Toshiba's PX35t aims to be your all-in-one computer for both work and play, packing a crisp, 23-inch, 1080p display and a solid Core i3 processor. This $929 desktop delivers a handful of helpful Toshiba apps, Harman/Kardon stereo speakers and even an optical drive for people who still use DVDs. However, with cheaper all-in-ones out there, is this desktop worth the price?
Design
The Toshiba PX35t has an attractive and slim black build that could almost be mistaken for a monitor at first glance. The all-in-one's curved, black edges are smooth to the touch, while the back panel has a matte finish with a Toshiba logo carved in the center.
A small sliver of aluminum-brushed plastic rests under the PX35t's screen, with a power button all the way on the bottom right, just under the Harman/Kardon branding on the monitor. For a Windows 8-based touch machine, we were surprised to not see a Windows home button at the bottom of the bezel — a feature that competitors like the HP Envy Rove 20 and Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex have.
The PX35t is supported by a sturdy, L-shaped metal base, which you can use to tilt the all-in-one's display up to 45 degrees backward. The screen cannot be raised or lowered.
Measuring 21.7 x 15.4 x 1.92 inches, the PX35t is a bit wider than the Acer Aspire Z3 (21.02 x 14.57 x 1.89 inches) and HP Envy Rove 20 (19.9 x 12.6 x 1.3 inches) and slightly slimmer than the Lenovo C540 Touch (23.12 x 18.85 x 4.21 inches).
At 18 pounds, the Toshiba is just as beefy as the C540 Touch (18.1 pounds) but significantly heavier than the 14.6-pound Aspire Z3 and 12-pound Rove 20.
Ports and Webcam
On the PX35t's left edge, you'll find an SD Card slot, headphone and mic jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, volume control, brightness control and an HDMI switch for using the PC either as a monitor or to output video to a second screen. The bottom right of the back panel packs in a power input, Ethernet port, HDMI in/out port, two USB 2.0 ports and an additional two USB 3.0 ports. The notebook's right edge hosts a DVD SuperMulti drive that can both read and write DVDs and CDs.
The desktop's USB 3.0 ports support USB Sleep and Charge, allowing you to charge your USB devices even when the PX35t is powered off.
The PX35t's 720P webcam is one of the weaker ones we've used on an all-in-one; our self-portraits looked more like oil paintings than actual photographs. Under office lighting, facial details such as eyebrows were heavily pixelated and blurred, and the dotted pattern on our blue shirt was nonexistent.
Keyboard and Mouse
It's a good thing you can outfit the PX35t with any mouse or keyboard, because we're not fans of the included accessories.
The included Toshiba wireless mouse is an awkward rhombus, with a flat, aluminum-brushed top panel that forms a sharp edge with the black plastic base. This rough design didn't feel nice on our palms, and the small amount of real estate on the top panel only left room for two of our fingers.
Toshiba's wireless keyboard fared a bit better, as we liked the comfortable spacing between the black island keys and the included number pad. We liked the strong feedback provided by the spacebar, but many of the keyboard's letter keys felt somewhat squishy and resistant.
Despite our mixed feelings about the keyboard, we typed a brisk 75 words per minute with no errors on the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor test, which is higher than our typical rate of 70 wpm.
Display
The PX35t packs a sharp, 23-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel display, which is on a par with the Aspire Z3 and C540 Touch, and crisper than the Rove 20's 1600 x 900p screen.
The frenetic HD trailer for "Godzilla" looked stunning on the PX35t, as the film's monster-ravaged version of Las Vegas was brimming with devastating detail. The oranges and yellows of a nuclear explosion scene were full and rich, as were the facial details of a frantic Bryan Cranston. Colors remained true at up to 75 degrees to the left and right of the display.
The PX35t produced an average brightness of 188 nits, which is brighter than the C540 Touch (148 nits) but not quite as luminous as the 282-nit Rove 20 or 293-nit all-in-one average.
To test colors, we measured how much of the sRGB color gamut was represented by the PX35t, as well as its average Delta E (color accuracy), in which a score of 1 is ideal. The Toshiba all-in-one covered 103.2 percent of the gamut, with an average Delta E of 3.3. It provided just a tad less color than the C540 Touch (103.9) but with a better Delta E than Lenovo's desktop (7.4). The Rove 20 trailed the PX35t on both fronts, providing 101 percent of the sRGB gamut with a Delta E of 6.9.
The PX35t's 10-point multitouch display responded to our fingers instantly, as we were able to make doodles in Paint using all of our digits at once.
Audio
Armed with a pair of Harman/Kardon stereo speakers, the PX35t provides impressively loud but occasionally inaccurate audio output.
When cranking rock songs such as Taking Back Sunday's "Stood a Chance" at full volume, we immediately noticed muffled guitar tones. The thick bass provided by the desktop's speakers was satisfying, but was offset by the wall of muddy sound that the song became once the chorus started. The song sounded much crisper at about 75 percent volume.
Steadily paced dance songs like Zedd's "Clarity" performed better. The track's rich vocals were clear, as were the various blips and bloops made by the synth in the background. Still, the song became somewhat muddy and flat as the crescendo hit.
Appropriately, the PX35t registered a booming 96 decibels on our Laptop Mag Audio Test (sound output from 23 inches away). Toshiba's desktop drowned out the C540 Touch (91 decibels), Rove 20 (89 dB) and Aspire Z3 (88 dB), while also trumping the 84-dB average for all-in-ones.
The included DTS Studio Sound app allows you to adjust basic sound parameters such as bass, voice and treble, while also providing a thorough EQ for those who want to customize the finer points of their audio experience. You can create individual presets for the desktop's built-in speakers, as well as any headphones or external speakers you want to use with the PC.
Performance
Powered by an Intel Core i3-3120M CPU and 6GB of RAM, the PX35t is plenty capable of handling everyday tasks. We were able to play games such as "Plants vs. Zombies" with no hiccups, even with 12 Chrome tabs open and an episode of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" streaming in the background.
To further test the PX35t's capabilities, we ran a handful of performance tests against the $729 Aspire Z3 (2.41-GHz Intel Pentium J2850), $749 C540 Touch (3.4-GHz Intel Core i3-3240) and $879 HP Envy Rove 20 (1.7-GHz Intel Core i3-4010U).
Toshiba's all-in-one scored a 4,669 on Geekbench 3, a synthetic test that measures overall performance, beating the Rove 20 (3,617) and the Aspire Z3 (3,182) but falling behind the C540 Touch (6,267) and 8,488 all-in-one average.
The PX35t took 6 minutes and 7 seconds to match 20,000 names to their addresses in OpenOffice, outperforming the Rove 20 (8:03) and Aspire Z3 (17:11) but coming up a bit short of the 5:37 category average and the C540 Touch's speedy 4:33 finish time.
The Toshiba desktop's 7,200-rpm, 1TB SATA drive transferred 4.97GB of files at a rate of 50.9 MBps, which is significantly faster than the Rove 20's 1TB, 5,400-rpm SATA drive (36 MBps) and the Aspire Z3's 5,400-rpm, 750-GB hard drive (24 MBps). However, the PX35t's transfer rate fell behind the all-in-one average of 63 MBps, as well as the C540 Touch's 7,200-rpm, 1TB hard drive (58 MBps).
Graphics
The PX35t utilizes Intel's integrated HD Graphics 4000, the same as the GPU in the Aspire Z3. The Rove 20 (Intel 4400) and Lenovo C540 Touch (Intel 2500) also have integrated GPUs.
The PX35t's 3DMark Ice Storm score of 42,164 shattered the competition, outscoring the Rove 20 (22,034), C540 Touch (30,067) and Aspire Z3 (11,454). However, the Toshiba PX35t came up short of the 66,097 average for all-in-ones.
Toshiba's desktop ran "World of Warcraft" at a playable 35 frames per second at 1366 x 768p with its default settings. This frame rate barely edges out that of the Rove 20 and C540 Touch (both 34 fps) and obliterates the Aspire Z3's 16 fps. However, all four all-in-ones are well behind the all-in-one average of 103 fps.
The game slowed to 29 fps on the PX35t when we kicked the resolution to the desktop's native 1080p under the same settings. Under these conditions, the Rove 20 (25 fps), C540 Touch (23 fps) and Aspire Z3 (11 fps) trailed. The category average for these settings sits at a much higher 99 fps.
Software
The PX35t ships with Windows 8 but can be upgraded to 8.1 for free. This update retains the colorful, touch-optimized look of Windows 8 while adding new apps like Health & Fitness and Food & Drink to complement mainstays like Skype, OneDrive and Xbox Music.
The PX35t teems with Toshiba apps, including Toshiba Video Player for streaming media and Toshiba Service Station for viewing and downloading software updates. Toshiba's Eco Utility helps you keep track of your PC's power consumption, and Toshiba Book Place allows you to shop a large library of e-books.
Toshiba has its own proprietary App Place, which features a mix of productivity and entertainment options, such as Grooveshark Music and Expensify. If you're looking for bigger names like Netflix, Hulu and "Halo," you can browse Microsoft's built-in Windows software store. The all-in-one also comes loaded with Origin, a Steam-esque service from EA that allows you to buy digital versions of games like "Battlefield 4" and "Titanfall."
Configurations and Warranty
We reviewed the starting PX35t-A2210 model, which Toshiba sells for $929; it has an Intel Core i3-3120M CPU, 6GB of RAM, and a 1TB, 7,200-rpm SATA drive. The $999 PX35t-A2230 has the same RAM and storage while packing a more powerful Core i5-3230M processor.
If you splurge for the $1,499 PX35t-AST2G01 configuration, you'll get an even beefier Core i7-4700MQ CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 2TB, 5,400-rpm SATA drive.
All versions of the PX35t ship with a one-year standard limited warranty.
Verdict
The Toshiba PX35t is a dependable Windows 8 all-in-one, but its power comes with some caveats. We liked the PC's brilliant display and smooth overall performance, but were underwhelmed by its mixed audio output and small wireless mouse.
The Lenovo C540 Touch and its successor, the C560 Touch, should provide better performance for about $200 less. In all, the PX35t delivers a solid experience for less than a grand, but you should consider alternatives.
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