High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

The Dell XPS 15 ($1,115 direct), a desktop replacement laptop, is a wonderland of lavish features and cutting-edge components. Even more impressive is that most of its parts are customizable before finalizing your purchase: The XPS 15 can be completely over the top or priced to meet a certain budget. It's one of the few 15-inch laptops that has support for a full 1080p screen resolution, a Skype-certified HD webcam, floor-thumping speakers, and every wireless technology imaginable. If the Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 420M (with Optimus technology) aren't groundbreaking enough for you, there are options for quad-core processors and a more powerful graphics card. The only thing left to do now is hand the XPS 15 the Editors' Choice in the desktop replacement laptop category. Specifications Type Gaming, General Purpose, Media, Desktop Replacement Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Processor Speed 2.53 GHz Processor Name Intel Core i5-460M ...

The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (IO2305-3114MSL) ($849.99 list), available at Best Buy, is an all-in-one touchscreen desktop PC with a large 23-inch widescreen display. It has a 1080p HD display, wireless everything, decent design, and an attractive sub $900 price. However, it's a little sluggish on most functions, particularly the multimedia tasks like photo and video work that would look great on such a large screen. Maybe with a little more power and a more features, the Inspiron One could be a contender, but not this configuration. Specifications Type Multimedia, All-in-one, Touchscreen All-In-One Processor Family AMD Athlon II X2 RAM 4 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 750 GB Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 4270 Primary Optical Drive Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Design and Features The Inspiron One 2305 looks like most other all-in-one PCs—basically it looks like a widescreen monitor. It takes after the HP TouchSmart 600 series an...

The Dell 3330dn Laser Printer ($599.99 direct) is the kind of workhorse mono laser that's easy to like. It offers fast speed, a low running cost, and reasonably good paper handling. Its text quality is a touch subpar for a mono laser, but perfectly acceptable for the vast majority of small offices and workgroups. Most important, it delivers a more than reasonable balance of features for the price. Specifications Printer Category Laser Type Printer Only Color or Monochrome Monochrome Technology (for laser category only) Laser Connection Type USB, Parallel, Ethernet Maximum Standard Paper Size Legal Direct Printing from Cameras No Rated speed at Default Resolution (Mono) 40 ppm Duplexing Yes Like the Editor's Choice Lexmark E462dtn ($749 direct, 4 stars) that I reviewed a few months ago, the 3330dn is aimed primarily at micro and small offices. The default paper handling features include an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a page and a 300-shee...

A 2.2GHz processor and 500GB hard drive, for a rock bottom price? Seems like good bait material, coming from a laptop like the Dell Inspiron iM501R-1655MRB ($649.99 list, at Best Buy). By itself, it's a competent, budget laptop that can handle several tasks at once without crashing to a halt. Compared with other similarly priced laptops, though, the M501R is no Easter egg. You'll find nicer parts and better prices with the Acer Aspire AS5745-7247 ($600 list, 4.5 stars) or Sony VAIO VPC-EB33FM/BJ ($629.99 list, 4.5 stars). Design Plastic is used more frequently than any other material in laptop designs, almost all the time if it's inexpensive. How the plastic is decorated separates the attractive from the, well, not so attractive ones. Upon closer inspection, the iM501R-1655MRB's shiny plastic chassis is painted to look like brushed aluminum—a great-looking design, but susceptible to some smudging. The design looks like it took more brainstorming than drawing a few l...

Design and Features The i560-3910NBK is built into the same glossy black chassis that I've seen before in previous Inspiron 560 and 580 desktops. The optical drives, front USB ports, and media card reader are hidden behind a door, presenting a sleek front panel to the user. You will need a screwdriver to get under the hood, but once inside you have room for upgrades. There's space for one optical drive, one hard drive, two SATA ports for the drives, two PCIe x1 cards, a PCI card, and a PCIe x16 graphics card. Just about the only thing you can't upgrade is the memory, since all the slots are filled. However, 8GB should suffice for 90 percent of users out there. Out back, there are the usual ports: Audio, VGA, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and a port for the power plug. What's out of the ordinary is the included HDMI port, a rarity in entry-level desktops. The desktop comes with a 500GB (7,200rpm) hard drive, a capacity that used to be found only on expensive desktops, and more than ...