November 1st, 2008
Dell updates XPS One with 24-inch 1080p screen
Last month, I asked if people would consider using an all-in-one PC as their HDTV. Now Dell is giving you another option to consider with its upgrade to the XPS One PC.
When it was released last year, the XPS One only came with a 20-inch display, which kept it competitive with the base iMac but prevented it from displaying 1080p high-def content in its full resolution, which was an obvious drawback if you wanted to add the optional Blu-ray player. Now as competitors like HP and Sony have bumped up their all-in-ones to bigger screens, Dell has followed with a 24-inch option for the XPS One (creatively called the XPS One 24). Like other home-theater-inspired all-in-ones, the XPS One 24 comes with a built-in TV tuner for watching and recording programming and has updated speakers with a built-in subwoofer.
The XPS One 24 comes in two configurations, both coming with 4GB of RAM, Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor, a DVD burner, and a media remote. The $1,699 option ships with a 320GB hard drive and Intel GMA X4500HD integrated graphics, while the $1,999 version ups the hard drive a 750GB unit and adds a 512MB2 Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card. (Don’t get too excited about playing new games with that card, since it’s a mobile GPU.) While Dell says you can get the XPS One 24 with an optional Blu-ray player, there doesn’t appear to be a way to add it currently on the Dell Web site. In addition, Dell is offering two configs under the XPS One 24 (PRODUCT)RED name, which means that a portion of the sale ($50-$80) goes to fighting AIDS in Africa. You get a choice of gray or white versions in addition to the standard black color, and the pricier config ($2,299) ships with Windows Home Ultimate instead of Home Premium.
The new XPS One 24 will start shipping in about 3 weeks. I’m not totally in love with its aesthetics and I’m not a fan of making people paying more than $1,500 for a system have to shell out extra for a Blu-ray player when plenty of laptops in the same price range come with one standard. What do you think? Would you consider buying this?
Sean Portnoy spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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