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

Warranty 1 yr return to base

Basic specifications

Total hard disk capacity 500
RAM capacity 4.00GB
Screen size 19.0in

Processor

CPU family Intel Pentium
CPU nominal frequency 2.60GHz
CPU overclocked frequency N/A
Processor socket LGA 775

Motherboard

Conventional PCI slots free 0
Conventional PCI slots total 0
PCI-E x16 slots free 0
PCI-E x16 slots total 0
PCI-E x8 slots free 0
PCI-E x8 slots total 0
PCI-E x4 slots free 0
PCI-E x4 slots total 0
PCI-E x1 slots free 0
PCI-E x1 slots total 0
Internal SATA connectors 2
Internal SAS connectors 1
Internal PATA connectors 1
Internal floppy connectors 0
Wired adapter speed 1,000Mbits/sec

Memory

Memory type DDR2

Graphics card

Graphics card Intel GMA X4500
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? no
3D performance setting Low
Graphics chipset Intel GMA X4500
Graphics card RAM 512MB
DVI-I outputs 0
HDMI outputs 0
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 0
DisplayPort outputs 0
Number of graphics cards 1

Hard disk

Hard disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
Capacity 500GB
Hard disk usable capacity 465GB
Internal disk interface SATA/300
Spindle speed 7,200RPM
Cache size 16MB
Hard disk 2 make and model N/A
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity N/A
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity N/A
Hard disk 2 spindle speed N/A
Hard disk 2 cache size N/A
Hard disk 3 make and model N/A
Hard disk 3 nominal capacity N/A
Hard disk 4 make and model N/A
Hard disk 4 nominal capacity N/A

Drives

Optical drive Samsung TS-L633C
Optical disc technology DVD writer
Optical disk 2 make and model N/A
Optical disk 3 make and model N/A

Monitor

Monitor make and model Dell capacitive touchscreen
Resolution screen horizontal 1,366
Resolution screen vertical 768
Resolution 1366 x 768
DVI inputs 0
HDMI inputs 0
VGA inputs 1
DisplayPort inputs 0

Additional Peripherals

Speakers 2 x 2W
Speaker type Stereo
Sound card Conexant HD Audio
Peripherals Dell wired keyboard and mouse

Case

Chassis Dell proprietary
Case format All-in-one
Dimensions 477 x 125 x 386mm (WDH)

Free drive bays

Free front panel 5.25in bays 0

Rear ports

USB ports (downstream) 6
FireWire ports 1
PS/2 mouse port yes
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 0
Modem no
3.5mm audio jacks 6

Front ports

Front panel USB ports 3
Front panel FireWire ports 1
Front panel memory card reader yes

Mouse & Keyboard

Mouse and keyboard Dell wired keyboard and mouse

Operating system and software

OS family Windows 7
Recovery method Recovery disc
Software supplied Dell Touch Zone Lobby, McAfee AntiVirus, Roxio Burn, Microsoft Works 9

Noise and power

Idle power consumption 46W
Peak power consumption 92W

Performance tests

Overall application benchmark score 1.19
Office application benchmark score 1.13
2D graphics application benchmark score 1.47
Encoding application benchmark score 1.00
Multitasking application benchmark score 1.14
3D performance (crysis) low settings 8fps
3D performance setting Low

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