Dell XPS One versus Apple iMac
Dell have finally launched the XPS One in the UK. The all-in-one system is clearly intended to be a challenger to Apple’s iMac, but how does it shape up?
| XPS One | iMac | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo |
| RAM | 2GB | 1GB |
| Graphics | Integrated Intel UMA | ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB GDDR3 |
| Screen | 20″ WSXGA – 1680×1050 resolution at 16.7 million colours | 20″ WSXGA – 1680×1050 pixels at 16.7 million colours |
| HDD | 320GB SATA 7200-RPM | 250GB SATA 7200-RPM |
| Price | £999 | £799 |
Both come with a one-year hardware warranty, though Dell’s is on-site.
Both can be user-upgraded to 4GB RAM for very little, so the difference between the two is marginal. The XPS has the faster CPU and larger HDD, but the iMac has dedicated graphics. There’s little to choose between them except for the price and, of course, the design which will be a matter of taste.
I’m slightly surprised that the base-spec XPS One is so much more expensive then the iMac. I’m used to the “design premium” of Apple products making them the more expensive option, but in this case it simply isn’t.
With the inclusion of Boot Camp, you can run Windows XP or Vista *shudder* on the iMac, where you can’t (easily) run Mac OSX on the Dell machine. If you straddle the Windows and OSX worlds, this is likely to make the decision for you.
Personally, I don’t like the look of the XPS One and wouldn’t pay the price for the all-in-one design when you could buy a better spec’d Dell with a separate flat panel for a good bit less. But, at the end of the day, I’m a Mac girl at heart :-)
No comparison, iMac beats it hands down, you simply don’t need that much ram unless your running vista ( as lets face it your not going to be running anything too intensive on intel intergrated graphics. In terms of design dells is an improvement on the Sony vaio all in one, but it still looks rigid and ugly, if you don’t care about such things you would get a cheaper more powerful base station. Your gonnna love the new iMac, we have them at college, they look and work great, the keyboard might take some getting used to, its not for me.