Dell XPS 18 review: first look

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

The Dell XPS 18 joins the Asus Transformer AiO and the Sony VAIO Tap 20 in the growing portable all-in-one market, and Dell reckons it has the march on its rivals – the XPS is both slimmer and lighter than its competitors.

The XPS 18 is around 20mm thick, and it weighs 2.1kg – making it 300g lighter than the Asus, and less than half as hefty as Sony’s 5.1kg VAIO. That’s especially impressive considering a battery has been crammed in too  - if the XPS 18 can live up to Dell’s claims of five-hour battery life, it will double the Sony’s longevity. (more…)

Can Dell do without PCs?

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

Michael Dell is set to reclaim his eponymous company from the stock market, allowing him to make the sweeping changes the company needs without the scrutiny and fear of triggering a collapse in the share price that comes from being a PLC.

Even this morning, The Times and others are speculating that one of those sweeping changes will be the end of PC manufacturing, allowing Dell to make an IBM-like transition into an enterprise hardware and services company.

It’s a plausible strategy, but an unlikely one, and one made all the more improbable by the involvement of one of the companies helping Michael Dell buy his own firm back: Microsoft. Steve Ballmer has agreed to lend Dell $2 billion to complete his buy-back, and it seems highly unlikely that Microsoft would have taken such a step without cast-iron assurances that Dell wasn’t about to completely undermine confidence in the PC market by pulling out.

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Microsoft buys Dell: PC Pro’s April Fool comes true

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

The Times is reporting this morning that Microsoft is poised to buy a $3 billion stake in Dell, as the PC maker attempts to go private. For us here at PC Pro towers, the news prompted a sudden wave of deja vu.

In 2009, our own Jon Honeyball penned an April Fools’ joke column, depicting the wildly fantastical scenario that Microsoft had bought Dell (the full column is reprinted below). While it would take more than $3 billion to buy Dell outright, today’s news isn’t a million miles away from our four-year-old jape.

“Dell hasn’t been doing that well recently,” Jon wrote, “and the global economic downturn is certainly contributing to its woes. Few companies are prepared to splash out on new hardware when money is tight, especially without a clear indication that it really will run the latest version of Windows in a satisfactory way.” Sound familiar?

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Dell XPS 12 review: first look

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past couple of days examining Windows 8 devices in all shapes and forms, but to me the XPS 12 (which first broke cover at this year’s IFA) looks like the real deal: a powerful laptop when you want it, a tablet when you just want to consume or fiddle with information.

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Dell Latitude 6430u review: first look

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

If you’ve been trying in vain to sneak an Ultrabook through on expenses, Dell’s first business-centric Ultrabook, the Latitude 6430u, could be just the ticket. With enterprise-class security features and a chassis built to withstand the rigorous MIL-STD-810G military testing specifications, this is set to be the toughest, most practical Ultrabook yet.

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Dell Latitude 10 review: first look

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

We knew it was coming, but Dell has finally unveiled its business-friendly Windows 8 tablet, the Latitude 10. With a full-fat version of Windows 8 Pro, and Intel’s Clover Trail Atom processors at the helm, this 10.1in tablet could be just what many businesses have been waiting for.

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Dell XPS Duo 12 and XPS 10 review: first look

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

2012 is shaping up to be the year of the Windows 8 tablet at IFA 2012, and Dell’s seized the moment with an XPS-branded pair of convertible Windows 8 tablets. While the XPS Duo 12 delivers a, quite literally, novel twist on the form factor, the XPS 10 takes the Windows RT route to a more classic, convertible hybrid tablet.

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Under the hood of Intel’s blueprint for Ultrabooks

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

Ultrabooks have dominated the laptop landscape since their arrival at the back end of 2011, but we’ve not yet seen any hardware from Intel – until now. It’s sent us its own blueprint for the Ultrabook and, unsurprisingly, it’s the first Ultrabook we’ve seen to include Ivy Bridge – Apple’s MacBook Air notwithstanding.

The chip in question is the Core i5-3427U, and it’s one of Intel’s lesser Ivy Bridge mobile parts: a 1.8GHz stock speed, an HD 4000 graphics core clocked at 350MHz rather than the 650MHz, and with less than half the cache of top-end mobile chips. The “U” at the end of its name is important, too, as it denotes a low-power chip – and its nominal and peak TDPs of 17W and 25W are both far lower than equivalent figures from more powerful Ivy Bridge processors. It’s also the same chip used in the latest MacBook Air refresh. (more…)

HP Spectre XT review: first look

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

HP has unveiled its latest range of Ultrabooks at its Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai.

Leading the charge is the Spectre XT, which slots into the firm’s offering just beneath the Envy 14 Spectre, and it makes an excellent first impression. It’s only 15mm thick and weighs 1.4kg, which brings it into line with the best Ultrabooks around, including the Dell XPS 13 and Asus ZenBoook UX31 – and that also means it’s almost half a kilo lighter than the original Spectre.

There’s no denying the Spectre XT is a good-looking laptop. The lid and wrist-rest are both constructed from brushed metal, the screen is surrounded by a slick black bezel, and the base is red to signify the inclusion of Beats audio. (more…)

New Dell Precision workstations review: first look

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Dell has unveiled a new line of Precision desktop machines, and we’ve been hands-on with its latest range of workstations – systems that the firm’s vice president of computing, Kirk Schell, described as “customer inspired” thanks to the “two billion conversations” the firm claims to have with its consumers on an annual basis. (more…)