Dell XPS 18 Portable All-in-One | Image Courtesy of Dell
Recently,
It also happens to perfectly define what a home consumer device should be in a post-PC, touchscreen world. It pushes the envelope, but does it so elegantly and subtly that you may not even notice.
At its core, the XPS 18 is simply an 18.4" tablet with a 1920x1080 IPS display. It's augmented by an adjustable, rugged metal stand and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo whose receiver is embedded in the tablet, removing the need for a USB adapter (you know, that tiny one you'll ultimately lose). The bezel is lined with a rubberized, soft-grip surface, and the rear of the tablet features two fold-out legs, allowing the XPS 18 to be propped up in a few useful ways.
When seeing the XPS 18 removed from its stand and placed in its alternate position, a colleague described it as a looking like a 21st-century easel. I'd imagine graphics professionals working with 3D software would find this orientation ideal. Throw a multi-purpose stylus into the mix, and the XPS 18's display becomes a sensitive and large enough surface for engineering and design work to be carried out.
When undocked, the entire tablet weighs a mere 5 pounds, and that's with a 500GB SATA hard drive and 32GB mSATA SSD doing storage duties. Oh, and the beefy 69Whr battery that, true to Dell's claims, delivers a "real-world" battery life of about 5 hours.
Dell XPS 18 in that "21st century easel" position
The XPS 18 also surprised me with its raw computing power. Utilizing PCMark 7, a benchmarking app that scores a system based on a variety of workloads like computation, image and video manipulation, data transfer speeds, etc, Dell's new All-in-One scores incredibly close to
In the 3DMark Professional benchmark using the midrange graphics test, the XPS 18 actually edges out the Surface Pro which uses the same
My only gripe (and it's a minor one) thus far in my testing is the mouse that ships with the XPS 18; it's functional but not very ergonomic.
All told, the XPS 18 doesn't have the split personality found in the ASUS Transformer All-in-One (that runs Android and Windows, and somewhat suffers for it despite being a forward-thinking idea), and offers the full Windows 8 experience without sacrifices like lack of storage. It's light enough to use as a family PC or tablet; flexible enough to use for work, play, or entertainment. You pay a slight premium for this portability, but I have to applaud Dell for both thoughtful, alluring design, and a form factor that's truly powerful and portable.
Below are notable specs and a video showcasing the XPS 18.
Key Specs:
- 500GB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive + 32GB mSATA Solid State Drive
- Intel® HD Graphics 4000
- 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz
- Intel® Core™ i5-3337U processor
- 18.4 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with IPS/Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 X 1080)
- MicroSD Expansion Slot
- 2 USB ports
