dell

The Dell UltraSharp U2412m trades in the series' staple, the H-IPS panel, for a cheaper and lower-performing E-IPS panel.

I'll admit to being a bit disappointed when I learned Dell went with a cheaper panel. However, what this enables it to do is offer a monitor full of ergonomic features, a fully stocked OSD, and--despite its less-than-stellar viewing angles--excellent performance at a great price.

The full review has always been waiting for you. You just needed to believe in yourself first in order to see it.

More reviews can be easily accessed from the monitor hub.

The long-awaited Dell ultrabook is here. Having skipped the first round of new superslim laptops, the new XPS 13 is largely worth the wait, and hits a lot of what you'd want in an ultrabook.

At $999 for a 128GB SSD and Intel Core i5-2467M CPU, the XPS 13 is reasonably priced, although HP, Toshiba, and others offer similar specs for $100 or so less. Working in Dell's favor are the system's excellent build quality--the body is a mix of aluminum, magnesium alloy, and carbon fiber--and its smaller footprint. It's not quite a 13-inch laptop in an 11-inch body, but it's in the ballpark. … Read more

Dell's first ultrabook, the XPS 13, is now available. And it's attracting a lot of attention as one of Dell's best laptop designs to date.

The XPS 13 boasts solid specs for the base $999 configuration, is priced well below the MacBook Air, uses a smaller footprint than 13-inch competitors, and taps carbon fiber materials in the chassis to keep the weight below three pounds.

And Dell will announce Tuesday that it is seeing lots of demand already. "We're seeing strong consumer and business demand for the new XPS 13," said Michael Tatelman, Dell Vice President and General Manager of Americas Consumer, in a statement to be released Tuesday.

The XPS 13 wil also be sold at Best Buy from Tuesday.

Starting at $999.99, it comes -- at that price -- with a 13.3-inch/300-nit/1,366x768 display squeezed into a 12-inch chassis (roughly), an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, Intel HD Graphics 3000, a 128GB solid-state drive, 4GB of memory, backlit keyboard, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. It is 0.71 inches at its thickest point.

Other standard features include a 47WHr 6-cell battery (built into the laptop and not replaceable by the customer) rated at a maximum of over eight hours, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0, mini Display-Port, 1.3-megapixel Webcam, and dual-array digital microphones. … Read more

The first Very Important Laptop of 2012 has arrived, in the form of the new Dell XPS 13. This is Dell's first ultrabook (an Intel designation for laptops with certain specs--essentially a Windows MacBook Air), and even though the company is a little late to that particular game, the XPS 13 nails a lot of what makes for a good ultrabook experience.

The first thing you notice about the XPS 13 is how small it looks. Dell claims this is a 13-inch screen in a chassis more like an 11-inch laptop's.… Read more

Dell delivered fourth-quarter results that fell just short of expectations. Dell’s sales and outlook for fiscal 2013 were above expectations.

Dell’s fourth-quarter revenue topped estimates, but earnings were light. The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $764 million, or 43 cents a share, on revenue of $16.03 billion. Non-GAAP earnings were 51 cents a share.

Wall Street expected Dell to report fourth-quarter earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $15.96 billion.

For the year, Dell reported earnings of $3.49 billion, or $1.88 a share, on revenue of $62.07 billion.

As for the … Read more

The middle ground on Dell’s prospects has eroded in a hurry. Analysts are either upbeat or bummed about the company’s prospects as it diversifies away from hardware into software and services.

Dell reports its financial results later today and is expected to disclose fourth-quarter earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $15.94 billion. For fiscal 2012, Dell is expected to report earnings of $2.12 a share on revenue of $62.03 billion.

Analysts seemed to be heartened that Dell has been a consistent performer in recent quarters. According to Gartner, Dell is gaining share … Read more

The quality of Apple's tech support by telephone "declined significantly" from 2010 to 2011 according to a new customer study.

Vocal Laboratories (Vocalabs) this morning published findings from its National Customer Service Survey, saying that while Apple continued to beat out competitors like Dell and HP when it came to customer service on the phone, customer satisfaction dropped a full 10 percent since the firm surveyed customers in the first half of 2010.

The study, which ran from May 2008 to December 2011 was based on 4,852 telephone interviews made following calls to the support lines … Read more

I didn't get how important support was. Then, recently, I had back-to-back experiences dealing with both great and terrible support for products that failed. If you make a consumer product, there are important lessons in these experiences.

Experience number 1: Dell

I bought a cheap computer for my mother, for her birthday. A few months later, but still during the warranty period, it died. Utterly. Power supply, I think, although maybe the motherboard. I started the support process, eventually did a frustrating online chat (we've all been there, right?), and against my wishes agreed to have a Dell … Read more

Dell has hired John Swainson, former CEO of CA, as president of its new software group.

Reporting directly to Dell CEO Michael Dell, Swainson will lead the new group with a mission to sell products and services to large enterprises as the company continues to expand beyond the PC business.

Dubbed CA's Mr. Fix-It in a CNET story from 2005, Swainson has been credited with turning around and expanding his former company, a talent Dell undoubtedly hopes he can bring to his new position.

The new software group is aimed at helping Dell in its ongoing goal to sell … Read more