Even though the Inspiron 27 7000 has discrete graphics, Nvidia's MX110 is not in the same class as a GeForce GTX- or RTX-class GPU like the one in the Surface Studio 2. If you're a casual, everyday user looking for an all-in-one desktop, you should be happy with this one. For those of you who may not make extensive use of the mobility, we'd still recommend it as an effective general-use AIO. For those who may want to move it around the house or office, it's painless to do so, and various family members can enjoy it for a range of tasks. Just note that the performance doesn't hit the higher end of some more potent AIOs, if that's what you need.

It makes a good first impression. The screen looks vivid at first glance and the glossy coat provides a sense of depth and drama that’s hard to replicate on a matte screen. The gloss creates glare, however, so the Inspiron 27 can be difficult to view in a bright, sunlit room. The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of the boot drive. The speakers sound great in dialogue-heavy content such as podcasts or YouTube videos. They provide enough volume to fill a large room with sound and offer the range to handle a variety of vocal styles.Because they have bigger screens, AIO PCs are physically larger than laptops. Of course, you give up the ability to easily move them from room to room, but AIOs are still more portable than tower PCs. All-in-one PCs don't have the expandability that you're going to find in most towers, but they do tend to have better looks.

The pair of speakers beneath the Dell Inspiron 27’s fabric-covered chin are loud, deliver respectable bass, and sound clear even at high volume. Also handy is an HDMI input port, which gives you the flexibility to use the AIO as a discrete display for a separate PC, a game console, or another video source. It also gives an AIO with a sharp display some potential utility years down the road as a stand-alone monitor, when the PC portion inside becomes obsolete. The next time you're online and thinking that youreallyneed a bigger screen than the one on your current laptop or tablet, take a look at an all-in-one desktop. You may be surprised how much screen, and how much power, they deliver for the money versus a like-priced laptop. Thankfully, Dell includes a wireless keyboard and mouse rather than a wired pair that clutters your desk. Both peripherals are white to match the rest of the system. The keyboard is compact and the optical mouse is ambidextrous; both are serviceable if no match for Logitech's or Microsoft's best.The Inspiron 27 is not slow in day-to-day tasks but is not suited to more demanding applications like photo or video editing. It’s also a terrible choice for games. This will limit its appeal to those who only use a computer for document editing, web browsing, and retro gaming. Intel SME Study Disclaimer: Based on a 2018 survey of small business owners in five countries. Details here intel.com.au/smestudy

Sub-par bundled peripherals are common among mid-range, all-in-one computers. Still, it would be better to have a good keyboard in the box; immediately tossing it out in favor of another new keyboard is a waste of money, cardboard, and plastic. Complete with a wireless mouse and keyboard, a crisp 5-megapixel webcam, and surprisingly effective stereo speakers, the Chromebase 22 is a splendid home PC if you can do your computing in the cloud and don't need high-end apps, like Adobe Photoshop. It's especially suited for students who use school-supplied Chromebooks during the day, and so they'll already be used to the interface.

You can have the best of both worlds with an all-in-one PC that boots from an SSD but has an additional spinning hard drive for storage. In that case, look for at least a 256GB SSD boot drive and 1TB of supplemental hard drive storage if you're a power user. You'll need more storage (2TB to 4TB) if you plan on keeping your entire video, music, and photo collection on your AIO. (Credit: Kyle Cobian)