Although Apple has been championing the all-in-one design with its iMac line for almost a decade now, there’s been a recent resurgence in teh form factor lately, first with the Gateway One. Lately, Dell has been wading into the arena, not-so-secretly teasing and showing off its upcoming XPS One all-in-one-system, in which the entire computer s basically tucked into a 20-inch widescreen display with speakers on the sides, a smoked glass base, and an media-friendly wireless keyboard. Although Dell isn’t expected to formally announced the XPS One until November 19, it has already posted pricing information for four XPS One configurations, and the news has some folks excited: configurations will start at $1,499, and move up to $2,499 for a system with a Blu-ray writer.
The base configuration—dubbed “The Essential One”—sports an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, Intel GMA grapphics, and a 16× double layer DVD burner, along with what will be the XPS One standard complement of USB and FireWire ports, an 8-in-1 media card reader. At the high end (“The Entertainment One”), Dell offers a 500 GB hard drive, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 CPU, an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics controller, and a slot-loading Blu-ray burner. Interim configurations (“The Music One” and “The Performance One”) sport price tags of $17.48 and $1,999, respectively.
The XPS One systems will ship with a wireless keyboard and mouse (thek keyboard features an integrated trackpad and media control keys), Windows Vista Home Premium, a digital/analog TV Tuner with remove, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless networking.
Dell seems to be positioning the XPS One as an elegant computing and entertainment solution for design-conscious consumers, rather like Apple’s own high-end iMacs, although the units may also appeal to users looking for a media center system for a smaller space, like a bedroom, office, den, or dorm room. As with all all-in-one systems, the appeal is usually in the integrated design…and so is the heartache, since most all-in-one-designs begin to fall down once user start attaching cable-sprouting peripherals—while the XPS One’s back-mounted ports look like they’ll be serviceable for items left plugged-in all the time (printers, Ethernet, etc.), the high-on-the-side ports intended for cameras, music players, and other take-and-go peripherals may leave a little to be desired.
