The All-in-One Battle: Dell's XPS One 24 vs. Apple's iMac
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 30, 2008 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Input Device Wars
I talked a bit about the Dell's input devices so let's do the same for Apple's. The new iMacs ship with Apple's very compact aluminum keyboard, if you're a fan of the MacBook/Pro/Air keyboards, then you'll like this thing. The layout is obviously Mac optimized, so if you plan on using it under Windows you may find yourself frustrated that the Windows and Alt keys are switched. Personally I like the keyboard a lot, it's got a great feel to it, it's compact and it's easy to type on well. If you hate laptop keyboards however and need a more meaty feel to your keypresses, then you won't be a fan.
The keyboard is wired with a very short USB cable, designed to basically reach the USB port at the back of the iMac and go no further, it's the mouse however that has a very short cable. The Mighty Mouse, as Apple calls it, is designed to be plugged into the keyboard and thus you've got less than a foot of USB cord to work with. The Mighty Mouse is the same mouse I reviewed a couple of years back, it's got a single button but thanks to some fancy touch trickery it can behave as a two button mouse.
Mighty Mouse plugs in here
The entire surface of the mouse is a button (sound familiar?), press it down and you'll get a left click. Keep a finger on the right side of the mouse and press it down and it'll act as a right click, but note that for this to work you can't have your left finger resting on the left half of the mouse. My explanation may be a bit clumsy but using the mouse actually works pretty well, I don't really have any complaints there. The tracking precision is better than on the mouse that ships with the XPS One 24 and the tiny scroll ball is pretty sweet too.
For what it's worth, the scroll ball on the original Mighty Mouse I reviewed bit the dust within the first year of ownership; it just stopped working. I'm assuming that Apple's quality control has improved since the mouse was introduced but that may be a bit presumptuous on my part.
If you plan on gaming on this machine however, you'll need to replace the Mighty Mouse with something that has a real second button. While the Mighty Mouse is sufficient for all normal tasks, in a game where you're switching between left and right clicks a lot it's terribly annoying.
The Dell mouse needs to be replaced because of poor tracking precision and the Apple mouse would need replacement if you wanted to game on the iMac. The sad part is that neither of these tradeoffs are actually required by the all-in-one form factor, it's just a result of not thinking things through all the way. Dell has the greatest chance of fixing the problem though as Apple wouldn't bundle a Logitech mouse with its machine and there is no Apple branded mouse with two physical buttons for gamers.
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Eidorian - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
It's not that hard.8800M GTS > 9600M GT
HanSolo71 - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
thanks for the top gear reference i wish more people in america would actually get thatsxr7171 - Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - link
Well we have BBC America. But people don't watch it much.Jovec - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
Well, that is the behavior of the MS Intellitype software - it will only control iTunes if it is in the foreground. By contrast, Logitech's Setpoint will control iTunes in the background. I have no idea if Logitech does something extra to make this work, or if MS is purposely limiting their keyboards. Had this exact same issue that encouraged me to move back to a Logitech KB.mfed3 - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
this has to do with the keypresses binding to windows commands. they will all work in media player, media center, and all windows programs.it has to do with itunes controls not mapping directly to the same commands.
logitech's software must look at the media process running and send the correct command
epyon96 - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
Not sure why the author insists on having a Mac OSX bias. I see nothing wrong with the Start menu nor do I find it outdated. Usually, it's 3 clicks max to get to a program with minimal mouse movement. I am not saying Mac OSX has a bad interface but I see nothing wrong with the Start menu unless you are a devoted OSX fan.I am slightly annoyed why Apple still insists on a single button mouse. For some strange reason, Jobs still insists that computer users are too stupid to learn to effectively use a two button mouse. So what does he give us? A one button mouse that tries to emulate two-button mouse behaviour. Sure it looks cool and has that novelty effect but it wears off after the showroom. It begs the question why?
What does the article mean when it says that the 24" inch flat panel monitors have trouble with 24 FPS 1080 Non-interlaced Blu ray playback? Is it trying to say that 24 FPS refresh rate is not possible on the flat panel without ghosting?
CMcK - Friday, October 31, 2008 - link
Apple haven't shipped a single button mouse with desktops or laptops for a few years now. The Mighty Mouse has four buttons - left, right, side (squeeze) and centre (press the trackball). Very useful. I have mine set for left click, right click, Expose and show desktop.Even the single, or indeed no button, Apple laptops have a left and right click. Just place a second finger on the trackpad and press the button or pad and you have a right click.
I don't find that I actually need to right click often while using OS X.
mikeepu - Friday, October 31, 2008 - link
Frankly I don't really sense a bias in the article. If anything the author is critical of both systems and just states his (keyword alert) 'personal' preference at the end of the article.But I do agree with you that there is nothing wrong with the Start Menu, its just that the Apple Dock is simpler in that only one click is required to start a program located on the dock or just two clicks if you have the Applications folder (the equivalent of the Programs folder in the Windows Start menu) attached to the Dock. But then again, where’s the harm in a few extra clicks to get to a program?
But man Do i want that Dell all-in-one for a Desktop media center :)
MrDiSante - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
I am also surprised at the obvious pro-Mac OS X bias in the article. Usually Anand is far more impartial, but this is more than a bit on the Engadget side. Pretty as Mac OS X is, I find that Vista actually offers the more practical solutions to task management problems.The taskbar is far better at showing the user what is and isn't running than the dock (something that Microsoft is mistakenly changing with Windows 7 and will hopefully reconsider). As the fact that there is text with the icons allows me to efficiently differentiate between the numerous windows I have open (again, something Microsoft should not change; OS X looks prettier, but Vista takes the usability prize here).
The start menu still makes more sense than Apple's solution since there is in fact a central place to go for all of your programs (although I personally think Linux does a better job of that).
Alt+tab scales far better than expose does. They both work fine if you're running 5 or fewer programs, but expose just gets messy really fast if you exceed that. If you have 10 or more programs open, with stickies gadgets/widgets etc, then Expose gets downright unusable.
Finally, Windows tends to be far more shortcut friendly. Start + number, and start + 3-4 characters + enter usually launch just about any application I need. Alt+tab switches to just about any program I need. Expose and the dock both struggle with shortcut-friendliness.
DCstewieG - Sunday, November 2, 2008 - link
Actually Apple was first on the shortcuts you're talking about. Pressing Apple+Space brings up Spotlight which lets you type the first few characters of the app to find it and Enter to run it.As for Anand's Mac bias, it's a very interesting story. Here you have a devoted editor of a PC hardware site who decided to give a Mac a spin for a month to write an article about it. What happens? He becomes a huge fan in the process.
You see a lot of comments saying that people use Macs because Steve Jobs put them in a trance or because they look nice or something, but here's a guy who came in fresh and decided he liked it a lot by actually using it.
If you haven't read it: http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2232">http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2232 (though it is a bit outdated now)