Dell XPS 27 - An Audiophile-grade All-in-one
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,409 words · ~7 min read
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is an all-in-one computer really an allinone if you have to plug in an army
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of peripherals with wire snaking all over the place well the Dell XPS 27
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promises to knock at least some of the Clutter off your table with its
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apparently audio file grade 10 speaker
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sound system well I like the sound of
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that but can it deliver on the hype
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let's find out
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the master keys Pro keyboard lineup from Cooler Master is available in three
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sizes each in white or RGB flavors check
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them out at the link below only a single cable is required to
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run the XPS 27 everything but the mouse
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and keyboard including the power supply is contained inside its sharp profession
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form factor and this thing is pretty darn sexy especially from the front and
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it feels pretty good too thanks to its Hefty aluminum construction The Touch
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version is a whopping 372 lb but if
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that's a little heavy for your tastes the non-touch version is 8 lb lighter
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though it lacks this really cool articulating ARM that allows the display
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to go from 5° down all the way to completely flat something even the
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Microsoft Surface Studio does not do we
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do need to be careful about comparing this to the surface Studio though
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because Dell positions the canvas monitor as their Studio killer but since
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we're at it it should be noted that the XPS 27 screen takes considerably more
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Force to adjust than the studio on the
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right you'll find the power button along with a USB 3 port with Power share and
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on the left we have a welcome SD card slot and a headphone jack above the 27
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in screen is a four microphone array that allows you to summon Cortana from
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up to 15 ft away then below it a 720p
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infrared camera and two infrared emitters for Windows hello and the XPS
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27's claim to fame the 10 speaker sound
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system which I will explain more about after I show you the rest of the I/O
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which uh hold on I'll get
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it okay yeah unfortunately getting at
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the little K that contains the rest of the plugs
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requires the reach around technique and some clumsy fumbling but once you get in
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there you'll find that your shiny new aiio is fairly well endowed it's got
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gigabit Ethernet DisplayPort out and HDMI out two Thunderbolt 3 USB type-c
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ports audio line out and four USB 3
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ports plus a bonus USB hidden below this
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removable panel panel the perfect spot for the dongle for the surprisingly
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excellent included wireless keyboard that even features high-end Multi-Device
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functionality and the strikingly mediocre Mouse this is also the place
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where you'll find the only two screws holding the back cover on and then the
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three more that reveal the motherboard making this machine shockingly easy to
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upgrade not that we would want to the
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base model priced at 13.49 has a COR I5
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6400 processor with onboard Graphics but
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most models are equipped with a core i7 6700 with either AMD R9 m470x or M 485x
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Graphics our 16 gig skew has two slots
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available allowing for an easy upgrade path to 32 gigs and a total of three
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storage Bays one m.2 NVMe with its own
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freaking fan which is great for preventing thermal throttling and two 2
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and 1/2 in for additional ssds or hard drives so that's pretty cool and so are
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The Thermals we taxed the FPU at the
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same time as running the fuzzy donut of death and although it did reach the
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point where it sounded like it was ready for lift off the CPU leveled off at 85°
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C and never throttled I feel pretty good
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about Dell's thermal solution here bottom line then the XPS 27's
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performance is suitable for 4K media cons assumption assuming no DRM
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restrictions that require a 7th Gen processor and even photo and video
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editing and creation which the 3840 X
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2160 4K IPS display will handle nicely
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It suffers from Best Buy TV syndrome a little bit out of the box with
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overcooked Reds and some somewhat of a green cast on the whites and Grays but
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with calibration this display could easily be used by professional photo
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editors it's available in both touchscreen and non-touchscreen flavors
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and boasts wide viewing angles a brightness of 300 plus nits and over a
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billion colors and the boasting is Justified this is a very good display it
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covers 99.95% of the Adobe RGB color space with
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spot-on color temperature and Gamma out of the box and one of the best contrast
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ratios we've ever tested which makes it
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especially tragic that Dell neglected to
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include an HDMI input so if you were
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hoping to get some more mileage out of your XPS 207 as a monitor once the
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computer hardware is obsolete you will be sorely disappointed which I guess
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leads us perfectly into our next topic if you're going to put a dedicated
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graphics card in it we're going to run some games our unit with the AMD m470x
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and 4 gigs of gddr5 had DSX mankind
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divided running at 3 2 FPS on low with rise of the Tomb Raider averaging 48 FPS
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on low and 38 on medium but it should be noted that that's at 1080p one quar of
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the screen's resolution both games were absolute slideshows when we tried them
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at 4K but in Dell's defense they never told
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us that this thing was built for gaming Dell is emphasizing that every single
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person who buys one of these is getting the utmost in both display and audio
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quality a first in the AIO category
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that's dominated by the iMac a computer with its FaceTime microphone on the back
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so how does it sound actually pretty freaking decent
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it's got good articulation with clear highs and the width of the Soundbar
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gives it a noticeable stereo effect it's
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not perfect I'm not sure if the marketing accounts for the drop off in
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sound quality when it nears full volume and the B is present but obviously not
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nearly as low as could be achieved with a separate subwoofer but that doesn't
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mean we weren't really really impressed
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the speakers are great for rocking out while you work watching movies or even
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providing background music when you have a few people
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over you know if you think about it going out to eat not only is really
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expensive it's actually not that efficient you spend all this time
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driving when you could have just been preparing a meal and and cleaning up
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after it so blue apron solves that problem they allow you to create
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delicious Chef inspired recipes at home
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by delivering all the farm fresh ingredients you need right to your
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doorstep in exactly the right proportions so no extra trips to the
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grocery store and no waste from unused ingredients they offer two types of
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plans the two-person plan and the family plan and there is no commitment
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whatsoever you can skip or cancel at any
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time all the meals can be prepared in 40 minutes or less and you don't even have
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to stress about like what if I'm not home and they deliver my food to my doorstep because they ship in these
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refrigerated containers that keep everything fresh they've got a wide
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variety of recipes and they're always adding new dishes to the menu every week
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so check it out the first 100 people
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will get three free meals on their first Blue Apron order by using the link in
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the video description so thanks for watching guys
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if you dislike dislike if you liked then like if you really liked get subscribed
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check out the link to where to buy stuff we featured in the video description and
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check out the link to our t-shirt store and our community Forum which you will
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find in the video description as well now that you're done doing all that
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you're probably wondering what to watch next so may I suggest one of our
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videos woo