Dell XPS One in Desktop PCs

But a look at the internal components brings us to our only major gripe with the XPS One. The model we have here is the XPS One RED, a premium edition under Dell's Product Red charity brand - hence Bono's appearance - and it comes at a £300 premium over the standard black version.

For that you get a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 over a 2.2GHz E4500 processor; a 500GB hard disk instead of 320GB; Radeon HD 2400 graphics over Intel's integrated GMA X3100; and Vista Ultimate rather than Home Premium. Microsoft and Dell will also donate $80 to charity if you shell out for the RED version.

This may seem generous, but we're not convinced those few upgrades come anywhere close to being worth the £300 premium. With 2GB of RAM, the processing power of both models is plenty (the Red scored 1.21 in our benchmarks), and you'd only really need the ageing and underpowered ATi graphics to take the brunt of 1080p video decoding - the lack of a Blu-ray drive renders this moot. And if charity is the main draw you may as well donate £40 yourself with the savings you make.

We therefore can't recommend this premium Red edition, but the £850 black XPS One (D03X101) remains hugely appealing. The single tuner and lack of Blu-ray may put some off, but the fact that it costs £350 less than the previously A-Listed Sony VAIO VGC-LT2 is more than enough compensation. It's also very similar in price and specification to the 20in iMac, although obviously the cost of adding Windows will sway things in the Dell's favour.

It may not "redefine the personal computer in the home" - there have been enough decent systems of this ilk before to suggest they aren't hugely popular with mainstream consumers - but as all-in-one PCs go, the black Dell XPS One is the best we've seen.

Author: David Bayon