Gadgetory

hey guys this is Dimitri with her onyx and welcome back to another review all-in-one desktop PCs are still lagging in popularity because they compete with ultra books that are a lot more portable and price wise they just don't offer the same performance if you were to build your own for example and this leaves the question then where do all-in-one PCs fit in considering more powerful options exists like a conventional desktop well for compact and tight spaces all in ones are certainly best for stationary machines that look clean and best of all are very simple today were going to take a look at an arrow from delq which they claim to be the thinnest and lightest solution within this category this is the XPS 18 now the variant configuration and pricing so be expected to pay around $1,400 for the i7 version eight gigs of ram 500 gigabyte hard drive plus a 32 gigabyte SSD while the lower models include weaker processors and less ram and they do not feature the SSD nor the power dock while the third gen Ivy Bridge CPUs are adequate for casual use there are unfortunately no Haswell options at the moment from the name this is an 18 point 4 inch touch I P s display with full HD support and given Windows 8 is pre-installed you get to experience the rest with all the finger gestures the way it was meant to be the viewing angles in this machine are pretty good so is the contrast overall the display is beautiful although the bezel could be a little smaller like with any touch display though the fingerprint Magnus is certainly present and there's really no way around that if you constantly use the touch interface the unit itself is actually quite light weighting just under 5 pounds and surprisingly thin at 0.69 inches it does stand out closer to the top which makes a big difference if you're holding this in portrait mode and given its size it's actually quite portable you can use it on your lap or lay it on a flat surface just remember this is not meant to replace your tablet but instead complement tight spaces now one thing I would have loved to see as a wall mount I could see a lot of potential use for commercial purposes something customers can interact with while in the store for example and this feature however is emitted which is a letdown there are two USB ports headphone and power jack hidden card reader and the full Walker on one side and a power button on the other we also have a front facing webcam and capacitive windows button at the front of the device stereo speakers are located on each side so projection is good regardless of how the device is positioned plus it comes equipped with Dells own sound drivers to boost the volume adjust equalizer and set your presets but honestly the audio out of this thing is very harsh it likes any bass response and the highs in the mid range is so overly emphasized it is extremely unpleasant take a listen here this is the highest volume without any enhancements and now even boosting the volume introduces very harsh sound for comparison take a listen to how my travel notebooks sound with a much improved bass response in overall listen to my favorite tunes and explore the world of audio so informed AIO pc speaker quality i think is crucial to avoid having to opt out for a dedicated set so a little disappointing from Dell all models of the ex PC 18 comes with its own Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to keep up with a portable factor for $1,400 I was expecting something less plastic perhaps a backlit keyboard would be nice I didn't experience any issues with the keyboard nor the mouse so aside from expecting more they function perfectly fine at the back we have a pair of smooth rubberized feet that allow the unit to stand at an appropriate angle but if you do decide to get the optional power dock you get a more conventional style all-in-one with the display lifted and with angle adjustments the power cable is routed cleanly through the rear cut out and is basically hidden and once placed on the dock the X PC xviii will charge with a subtle LED to indicate its point in and charging you can easily lift the device off the dock as it's not on any clips but sits tight on magnetic backing I like this dog it's heavy and doesn't wobble but it is quite low with no height adjustments and a few extra USB ports also would be nice and I ran into this very annoying issue while either taking the screen off the dock or lacing it back on now what happens is the charging notifications starts to play in loops and the touch interface stuff yes the mouse and keyboard work just fine but requires a restart or sleep mode to be enabled to resolve the issue it happened on both the replacement unit and the first one we received and they actually discovered this issue completely by accident by plugging in a USB from the side and the screen slightly lifted off the dock and went back down this is either a driver issue or hardware but about three out of the five times I took it off the dock I had to either restart the machine or put it to sleep which is unacceptable for a product in this category the ex PC 18 however does perform as advertised the i5 version we have here was totally fine handling blu-ray video stream online browsing and office work which this is intended for it doesn't do well for gaming with the HD 4000 graphics card and with any heavy load the fans were certainly audible also another issue I noticed was with the headphone jack there was a slight hiss loud enough to notice with low volume and I wasn't expecting amazing audio quality but I would have settled for clean audio now I'm trying to place the X PC 18 within the market of all-in-one PCs as this to simplify is a tablet on a stand and would serve perfectly fine as the family PC in the living room on being able to carry it around off the dock has its benefits not for me personally but say you place it in your kitchen counter while making dinner on your balcony for a show or a coffee table for a Skype call this certainly is not for everyone especially those who don't care by the touch screen or work mainly from a laptop but suit compact spaces for stationery purposes as the five hour battery life doesn't exactly serve the needs for portable users and to conclude Dell managed to create a very stylish and simple ayoh with a decent touch and full HD display it is very light and compact solution for tight spaces and performs like it should for the specs however the issue with the charging dock is a major turnoff especially after the two of the review samples had experienced the same issue and at this price point that's absolutely unacceptable also I wish the sound card was improved to get rid of the hissing headphones and focus on better quality stereo speakers so users can enjoy the compact nature of the AIO without having to use dedicated speakers also lower models are way too expensive for the type of performance they offer so if you really love the style you better opt out for the i-5 or in the i7 models now does live up to the hype of being the world's lightest and thinnest AIO so it really comes down to the performance compromise given the price as more powerful notebooks exist of course building your own desktop for the same amount would equate to better performance but what the XP lacks and future expansions and upgrade ability it makes up this very compact package as long as you don't rely on audio playback so things guys for watching let us know what you think of the XPS 18 and a IO is in general where do they fit within the whole market of custom desktops let us know in the comments below and we'll see you in the next review