戴尔一体机欲与苹果决高下

Dell's All-In-One PC Has Guts To Compete With IMac

Something interesting is going on at Dell. The Texas personal-computer behemoth, long associated with boxy, boring machines, has started emphasizing industrial design. And the company, which in recent years seemed to care only about corporate customers, techies and hard-core gamers, appears once again interested in average, mainstream consumers who value simplicity.

The most tangible example of this new approach is Dell's XPS One desktop -- an elegant, handsome, cleverly designed one-piece computer. If it didn't have the Dell logo on it, the XPS One might be mistaken for a product of the PC industry's design leaders, Apple or Sony.

Like Apple's iconic iMac, the XPS One looks like it's simply a sleek, flat-panel monitor. The guts of the computer have been stuffed into the back of the screen.

But this new Dell is no mere iMac clone. It makes its own style statement, even though it shares the same 20-inch widescreen display and a similar Intel dual-core processor with the base-model iMac. Where the iMac is squarish and silver, the XPS One is all black and rectangular, with speakers attached to the sides and a wide glass base. It looks more like a small TV set than a computer and, in fact, comes with a built-in TV tuner.

In my tests, I found the XPS One to be much better designed and equipped than Gateway's iMac competitor, also called the One. In fact, the Dell XPS One is the first Windows all-in-one desktop I've tested that I believe matches or exceeds the iMac in hardware design. That's no small feat, especially coming from Dell.

Unlike the Apple, for example, the Dell has a built-in slot for camera memory cards. It comes standard with a wireless keyboard and mouse, which cost extra on the iMac. Its screen can be turned off with the touch of a button without turning off the computer itself. Its USB and headphone ports are arrayed conveniently on the side, instead of mainly at the rear, as on the iMac.

And, when you wave your hand in front of the black border to the right of the screen on the XPS One, a set of blue, back-lit touch controls magically appear for controlling the playback of music or video. They go away after a few seconds. The Dell also comes with a free year of 10 gigabytes of online backup.

For my tests, I used the least expensive standard configuration of the XPS One, which can be ordered for $1,499 at dell.com/theonepc. It came with two gigabytes of memory (twice the comparable iMac's standard amount), a 250 gigabyte hard disk and Wi-Fi wireless networking, unusual in Windows desktops.

The computer performed crisply and well for me. I installed several popular third-party programs that weren't included, such as Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browser, Apple's iTunes and Adobe Reader. All worked fine.

I also successfully tested the built-in TV function, which requires a cumbersome external attachment to work with a cable box. I was able to view and record TV shows, something you can't do out of the box on an iMac.

I still recommend the iMac over the XPS One for several reasons other than hardware design. First, there's the software. I believe Apple's operating system, Leopard, is superior to the new Windows Vista operating system, the only choice on the XPS One. In my tests, a reboot of the XPS One took more than twice as long as a reboot of the iMac.

And I regard Apple's built-in software, especially the iLife multimedia suite, as superior to the Dell's built-in software, which includes a group of Adobe multimedia programs that are less well integrated and more complex.

The XPS One, unlike the iMac, also came with a bunch of craplets -- trial software like Yahoo Music and come-ons for online services like NetZero.

Second, the iMac, unlike the Dell, is immune to the vast majority of malicious software floating around, so you don't have to run annoying, memory-hogging security programs. The first time I turned on the beautiful Dell I was met with a warning that I had 'multiple security problems,' and was led to install a security suite in a complex and tedious process.

Third, defying popular perception, the iMac costs less than the XPS One. The base, 20-inch iMac costs $1,199 -- about $300 less. And even if you double the memory, and add a wireless keyboard and mouse to match the Dell, it's still $1,399 -- $100 less than the base XPS One (though Dell is currently running a sale that wipes out the $100 gap). Even the cheapest iMac has a dedicated video card with its own memory, something the base XPS One lacks.

Plus, while Dell offers only 20-inch screens on the XPS One, Apple has higher-end iMacs with huge 24-inch screens for the same price, or less, than the higher-end Dells.

Still, if you want a stylish Windows Vista machine that runs well and won't cost a fortune, the XPS One fits the bill, despite its unlikely heritage.

戴尔公司(Dell)也算有了点赏心乐事。这家一直与方方正正的乏味机型联系在一起的得克萨斯个人电脑巨擘已经开始重视工业设计。而且近年来似乎只关心公司客户、高科技人士和狂热游戏迷的戴尔公司看来再次对喜欢简洁的普通主流用户产生了兴趣。

这一新趋势最切实的一个例子就是戴尔的XPS One台式电脑──一款别致、漂亮、精心设计的一体机。如果上面没有戴尔的标志，XPS One可能会被误认为个人电脑设计翘楚苹果(Apple)或索尼(Sony)的产品。

与苹果的标志性产品iMac一样，XPS One看上去好像只是一个漂亮的平板显示器。电脑主机里的组件都被塞到了屏幕后面。

但戴尔这款新机并非对iMac的简单模仿。虽然它与iMac的基本机型都有20英寸的宽屏显示器和英特尔(Intel)双核处理器，但它有自己的独特风格。iMac形状较为方正，颜色为银色，而XPS One则是通体黑色的长方形，两旁是音箱所在，还有个宽宽的玻璃底座。它看上去更像一台小电视而非电脑，而它实际上也带有内置的电视调谐器。

在检测中，我发现XPS One的设计和配置大大优于Gateway公司专门与iMac电脑竞争的the One。实际上，在我检测过的所有Windows一体机中，XPS One是第一款我认为在硬件设计上可以媲美甚至超越iMac的机型。做到这点可不容易，尤其是对戴尔而言。

举例来说，XPS One有一个内置的相机存储卡插槽，这一点就不同于苹果机。这款机型的标准配置带无线键盘和鼠标，而iMac这两样配件都要另加钱。轻点一个按键就可以关掉屏幕，无需关机。其USB和耳机接口排列在侧面，很方便，不像iMac那样大都在机器背后。

还有，在XPS One屏幕右侧的黑色边框处挥一下手，就会奇迹般地亮起一排蓝色的触摸式控制键，用于播放音乐或视频。几秒钟后这些按键会自动隐藏。戴尔还提供10G的在线存储空间，免费使用一年。

我检测时用的是XPS One最便宜的标准配置，可以从dell.com/theonepc定购，价格为1499美元。其配置为2G内存（为同等价位iMac标配的两倍）、250G硬盘和Wi-Fi无线网络，这个配置在Windows的台式机里可不多见。

对我来说这款电脑性能表现十分优越。我安装了一些电脑上没有预装的第三方软件，如Microsoft Office、Firefox Web浏览器、苹果的iTunes和Adobe Reader。所有软件都运行良好。

我还成功检测了其内置的电视功能，这个功能需要一个以分线盒连接的笨重外接设备。我可以观看和录下电视节目，但在iMac上没有那个盒子，也就做不到这一点。

但我还是认为iMac比XPS One更值得推荐，理由不仅仅是其硬件设计。首先是软件。我觉得苹果的Leopard操作系统优于新的Windows Vista操作系统，后者是XPS One唯一的选择。在我检测时，重启XPS One耗费的时间两倍于重启iMac。

另外，我觉得苹果的内置软件，尤其是iLife多媒体软件包，好过戴尔的内置软件，后者装有一些奥多比(Adobe)的多媒体软件，但集成得不够好，而且比iLife复杂。

与iMac不一样的是，XPS One也带有一些垃圾软件──Yahoo Music一类的试用软件和NetZero之类在线服务的广告。

第二，iMac不受铺天盖地的恶意软件影响，这样你就无需运行令人讨厌又耗费内存的安全软件。我第一次打开那台漂亮的戴尔电脑时就遭遇了警告信息，说我的电脑有“多种安全问题”，不得不通过一个复杂冗长的过程安装了安全软件。

第三，与人们通常感觉不一样的是，iMac的价格低于XPS One。基础配置的20英寸iMac售价1199美元──便宜了大约300美元。就算配上与戴尔一样的配置，将内存容量翻倍，加上无线键盘和鼠标，也才1399美元──比XPS One的基本配置机型便宜100美元（不过戴尔目前在进行降价销售，抹掉了这100美元的差价）。就算最便宜的iMac内存中也带独立显卡，而基础配置的XPS One是没有的。

另外，戴尔的XPS One屏幕只有20英寸，但苹果的高端iMac有超大的24英寸屏幕，价格与戴尔高端机型一样，甚至更低。

不过，如果你想要一台时尚漂亮、运行良好又不是太贵的Windows Vista电脑，XPS One是个不错的选择，虽然戴尔传统上并不擅长出产这类电脑。