What's the best Windows all-in-one or iMac for illustrators?

I’m an illustrator, and I’m looking to replace my old MacBook Pro with a PC. I have a budget of up to £1,500, but would love to spend less if possible (about £1,300). I mainly use Adobe Photoshop for digital painting and editing scanned artwork, InDesign and occasionally Illustrator.

For space and comfort reasons, I would ideally buy an all-in-one. I want a fast processor, lots of RAM (16GB at least) and a good screen display.

So far my research is pointing to the Lenovo ThinkCentre M920Z, but reviews suggest that the display isn’t particularly good. I was wondering if you had a better solution. TA

Last September, Bernadette, a writer and photographer, asked for a cheaper Windows alternative to her MacBook, and I was criticised for recommending that she stuck with what she knew. Guess what: I’m going to do it again. Anyone who switches either way will lose some of the benefits of years of experience, and will spend time relearning. Lost productivity is a cost.

I do understand that Apple’s prices have become a strain on creative freelances’ finances. And, obviously, there are lots of cheap Windows all-in-ones that would do a decent job for most home users. But if your career depends on something, it’s not a step to take lightly.

Lenovo vs iMac

The Lenovo is good value and stands up pretty well against the entry-level Apple iMac. Both have Intel Core i5 processors, 8GB of memory, slow 1TB hard drives and 1920 x 1080-pixel screens. The ThinkCentre has the edge thanks to its 2.8GHz six-core i5-8400 (the iMac has an older 2.3GHz dual-core i5-7360U) and slightly larger screen (23.8in vs 21.5in). At £839.99, it’s also £209 cheaper.

In addition, Lenovo will sell you four years of on-site service for an extra £51.60, where AppleCare adds £189 for three years, not on-site.

The problem is that neither machine is really what you want. I think your best choice is the 21.5in iMac with 16GB of memory and 4K Retina display for £1,429. Upgrading the slow 1TB hard drive to a 1TB Fusion drive would add £90, busting your maximum budget at £1,519. Sorry.

To be fair, these low-end iMacs are “pixel doubled” so they work like 2048 x 1152-pixel screens, but as an illustrator, you would benefit from the superior colour accuracy and extra pixel density.

The other problem with the Lenovo ThinkCentre M920Z is that while it can support a very high specification, Lenovo is only offering two pre-built systems, not ones that you can configure. However, the M920Z has two memory slots, so you could add another 8GB of RAM – or get someone to do it for you. In fact, you could upgrade it to 32GB, though that would be expensive.

The alternative is to shop around for an M920Z with a better spec. For example, you could get one with slightly faster Core i5-8500, 16GB of memory and a 256GB SSD for £1,105 from Laptops Direct or £1,201 from ebuyer.com. Unfortunately, you’d lose the Lenovo support option.

Otherwise, my pick would be the 24in touch-screen Dell Inspiron 24 5000, which you could look at in PC World. This has a Core i7-8700T, 16GB of memory, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 4GB of memory, a 128GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive for £1,379 (or possibly less if you find a Dell deal or a discount code). The closest iMac equivalent would cost £1,789.

However, if a fairy godmother waves a magic wand, ask for a Dell Precision Workstation AIO 5720 and a 27in Dell Canvas touch-screen with pen support. I had a play with one last month. (Yes, putting 10 loudspeakers in the built-in soundbar was a little extravagant.)

All-in-one vs small form-factor

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I don’t like all-in-ones (AIOs) very much because you lose the benefits of having a desktop tower, where you can upgrade or repair the PC separately from upgrading the monitor. Also, as with laptops, an AIO’s performance may be constrained by heat generation problems. You get more bangs for fewer bucks if you put a hot fast chip in a big mains-powered case.

Separately, you said you wanted a bigger screen than your laptop, but you didn’t have a lot of space. An all-in-one does solve both problems admirably.

But there is an alternative. You can attach a small form-factor (SFF) or micro form-factor (MFF) PC to the back of a monitor, as long as both support the industry standard VESA mount. This gives you much more flexibility in your hardware spec, and a wide choice of good screens.

Dell’s Optiplex 7060 MFF would do the job for £754 at ebuyer, though again, you’d have to add an extra 8GB of memory separately. (Dell’s price – £728.99 – isn’t cheaper because it doesn’t include VAT and delivery.)

Alternatively, talk to PC Specialist. They offer four ranges of mini-PCs built to order, and if you take one of the gaming options, you get a choice of nine different cases. They can probably find one that supports VESA, and you’ll get the best spec you can afford. The catch is fitting a good graphics card into a very small case.

Apple’s SFF solution is the Mac Mini. This started out as an affordable machine but the latest versions are anything but. A Mac Mini with a fast six-core i5-8500B, 16GB of not-really-expandable memory and 256GB of not-really-expandable SSD storage costs £1,279, which wouldn’t leave much for the screen.

Another laptop, perhaps?

A third alternative is to use the laptop as an SFF PC, and connect it to an external monitor and keyboard. You wouldn’t get the performance of a desktop tower, but you could still use a big high-resolution monitor.

For more on choosing a monitor, see my recent answer, Can I buy a monitor for photo editing that shows colour like print? (For the record, I just bought an LG 27UK650-W for £434.27.)

What you save on the laptop you can spend on the screen, or vice versa.

Unfortunately, the world is not awash with laptops that have 16GB of memory, except for games machines that are mostly beyond your budget. The cheapest option I can find at the moment is a silver HP Pavilion 15-cs0511sa at PC World. This has a Core i7-8550U with 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card with 4GB of video memory for £849.

An alternative would be a 14in Lenovo ThinkPad E490 configured with a quad-core i5-8265U, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for £841.78. Upgrading to a Core i7-8565U would add £98.65 to the price, while an AMD Radeon RX 550X graphics card with 2GB of video RAM would add £91.13. The E machines are entry level and not built or tested to the same level as the ThinkPad T and X ranges, but I assume you don’t work in a hazardous environment.

As previously mentioned, the best value MacBook is the 13in MacBook Pro with a 2.3GHz dual-core i5-7360U, 8GB of memory and either 128GB (£1,249) or 256GB (£1,449) of SSD storage. A system with 16GB of memory and a 256GB SSD would therefore cost £1,629, which is almost twice the price of the ThinkPad E490. Three years of AppleCare at £249 would bump it up to £1,878.

It’s not worth dropping down to a MacBook Air. The new 2018 Air has a 1.6GHz dual-core m5 processor and a less bright screen with lower colour accuracy for £1,579 (16GB RAM/256GB SSD) – a saving of £50.

The 21.5in Retina iMac is a bargain compared with that, isn’t it?

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