Review Don’t worry, the XPS 14z may be one of Dell’s new “thin and powerful” range, but it doesn’t fit into the superslim Ultrabook category so there’s absolutely no need whatsoever for a gratuitous comparison with Apple‘s MacBook Air.
It’s certainly a more stylish affair than the businesslike hardware I’m used to seeing from Dell. The silver-grey aluminium casing and curved edges give it a very smart and classy look, and the 14in unit is just 23mm thick, even though it houses a slot-loading DVD drive. It’s not too heavy either, coming in at a whisker under 2kg.
Prices start at £799 for a model with a dual-core Core i5 processor running at 2.4GHz, 4GB of Ram and a 500GB hard disk, although the unit I tested had 6GB of memory, which bumps the price up to £849. There’s also a Core i7 model that costs £999. Dropping the hard drive and adding a 256GB SSD take the price to £1299. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Despite the original Streak being one of the first devices of its type on the market, Dell’s Android tablet didn’t really set the word alight. A less than fresh version of Android, a high price tag and a distance between the screen corners too close to many a smartphone, all counted against it.
Clean slate? Dell’s Streak 7
Now we have version 2.0 with a 7in screen, a 1GHz dual-core CPU, Android 2.2 and a much more realistic sub-£300 price tag, £100 less than its unloved 5in sibling would have set you back at launch around 12 months ago. Read the rest of this entry »
You know where you stand with business-oriented laptops. They’re chunky, dull-looking machines with all the pizazz of a rainy afternoon in Chester. Dell’s Vostro range has been a case in point: a collection of low-power, low-charisma laptops likely to appeal only to the most frugal of IT department bean counters.
Dell’s Vostro V13: not your average business PC design
Until now. When we pulled the V13 from its box we had to double check we’d received the right machine. We’d been promised a model from a range of business laptops costing from a paltry £422 inc. VAT, and instead we got a slim, gleaming machine Steve Jobs would be proud to pull from a shoulder bag.
The V13 bears more of a resemblance to the MacBook Air – reviewed here – or Dell’s desirable-but-expensive Adamo range. The aluminium-clad machine is a gorgeous sliver of technology whose quality feel and good looks easily disguise its bargain-basement price. Read the rest of this entry »
On the face of it, Apple’s Mac Mini makes most ‘small form-factor’ PCs look like a pile of junk. The Mini’s ultra-compact design also makes it ideal for use in an office or as a stylish little media centre in the living room. Evidently, Dell has taken note – hence the appearance of its Inspiron Zino range of compact PCs.
Splits from Atom: Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD
It’s always been surprising that no Windows PC has ever really come along to challenge the Mac Mini – especially given Apple’s creeping price hikes. The Mac Mini is now far from the low-cost Mac that it was originally intended to be, with the cheapest incarnation currently priced at £510. That’s hardly a bargain given that it doesn’t include a monitor, keyboard or mouse.
We’ve seen a few compact ‘nettop’ boxes, such as Acer’s Revo, in recent months, but these have tended to use low-power Atom processors that couldn’t pass muster as a proper Desktop PC. However, Dell’s Zino HD packs a more powerful Desktop processor.
Dell simply describes the Inspiron Zino HD as a “mini Desktop computer” but its design clearly suggests that it’s intended as a living room media centre too. Measuring 195mm square and 85mm high, it’s larger than the 163 x 163 x 50mm Mac Mini. The Zino HD isn’t quite as neatly designed as the Apple, either. The black plastic chassis looks a bit cheap when sitting alongside the silvery metallic trim of the Mac. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Dell’s 2145cn is a mid-range multifunction device, designed for small office and modest workgroup use, but includes several, big-machine functions. Unusually, it’s also built around a colour laser engine.
Dell’s 2145cn: multifunctional with duplex Printing and scanning
There’s only one thing you can be pretty certain of with a Dell printer – it’ll be black. It could come from a variety of sources – Lexmark and Samsung are favourites – and be either good or poor value, but it’ll not have coloured covers. The 2145cn is tall enough to be slightly awkward on the desk, particularly if you add the optional, 500-sheet paper tray.
In fact, you’re probably going to need this, as the machine comes as standard with capacity for only 250 sheets, which is barely enough. Even with the 100-sheet multipurpose tray, which swings down from the front, you’ll still be filling the main tray too often. Read the rest of this entry »
