Dell's All-in-One PC Has the Guts, Design To Compete With iMac

Wall Street Journal ^ | 12/27/2007 | by WALTER S. MOSSBERG

[Swordmaker]

December 27, 2007 Something interesting is going on at Dell. The Texas personal-computer behemoth, long associated with boxy, boring machines, has started emphasizing industrial design. And the company, which in recent years seemed to care only about corporate customers, techies and hard-core gamers, appears once again interested in average, mainstream consumers who value simplicity.

The most tangible example of this new approach is Dell's XPS One desktop -- an elegant, handsome, cleverly designed one-piece computer. If it didn't have the Dell logo on it, the XPS One might be mistaken for a product of the PC industry's design leaders, Apple or Sony.

[Swordmaker]

Not bad... for a Windows machine...

[Swordmaker]

Walt Mossberg reviews Dell All-in-one iMac competitor... PING!

Hmmmm Glossy screen...

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[RJR_fan]

Can I get it with Windows XP? See this great review of the benefits you get when you "upgrade" from Vista to XP. My favorite paragraph was as follows:

Multimedia support on XP is vastly better than on Vista. Whilst content-creators had insisted on all sorts of intrusive features in Vista that made the multimedia experience a living hell for Microsoft users, thankfully with XP Microsoft were able to insist that their customers' needs came ahead of the content creators outdated business model. It's nice to see a corporation like Microsoft stand up to the cyber bullies at the MPAA and refuse to assume that its loyal customers are criminals. In any case, the DRM built into Vista was broken shortly after its release anyway.

[coconutt2000]

Call me crazy, but doesn’t it kind of look like an LCD TV that’s using a trophy’s base as a stand? ;-)

[Live free or die]

I hope those speakers are powerful because they sure to stick out. One of the reasons I love my iMac’s design is its minimalism. If you didn’t read the manual you wouldn’t even know where the speakers were!

[MrsEmmaPeel]

It still has that crap Vista on it.

[6SJ7]

I hope those speakers are powerful because they sure to stick out.

The Dell Barack Obama Edition.

[Eddie01]

That’s it. It’s all about the OS.

A lifetime Window’s guy, I just put my family on a diet of Macs. I’m never looking back.

[BlazingArizona]

The Intel iMacs have popularized a new form factor. The PC world is scrambling to catch up.

[GRRRRR]

WHY WHY WHY!!! Didn’t I buy APPLE stock a year ago when I got my iMac:?>>>

Arghhhhhhh

[SlowBoat407]

If it didn't have the Dell logo on it, the XPS One might be mistaken for a product of the PC industry's design leaders, Apple or Sony.

Sony, maybe. Apple? Only if you hit the Apple with an ugly stick.

[Tribune7]

It would have been uber cool in 1998.

[antiRepublicrat]

It would have been uber cool in 1998.

[antiRepublicrat]

It isn’t going to be mistaken for an Apple with the clunky base and the tacked-on speakers. Still, it’s a lot better attempt than Gateway’s first go at an iMac copy.

[Vinnie]

...Third, defying popular perception, the iMac costs less than the XPS One. The base, 20-inch iMac costs $1,199 -- about $300 less. And even if you double the memory, and add a wireless keyboard and mouse to match the Dell, it's still $1,399 -- $100 less than the base XPS One (though Dell is currently running a sale that wipes out the $100 gap). Even the cheapest iMac has a dedicated video card with its own memory, something the base XPS One lacks....

Pretty much puts that argument to rest.

[rom]

Since Dell’s idea of “beautiful” industrial design has been to this point, throwing lots of neon lights on a box with glowing logos — this is a big upgrade for them.

Still cannot touch any iMac’s industrial design I can remember! Glad to see PC users have an all-in-one setup that doesn’t look too bad. I love that we can put our iMac in our family/play room for the kids and it looks like a piece of furniture with only the single power cord coming out of it (Bluetooth everything else, and Wifi).

[1Old Pro]

Innovation from PC makers....who would have thunk it.

[Spktyr]

Not exactly innovation.... since they’re copying what is now three generations of iMac.

Innovation would be a totally new form factor, or a design that wasn’t either a tower, clone of the Mac Mini, or clone of any of the iMac models.

[antiRepublicrat]

Still cannot touch any iMac’s industrial design I can remember!

The iMac's design looks sort of like a boutique brand flat screen TV (maybe B&O), but not quite just like a monitor or TV, slightly different. It just works as a whole innovative design.

From the initial front view it is a standard monitor with cheap speakers tacked to the sides. Better than before, but not quite there yet. At least they copied Apple's idea to slope the back so the edges don't look too thick. I also wonder if it's as quiet. Dell's laptops aren't very quiet.

On the tech side, optional Blu-Ray is nice. It comes with a media card reader, nice. TV tuner is nice (I think Apple doesn't do it because it conflicts with iTunes). It only takes 2 GB RAM, not good, that tells me they likely used an older laptop chipset. Max drive size is only 500 GB. Discrete video is only for the models that cost more than a 24" iMac (which has an ATI 2600), but it's only as good as as what you get on a base 20" iMac (ATI 2400).

At any of its price points, why would you buy one of these instead of an iMac? The only possible thing I can think of is to play Blu-Ray or have a TV tuner without having to use an external device.

[Tribune7]

Uber Cool!