Dell’s Inspiron brand is generally attached
to a host of mid-range products, but the luxurious 11.5kg Inspiron One 23 makes
a far more positive first impression.
Its glossy screen surround, soft-touch
plastic bezel and sturdy, metallic base make this system one of the most
attractive here, and the understated, classy design is matched with superb
build quality. Only the Asus, with its rock-solid base, can match the Dell for
strength.
The
Inspiron One 23 is hardly giant-sized, but the chassis feels incredibly hefty,
more so than its 11.6kg weight might suggest
The attractive chassis offers plenty of
versatility around its sturdy edges. It's the only machine here to include
HDMI, D-Sub and composite inputs, which makes it easy to hook up a Blu-ray
player, games console or tablet. There are four USB 3.0 sockets and an optical
S/PDIF connection too. Buttons on the right-hand side of the machine adjust
screen brightness, and the 1MP webcam in the upper bezel can have its angle
adjusted by a scrolling wheel.
In fact, there's only one area where the
Dell's exterior can't match the Asus and that's the stand. The Inspiron might
be extremely strong, but it doesn't allow for much movement, which looks restrictive
when stacked up against the double-hinged ET2300.
The
Inspiron might be extremely strong, but it doesn't allow for much movement,
which looks restrictive when stacked up against the double-hinged ET2300.
Our review sample came with a 2.8GHz Core
i5-3450S, but Dell sells the Inspiron with a 2.7GHz Core i5-3330S. The quicker
part scored an impressive 0.93 in our application benchmarks – the best score
in this test and the Dell's proper processor won't be much slower.
The rest of the specification is a mixed
bag. The Blu-ray reader, 1TB hard disk and 8GB of RAM tick the relevant boxes,
but there's no sign of a TV tuner, and the AMD Radeon HD 7650A graphics chip is
weak – its score of 27fps in our Medium-quality, 1600 x 900 benchmark falls
behind the 40fps scored by the Acer in the same test. Windows 8 is still slick
to use – we experienced no issues scrolling around its Live tiles and Modern UI
apps but don't expect to play blockbuster games.
Dell
has equipped the Inspiron One 23 with D-SUB, HDMI and composite video inputs
So far, the Dell is impressive, but the
most important component lets it down. The screen's 23" diagonal and 1920
x 1080 native resolution fall into line with this month's other contenders, but
color accuracy is poor – no other system here recorded an average Delta E as
bad as the Dell's 6.3. The inaccurate colors are matched with this test's
lowest brightness figure, which we measured at 189cd/m2. It's a dim screen,
then, and the backlight can also be seen seeping in from the edges of the
screen.
It's a shame, because the Dell excels in
several key areas. It looks great, it's a well-built machine, and it's very
fast in applications. The Asus is similarly priced, though, and it's more
versatile – and its screen is far better.
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Details
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Price: $1,319
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Website: www.dell.com
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Ratings: 8/10
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Screen size: 23.0in
§
RAM capacity: 8GB
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CPU nominal frequency: 2.8GHz
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Resolution: 1920 x 1080
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Contrast ratio: 305:1
§
Screen brightness: 189cd/m2
§
USB ports: 2
§ OS
family: Windows 8
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