Of these "softer" features, the Dell's touch screen might be its best. The XPS One 27 excels in most of these aspects as well. Whether you like it or not, touch screens, lightweight applications, and product design are all ascending.
Moving beyond a pure price-performance calculation, the newest phase of Windows computing aspires for more than simply posting fast benchmark scores. Dollar for dollar, though, the Dell XPS One 27 is currently faster. A more expensive iMac with a Core i7 chip would perform better, and a new iMac might also give the Dell a race. Our Dell review unit also trounces the existing 27-inch $1,999 iMac. The Core i5-based $1,599 XPS One 27 (and its $1,399 non-touch equivalent) would also be competitive, if not quite as fast.
Among Windows PCs it has no true speed competition. If you discount operating system preference and compare against the existing iMac, the Dell offers more onboard storage, a touch screen, and the convenience of its HDMI input and output jacks.įrom a performance standpoint, the Dell is simply the fastest 27-inch all-in-one at its price.
The payoff is clear in terms of features and performance, and for any serious PC buyer, the XPS One 27 is the clear choice.Ĭomparing the XPS One 27 with Apple's high-end iMac is harder, given the potential for a new iMac announcement later today. Where Acer is mostly attempting to make a "lifestyle" appeal for its new all-in-one, Dell sticks to its price-performance roots. It also has a unique support foot that makes it easier to adjust the display than the Dell's double-jointed stand support. Dell includes more memory for the GeForce graphics card, and also offers a faster, higher-end Core i7 chip, and twice the hard drive space.Īcer poured a lot of effort into the design of its new all-in-one, and it probably looks a little slicker than the Dell. Even if you throw out the Dell's higher-resolution screen, the XPS One 27 is still a strong competitor to the Acer system.
It offers high-end options for those who want to pay for them, and it also outclasses its competition by offering the same high-resolution screen with its more modestly priced starting models.Īmong Windows 8 launch PCs, the Acer Aspire 7600U is the only other model to approach the $2,000 price point. But none of those systems offers a 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution display, much less with touch input.Ĭonsidering that the touch-screen XPS One 27 starts at $1,599, Dell has the best of both worlds with this PC. Even Acer's high-flying Aspire 7600U tops out at $1,899. The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 starts at $1,470. If you want an XPS One 27 with a Blu-ray drive now, your only option is the highest-end $2,599 version.Īt those higher price tiers, the XPS One 27 enters another pricing level relative to competing 27-inch all-in-ones. Other than the Blu-ray drive, it's identical to the $2,099 model that you can purchase today.
That puts this exact review configuration at $2,299.
The Blu-ray option is not available with the current $2,099 unit, but Dell says it will start offering the upgrade in December for $200. This review unit is based on the $2,099 step-up configuration, but Dell wanted to show off the big display so it included a Blu-ray drive. The touch-screen version starts at $1,599.
The XPS One 27 starts at $1,399 for the non-touch model. I can see the pricing questions for this review now, so let's get that out of the way. The $1,399 and $1,599 units have not received a price increase. Our review unit, the now $2,099 model with a $200 Blu-ray drive upgrade, will cost $2,299 when the Blu-ray drive is available in December. That means the $1,999 model will now cost $2,099, and the $2,499 model will cost $2,599. Dell has informed us that it has increased the price of the $1,999 and $2,499 models of the XPS One 27 by $100.