Dell XPS One 27 Review: The Premium All-in-One
by Dustin Sklavos on May 29, 2012 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Dell
- Intel
- XPS
- Ivy Bridge
- Kepler
- all-in-one
- 600M
- NVIDIA
Screen Quality
When I first powered on the Dell XPS One 2710, I was surprised at just how good the screen looked. I kept trying to do the TN panel test (look at a screen from below and see if it washes out), but it offered stellar viewing angles. What may surprise you is that Dell isn't openly advertising the fact that they're using Samsung's PLS panel in the XPS One instead of a bog standard TN panel; they simply list it as being a 2560x1440 screen and call it a day.
That's really to their detriment, because the XPS One 2710 has one of the best looking panels I've ever seen in an all-in-one, and the increased PPI was enough to make me seriously think about replacing the trio of 24" 1920x1200 panels on my desktop with these higher resolution screens.
Subjectively it's a terrific looking screen, but the Dell XPS One's panel does seem to have a little bit of trouble with black levels that the IPS in HP's TouchSmart 610 doesn't. I still have a deep abiding preference for *VA panel technology, which produces deep, inky, uniform blacks, but for a media center kind of PC like the XPS One 2710, the PLS panel is probably the best compromise. Motion and responsiveness in games also seemed subjectively solid. As far as other metrics like color accuracy and gamut, the XPS One isn't going to be enough for certain professional users, but that's not really the target market in the first place. For just about everyone else, this is a great LCD.
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robco - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
I will say I like the fact that the Dell keyboard still includes a numeric keypad. I wish Apple still offered a wireless keyboard with one. But I do wonder if the thermal issue will be a problem for people planning on keeping the system a while. Guess it's a good idea to get that extended warranty. We have the current gen iMac with the 6970M and even playing D3 and other games, the system never gets too loud. If Dell can fix the cooling issues, this would make a nice alternative. I do like the ability to connect other devices to utilize the display, something I hope Apple will allow at some point.But as with tablets and phones, it seems when other manufacturers catch up or exceed Apple, Apple releases a new version. I'm sure we'll see Ivy Bridge in the next iMac soon, and probably a GPU bump. I'm not sure what else Apple has up their sleeve.
So far having the AIO has been nice for getting rid of cable clutter and keeping things neat. But aside from installing RAM on the iMac, everything else is a PITA and involves removing the display.
cjb110 - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
My first thought when you mentioned the lack of cooling, is why the solid back? Couldn't you cover that thing with holes??picklemilk - Saturday, June 2, 2012 - link
I would really like to see a review of the Z1 it seems to be doing the right things.Wised - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link
The bechmark scores of the z1 and the dell are almost identical. With the Z1 you get at most a 10% improvement in scores for twice the price. But they are also 2 completely different beasts anyway, one is a zeon workstation the other a home multimedia appliance. Wht is neat to see is how much improved the new intel processors are now you can get zeon level performance on a run of the mill i7.gagaliya - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I just dont understand why those PC Makers refuse to provide us with a decent graphic option for extra cost. The previous generation iMac is the only all-in-one offering a respectable graphic upgrade of radeon 6970m which is still the fastest graphic card in an all-in-one and that was 2 years ago.Dell continues to fail with their all in ones by offering such a mediocre graphic with no option to upgrade, dont those guys realize when you shell out $1500-$2500 for a pc, graphic matters.
I will continue to wait for vizio or imac...
Wised - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
Completely erroneous, the graphic card specs are only part of graphics performance. The most potent Imac with the "premium" radeon 6970 offers almost identical graphics performance to the One 27 with its more "proletariat" nvidia 640. Graphics performance is a combination of card, processor, memory speed and bus performance, thus having a higer "ranking" card is no guarantee of better graphics execution. In fact the one 27 beats the mac on most graphics parameters.WPLJ42 - Friday, June 8, 2012 - link
I am glad to see this review. My HP AIO uses an Athlon II X2 250u, with an 18.5 inch screen. It still runs warm, and was very noisy until I unstuck the exhaust fan with compressed air. The Inspiron One 20 and 23 inch models are on Dell's site now. Yes, the 20 is all Sandy Bridge, and the 23 has just one Ivy Bridge. Dell is in error as we speak, as the 23 is listed with i3 and i5 Sandy Bridge CPUs, and HD 4000 graphics. All things considered, including this review, I am disappointed with the Dell desktops. Almost the entire Inspiron desktop lineup is low end CPUs with HD 2000 graphics.Bownce - Friday, June 15, 2012 - link
Has Dell pipelined the monitor itself yet? I already have an iMac 27" and doubling up with either a Cinema Display or this update to their U2711 is intriguing.AX-Turbo - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Hello!Just read this article and I wonder under which conditions the 97° of the CPU was reached, resp. how the "high load" was made - with real, common load-situations, or with the extreme way (e.g. Prime 95 x8 Tasks + Furmark + extreme heat mode) - load, which you usually never reach in day-to-day-situations? Thanxx for an short answer and sorry for my rookie english.
Wised - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link
I fail to see what advantage a touchscreen would provide in a multimedia 27 inch screen. One of the main advantages of a big screen is to be farther away, beyond touching distance! Windows 8 touchscreen abilities are for pad and phone use they are pretty much worthless on a largescreen PC, furthermore you can enjoy all the other advantages of windows 8 without any touch features at all, in fact you can disable the metro interface completely. If you wish to use the metro portion of windos 8 you can always use a gesture friendly wireless touchpad like the the one available from logitech or you can opt for one of the new gesture recognition peripherals and not have to touch anything at all :) Lastly regarding the "thermal" issue, unless you are regularly going to be calculating the orbits of the Jovian moon system, you will never be runnig the 3770s processor hard enough to raise the temperature to a critical level. The computer can run 3d games all day long without straining the system, in fact, you can be running business applications and similar software all the time without the fans ever coming into play at all. The thermal "issue" is at best a theoretical one for the overwhelming majority of users, in fact, most will probably never even scratch the surface of the available computing nor video capability, ever. I've been processing 36mp photos, on a constant basis, I have yet to hear the fans. The fact is that considering what this computer is and what its aimed for, its performance is exceptional in all parameters. PC users have been long waiting for an all in one to measure up to the i MAC. Well, here it is, not only does it compete, it beats it in essentially all categories, at , I might add, at a much better price. To get a similarly equipped imac to my 16 meg ram version is around 1K more.