Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
The keyboards and mice bundled with AIOs are too often afterthoughts, but my review unit came with a comfortable wired keyboard with number pad and a sturdy albeit smallish wired mouse, both coordinated with the system's white color scheme. You can also opt for a cordless keyboard and mouse, using the USB 2.0 port as a receptacle for their receiver. The Inspiron 27 7000 configuration I'm reviewing features an Intel Core i5-10210U processor typically found in laptops, which means it's not only less powerful than the Core i9-based iMac but also than a Core i5-class tower desktop. That's fine for basic productivity and web browsing, but it means the Dell can't serve as a multimedia content creation platform the way the iMac can. Though it's not a concern to those with 20/10 vision, a larger screen and a higher native resolution will let you increase the font size on your Word documents or Excel spreadsheets while still keeping a lot of information on the screen at one time. Desktop screens tend to be brighter than laptop displays in general, as well. Look for in-plane switching (IPS) technology for the best screen quality. IPS screens are inherently better at off-axis viewing, which means you won't have to be sitting perfectly centered to see accurate colors and all the detail in your images.
Some competitors, like the HP Pavilion 27 and Lenovo IdeaCentre 5i offer similar wired connectivity. Still, the range of ports on the Inspiron 27 is excellent for the price. Your 15-inch laptopdisplay is feeling cramped, and you work in one place mostly. For about the same money that you would spend on a midrange-to-high-end 17-inch laptop (or more likely, less), you can get an all-in-one (AIO) computer with a 23-inch or larger display. The Inspiron 27 coasted to an easy victory in PCMark 10, although pitting its premium Core i7 against the Lenovo's unthreaded, entry-level AMD Ryzen 3 isn't exactly a fair fight. Still, the results show the gains you get going from a 10th or 11th Generation Intel chip to a 12th Gen, though all the Windows systems cleared the 4,000 points in PCMark 10 that indicate excellent productivity for Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.Of course, buying a highly integrated system like this is more exacting than your average desktop. Why? You're buying a computer and a monitor in one, and the inherent limits on what you'll be able to upgrade down the line make smart buying upfront crucial. Indeed, landing the right AIO is more like shopping for a laptop than a desktop. I can’t say the same about the keyboard. It uses a rubber dome membrane that creates a squishy, vague key feel. This makes the keyboard uncomfortable to use for long periods, as it’s hard to know how far a key should be pressed to be activated.
So, you just started shopping for an AIO. The first thing to look at (no pun intended) is the display—the centerpiece of any AIO. While some less-expensive AIO PCs will come with panels smaller than 23 inches, those are better suited to exceedingly cramped spaces such as classroom labs or dorm rooms. (Go much smaller than that, and you might as well just buy a big-screen laptop.) What you really want is a display at least 23 inches on the diagonal—and larger is better if you can do it. The biggest all-in-ones we've seen to date have curved 34-inch screens. Adding an extra terabyte or so is also easy with an external drive. SSDs cost more per gigabyte than regular spinning hard drives, but SSDs boot up and wake from sleep so much faster than regular drives that we highly recommend them as boot drives. Unfortunately, some AIO PCs are hard or impossible to upgrade yourself, so make sure you get what you need at the start. This handsome AIO is especially suited for conference calls, with a 16-megapixel magnetic webcam that can be placed anywhere around its frame for your most flattering angle. But, if you have the desk space (it's 32 inches side to side), it's an ideal option for any multitasking environment. The Yoga AIO is a newer beast, but this is still a worthy consideration. The Intel Core i7-1255U is a 10-core processor which, on paper, sounds great. Only two of those cores are Performance cores, however. The rest are Intel’s far slower Efficient cores, and this limits performance in demanding workloads.The Dell Inspiron 27 achieves a single-threaded score of 1570 in Geekbench 5. That’s a strong score, defeating the Core i5-12400 in the Acer Aspire TC desktop, which scored 1446. It also beats mid-range mobile AMD Ryzen processors. The Lenovo Yoga 6 laptop, powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U, scored just 1075 in this test.
Even though the Inspiron 27 7000 has discrete graphics, Nvidia's MX110 is not in the same class as a GeForce GTX- or RTX-class GPU like the one in the Surface Studio 2. Regardless, towers are still better than all-in-one PCs when you need to do intensive work like CAD/CAM or scientific data processing, and most of them are expandable in ways far beyond even the most upgrade-generous AIO on the market. PC gamers, especially, will get much more value out of a stand-alone tower in which they can swap out a graphics card than in a fixed-config AIO PC.It’s hard to see how Dell could improve on this design, especially at this price. Every touch point is inviting, every panel durable, and every seam is slim or kept out of sight. Dell’s only serious competition is HP, which uses a similar design for its Pavilion All-in-One. The most obvious difference is the stand; Dell opts for wide, TV-style legs, while HP uses a traditional square monitor base. The bundled soundbar is loud and enjoyable Terms Apply. Promotion ends 3 December 2023. Items are subject to availability. Max 5 units per customer. Music sounds impressive thanks to the speakers’ bass which, in turn, provides room for the upper and mid-range to express themselves without becoming muddled. Vocals and beats come through at once without one overwhelming the other.
The pair of speakers beneath the Dell Inspiron 27’s fabric-covered chin are loud, deliver respectable bass, and sound clear even at high volume. When looking at and comparing CPUs in AIO PCs, a key distinction to work out is whether the AIO uses a full-desktop CPU or a mobile one. All else being equal, a full-desktop chip is preferable. How to tell: Mobile chips from the likes of Intel will have "U," "Gx" (where "x" is a number), "H," or "HQ" appended to the end of the chip model number. A desktop CPU will have no letter at the end, or perhaps "K" or "T." (As mentioned, most desktop AIOs will use Intel chips, as opposed to ones from rival AMD.) (Credit: Joseph Maldonado) Complete with a wireless mouse and keyboard, a crisp 5-megapixel webcam, and surprisingly effective stereo speakers, the Chromebase 22 is a splendid home PC if you can do your computing in the cloud and don't need high-end apps, like Adobe Photoshop. It's especially suited for students who use school-supplied Chromebooks during the day, and so they'll already be used to the interface.For our performance charts, we compared the Inspiron 27 All-in-One to another 27-inch AIO based on a previous-generation mobile Core i7, the Acer Aspire C27, as well as three 24-inch all-in-ones: the business-focused Dell OptiPlex 5490; the low-priced, AMD-powered Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3; and the M1-based Apple iMac. A faster processor and the addition of USB-C ports would make the IdeaCentre more appealing, but would likely see it leave budget pricing. Lenovo's included mouse, keyboard, and speakers are all better than you might expect, and you'll find a wide-enough array of HDMI, Ethernet, and USB-A ports. If you're outfitting a den or family room on a budget, the little Lenovo is an excellent affordable homework station and online kiosk (and DVD movie viewing station to boot).
Great Deal 
New Comment