The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) ($1,099 direct) is an all-in-one desktop PC with a touch screen, Blu-ray, and competitive performance numbers. While it's not going to usurp the HP TouchSmart 310 ($1,159 direct, 4 stars) of its Editors' Choice, the Dell Inspiron One is certainly a viable alternative—especially if you're looking for a primary media-center PC.
Design & Features
The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) has a 23-inch widescreen with a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution, which means full 1,080p HD viewing. Its frame is made of black plastic that was designed to resemble brushed wood. The rest of the chassis is silver-colored, except for the transparent stand. The desktop is raised high enough that there is a gap to slide the wireless keyboard underneath—a welcome feature when in want of desk space.
On the side of the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) are a few easy-access ports and buttons, including volume and brightness controls, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, Blu-ray player, and audio-in and -out. In the back are 4 more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, composite video, S/P DIF, TV Tuner, and Ethernet. It would have been nice to have seen some future-forward external expansion ports like eSATA or USB 3.0. But USB 2.0 will suffice for most of your external hard drive needs—though the data transfer speeds will not be as fast. The Inspiron One does come with 1TB of space that should be able to contain all your multimedia files.
The touch interface that comes with the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is the "Dell Stage," and while I enjoyed some of the added games and apps, I felt like it was a completely separate experience. The Dell Stage is essentially a dock bar that sits on the Windows 7 desktop and you can launch touch apps from there. In comparison, the HP TouchSmart 310 has a whole interface dedicated to touch that you can launch on top of Windows 7. I would have liked to see something more advance than a toolbar with no app store, but maybe version 2.0 will have more to offer.
Performance
The Dell Inspiron One (Blu-ray) comes outfitted with a 2.4GHz AMD Athlon II X4610e processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics chipset. With these components, the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) scored well on our PCMark Vantage test (5,354), which measures overall computing performance. Compared with the HP 310 that sports a slightly faster 2.5GHz Athlon II X4 615e processor, it scored 656 points less than the Inspiron One (Blu-ray). The HP310, however, bested the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) by mere seconds in our Handbrake video encoding test (2:56 HP, 3:03 Dell), Cinebench R11.5 (2.82, 2.7), and Photoshop CS5 (6:42, 6:56).
The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is no 3D powerhouse, but it faired well in our 3DMark Vantage test (6,572). However, it ran Lost Planet 2 at a slideshow pace of 11 frames per second (fps) on Middle quality and it couldn't even run our Crysis test. Your gaming experience is probably going to be limited to games like Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and Farmville.
The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) has all the performance to make it a decent all-in-one desktop, but a touch PC must have the added features to make the touch-functionality worthwhile. As it stands the HP TouchSmart 310 has the better applications coupled with its multi-touch screen.
Design & Features
The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) has a 23-inch widescreen with a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution, which means full 1,080p HD viewing. Its frame is made of black plastic that was designed to resemble brushed wood. The rest of the chassis is silver-colored, except for the transparent stand. The desktop is raised high enough that there is a gap to slide the wireless keyboard underneath—a welcome feature when in want of desk space.
On the side of the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) are a few easy-access ports and buttons, including volume and brightness controls, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, Blu-ray player, and audio-in and -out. In the back are 4 more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, composite video, S/P DIF, TV Tuner, and Ethernet. It would have been nice to have seen some future-forward external expansion ports like eSATA or USB 3.0. But USB 2.0 will suffice for most of your external hard drive needs—though the data transfer speeds will not be as fast. The Inspiron One does come with 1TB of space that should be able to contain all your multimedia files.
The touch interface that comes with the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is the "Dell Stage," and while I enjoyed some of the added games and apps, I felt like it was a completely separate experience. The Dell Stage is essentially a dock bar that sits on the Windows 7 desktop and you can launch touch apps from there. In comparison, the HP TouchSmart 310 has a whole interface dedicated to touch that you can launch on top of Windows 7. I would have liked to see something more advance than a toolbar with no app store, but maybe version 2.0 will have more to offer.
Specifications
- Type
- Mainstream, All-in-one, Digital Entertainment System
- Processor Family
- AMD Athlon II X4
- RAM
- 8 GB
- Storage Capacity (as Tested)
- 1000 GB
- Graphics Card
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
- Primary Optical Drive
- Blu-Ray Disc
- Operating System
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
The Dell Inspiron One (Blu-ray) comes outfitted with a 2.4GHz AMD Athlon II X4610e processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics chipset. With these components, the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) scored well on our PCMark Vantage test (5,354), which measures overall computing performance. Compared with the HP 310 that sports a slightly faster 2.5GHz Athlon II X4 615e processor, it scored 656 points less than the Inspiron One (Blu-ray). The HP310, however, bested the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) by mere seconds in our Handbrake video encoding test (2:56 HP, 3:03 Dell), Cinebench R11.5 (2.82, 2.7), and Photoshop CS5 (6:42, 6:56). The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is no 3D powerhouse, but it faired well in our 3DMark Vantage test (6,572). However, it ran Lost Planet 2 at a slideshow pace of 11 frames per second (fps) on Middle quality and it couldn't even run our Crysis test. Your gaming experience is probably going to be limited to games like Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and Farmville.
The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) has all the performance to make it a decent all-in-one desktop, but a touch PC must have the added features to make the touch-functionality worthwhile. As it stands the HP TouchSmart 310 has the better applications coupled with its multi-touch screen.
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