If you've ever wanted to relive your finest clubbing days or hold a rock concert in your living room, then it may be worth taking a look at the Dell XPS 27 (7760) (starts at $1,499; $2,799 as tested). While the primary draw of this all-in-one desktop is its collection of 10—yes, count 'em, 10—speakers, it also sports a 27-inch 4K touch display, and its discrete graphics card translates to surprisingly acceptable gaming performance. But despite the XPS 27's superior audio, as far as high-end all-in-ones go, the HP Envy Curved 34-A051 Signature Edition All-in-One ( at Amazon) remains our Editors' Choice for its innovative display, oodles of screen real estate, and slightly better all-around performance.
Design and Features
If I could use only one word to describe the XPS 27, it would simply be loud. If you gave me two words, it would be very loud. But since I have more than just two words, the XPS 27 is sort of like owning an aural bazooka. It weaponizes music in a way that will appeal to audiophiles, rebellious teenagers, and DJs. It will also probably be the source of more than a few noise complaints. If that seems bombastic, consider this: An all-in-one with four to six speakers would be notable, so cramming 10 speakers into one is really something else.
Among these 10 speakers are two tweeters, six full-range drivers (two of which are down-firing), and two passive radiators. If you're not familiar with the parlance, not all speakers do the same thing—a good tweeter ensures you have crisp highs, while radiators make sure bass thumps accordingly. And while you might sometimes find a subwoofer on a gaming laptop, it's uncommon to encounter such varied speaker specificity in an all-in-one. There are also dynamic amplifiers that ensure 50 watts per channel, and Dell says the XPS 27 can reach volumes of over 90dB, with a frequency range of 70Hz to 20KHz.
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Unpacking the jargon and numbers, the XPS 27's speakers can handle just about every type of music and sound effects with aplomb. You can hear every crackle as the Death Star II explodes in Return of the Jedi, every piercing high note in the famed Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute. And if you love thumping bass, fear not. The XPS 27 handles dubstep, EDM, and clubby dance remixes deftly and robustly. In terms of volume, for everyday use you probably don't need to go above 15 or 20 percent. Fully cranked, the XPS 27 reached 107dB during testing. According to Purdue University, that's about as loud as a rock concert and louder than a jackhammer, a motorcycle, a power lawn mower, and a Bell J-2A helicopter. Needless to say, that's loud enough to fill a large room and then some. In our office, at max volume the XPS 27 could still be heard more than 200 feet away through walls, glass, and office furniture.
If it seems like sound is at the center of this review, it's because it's at the center of the XPS 27's design as well. Just looking at it, you can see six front-firing speakers in the lower bezel—three on each side. But the XPS 27's other draw is its glossy 27-inch 4K touch screen. With 300-nit brightness, this is a handsome display. Colors are beautiful—the turquoise oceans seen in the trailer of Disney's Moana look vibrant and crisp. The touch screen itself is responsive, though its glossy finish is prone to fingerprints. It also benefits from an articulating stand, which you can tilt forward 5 degrees and backward 60 degrees. When it's tilted back, you can lift the screen up so that it's horizontal—making it convenient for graphic designers who want to draw directly on the screen or for playing digital board games with friends and family.
Measuring 17.1 by 24.6 by 3.16 inches (HWD), the XPS 27 is a pretty standard size for a 27-inch AIO. It's slimmer than HP Envy All-in-One (27-b010) (18 by 24.2 by 7.5 inches), but don't be fooled by the aluminum chassis and Apple iMac-esque design. The XPS 27 is a hefty fella, weighing in at 36.4 pounds. Depending on your fitness level and whether or not you do indeed lift, this can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you like to frequently rearrange your living space. The stand does, however, come with a rubber bottom, so you don't have to worry about it scratching up furniture or sliding around when you're trying to access the rear panel.
Speaking of which, the XPS 27 has a healthy selection of I/O ports, even if the bulk of them are inconveniently located. The rear ports, which include a Kensington lock slot, an Ethernet jack, a DisplayPort connector, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3, four USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI connector, the power jack, and an audio out jack, are blocked off by the stand itself. But this isn't a problem unique to the XPS 27, and it shouldn't be a major issue once everything is set up. On the left side of the chassis, you'll find an SD card reader and headset jack, while on the right is the Power button and a USB 3.0 port. There's also a 720p HD infrared webcam in the bottom bezel, smack dab between the speakers. It's Windows Hello compliant and there are four microphones in the top of the system. For storage, the XPS 27 comes with a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD), which is sufficient for everyday use but might fill up quickly if you have a large library of videos or high-resolution photos. Depending on your needs, you can upgrade at checkout to a 1TB SSD, opt instead for a 1TB or 2TB hard drive, or get a combination of both—though your choice will alter how much the XPS 27 costs.
The XPS 27 comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, which are easy to use but nothing particularly spectacular. And for connectivity, XPS 27 also comes with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Dell also covers the XPS 27 with a one-year limited warranty.
Performance
Not all of the Dell XPS 27's power is in its speakers. It also has a 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-6700 processor, an AMD Radeon R9 M470X discrete graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. What that gets you is solid multimedia and productivity performance. And thanks to the extra graphics juice, the XPS 27 proves capable—though not amazing—at gaming, as well.
On the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, the XPS 27 scored a decent 3,097 points. That doesn't beat out the MSI Gaming 24GE 2QE-014US ($0.00 at Amazon) , which logged a class-leading result of 3,423, but it's not terribly far off the mark, either. It's also slightly behind the HP Envy All-in-One 27 b010 (3,323) and the HP Envy Curved 34-A051 (3,233). But the XPS 27 did outdo the business-oriented Dell OptiPlex 24 7000 series ($899.00 at PCMag Shop) (2,911) and the Asus Zen AiO Pro Z240IC ( at Amazon) (2,932).
Multimedia is where the XPS 27 really shines. It blazed through our HandBrake encoding test in a blistering 56 seconds, leaving the MSI Gaming 24GE (1 minute, 19 seconds), the Apple iMac 27-Inch with Retina 5K Display ( at Amazon) (1:15), the HP Envy AIO Envy 27 b010 (1:14), the Asus Zen AiO (1:07), and the HP Envy Curved (1:04) in the dust. It also led the pack on our Photoshop CS6 test with a time of 3:06.
And while the XPS 27 wasn't built specifically for gaming, it did go toe-to-toe with gaming all-in-ones like the Asus Zen AiO Pro and the MSI Gaming 24GE. In 3D testing, it scored a respectable 17,434 points on 3DMark CloudGate, and 1,906 points on the more intensive Fire Strike Extreme. That's slightly behind the Zen AiO (17,879 on CloudGate, 2,024 on Fire Strike Extreme) and, overall, a bit ahead of the Gaming 24GE (15,920 on Cloud Gate, 1,941 on Fire Strike Extreme). On the Heaven and Valley gaming tests, the XPS 27 also held its own at 1,366-by-768 resolution with graphic details set to Medium, managing an impressive 72 frames per second (fps) and 87fps respectively. Unsurprisingly, these numbers dropped precipitously using the Ultra graphics option at its native 3,840-by-2,160 resolution: to 5fps on Heaven and 6fps on Valley. This makes sense, as 4K gaming is rather draining on a system. If you lower the resolution to 1080p, you can get frame rates in the range of 20 to 35fps, which is technically playable but not exactly ideal. Long story short: If you want to play games, stick to less-demanding titles or lower your settings.
Conclusion
The Dell XPS 27 (7760) has a specific strength: multimedia, particularly music. There's no question that if you want to fight for your right to party, or you just want to drown out that one insufferable neighbor, the XPS 27 has you covered. But if multimedia isn't your be-all, end-all, it's hard to justify the XPS 27's hefty $2,799 price tag. Yes, everything sounds and looks awesome on the XPS 27. But there are more affordable all-in-ones that offer similar performance and beautiful visuals, like the HP Envy Curved 34-A051.
With a beautiful 4K touch screen, an adjustable stand, and 10 speakers, the Dell XPS 27 (7760) is a multimedia powerhouse masquerading as an all-in-one desktop. You may want to invest in some noise-canceling headphones for your family or roommates, though.
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