As far as enterprise-class workstations go, we're at the point now where there are fundamentally two major competitors: an entrenched HP, and a very hungry Dell. We've had a couple of HP workstations in for review already (and more on the way), but today we're taking a look at one of the entries in Dell's substantially revamped Precision line.

Dell has completely rejiggered the designs of their Precision workstation towers. While the performance is going to be what you'd expect since HP and Dell are still fundamentally pulling from the same pool of high-performance hardware from Intel and NVIDIA, build and design are where Dell is really looking at distinguishing themselves from the competition with their new Precision line. Find out how well they succeed with the T3600.

Late last year, before CES, we had the opportunity to check out Dell's then-upcoming entrant to Intel's nascent ultrabook market, the XPS 13. Dell has been refocusing their XPS line with an eye on sophisticated notebooks that straddle the line between the consumer and business classes, while at the same time emphasizing slimmer, more powerful machines. Thus, the XPS 13 seems like a natural fit both for their XPS line and for the ultrabook category.

While manufacturers like ASUS, Toshiba, and Acer have been apt to more closely ape the Apple MacBook Air aesthetic that Intel is arguably appropriating for ultrabooks, Dell's XPS 13 is a different creature, and when we saw it in 2011 it felt like the ultrabook to wait for. Now it's here; was it worth the wait?

For every monitor review that I’ve done for AnandTech so far, I know that as soon as I check the comments there will be a thread with the same theme: “I don’t care about 1080p monitors, I only want 16:10 aspect ratios!” When widescreen displays first came out for desktop LCD monitors, virtually every model was a 16:10 display. The 20” Dell I have on my own desk is 16:10, and almost every vendor made 16:10 panels.

As the price of flat panels dropped and HDTV adoption took over, more and more desktop panels migrated to the HDTV aspect ratio of 16:9. The reasons behind this were easy to understand, as you could produce more displays, reuse panels across PC and TV lines, and have a lower cost across the board to let you sell them for less. Most people were more than happy to pay less for a display than to pay 2-3 times as much for those extra 120 pixels at the bottom of a display. As this happened, 16:10 panels became relegated to higher end models, almost always as IPS panels and often with high end features like AdobeRGB colorspace support and more.

Dell finally decided to address this with their U2412M display that features a 1920x1200 on its 24” panel. The U2412M is also an eIPS panel that is natively 6-bit but uses A-FRC to display 16.7 million colors. Dell has managed to bring this monitor in at $329 and can often be found on sale for under $300, while most other 16:10 24” panels come in at $500 or more. What did Dell have to do to hit this aggressive price point? We put the Dell through its paces to find out.

While Alienware isn't openly inviting comparisons to Microsoft's Xbox 360 with their brand new X51 gaming desktop, it's hard not to see the resemblance, at least in form factor. But where Microsoft's aging console continues trudging away with generations old hardware, Alienware has produced an authentic Windows 7 gaming PC in a shell roughly the same size. Not only that, but they're introducing it at one of the lowest prices we've ever seen for what's ordinarily a very premium brand.

Was Alienware able to cram a fully-powered machine in this tiny chassis, or were too many sacrifices made? Just what exactly can you fit into this console-esque chassis? Read on for our full analysis!

Our last Windows all-in-one review was for HP's TouchSmart 610, an interesting if slightly pricey piece of desktop kit. HP brought a lot of innovation to the table but they couldn't quite patch over the underlying problems with the hardware and software ecosystems that keep a touch-based all-in-one from really achieving all it can. Today we have on hand the Dell Inspiron One 2320, complete with Dell's own touch-based software interface and its own bells and whistles. Is Dell able to smooth over those issues better than HP could, or did they stumble on to some new ones?

We’ve reviewed just about every line of laptops that Dell makes over the years, but we haven’t had a chance to look at the Vostro line until today. Vostro is essentially Dell’s entry-level business laptop brand, with an emphasis on business-class support while maintaining a lower price point than the Latitude line. What that means is you give up some of the performance options of the consumer Inspiron and XPS lines, but you usually get better support and a matte LCD. Build quality is a bit of a question mark, and something we’ll discuss more in the review. The V131 we received for review is also quite thin, nearly at ultrabook levels, which raises an interesting question: how does an $800 (often less) business laptop compare with the upcoming ultrabooks and other thin and light laptops?

We’ve already had our first ultrabook review with the ASUS UX21E, and we expect more ultrabooks in for review in the next month, which makes this review of the Vostro V131 all the more pertinent. It supports full-power Core 2011 dual-core processors and uses integrated graphics, but it also has a standard battery that can easily be swapped out—and a larger battery capacity as well. If you’re interested in seeing how the Vostro V131 stacks up against the recently reviewed XPS 14z and ASUS UX21, or you’re wondering what you give up in moving from Dell’s Latitude line down to the Vostro, we should have all the information you need in this review.

Late last year, Dell announced the relaunch of their XPS brand. Since the announcement, we’ve reviewed several XPS laptops that have impressed in various ways. The XPS 15 is a larger mainstream notebook with the option for a beautiful 1080p display upgrade with a moderate discrete GPU and awesome speakers. If you’d like something slimmer and lighter, the XPS 15z cuts the fat and still hits most of the important features. We liked both laptops enough that they garnered Editor’s Choice awards, and we were quite interested in seeing what Dell would do with their smaller 14” offering.

The XPS 14z takes over for the now-defunct XPS 14, but with more of the 15z design language as opposed to the larger XPS models. One of the most impressive aspects of the 14z is that it packs a 14” LCD into the same size chassis typically used with 13.3” LCDs. The 14z is reasonably thin and light, and at least on paper it looks like it could go up against Apple’s MacBook Pro 13. Read on to find out where it does well, and where it comes up short.

For years now Dell has been one of the few companies that consistently offers a range of displays using IPS panels for desktop displays instead of only the more affordable TN panels. Now with the availability of e-IPS panels, Dell has been able to offer even more models and lower the price all the way down to $319 for a 23” 1080p display.

Considering most IPS displays use S-IPS or similar panels and cost north of $500 for 23", E-IPS promises improved viewing angles compared to TN and can hopefully avoid any other negatives. How does Dell's U2311H stack up to other displays, and is it a worthwhile compromise between TN and S-IPS? Read on to find out.

With the relaunch of their XPS branding, Dell has released quite a few interesting laptops during the past three quarters. Their latest addition to the line is the thin XPS 15z, and if you haven’t read or heard about it yet let’s be clear: it takes more than a few design cues from Apple’s MacBook Pro 15. We could also look at the HP Envy line and say that Dell borrows a few ideas there as well—though admittedly, "let's make a thin laptop with an aluminum exterior" isn't exactly a revolution in industrial design concepts. The result is still something different than what Apple and HP offer, but if imitation is a form of flattery, Apple in particular should be feeling quite pleased right now. When we get to the details, however, the outward similarities start to disappear.

The 15z might look something like a MacBook Pro 15, but the options are different from what you’ll get out of Cupertino. Some of the changes are for the better, some are merely a different take on what hardware works best, and others are for the worse. We also need to point out the major advantage Dell holds over the MBP15: the base model 15z starts at just $999; even with the 1080p upgrade, it’s only $1099. Pricing as usual isn’t somewhere that Apple competes. The result is a laptop that might just be everything you’ve been looking for as you prepare to head back to school, or it might leave you wanting more. Which category you fall into will depend on how you want to use your laptop, so join us as we dig into the 15z and find out what makes it tick.