Dell XPS 200 - First Take
The Dell XPS 200 delivers the latest mainstream technology in an attractive, space-saving chassis that will keep home and office users humming along at a productive clip.
Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
The Dell XPS 200 is a lean version of the XPS 400, which is bigger and offers a greater degree of customization. By sacrificing some configuration options, Dell offers you a system with a thin case and a small footprint. Like the XPS 400, pricing for the XPS 200 starts at $990. Two areas where your choices are limited are with the graphics and the hard drive. The only graphics card offered is the low-profile, midrange ATI Radeon X600 SE, which means gamers need not apply. And serious TV archivists will balk at only three hard drive options, the largest of which is 320GB. By comparison, you can buy an XPS 400 with 640GB of hard drive space. But the system's slim design and sharp looks make it an easy-on-the-eyes purchase for the vast majority of home users. A specialized XPS service code lets you bypass the usual long wait time and speak with an XPS-trained technician.