ASUS A3402 all-in-one PC Review: The ideal lifestyle accessory

PROS

• Looks sleek and premium
• Completely silent operation even under heavy load
• Balanced price-to-performance ratio
• User upgradability for RAM and storage

CONS

• Lacks a dedicated GPU
• Sub-par webcam, keyboard, and mouse
• Stand doesn’t allow height adjustment, rotation, and swivel

Technical Specifications

• Screen: 23.8-inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare display, LED Backlit, 100% sRGB coverage, 10 touch points
• CPU: Up to Intel Core i7 1255U 10-core 12-thread processor, 4.7GHz boost clock speed
• Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics or Intel Iris Xe iGPU
• RAM: Up to 16GB DDR4 3,200MHz in dual-channel configuration
• Storage: Up to 1TB 7200RPM 2.5" HDD with 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 SSD
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, 1x RJ45 Gigabit ethernet, 1x HDMI 1.4 input, 1x HDMI 1.4 output, 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack

For years, a desktop computer was a collection of standalone parts - a display, CPU, speakers, and input devices like a keyboard and mouse, at the very least. That changed when Apple's see-through iMac G3 broke cover in 1998, a pioneering product that almost single-handedly transformed all-in-one (AIO) computers into a category of their own. While the modern iMac is still a brilliant choice, buyers preferring Microsoft Windows aren't starved for options. ASUS' A3402 AIO computer is one of the new kids on the newest entrants in the segment, and we used one for a few weeks to see if it is any good. .
We may have seen AIO PCs in corporate and high-end retail settings, but they also make for a great lifestyle accessory at home. For people who aren't chasing the pinnacles of performance, settling for a desktop-like large-screen experience at laptop money sounds like a promising option, making a compelling case to explain who should and shouldn't purchase the ASUS A3402 AIO PC. Let's get started.

Design and build quality: The white knight

Once we set the A3402 atop our table, we could truly appreciate it as a thing of beauty. It comes finished in white or black, and our review unit looked splendid with a matte white plastic back panel, gloss white accents, a silver chin under the display, and a metallic silver stand that weighed up nicely. Speaking of weight, the unit is rather light at just 5.4kg, meaning you can move it around your premises with ease.

Once set up for use, the balanced yet clean stand ensures the machine doesn't slide around or wobble when plugging/unplugging thumb drives and interacting with the touchscreen. The stand allows adequately firm tilt adjustment but doesn't allow display swivel or rotation. We were disappointed to find the complete absence of VESA mounting options. They would've been a boon for anyone who wouldn't want to rely on the included stand.

The power button in the lower right corner behind the screen is large and easy to locate by touch, but doesn't support biometric authentication. However, the front I/O comprising one USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader are all located underneath the lower bezel of the display. They are notoriously difficult to get to, and we frequently mistook a screw pocket for the headphone jack because of their close relative proximity to one another.

ASUS also integrates a 720p webcam atop the A3402, and dual 3W speakers within the sleek chassis. The camera will suffice for video calling and performs decently in natural and artificial light alike. Performance is comparable to the average 720p external webcam, but don't expect astounding color accuracy here. It just gets the job done. A mic present beside the camera works well in all but the noisiest environments.

The ASUS AIO's speakers are also fantastic. They provide a deep, room-filling sound and get pretty loud for speakers you can't see. ASUS also claims the sound chamber is larger than the previous generation. As a result, bass is adequate and sharp, but not boomy like a sub-woofer. Audio distorts significantly at higher volume, but the speakers suffice for most everyday applications. After all, this AIO has Alexa built-in, converting it into a hub of sorts for your Amazon-brand smart speakers. Dolby Atmos support makes it even easier to tune the sound profile of connected headphones to your liking.

We cannot fault ASUS for delivering on the clean aesthetic, complete with rear I/O ports in one straight line. You can set this AIO up as a secondary display to your existing computer using the HDMI input. The machine also allows hooking up at least one additional display using the HDMI output for a dual-screen experience.

The plastic finish is resistant to fingerprints, just like the matte finish display. The build also seems as sturdy as it looks, with zero squeaks and chassis flex while moving the computer around or adjusting the display. ASUS provides an external 90W power adapter with the A3402 series, much like a laptop. We appreciate the simple single-cable setup which takes just a few minutes.

Display: Touchscreen takes the cake

The most important element of a computer is arguably the display, because every minute spent using the machine entails staring at its display. Thankfully, ASUS has done a decent job with its latest all-in-one computer, providing a 23.8-inch 1,920 x 1,080 pixel IPS LCD panel. The display supports touch input with up to 10 touch points and promises 100% coverage of the sRGB color gamut. Although LCD technology isn't the best at maximizing contrast, this panel supports HDR content playback too.

Specifications aside, we found this matte-finish panel suitable for most uses. It isn't the brightest LCD around at 250 nits peak brightness, and that hamstrings visibility in direct sunlight. However, the display is firm, and the stand prevents wobble when you're touching the screen. We are happy to report the computer doesn't show you an on-screen keyboard as long as a physical one is connected, but drop-downs and other menus switch to a touch-friendly style with additional spacing as soon as you switch to touch input. They also revert to default if you resume mouse usage.

That said, HDR content consumption was a disappointment. We suggest you look elsewhere if this will be a content consumption PC. The thin bezels on three sides contribute to the severe LCD backlight bleeding. HDR content plays fine, but doesn't deliver the immersive "wow" factor an AMOLED can, and ASUS's add-on software smarts like ASUS Splendid and Tru2Life do little to help matters. Color accuracy is great, though, making the monitor suitable for SDR content creation and video editing.

Bundled peripherals could've been better

Besides touch input on the display, you'll likely use the bundled mouse and keyboard to interact with your AIO, making both units critical to a splendid user experience. Disappointingly, they are anything but worthy of that adjective. ASUS deserves credit for color-matching the wireless keyboard and mouse which connect to the computer using a single USB dongle, but that's about where the good stuff ends.

We had trouble adapting to the keyboard because keys are smaller and more spaced apart than your average low-profile membrane keyboard. The keys have large legends and felt uniform, but ASUS puzzled us with its choices. There's a caps lock indicator and a low battery warning light, but no numlock indicator. We see dedicated buttons for muting the mic and ASUS' AI speech enhancement feature, but they replace the scroll lock and pause/break buttons some users may be accustomed to. If you're a heavy typist, you may see a bit of deck flex, but nothing too concerning.

As for the optical mouse, the left and right click buttons felt inconsistent and mushy, with little to no tactility. Remember that this is a rather basic mouse, with no DPI adjustment or back/forward buttons on the side. The noisy scroll wheel doesn't offer any tactile feedback either. We also fault the brand for its poor choice of a rubbery material on the wheel, which will get dusty and sticky in time. Thankfully, the mouse is lightweight and low profile, so it doesn't strain the wrist when in use.

If you want to stop using these peripherals, though, remember to pull the batteries out, because there is no on-off switch on either of them. Speaking of batteries, the mouse has a peculiar battery door - the entire bottom plate comes off, feet and everything. We just hope batteries last long enough so you aren't toying with its fragile mechanism often.

In short, if you plan to spend more than a couple of hours every day on this computer, we highly recommend you account for the additional cost of a decent keyboard-mouse combo to replace these bundled peripherals.

Performance: The sound of silence

ASUS offers the A3402 in a variety of configurations, with CPU options ranging from a five-core Intel Celeron 7305 chip clocked at 1.1GHz, to a 10-core Core i7 1255U capped at 4.7GHz. Our review unit came equipped with a 10-core 12-thread Core i5 1235U capped at 4.4GHz. The chip draws up to 55W under peak load, comparable to a notebook processor.

RAM options also see several variations - from a 4GB single-channel configuration to 16GB in dual-channel configuration. On the storage front, you can go for just one 2.5-inch 5,400RPM HDD with 1TB storage, or a combination of a faster 7,200RPM drive with up to 512GB of solid-state storage. Our review unit packed 8GB of Samsung-made DDR4 RAM operating at 3,200MHz in single-channel, leaving one SO-DIMM slot vacant. The machine had a singular 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 SSD, leaving one 2.5-inch SATA slot empty for additional storage. It is great to see an AIO computer at this price point offering a few user-upgradeable components, something we can't always say about similarly priced notebooks and Chromebooks.

In the real world, these specifications translated into a 13.3-second boot time, and impeccable ease of use for light to medium-heavy workloads. Surfing the web, editing photos and video, moving files around, and playing music using Alexa is an absolute breeze. Also, the A3402 is whisper quiet, even when tasked with demanding workloads.

Its silence makes it a great lifestyle accessory, but we wouldn't be comfortable recommending it to power users. Idle temperatures hovered around the 44°C-mark in a 25°C environment, while sensors recorded a worryingly lofty peak of 99°C when operating at full tilt. For ASUS, form clearly took precedence over function because all the vents for cooling face downwards, fighting hot air's natural tendency to rise upwards.

Understandably, the system thermal-throttled performance after a few moments to keep temperatures in check. All variations of the A3402 lack a discrete GPU. For these reasons, we omitted gaming benchmarks in our standardised quantitative testing, the results for which are presented below.

For starters, we pitted the onboard SSD against a top-of-the-line Samsung 970 Evo Gen 3 drive in a five-pass 8GB read/write test. To our surprise, ASUS' drive outperformed the Samsung in every test except the sequential write test. As a result, the computer should be lightning-fast and rather responsive to user input.

We used Geekbench 5 to perform a standardized multi-faceted test on the CPU, and the results were comparable to Intel's Core i5 11500 desktop chip. We believe the AIO could have posted much better numbers on Geekbench and in subsequent tests, if it had a better cooling solution that wasn't afraid to make some noise. The test is proof that Intel's processors haven't evolved in leaps and bounds in the last few years, but also shows that you're essentially getting desktop-grade everyday performance from the AIO's processor, with the older Core i5 11500 eking out a slight victory only in the multi-core test.

The thermal throttling we mentioned earlier is even more evident in a ten-minute Cinebench R23 run, where the A3402's CPU scores a measly 256 points in the single-core test. To put that into perspective, a quad-core Intel Core i7 4850HQ clocked at 2.3GHz - an older, notebook processor slower than our AIO - posts a significantly better score of 750 points.

In summary, performance is adequate for stutter-free web surfing and File Manager exploration, but anything more is just too much to ask of the hot little CPU. Then again, we don't think this AIO would be anyone's primary computer - perhaps best suited as a backup machine cum smart speaker, which lets elders in the house check their e-mail and buy products online.

Software and UI: Good ol' Windows 11

Last, we touch upon the software shipped with the ASUS A3402. Windows 11 Home (single language) comes pre-loaded with all the requisite drivers for included peripherals. Microsoft Office is also bundled (not activated), so the computer is ready to hit the ground running for most productivity tasks too. There's next to no bloatware, and ASUS software doesn't hog too much storage.

The PC includes Dolby Atmos and a one-year subscription to McAfee antivirus as well. We found nothing to fault ASUS for, in the software department. The computer is smooth and responsive, and 8GB of RAM only made its inadequacy felt after we opened over a dozen Chrome tabs simultaneously.

Should you buy the ASUS A3402 all-in-one?

ASUS' A3 range of all-in-one computers starts at Rs. 65,990, and our review unit's spec costs Rs. 71,990. As we mentioned in the performance section, there are better processors, RAM, and storage configurations on offer, which would drive the price even higher.

So, if you have between 60,000 and Rs. 1 lakh to spend on a new Windows 11 machine, there's a few points to consider before you pull the trigger on this purchase. Gamers, performance-seekers, and power users will be better off with a traditional desktop PC. If you're happy with the performance on offer, but travel a lot, we would still suggest picking up a Chromebook or laptop instead, because you can always connect them to a larger display when you're home.

ASUS obviously prioritized the A3402's visual appeal over its performance, so if you seek the convenience of a not-so-slow computer that's also a chic living room style statement, this is the one to pick up. Setup is straightforward, there's zero associated cable clutter, and the entire system uses just one power outlet on your wall. In a proverbial sea of AIO PCs, we would be hard-pressed to find a similar combination of good specifications and killer pricing. Just remember to scout for a good keyboard-mouse combo if you go this route.