Dell’s new XPS One wins “the prize for most affordable [US$2,399] all-in-one with a Blu-ray drive,” Rich Brown reports for CNET Reviews. But, “you can get better overall computing and home theater experiences from other systems.”
“If it’s not the best pure living room PC, the [20-inch] XPS One is also not the best productivity-oriented desktop, even among other all-in-ones. In that category, Apple’s iMac still rules the day,” Brown reports.
“On every test, from music encoding to photo editing to multitasking, the XPS One falls behind the iMac that costs $750 less. There’s no HD drive on the iMac, so its entertainment powers are limited to standard-def audio and video, but it’s also reasonable to expect from any all-in-one that it also perform well as a computer… It’s just not as fast as its significantly less expensive competition,” Brown reports.
“As it did with its new XPS 420 desktop, Dell again closes the gap with Apple on this system with its software. Argue about Vista vs. the new Leopard OS all you want, but we’re referring to Adobe’s Elements Studio suite that competes strongly against Apple’s iLife 08 software. No other PC vendor offers an answer to iLife, and this remains a selling point for Dell,” Brown reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Dell’s “answer” to Apple’s bundled software is weak, to say the least, and Brown neglects to mention the very important fact that only Apple’s iMac can run all of the software the Dell can, plus its own superior Mac OS X Leopard OS and all of the often best-in-class Mac only software. It’d be a silly mistake to pay way more for this thing from Dell when you can pay far less and get so much more with an Apple iMac. Apple’s 20-inch iMac starts at $1199. Add in a Blu-ray drive from FastMac for $999 and you’re only at $2198, still $201 less than the Dell’s OS-limited, underpowered, overpriced XPS One with Blu-ray.
Brown continues, “The bottom line: It’s outclassed as a computer by Apple’s iMac.”
Full review here.
Still doesn’t look as good as an iMac either!
Go iMac! Congrats on this win. I do however look forward to the day when blu-ray drives become available on Mac’s. Cupertino, please offer an HD drive in 2008 on-board 24″ iMacs, Pro laptops and Pro desktops.
Dell’s new XPS One? Expend well, sons.
You would think that Mr. Dell would hire some decent programmers to come up with an answer to iLife for Dell computers only. We all know he has got a crappy OS to work with, but c’mon, do something with it!
Cheap. Over-Designed and Ugly. As far as Bad Design goes, I doubt it would even appeal to the Alienware crowd. It would be right at home at Sears or Costco.
Not only that, it has a Blu-ray player/burner (nice!), yet the screen resolution is only 1680 x 1080, so it doesn’t even support Full-HD , 1900 x1080. What a waste!
Dell: Striving for Mediocrity.
The full article had this quote: “You know your performance is in trouble when your gaming scores are slower than a Mac’s.”
So, iMacs are now faster than the very high end PC’s that weren’t specifically tuned for game speed. Hopefully we will see this more and more, so this kind of quote will have to disappear.
Go, Apple!
Agreed.
Not enough res for 1080p but it has blu-ray.
DumbAss crap.
Cut down on the snobish attitude MDN. You and so called Mac users like yourself are making us look bad.
I wish their review would include a better comparison chart. It would really highlight the advantages of the mac. Anyhow, for that $2400 price, you could get a loaded iMac 24″ 2.8 extreme with 4gb of ram (not from apple), and blow them out of the water…
So, this ugly thing’s only redeeming quality is that it has a Blu-ray drive, and it still gets a 7.9 out of 10? WTF? Oh, it was a CNet review.
I don’t see what the big deal is about blu-ray built in either. Especially if it adds $1000 to the price (currently). I’ll wait until I can get an external FW or USB drive with HD or blu-ray for $250 before I make the swap.
Add in a Blu-ray drive from FastMac for $999
Question is, does this allow one to play BlueRay DVD’s on a Mac?
I doubt it due to copy protection schemes requiring Apple to comply.
I don’t know if the Dell with BlueRay plays BlueRay DVD’s but that WOULD BE SIGNIFICANT.
Am I the only one that thinks
” rel=”nofollow”>this looks like a Walk/Don’t Walk street sign?
Ah hell…
Huh? I’m sure that the FastMac external Blu-Ray ray drive allows you to play Blu-Ray DVDs! That’s the main reason customers buy them. I’m sure you’re mistaken about this–there are no DRM issues in this regard.
Jake
That POS looks like it was assembled with super glue!
Ummm, 1680 x 1050, with a blu-ray drive?!?! No video out?!?!
Okay, I can deal with this crap. What I can’t let go is cnet NOT comparing it to the 24″ 2.8 iMac, which REALLY makes it look like poo!
cnet bites. Again.
Does it have an equivalent to the Apple TV?
Sorry. I’m ranting…
@ChrissyOne
“Am I the only one that thinks this looks like a Walk/Don’t Walk street sign?”
From Blade Runner!–can’t you just hear it saying “Walk now–walk now–walk now…”
Actually, I think it probably has the primary function of attractive female repellent, a job which it performs remarkably well.
I have enough Hell’s (excuse me, Dells) at work, and Dell has really outdone itself with the XPS (“S” stands for sh_t) One.
Where did they go to get this monstrosity designed? The School for the Blind?
It looks so weak. Ugly!
Come on Mike, hire a real designer. Then, we’ll only have to complain that it’s a Dell!
This clown thinks it does outclass the iMac… http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2218276,00.asp
He concludes, “This is the all-in-one PC* to beat—for now.” regarding the XPS One.. funny guy.
The Dell machine has an laptop grade innards, that can’t be good. Yet it still costs more.
*I’m assuming that he’s including Macs.
Very interesting. I did a comparison of the One to the iMac last night. I did so going off the specs on the page for pre-ordering one.
While it seemed clear at the $1.5K price the iMac had a clear performance advantage, I wasn’t sure about the high-end. Dell’s decision to use a desktop processor was interesting; while the clock speed was slightly slower (2.33 vs. 2.4) the FSB speed is much faster (1333 vs 800). I actually thought the desktop would be a bit faster overall.
I think MDN is too hard on the Adobe suite. It’s a fine piece of software and it shows Dell is at least TRYING to counter the iLife threat. Smart move on their part if you ask me.
The entire comparison, now updated based on C|NET’s review, can be found here:
Dell’s New All-In-One PC vs. Apple’s iMac.
By the way, the PC Mag review is clearly biased because they used Photoshop CS2 as one of the tests. What a crock! I mentioned that in my comparison article (linked earlier) as well.
So the Dell running Photoshop natively could squeak by the iMac running it in emulation. Big deal. Meanwhile, the iMac has THREE TIMES the 3D benchmark score as the One, but I guess that doesn’t mean much.
The PC Mag review is a textbook example of biased reporting.
from an iPod touch South Coast Plaza. I don’t seem to be having problems with the virtual keyboard, much. Cool gadget.
Dell can’t even be original with naming this thing. Isn’t Gateway’s all-in-ONE attempt at copying the iMac also called “One”?
“Isn’t Gateway’s all-in-ONE attempt at copying the iMac also called ‘One’?”
I expect a new iMac rip-off from Lenovo as well.
An all-in-one copy called the Won Ton?
Looks like the direct link to my comparison between the One and the iMacs is not working because this site doesn’t like the apostrophes in the URL (???). Maybe I typed it wrong, so here’s another try:
Dell’s New All-In-One PC vs. Apple’s iMac.
If that doesn’t work, just click the link below and then select the article with the above name.
The Small Wave.
I’ve updated the article with comments about both the C|NET and PC Mag reviews.