Page 21 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

ALL IN ONE P C ❘ £1,799 from D ell www.snipca.com/26308
HOW W E T EST
DellXPS27All-in-One7 A ll in One Computeractive is owned b y D ennis
Publishing, which owns a h i-tech facility
Sounds expensive for t esting t he latest technology. Y o u’ll
often r ead r eferences to our b enchmark
testing, which is a m ethod of assessing
products using the s ame c riteria. For
If you’re bored w ith t oday’s example, w e t est the s peed of every
minimalist m etal PCs, y ou PC and t he battery life o f e very tablet
might a ppreciate t he, u m, in exactly t he same way. This makes
unique design o f t his n ew our r eviews authoritative, rigorous
all-in-one P C. Dell’s XPS and a ccurate.
laptops h ave s uch s lim bezels Dennis P ublishing a lso o wns
around the s creen t hat t hey the m agazines PC Pro, Computer
almost disappear. I n c ontrast, Shopper and Web U ser and t he
the X PS 27 not only r etains websites Expert R eviews (www.
black b orders but has expertreviews.co.uk) a nd Alphr ( www.
expanded the b ottom e dge alphr.com). This means w e c an test
to accommodate s ix hefty thousands of products before c hoosing
speakers. W ith t his a nd a c hunkyunky the m ost r elevant f or Computeractive.
base, t he whole t hing looks as
much like a 1 990s p ortable h i-fii-fi a s a s FAIR AND I MPARTIAL
it does a m odern P C. On closer two tweeters on the f ront, i t h as two Our w riters f ollow s trict g uidelines t o
inspection, t he XPS27 uses more plastic passive r adiators to pump out bass. E ven ensure the r eviews are f air and
than Apple’s s lender design a nd Asus’ so, t here’s no ignoring the f act t hat t he impartial. T he manufacturer has no
bronze-metal Zen A iO, b ut it might h ave aluminium i Mac is better value, and involvement in our t ests.
greater a ppeal a s a n a ll-purpose h ome when you c onsider h ow high Apple’s
PC and m edia c entre. prices are, that’s a s erious concern. OUR A WARDS
The model we tested c ame w ith a n I ntel We award e very product
This o dd-looking PC i7 processor, w hich p erformed very well, ★★★★★ that gets f ive s tars o ur
I T!
BUY
Buy I t! stamp of approval.
o f
but with this plus a t ouchscreen, 1 6GB
It means w e w ere
has g reat speakers and memory, a R adeon R X 5 70 and a f aster extremely i mpressed by the p roduct,
512GB
S SD to replace the h ybrid drive,
a g ood touchscreen, the p rice r ises to £2,699. Y ou can buy a and w e t hink you w ill b e t oo.
more powerful i Mac for l ess, although it
but i t’s e xpensive won’t h ave D ell’s t ouchscreen. Every product t hat gets a
The screen delivered excellent i mage four-star review is given
quality , according t o o ur colour m eter, the G reat Pick award. We
One t hing it does share w ith A pple’s reproducing t he whole sRGB range highly r ecommend these
range i s t he eye-watering price. In fact, accurately . We prefer Apple’s 5K screen, products, a lthough t hey j ust f ail to meet
the c heapest X PS 27 is £50 m ore t han t he though, a nd for t his m oney you c ould the h igh s tandard of our B uy It! w inners.
27in Retina 5K iMac, d espite a s lower buy a d esktop PC with a h igher s pec
3.0GHz i5-7400 p rocessor. B oth h ave and a f antastic monitor, and s till have PRICES
8GB o f m emory and a 1 TB hybrid drive several h undred pounds’ c hange. Our r eviews contain a l ink to the b est
(a hard drive w ith a s mall cache t o s peed We like t he articulated s tand that price w e f oundonlineatthe t ime o f p ress.
it up), but the i Mac comes w ith a n A MD comes w ith D ell’s t ouchscreen models
Radeon Pro 5 70 graphics c ard, w hich i s and l ets you w ork w ith t he screen almost
an optional extra o n t he XPS 27. D ell’s flat, like M icrosoft’s Surface Studio. VERDICT: We like the i dea o f a c lutter-
speakers are m ore t han g ood enough to However, the X PS 27 doesn’t e ven s upport free home PC system that doesn’t
avoid the n eed for a s eparate set – b esides a p ressure-sensitive s tylus, so what are compromise on performance, but we
the f our f ull-range speaker d rivers and you g oing to do with it – p lay S olitaire? can’t j ustify the p rice o f D ell’s e ffort
★★★☆☆
SPECIFICATIONS
As tested (£2,699): 3.6GHz Intel Core i7-7700 q uad- ALTERNATIVE: Apple i Mac
core processor •• 16GB memory •• 512GB S SD •• AMD 27in From £1,749 If the m ore
Radeon RX 570 g raphics • 2 7in 3 840x2160-pixel elegant m acOS doesn’t s uit
screen •• 802.11ac W i-Fi •• Bluetooth 4.0 •• 2x USB you, install y our o wn copy of
Type-C Thunderbolt 3 p orts •• 4x USB 3.0 ports •• Windows and i t’s s till b etter
Gigabit Ethernet •• HDMI port •• DisplayPort •• Windows
10 Home •• 435x625x80mm ( HxWxD) •• 17.3kg value f or money
• • One-year w arranty www.snipca.com/26308

20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2018 21