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Dell’s Precision 3240 Compact (starts at $839; $3,047 as tested) is a mini desktop workstation for space-conscious professionals. About the size of a thick hardcover book, it features up to a 10-core Intel Xeon processor and Nvidia Quadro RTX-class graphics for performance that can rival that of larger towers. It also offers good end-user serviceability, VESA mounting options, and a standard three-year warranty. It’s an excellent, if not necessarily superior, alternative to HP’s Z2 Mini G5. You ll get better value out of full-size desktop workstation towers, to be sure, but this model and HP s Mini effort trade blows in the wee-workstation space.
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When we reviewed the $799.99 HP Pavilion 24 All-in-One last year, we declared it the all-in-one PC for the rest of us, for whom a spendy Apple iMac is out of reach. If a 24-inch model at $800 is for the rest of us, then the HP All-in-One 22 is the all-in-one PC for
all of us. (Models start at $399.99, with our 22-dd0010 test configuration coming in at $429.99.) This entry-level all-in-one offers a leaner price and a smaller display than its 24-inch sibling. The low price levies its own cost, though: You get an underpowered mobile-grade AMD Athlon processor and just 4GB of RAM behind its 21.5-inch display. Its low-end components make the HP 22-dd0010 a better fit for consuming media than creating or editing it, but this undersize all-in-one boasts an attractive, modern design that belies its very entry-level status. It s satisfactory as a second PC, a kitchen info-station, or a school companion for a younger student.
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Chromebooks don t have a monopoly on cheap. The Asus VivoBook 11 ($309 as tested) targets budget notebook buyers who want maximum affordability and portability but insist on Windows. Its puny 11.6-inch screen makes it compact and light it s only 2.2 pounds and it s adequate for word processing, web browsing, and email. But it s sluggish, with just half the memory and one-quarter the storage of a good inexpensive laptop. Most users will be happier with the quicker response of a Chromebook or, if they can dig deeper into their pockets, a Windows system in the $500-to-$700 range.
Bare Minimum Everything
The VivoBook 11 that PCMag tested, at $309 at the time we purchased it, is model L203NA, with a dual-core Intel Celeron N3350 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC flash storage instead of a true solid-state drive. Different resellers offer different configurations that look to be better bargains: Walmart and Amazon sell the L203MA, which has a Celeron N4000, f
The Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ tablet gets Intel's 11th-gen Tiger Lake Core chip, and in our tests it crushes its predecessor the Surface Pro 7 and its 10th-gen Ice Lake Core processor.