Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 Black 2024 Review

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 is an ultra-compact business desktop. It's great for office work and general computing thanks to its Intel Core i5 CPU and 16GB of RAM, but its integrated graphics and small 512GB SSD rule out gaming or heavy creative tasks. Buy it if you need a tiny, quiet, and reliable work PC.

If you're shopping for a compact business desktop, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 is probably on your radar. It's a tiny PC, weighing just 1.25kg, that's built for office tasks, software development, and general business use. It packs a 14th Gen Intel Core i5-14400T processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD, all running Windows 11 Pro. This isn't a flashy machine, but it's designed to be a reliable workhorse for professionals who need a small, quiet, and dependable system on their desk.

The Intel Core i5-14400T is a 10-core processor with a mix of performance and efficiency cores. In our database, its CPU performance lands right in the 50th percentile, which means it's perfectly average for a modern business desktop. It'll handle spreadsheets, dozens of browser tabs, and development environments without breaking a sweat. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 730, however, scores in the 25th percentile. That tells you everything you need to know: this PC is not for gaming or any graphics-heavy work. It's fine for driving a couple of 4K monitors for office apps, but that's its limit. The 512GB SSD is also on the smaller side, ranking in the 30th percentile for storage.

At a current price of around $1410, the value proposition is a bit tricky. You're paying a premium for the ultra-compact form factor, business-grade reliability, and the Windows 11 Pro license. For a similar price, you could get a much more powerful standard-sized desktop, but it wouldn't be this small or this quiet. This PC's value is entirely tied to how much you need that specific tiny footprint on your desk.

The competitors our data surfaces are all gaming desktops like the HP Omen 45L or Dell Alienware Aurora, which is a bit of an apples-to-oranges situation. Those machines are in a different league for raw power and graphics. A more direct competitor would be something like a Dell OptiPlex Micro or an HP EliteDesk Mini. Compared to those, the ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 holds its own with its excellent port selection and modern DDR5 memory. The key differentiator is often the specific business support and warranty package offered by your vendor.

Gamers, video editors, 3D artists, and anyone who needs serious graphical power should look elsewhere. The integrated graphics here just won't cut it. Also, if you need tons of local storage for a media library or large projects, the 512GB SSD will feel cramped very quickly. In both cases, you'd be better off with a standard-sized desktop that can fit a dedicated GPU and more (or larger) storage drives. Even some mini PCs now offer more powerful AMD Ryzen processors with better integrated graphics for similar compact use cases.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5? If you're an IT manager deploying quiet, reliable desktops for an office, or a professional who desperately needs a tiny PC that can still run business software smoothly, then yes, it's a solid choice. But if you're a general consumer, a gamer, a video editor, or someone who needs lots of storage or upgrade room, you should skip it. You'd be overpaying for features you don't need while missing out on the performance you likely want.