Dell XPS 27 All-in-one An all-in-one PC, but is it one for all?

If you’re bored with today’s minimalist metal PCS, you might appreciate the, um, unique design of this new all-in-one PC. Dell’s XPS laptops have such slim bezels around the screen that they almost disappear. In contrast, the XPS 27 not only retains black borders but has expanded the bottom edge to accommodate six hefty speakers. With this and a chunky unky base, the whole thing looks as much like a 1990s portable hi-i-fi as it does a modern PC. On closer inspection, the XPS27 uses more plastic than Apple’s slender design and Asus’ bronze-metal Zen AIO, but it might have greater appeal as an all-purpose home PC and media centre.

One thing it does share with Apple’s range is the eye-watering price. In fact, the cheapest XPS 27 is £50 more than the 27in Retina 5K imac, despite a slower 3.0GHZ i5-7400 processor. Both have 8GB of memory and a 1TB hybrid drive (a hard drive with a small cache to speed it up), but the imac comes with an AMD Radeon Pro 570 graphics card, which is an optional extra on the XPS 27. Dell’s speakers are more than good enough to avoid the need for a separate set – besides the four full-range speaker drivers and two tweeters on the front, it has two passive radiators to pump out bass. Even so, there’s no ignoring the fact that the aluminium imac is better value, and when you consider how high Apple’s prices are, that’s a serious concern.

The model we tested came with an Intel i7 processor, which performed very well, but with this plus a touchscreen, 16GB of memory, a Radeon RX 570 and a faster 512GB SSD to replace the hybrid drive, the price rises to £2,699. You can buy a more powerful imac for less, although it won’t have Dell’s touchscreen.

The screen delivered excellent image quality, according to our colour meter, reproducing the whole SRGB range accurately. We prefer Apple’s 5K screen, though, and for this money you could buy a desktop PC with a higher spec and a fantastic monitor, and still have several hundred pounds’ change.

We like the articulated stand that comes with Dell’s touchscreen models and lets you work with the screen almost flat, like Microsoft’s Surface Studio. However, the XPS 27 doesn’t even support a pressure-sensitive stylus, so what are you going to do with it – play Solitaire?

This odd-looking PC has great speakers and a good touchscreen, but it’s expensive