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
Introducing the Dell XPS One 2710
The last time we reviewed an all-in-one from Dell, our impressions were decidedly less than favorable. Dell delivered a polished software experience, but the Inspiron One 2320 we saw had serious issues virtually across the board in terms of both hardware and configuration. As a family appliance (the market typically targeted by all-in-ones), the Inspiron One 2320 was a bust. Yet with the XPS One 27 (along with the impending Inspiron One 20 and Inspiron One 23) they're looking to reverse their fortunes.
Gone are the poor quality screen, awkward stand, and middling connectivity. In their place we find a PLS screen by Samsung, a more ergonomic stand, and all the modern connectivity you could ask for. Better still, the advent of Ivy Bridge and Kepler promise to shore up many of the hardware weaknesses of the last generation of all-in-ones. So does the new Dell XPS One make the grade? Starting as usual with the hardware specs, here's what we received for review, in bold, with alternate parts listed where applicable (e.g. on the CPU).
Dell XPS One 2710 Specifications | |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-3770S (4x3.1GHz, Hyper-Threading, 3.9GHz Turbo, 22nm, 8MB L3, 65W) Intel Core i5-3450S (4x2.8GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo, 22nm, 6MB L3, 65W) |
Chipset | Intel H77 |
Memory | 2x4GB Samsung DDR3-1600 SODIMM (Max 2x8GB) |
Graphics |
Intel HD 4000 (16 EUs, up to 1150MHz) NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 2GB GDDR5 (384 CUDA cores, 645MHz/4GHz core/memory clocks, 128-bit memory bus) |
Display |
27" LED Glossy 16:9 2560x1440 Samsung PLS |
Hard Drive(s) |
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 2TB 7200-RPM SATA 6Gbps HDD Samsung PM830 32GB mSATA 6Gbps SSD |
Optical Drive | Blu-ray reader/DVD+/-RW writer (HL-DT-ST CA30N) |
Networking |
Atheros AR8161 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 802.11a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 |
Audio |
Realtek ALC275 HD Audio Stereo speakers Headphone and mic jacks |
Front Side |
Webcam Speaker grilles |
Right Side |
Optical drive Power button |
Left Side |
Headphone and mic jacks 2x USB 3.0 SD/MMC/XD/MS Pro card reader |
Back Side |
4x USB 3.0 Ethernet jack Line-out HDMI out HDMI in Optical out CATV in |
Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
Dimensions |
19.32" x 26.14" x 1.25-2.81" 490.75mm x 664mm, 31.76-71.6mm |
Weight |
35.16 lbs 15.95 kg |
Extras |
Webcam Wireless keyboard and mouse Flash reader (MMC, SD/Mini SD, MS/Duo/Pro/Pro Duo) Blu-ray reader TV tuner (Optional) |
Warranty | 1-year basic support |
Pricing |
Starting at $1,399 As configured: $1,999 |
Dell wasn't messing around with the new XPS One, and indeed the entire line is the result of their engineers having gone back to the drawing board. Fortunately, as I mentioned before, Dell also benefits from the new technology Ivy Bridge and Kepler bring with them.
The Ivy Bridge-based Intel Core i7-3770S is capable of being almost every bit the performance equal of the i7-3770K, starting from a 3.1GHz nominal clock speed (to maintain the slightly reduced 65W TDP) but able to turbo up to 3.9GHz on a single core, just like the 3770K can. It's only in the in-between turbo modes that the 3770K is able to produce a performance advantage, but the mild reduction in performance coincides with an equally mild reduction in overall power consumption. Honestly I remain a bit skeptical about the need for the S series chips; when Intel's quad-cores had 95W TDPs, a 30W reduction would be a substantial one, but just 12W seems too incremental and you'll see later on that the difference wasn't enough. The i5-3450S is the lower end CPU option for now, which drops the clock speeds and Hyper-Threading, along with a lower price.
What got my attention when I saw the spec sheet for the XPS One was the NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M equipped with GDDR5. Spec wise, the GK107 chip that powers the GT 640M is only slightly weaker than the previous generation's GF116. The GF116 may have been slightly underwhelming compared to AMD's Radeon HD 5770/6770, but it was generally able to get the job done at 1080p. The GK107 loses 8 ROPs and 64 bits off of the memory bus, but has roughly equivalent shader power. 384 CUDA cores clocked at 645MHz aren't bad at all, but when we reviewed the GK107 in the Acer TimelineU I suspected the chip was being memory constrained with just DDR3. Now that we have a system that pairs it with GDDR5, we can see if the increased memory bandwidth will allow the GeForce GT 640M to stretch its legs. Better still, there's the potential here to finally have a reasonably-priced graphics solution that can actually power all-in-ones and justify including discrete graphics hardware.
While the rest of the system's configuration is pretty respectable (with the 32GB SSD configured for Intel's Smart Response Technology), the screen is another big plus. Dell opted to include Samsung's PLS technology display in a 2560x1440 resolution, and it's a thing of beauty. If there's an unusual omission here, it's the lack of touchscreen support on this or even any of the new Dell all-in-ones. While I'm not a fan of large touchscreens, Microsoft has clearly decided to go whole hog on them for Windows 8, and so omitting that feature here seems shortsighted. If you're like some and prefer to stick with the old mouse and keyboard interface, though, you may find more to like here.
The price looks pretty steep at first glance, but you have to consider everything that you're getting. The base model still includes a display that would typically go for around $1000 on its own (Samsung's 27" PLS displays don't come cheap!), so $400 gets you the remaining components for a decent desktop experience. At the high-end, which is what we're reviewing, Dell loads up all the extras: more memory, faster CPU, SSD caching, Blu-ray, etc. There's definitely a case of diminishing returns, but Dell is clearly going after the same market as the high-end Apple iMac. That may not be a great way to go about things, though, since one of Apple's biggest selling points is the uniqueness of their OS X experience. In terms of strict hardware comparisons, however, the XPS One 2710 at $1999 comes out ahead of the current 2012 iMac 27" in quite a few areas. Let's get to the benchmarks now and see just what Dell has to offer.
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Bownce - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
The Magic Touch touchpad works very well and don't leave prints on the screen.Patanjali - Thursday, November 8, 2012 - link
There is a version WITH touchscreen.damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
No.I like to actually change parts without alarms going off within the machine.
scottwilkins - Monday, June 18, 2012 - link
These guys with no clue what good engineering is, and buy Macs? What an idiot.Pc2u - Saturday, September 8, 2012 - link
Done that, there to slow, dell xps have much better spec much faster and it's designed for windows unlike the mac, no boot amp crud to deal with, updates etc.I've got 2 iMacs 27, the only reason I got em was for the resolution, now I can get my hands on a pc all in one with the same screen that's designed for windows (a far better system for an easier, quicker and logical execution for most things) happys days, the iMacs will soon be on eBay, don't like apple never have, some of there products are amazing, but I don't like there policies or OS
Look out dell here I come
cfujii - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Well, Dell fixed the heat issue. I have a Windows 8 version of the XPS One 2710 and it has a great touch screen. It comes with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard (which I replaced with a PCKeyboard unit). The temps are all down from the review. The fans are running about 1200rpm. I got this package for photo editing using Photoshop CS6 and it works great!I wouldn't buy a Mac because my background is in IT and the company I just retired from is running Dell. It's been doing well for us so that's why I went to Costco and got the XPS One 2710 for $1600. The new version of the XPS One will have the Haswell processor and the 650M GPU. I was going to wait for the Haswell version but Costco offered $200 off because they are replacing the model I bought with the Haswell version.
Blibbax - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
It's worth noting that you could game at exactly half resolution (720p) on this screen and avoid any of the normal issues of LCD scaling.Blibbax - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Well, I suppose it's 1/4 resolution really, but you get the idea. Each pixel rendered would be exactly 4 pixels on the panel.guidryp - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Not really. I tried this on my 30" 2560x1600 screen.It looks better scaled to 1920x1200 than it does to exactly half (1280x800).
Apple gets away with this trick because they keep the same size screen and cram in 4 times as many pixels that are too tiny to see.
Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
GPU-scaling or the hardware scaling of the screen? Normally I guess you do it on the GPU now days.