Dell Studio Hybrid review

Computers get cleverer on the inside at a remarkable pace, yet, despite the best efforts of a few manufacturers, they don't seem to change very much on the outside.

A few years ago everyone switched from beige plastic to black, and that's about as exciting as it's got. Yet with today's entertainment-friendly PCs gravitating towards the living room, who wants a big, square, noisy box whirring away while they're trying to watch telly?

It's a good question, but Dell's first ever miniature desktop PC is one of the few we've seen that we'd actually let anywhere near our HDTV. The first attraction is its size. The Studio Hybrid is a dainty little thing, bigger than the Nintendo Wii of my uncle but smaller than the PlayStation 2 of my aunt. Cleverly, you can use it either horizontally or vertically with the supplied stand, so you can give it pride of place in your home cinema setup, pop it out of sight in a TV cabinet, or just tuck it behind your monitor in the study.

If you do hide it, though, you'll be missing out. The Hybrid's petite oval form is uncommonly stylish, even for a media centre PC, and the gently glowing white logos make for a particularly luxurious look. As standard, it comes with a Slate Grey shell wrapped around its extruded chassis, but you can colour-coordinate it with your décor if you pay £29 for one of five alternative finishes. If you're feeling particularly flash, and flush, an extra £89 will buy you the Bamboo shell, which probably improves your feng shui, or something.

Quiet revolution

It's refreshing to find there's no tangle of cables spilling from the rear of this PC. A petite laptop-style power supply hooks up at the back, and there are HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs to cater for whatever type of display you choose to add. Built-in 802.11b/g/n WiFi networking means you don't need unsightly network cables trailing across the room, and even the receiver for the supplied wireless keyboard and mouse is integrated into the case. So far, so neat.

Nor will the Hybrid intrude on your peace and quiet. Like most mini PCs, it uses components designed for laptops - that's why it's a 'hybrid', we presume - which draw less power, generate less heat, and thus need fewer fans. The Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor is no slouch, barrelling along at 2.1GHz, and with 3GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk accompanying it in our model, there's plenty of power for everyday applications. Our 2D (general) benchmarks weren't much of a challenge for the Dell, which achieved a creditable 162%.

A score of just 18% in our 3D gaming benchmark betrayed the limitations of the integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics, but at least you could get away with playing older titles at lower detail settings. It's no surprise that the Studio Hybrid isn't suitable for serious gamers.

To make up for it, Dell equipped our review system with a Blu-ray drive, ready to play the latest high definition movie discs. This adds a fair bit to the price, of which more in a moment, but hook it up to a suitable HD monitor, TV or projector and films do look fantastic.

The one disappointment for buyers looking for a compact, powerful media centre PC may be the lack of a built-in digital TV tuner. You can add a good dual tuner via USB for about £60, so it's not a disaster. Even before you've added extras such as this, however, the Studio Hybrid looks quite an expensive machine. Fully loaded, it makes a tempting HD entertainment centre, but at £780 without a monitor, you're paying a hefty premium for its fine design and whisper-quiet operation. The £399 entry level configuration may be eye-catching, but it's way too low for comfort, with a Celeron processor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk.