Model: Inspiron One 2310 Desktop
Manufacturer: Dell
Price: £550-700
Availability: Out Now
The personal computer market is, to put it kindly, a competitive one. With tablets garnering a lot of praise and having the ability to wirelessly connect to printers, browse the internet and play all manner of games, it’s understandable that people might be drawn by the swagger of these devices. Being able to add docks and keyboards to these devices make them even more appealing whilst aesthetically, a shiny touch screen tablet is much more appealing to the masses.
So here we have the Dell Inspiron One, a home computer entirely encased in a touch screen monitor outer shell. Does it do enough to steer the public back towards a good old fashioned home computer? Read on to find out!
AESTHETICS: When first removing the Dell Inspiron One 2310 from it’s packaging and booting it up, the first thing that comes to mind is how stunning the 23″ Full HD screen looks. Crisp and clear, you couldn’t really ask for much more from it. It’s quite telling that almost any visitor would comment on the Inspiron, enquiring about what it was and how much it would cost them to acquire one!
Aside from that, the unit itself is neat and tidy with a well hidden stand that you can adjust to meet your needs. It seems to straddle the fence between professional looking and something you’d like to show off in your home. A row of these in an office wouldn’t look out of place, and despite it’s size, it would look just as fancy sat on a coffee table. It’s a reasonably heavy unit, but not so heavy that you will find it impossible to move around the house. The only negative is that due to it being a touch screen device, when turned off if looks filthy unless you clean it regularly!
Keyboard Cat, as drawn on the Dell Inspiron One 2310...Seriously!
PERFORMANCE: Like any PC worth it’s salt, to a power user the Inspiron lives and dies by it’s performance and in this case, you certainly won’t be let down. During this review, the computer was stress tested in different ways as well as just used in day-to-day business and for the most part it was more than adequate.
After calibration, the touch screen is a joy to play around with, and whilst it’s hard to see anyone ever replacing the included wireless keyboard and mouse on a permanent basis for the touch screen controls, browsing the web with the screen is quick and easy. Touching the screen, it is super responsive, as good as any tablet out there.
Included because of the touch screen is software for the budding artists out there, and if you’ve ever used a tablet before, you’ll feel right at home with the standard touch controls for all manner of image work. Unlike an iPad however, you can attack the Inspiron with a stylus for greater precision, which is most welcome if you plan on doing any serious artwork.
Out of the box you also have plenty of media tools and software to play around with, even Skype is pre-installed to work in unison with the built in webcam and microphone. The casual user will have games of touchscreen Mahong and Solitaire up and running within minutes.
As with most things, the Inspiron is not faultless and occasionally it won’t load something as quickly as you’d hope, but it’s difficult to know if this is a hardware issue, or an operating system one and with some tweaking these problems are almost completely negatable.
The Inspiron is a very stable PC, and in all the time it was used for this review, only one crash/freeze was recorded, and even then it was more likely to be an operating system failure than a hardware one. Consequently, even for a power user, the Inspiron is a sturdy workhorse capable of keeping up with most things you might throw at it.
Bundled with the unit, you will also get a wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse is excellent, and whilst the keyboard isn’t bad (it has a wrist rest attached) personally I’d suggest there are better keyboards out there.
Wherever you go, she will find you...
SPECIFICATIONS: Whilst you can obviously tailor the Inspiron One to match your needs, here are some of the choices on offer;
- Intel Core (up to i5)
- Multi-touch Windows 7 Compliant Full HD (1920×1080) Screen
- Up to 6GB RAM
- Up to ATI Radeon 1GB
- Up to 1TB SATA 3.5″ HDD
- Up to Blu-Ray Combo (SATA)
- Integrated 2.0MP Webcam/Microphone
VERDICT: Considering what is on offer inside the Inspiron One 2310, it really is an inexpensive alternative to a standard tower-based personal computer. For someone who prefers not to use a laptop, but doesn’t want to waste the space that a tower takes up, this might be the best solution.
If you are in the market for a new PC and you’d like it to be a joyous experience, whisper quiet and perform well all whilst looking great, then the Dell Inspiron One 2310 should be a very serious consideration indeed.
