Dell XPS One 24 review
Dell’s gorgeous XPS One is a monster of an all-in-one PC.
Its high-quality 24in display and decent speakers make it a viable alternative to a TV for a stylish studio flat or small living room. Jet black and glossy, it looks the part, too, with a silver stand that appears elegant despite carrying a massive 16kg load.
The 1,920×1,200 resolution display is stunning. Its vibrancy, sharpness and superb colours put it right up there with the iMac for image quality. However, we had to plug in an external Blu-ray drive to play an HD movie, as this model doesn’t come with built-in Blu-ray. It’s not a touchscreen PC either, like HP’s TouchSmart IQ500, so you’ll need to reach for the remote or mouse instead.
The JBL-branded speakers are as impressive as the display. At higher volumes the sub kicks in with some meaty bass. For an all-in-one PC, it is seriously loud, with a total output of 25W.
There’s a built-in hybrid TV tuner, so you can use Media Center to record analogue or digital broadcasts. It’s only a single tuner, though, so you can’t watch and record at the same time. We’d recommend adding a second tuner via one of the USB ports.
As well as watching TV and movies, you can play games. The GeForce 9600M GT graphics managed only 13.3fps in our 1,680×1,050 Call of Duty 4 test, but turning off anti-aliasing and lowering the resolution to 1,280×720 produced a playable frame rate. Just don’t expect to play modern 3D games at the display’s huge native resolution.
Despite its use of laptop components, the XPS One is quick in applications. The 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 and 2GB of RAM combined to achieve a score of 4,382 in PCMark Vantage.
There’s a reasonably-sized 320GB hard disk for storing files, and on the rear you’ll find Ethernet, FireWire and four USB ports. The power cable snakes neatly down the back of the stand, and you can minimise further cabling by using the built-in Draft-N wireless networking. The supplied keyboard and mouse are wireless as well. Finally, the sides provide a further two USB ports, as well as an eight-in-one memory card reader.
£1,349 is a lot to pay for a PC, and as with many all-in-one models we’ve seen, we’re not sure you’re getting your money’s worth. The £1,250 Acer Aspire 8930G laptop has a Blu-ray writer, quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, a bigger hard disk and a big 1,920×1,080 resolution, albeit on a smaller 18.4in display. To get that kind of specification you’ll need to upgrade to the premium model of the XPS One (D04X202), which costs £1,799. This model is a desirable PC, but at this price the lack of Blu-ray is hard to take and holds it back from a higher mark.
