Product Reviews

Desktop PCs may have begun life as oversized beige boxes, but the onward march of miniaturisation is very much in evidence this month. The Asus Eee Box has the ultra-low budget market covered, but many still want a decent level of performance from their mini-PC. Enter the Studio Hybrid, Dell's long-awaited addition to the small form-factor fray.

We have to admit to being rather underwhelmed by the Hybrid when we were first introduced at an initial briefing. Short, round and rather squat, it didn't match what we'd expected from the design minds that brought us the gorgeous XPS M1330 and M1530 laptops. But, several weeks and one freshly delivered review unit later, we must admit it's actually become rather alluring.

Our model came shod with the standard Slate Grey shell and, partnered with the glossy black fascia and gently glowing Dell logo, it exudes understated class. Set it next to a fine-looking TFT or in the shadow of a huge HDTV and, while it's not the slimline beauty we might have hoped for, it won't disgrace itself. And if the Slate Grey shell is just that bit too understated for your tastes, different coloured options are available for £29 apiece. More exotic tastes, and wallets, can opt for the supremely expensive Bamboo shell, which costs £90.

Delve beneath the glossy looks, though, and there's a convincing specification lurking beneath. The Intel Core 2 Duo T8100, running at 2.1GHz, is the fastest CPU on offer in the range and, while our sample came with just 2GB of memory, it comes as welcome news that all Studio Hybrids will be shipping with 3GB as a bare minimum. Storage is catered for by a 320GB laptop hard disk and the price above also includes a snazzy slot-loading Blu-ray reader/DVD writer.

Muted performance

As the Hybrid uses laptop parts, the score of 1.00 in our benchmarks - equivalent to a 3.2GHz Pentium D system - comes as little surprise. It's plenty for everyday tasks, but some way behind the 1.36 of Transtec's Senyo 610 and, for the sake of comparison, barely any faster than the 0.97 of a £425 laptop, the Samsung R510. If it's real desktop PC power in a shoebox you're looking for, the Hybrid isn't too obliging.

It's also a tad disappointing, in this current configuration at least, as "Dell's greenest consumer desktop". Sitting idle on Vista's Aero-coated desktop, the Hybrid drew a modest 26W - a result

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which compares favourably to the Transtec's 31W. Upping the ante, however, the Dell consumed a far less impressive 45W at full tilt, leaving it swallowing a whole 9W more than the significantly quicker Transtec. With Dell intending to eventually furnish the Hybrid with Intel's recently announced dual-core Atom processor, it'll be interesting to see whether that provides a better blend of performance and efficiency.

But one thing's for sure - there just isn't enough power here to do the Blu-ray drive justice. DVI, HDMI and an optical digital output are all ready to ensconce the Hybrid in the finest of home cinema setups, but the accompanying Intel integrated graphics let the side down. With the GMA X3100 chipset lacking the dedicated hardware to decode H.264 and VC1 streams (unlike its newer cousin, the GMA X4500), the hard work is left to a dedicated Broadcom BCM70010 video decoder sitting in one of the Hybrid's mini-PCI slots. The only problem is, it doesn't really work very well.

Blu-ray blues

Initially, all our Blu-ray test discs suffered from skipped frames and juddering. Turning off Windows Aero and disabling as many startup programs and services as we could seemed to help a little, as did enabling the hard disk performance mode in the Hybrid's BIOS, but playback still remained far from smooth.

Playing back discs with our own copy of CyberLink's PowerDVD 8 Ultra, rather than Dell's MediaDirect, generally gave smoother results but also saw CPU usage shoot up from peaks of 60-70% to peaks of 100%, causing the video to skip frames. The spike in CPU usage implies that PowerDVD doesn't take advantage of the Broadcom HD acceleration card, but with MediaDirect jerking and juddering constantly, and PowerDVD stuttering in high-bitrate scenes, the Studio Hybrid finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It's a real shame that Dell didn't provide a more robust specification, or alternatively a more modest one, as the Studio Hybrid shows a lot of promise. The chassis is compact and good looking, and with a cheaper Core 2 Duo, or Atom for that matter, as well as a more frugal set of components, the Hybrid could be an attractive budget option for many consumers.

And, at the other end of the scale, if Dell threw out the older generation Intel components in favour of newer parts such as the latest P8000 Core 2 Duo family and Blu-ray-friendly GMA X4500 graphics, the pricier specifications would be much more enticing to those seeking a compact, powerful Media Center PC for the lounge.

The final nail is driven into the Hybrid's slate-grey coffin courtesy of Dell's pricing.
Our review unit costs £680, without a monitor, and with ropey Blu-ray playback to boot. Frankly, we've seen better. The A-Listed Transtec Senyo 610 is faster, smaller and just as green (although a little less media focused), so for a current price of less than £520 it sends the glossy, sleek, but ultimately disappointing Dell Studio Hybrid back to the drawing board.