Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray)

 
The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) ($1,099 direct) is an all-in-one desktop PC with a touch screen, Blu-ray, and competitive performance numbers. While it's not going to usurp the HP TouchSmart 310 ($1,159 direct, 4 stars) of its Editors' Choice, the Dell Inspiron One is certainly a viable alternative—especially if you're looking for a primary media-center PC.
Design & Features
The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) has a 23-inch widescreen with a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution, which means full 1,080p HD viewing. Its frame is made of black plastic that was designed to resemble brushed wood. The rest of the chassis is silver-colored, except for the transparent stand. The desktop is raised high enough that there is a gap to slide the wireless keyboard underneath—a welcome feature when in want of desk space.

On the side of the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) are a few easy-access ports and buttons, including volume and brightness controls, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, Blu-ray player, and audio-in and -out. In the back are 4 more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, composite video, S/P DIF, TV Tuner, and Ethernet. It would have been nice to have seen some future-forward external expansion ports like eSATA or USB 3.0. But USB 2.0 will suffice for most of your external hard drive needs—though the data transfer speeds will not be as fast. The Inspiron One does come with 1TB of space that should be able to contain all your multimedia files.
The touch interface that comes with the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is the "Dell Stage," and while I enjoyed some of the added games and apps, I felt like it was a completely separate experience. The Dell Stage is essentially a dock bar that sits on the Windows 7 desktop and you can launch touch apps from there. In comparison, the HP TouchSmart 310 has a whole interface dedicated to touch that you can launch on top of Windows 7. I would have liked to see something more advance than a toolbar with no app store, but maybe version 2.0 will have more to offer.

Specifications

Type

Mainstream, All-in-one, Digital Entertainment System

Processor Family

AMD Athlon II X4

RAM

8 GB

Storage Capacity (as Tested)

1000 GB

Graphics Card

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470

Primary Optical Drive

Blu-Ray Disc

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

More

Performance
The Dell Inspiron One (Blu-ray) comes outfitted with a 2.4GHz AMD Athlon II X4610e processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics chipset. With these components, the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) scored well on our PCMark Vantage test (5,354), which measures overall computing performance. Compared with the HP 310 that sports a slightly faster 2.5GHz Athlon II X4 615e processor, it scored 656 points less than the Inspiron One (Blu-ray). The HP310, however, bested the Inspiron One (Blu-ray) by mere seconds in our Handbrake video encoding test (2:56 HP, 3:03 Dell), Cinebench R11.5 (2.82, 2.7), and Photoshop CS5 (6:42, 6:56).
The Inspiron One (Blu-ray) is no 3D powerhouse, but it faired well in our 3DMark Vantage test (6,572). However, it ran Lost Planet 2 at a slideshow pace of 11 frames per second (fps) on Middle quality and it couldn't even run our Crysis test. Your gaming experience is probably going to be limited to games like Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and Farmville.
The Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) has all the performance to make it a decent all-in-one desktop, but a touch PC must have the added features to make the touch-functionality worthwhile. As it stands the HP TouchSmart 310 has the better applications coupled with its multi-touch screen.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray)
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Dell Inspiron One 2305 (Blu-ray) with several other desktops side by side.

Source:PcMag

Skype Invades the Living Room on Up-Coming Sony Blu-Ray Players

Skype video conferencing on the PC has been the reality for a while now, and their recent expansion into mobile devices has helped turned the software client into a household name. With few places left to expand it should be no surprise that the VOIP solution is coming to the living room, but this time you’ll find it packed into upcoming Sony Blu-Ray players.

At the Sony CES booth in Las Vegas they were showing demos of the interface which requires not just the player, but a separate proprietary camera accessory. Video quality will be limited to SD resolution at launch, and according to Sony representatives they have no plans at the current time to make the leap to HD.

With Video calling being a built in feature of Kinect, I’m a bit surprised Sony hasn’t tried to make this happen first on the PS3 first. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if they end up changing their mind, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

The Best New Blu-ray Player

They're the cornerstones of our home theaters—and there's always an ungodly number of them at CES. We scrutinized this year's more intriguing 3D Blu-ray players and found the one that looks like the king of the hill.

Samsung BD-D7000 This slot-loading Blu-ray disc drive is tiny. Like, external DVD drive tiny. But don't let that fool you. The BD-D7000 comes with some mighty loud bells and whistles, including faster disc load times, built-in Wi-Fi, and some passable 2D-to-3D up-conversion, too. You'll also get access to all the streaming media mainstays (Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora, Blockbuster, and Twitter) and something Samsung calls Smart Hub—basically the company's answer to Google TV. Hopefully, it'll work better.

Runners Up

LG BD690 The BD690 is a networked 3D Blu-ray player and comes loaded with a little something extra: a 250-GB internal hard drive for media storage and playback. You'll also get an enviable list of streaming services, including Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu Plus.

Panasonic DMP-BDT310This Blu-ray player lets you make Skype video calls, comes with built-in Wi-Fi and even gives you control over certain 3D effects, like adjusting the picture's depth and "leaping effect." Use your iPhone to control it all.

Honorable Mention
Sony BDP-S780
Samsung BD-D7000
LG BP650

Send an email to Bryan Gardiner, the author of this post, at bgardiner@gizmodo.com.

Via Gizmodo