Dell Studio One 19 (EO19-USE012CS) :
The Dell Studio One 19 (EO19-USE012CS) ($999.99 list), which is available at Costoo, is very similar to the Studio One 19, I looked at earlier this year. Like the previous iteration, this Studio One 19 is a smallish all in one PC with a 18.5-inch touch screen panel. It's more powerful than the sub $600 all in one nettops we're seeing on the market these days, and it's also priced accordingly. It has all the PC hardware squeezed in behind the screen, so it's sleek like the Apple iMac. It's a good way to try out the "touch" that will be part of Windows 7, especially if you need a system for back to school now.
Specifications :
- Price as Tested: $999.99 List
- Type: General Purpose, Multimedia, Business, All-in-one
- Processor Family: Intel Pentium Dual-Core
- RAM: 4 GB
- Storage Capacity: 320 GB
- RAID: No
- Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9200
- Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
- Monitor Type: LCD Widescreen
- Screen Size: 18.5 inches
The Costco-based model comes with a 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 processor, 4GB of memory, a 320GB SATA hard drive, Nvidia GeForce 9200 graphics cared, and DVD burner. These are all good components, though the integrated 18.5-inch screen's native 1,366 by 768 resolution is a little on the low side (I usually expect 1,680 by 1,050 or something similar at this screen size). On the one hand it makes the icons bigger and easier to touch; on the other, it also means you can't fit too much on the screen if you boost the text size to make links easier to touch. It also means that high-def videos on the Internet have to be played at 720p instead of full 1080p. On the plus side, since the system comes from Costco, it has a longer two-year warranty, instead of the one-year standard warranty if you had bought the system direct from Dell.
The Studio One 19 (EO19-USE012CS) comes with a software build that is very good, bordering on great. Like most Dell systems these days, the bloatware is minimal (just a few icons like eBay and the Roxio burning package muck up the clean desktop). One surprise is that instead of the trial version of Office, there's a fully functional version of Office 2007 (students and teachers edition) on the system, which means you can double click on that .doc file with impunity, edit and save safely, and that there's nothing to clean up. (The pre-installed 60-day trial version of Office is one of my pet peeves). There's also the aforementioned Touch Zone interface to navigate multimedia, and there's the Cozi Family Organizer Web service for setting up private social networks. There's a neat face-recognition utility for logging in (handy if more than one person shares the PC), but it does keep the camera on all the time if you use it (a potential security risk).
