Product Reviews

Mention the all-in-one desktop PC concept to an Apple fan and they'll laugh in your face, such is the dominance of the iMac in this market. In the PC world, the whole computer-crammed-in-a-monitor idea hasn't proved so popular, despite attempts by giants such as Sony. Can Dell's new XPS One change that?

First impressions were certainly positive. Our test unit was the pricier red model - the entry level variant comes in black - and as soon as we sneaked it into the lab and started unpacking it we drew a cooing crowd of colleagues, all trying to stroke its angular back and paw at its glass base. (They're like that in the lab.) There's no denying that it's a beautiful piece of industrial design, even with a pair of speakers extending out from the sides of the screen, a feature with obvious stereo-related motivations but one that always seems to end up looking cumbersome. The silver stand is minimalist both in form and function - it doesn't do height adjustment or rotating to portrait mode - but it's sturdy, and most people will find the screen sits at a nice height for everyday use.

As with the iMac, the XPS' power cord has a specially designed plug that sits flush with the rear panel and is colour-matched to it, which makes the choice of light grey cabling a bit odd. On either side of it you'll find a plethora of useful ports. There's Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire;S/PDIF and 2.1 audio connectors for analogue or digital speakers; and inputs for the installed TV tuner. Unfortunately this is only a single hybrid tuner, so you can choose either analogue or digital reception but you can't record one channel and watch another. Sony made the same mistake with its TP1E entertainment PC; for the sake of a very small number of quid, the appeal of the machine as an entertainment centre, and especially as a living room PC, is needlessly limited.

The screen itself is a 20 incher with the usual 1680x1050 resolution, and sailed through all of our tests with ease. Colours were accurate and clear, gradients were smooth, and motion was handled without any blurring, even in fast moving scenes. It was bright in light scenes and dark when necessary, making it a very good telly in its own right.

Glazed expression

But Dell hasn't stopped there. At first glance, the surrounding glass is blank (no plastic bezels here, the front is one solid glass sheet), but when you wave a hand within six inches of the bottom corner, a sensor illuminates a beautiful array of blue-lit controls. They're all touch-sensitive, with just a little buzz of feedback to let you know you've activated one. After ten seconds the lights dim back again, so as not to distract from the screen.

It's a beautiful control scheme, and you get the same touch-sensitive buttons (this time without blue lights) on the media keyboard. It connects via radio - you don't have to worry about 'pairing' it with the PC, like with Bluetooth - and we found it very responsive. A small but surprisingly usable touchpad gives you limited freedom to surf from the sofa, and there's a standard mouse for use on a desk as well. When not in use, the keyboard is thin and light enough to stow away with ease.

We

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played a few movies and found it an impressive experience. The 5 watt speakers produce a sound closer to good TV speakers than those usually found on a monitor, with plenty of bass and enough volume to fill a living room. We'd have loved to have played some HD movies, but here's another bizarre omission: Dell isn't offering a Blu-ray drive, even as an option. You can get one in the States, and Dell told us it'll be available in the UK 'this year', but for the moment it's another reason why the XPS doesn't quite feel like the ultimate media PC.

The rest of the system is without fault. An 802.11 draft-n wireless module is ready to take advantage of the latest fast WiFi routers as well as older 802.11g ones. You also get Bluetooth 2.0 for communicating with your mobile phone, and an 8-in-1 memory card reader on the side for your digital photos. A pair of USB ports sits alongside, with two more on the rear.

There are two levels of specification available. The black version comes with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo E4500 processor and 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard disk, basic Intel integrated graphics and Windows Vista Home Premium. At £999 inc VAT it represents excellent value, even if we'd have liked Blu-ray and a second TV tuner too.

The red edition, at £1299, is part of the Product RED charity scheme, and Dell and Microsoft will donate $80 to AIDS charities for every unit sold. Admirable enough, but you're paying a whopping £300 extra, with only a few upgrades apart from the paint job: a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo E6550, 500GB hard disk, ATi Radeon HD 2400 graphics and Windows Vista Ultimate. That ATi graphics card is too old and slow to be a realistic gaming option (though it would be useful for decoding HD video if there was a Blu-ray drive - did we mention we'd have liked a Blu-ray drive?), so we'd have to recommend sending £40 to charity off your own back and opting for the black version.

The price of frame

And so to the inevitable comparison with Apple. As luck would have it, the iMac range was upgraded shortly after the XPS One appeared. The base model now costs £799 and has a glossy 20 inch screen like the XPS'; a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, beating Dell's 2.13GHz chip; and ATi Radeon HD 2400 graphics, matched only by the red XPS at £500 more. True, this iMac has only 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard disk, but the next model up matches the Dell's 2GB and 320GB respectively, adds an even faster processor and graphics card, and still costs £50 less at £949.

For £1149, £150 below the red XPS (or £110 if you count that £40 donation), Apple will give you a massive 24 inch screen - big enough for 1080p HD movies, though you'll have to download them from iTunes, since Apple doesn't do Blu-ray either. And if you can stretch to £1389, you can move up to a stonking 3GHz Core 2 Duo and 512MB nVidia GeForce 8800GS graphics, blowing the XPS' performance out of the water for less than £100 extra.

The iMacs don't have TV built in, and if you want to run Windows Vista (rather than Mac OS X) you'll need your own copy, adding to the price. At the time of writing, we hadn't had chance to put either the XPS or the new iMac through our benchmark tests, so definitive comparisons will have to wait. But we and Dell will both have to admit that the days of equating Apple with expensive are well and truly over.

Thanks to the touch controls, superior speakers and perhaps slightly crisper screen, the XPS One is just as desirable as the iMacs in its own distinctive way, and still reasonably priced. Dell is getting better and better at being trendy rather than businesslike, and if Apple's aggressive pricing heats up the competition between these two and Sony, there should be some fantastic deals ahead. The all-in-one PC may finally have arrived.