Product Reviews

"Stunning design meets stunning features to redefine the personal computer in the home," said Michael Dell at the UK launch of his company's new baby in March. In case that didn't pique your interest, he made sure he said it while flanked by his new best mates, Bill Gates and Bono. Big words, big names; the XPS One has a lot to live up to.

Thankfully, Dell has really gone to town in making sure it meets expectations. Treading the fine line between functional and garish without a stumble, the XPS One is sleek and sexy whilst employing a few subtle tricks to avoid the dreaded boy racer look of many high-end systems.

The Dell logo glimmers beneath the 20in screen, small enough not to draw too much attention. The rest of the glass-fronted panel - there's not a plastic bezel in sight - appears blank on first inspection, but move your hand to within six inches of the bottom-right corner and a full set of media controls glow gently into life, disappearing again after a few seconds idle.

The sensitivity of these blue controls is perfect, and they cleverly give just the slightest buzz of feedback to let you know your touch has been registered. Next to them, a crescent of blue gleams when a disc is inserted into the slot-loading DVD drive, and it all vanishes again when watching films in a dark room.

The screen itself isn't full HD, but its 1,680 x 1,050 resolution is standard for 20in displays. The glass front makes it difficult to use in well-lit rooms due to the high reflectiveness, but in a bedroom or study it'll be fine.

Our DisplayMate tests gave it an almost clean bill of health; the only slight weakness came in its contrast at the top end, failing to distinguish the final seven or eight shades from the white background. It has a cool tone to its colours, but the sharpness and clarity make for a top-quality display, as is essential in an all-in-one PC.

We were disappointed to find that the optical drive is currently limited to a standard 8x DVD writer, particularly as US owners can add a Blu-ray drive for an extra fee. A Dell spokesman assured us that the Blu-ray option is coming to the UK sometime this year, but with no firm date you'll have to make do with standard definition DVDs if you shell out today.

Thankfully, though, the integrated 5W stereo speakers make any movie an immersive experience. With surprising volume and a decent

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amount of bass, they're closer in power and quality to those of a proper TV than a computer monitor, and another touch-sensitive button flicks the display off so you can enjoy music without distraction.

The XPS One comes with a single hybrid TV tuner, so watching and recording two channels at once isn't possible. It's not the end of the world, as most won't be buying the XPS One to use as their main living room TV, but it's definitely worth bearing in mind if you're looking for a space-saving Media Center system.

Along with the tuner comes a standard Media Center remote control, and the RF keyboard can be used for the same purpose. The media panel to the right of the keys is also touch-sensitive, and there's a small touchpad for use on a lap.

The glass base and silver neck are fixed in place, but the screen tilts enough to suit different eye levels. While the power connector has been coloured red to blend in with the back panel, the use of a light grey cable is a little jarring. An array of the usual ports is divided between the rear and the left side of the screen, where you'll find a useful card reader for all the major formats.

But a look at the internal components brings us to our only major gripe with the XPS One. The model we have here is the XPS One RED, a premium edition under Dell's Product Red charity brand - hence Bono's appearance - and it comes at a £300 premium over the standard black version.

For that you get a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 over a 2.2GHz E4500 processor; a 500GB hard disk instead of 320GB; Radeon HD 2400 graphics over Intel's integrated GMA X3100; and Vista Ultimate rather than Home Premium. Microsoft and Dell will also donate $80 to charity if you shell out for the RED version.

This may seem generous, but we're not convinced those few upgrades come anywhere close to being worth the £300 premium. With 2GB of RAM, the processing power of both models is plenty (the Red scored 1.21 in our benchmarks), and you'd only really need the ageing and underpowered ATi graphics to take the brunt of 1080p video decoding - the lack of a Blu-ray drive renders this moot. And if charity is the main draw you may as well donate £40 yourself with the savings you make.

We therefore can't recommend this premium Red edition, but the £850 black XPS One (D03X101) remains hugely appealing. The single tuner and lack of Blu-ray may put some off, but the fact that it costs £350 less than the previously A-Listed Sony VAIO VGC-LT2 is more than enough compensation. It's also very similar in price and specification to the 20in iMac, although obviously the cost of adding Windows will sway things in the Dell's favour.

It may not "redefine the personal computer in the home" - there have been enough decent systems of this ilk before to suggest they aren't hugely popular with mainstream consumers - but as all-in-one PCs go, the black Dell XPS One is the best we've seen.