Dell Inspiron One 19 Desktop Touch review

£549
Price when reviewed

Thanks to Windows 7, a new all-in-one PC without a touch interface is a rare thing these days, and all the big guns are diving in. Dell is the latest to give its range a much-needed touch upgrade, but the Inspiron One 19 Desktop Touch is no expensive Flash Harry – it’s one of the cheapest multitouch PCs we’ve yet seen.

Despite the £467 exc VAT price, this touchscreen PC doesn’t skimp on quality. True, a 19in, 1,366 x 768 panel is no longer the draw it once was, but it’s pleasant to use. Aside from the tiny lag common to most touchscreen displays, the Inspiron proved responsive, and accurate enough for navigating Windows 7 Home Premium.

Dell Inspiron One 19

It’s a cut above its competition, too. The Dell’s capacitive interface is far more tactile than the resistive screen of our previous budget favourite, the MSI Wind Top AE2020. The screen shows no sign of backlight bleed and the panel is evenly lit. The surface has a slightly mottled effect, a necessary side-effect of capacitive touchscreen layer, but it’s no worse than on rival machines.

Dell’s pre-installed software is good, too. The many apps are accessed through the Dell Touch Zone Lobby, which collects icons into a radial menu that stretches across the bottom of the screen. Unlike the front-end software suites included with other touchscreen all-in-ones we’ve seen, Dell’s dock doesn’t occupy the entire screen and still allows access to the wider OS.

The dock is populated with a range of proprietary apps, although there’s little we haven’t seen before. There’s the usual note-taking app – this time with added sound effects – and a range of tools for handling photos, movies and music, all of which borrow the radial menu system of the dock. There aren’t any games beyond those that come with the Touch Pack for Windows 7.

Warranty

Warranty1 yr return to base

Basic specifications

Total hard disk capacity500
RAM capacity4.00GB
Screen size19.0in

Processor

CPU familyIntel Pentium
CPU nominal frequency2.60GHz
CPU overclocked frequencyN/A
Processor socketLGA 775

Motherboard

Conventional PCI slots free0
Conventional PCI slots total0
PCI-E x16 slots free0
PCI-E x16 slots total0
PCI-E x8 slots free0
PCI-E x8 slots total0
PCI-E x4 slots free0
PCI-E x4 slots total0
PCI-E x1 slots free0
PCI-E x1 slots total0
Internal SATA connectors2
Internal SAS connectors1
Internal PATA connectors1
Internal floppy connectors0
Wired adapter speed1,000Mbits/sec

Memory

Memory typeDDR2

Graphics card

Graphics cardIntel GMA X4500
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards?no
3D performance settingLow
Graphics chipsetIntel GMA X4500
Graphics card RAM512MB
DVI-I outputs0
HDMI outputs0
VGA (D-SUB) outputs0
DisplayPort outputs0
Number of graphics cards1

Hard disk

Hard diskSeagate Barracuda 7200.12
Capacity500GB
Hard disk usable capacity465GB
Internal disk interfaceSATA/300
Spindle speed7,200RPM
Cache size16MB
Hard disk 2 make and modelN/A
Hard disk 2 nominal capacityN/A
Hard disk 2 formatted capacityN/A
Hard disk 2 spindle speedN/A
Hard disk 2 cache sizeN/A
Hard disk 3 make and modelN/A
Hard disk 3 nominal capacityN/A
Hard disk 4 make and modelN/A
Hard disk 4 nominal capacityN/A

Drives

Optical driveSamsung TS-L633C
Optical disc technologyDVD writer
Optical disk 2 make and modelN/A
Optical disk 3 make and modelN/A

Monitor

Monitor make and modelDell capacitive touchscreen
Resolution screen horizontal1,366
Resolution screen vertical768
Resolution1366 x 768
DVI inputs0
HDMI inputs0
VGA inputs1
DisplayPort inputs0

Additional Peripherals

Speakers2 x 2W
Speaker typeStereo
Sound cardConexant HD Audio
PeripheralsDell wired keyboard and mouse

Case

ChassisDell proprietary
Case formatAll-in-one
Dimensions477 x 125 x 386mm (WDH)

Free drive bays

Free front panel 5.25in bays0

Rear ports

USB ports (downstream)6
FireWire ports1
PS/2 mouse portyes
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports0
Modemno
3.5mm audio jacks6

Front ports

Front panel USB ports3
Front panel FireWire ports1
Front panel memory card readeryes

Mouse & Keyboard

Mouse and keyboardDell wired keyboard and mouse

Operating system and software

OS familyWindows 7
Recovery methodRecovery disc
Software suppliedDell Touch Zone Lobby, McAfee AntiVirus, Roxio Burn, Microsoft Works 9

Noise and power

Idle power consumption46W
Peak power consumption92W

Performance tests

Overall application benchmark score1.19
Office application benchmark score1.13
2D graphics application benchmark score1.47
Encoding application benchmark score1.00
Multitasking application benchmark score1.14
3D performance (crysis) low settings8fps
3D performance settingLow

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