Compaq will announce a similarly radical-looking, colorful PC early next year.
WSJ
December 2, 1999
Curvy PC From Dell
Courts Internet Users
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
Over the years, I've used many PCs from Dell Computer. Whatever their speed and capacity, all of these machines shared a few characteristics. They were big, ugly beige boxes, sold as a commodity at aggressive prices and aimed mainly at businesses and techies.
But over the past week or so, I've been testing a very different Dell machine -- a small, figure-eight-shaped, gray-and-blue model, aimed at mainstream consumers. It has an integrated flat-panel screen and a housing that hides all the wires. I can hardly believe that this computer, called the WebPC, says "Dell" on the case.
Dell isn't alone in trying a new approach to consumer PCs. A few feet away from my WebPC test unit sits a curved, white, one-piece machine, with a built-in flat-panel screen, from Dell's traditional direct-sale rival, Gateway. Compaq will announce a similarly radical-looking, colorful PC early next year.
All of these machines follow a new industry standard called the "legacy-free" or "easy" design. The computers omit older connectors like the parallel, serial and mouse ports, and some or all internal slots. In their place is a single type of connector, the new USB port. This makes it easier to connect peripheral devices, though it requires people with older printers and peripherals to either scrap them or buy adapter cables.
Dell's WebPC
There are several factors behind Dell's new model and its brethren. The PC makers are trying to get out of the commodity business, which would allow them to fetch higher prices. Also, they are hoping to steal some of the thunder from Apple's stylish, wildly popular iMac computers and to build a defense against the wave of sleek, simple information appliances expected to arrive next year.
In my tests, I found WebPC to be a very nice computer that worked well and is a big step forward for Dell. It's also a pretty good value. The four configurations, at prices ranging from $999 to $2,349, include a monitor and printer, as well as a year of free, though limited, Internet access.
But Dell is making exaggerated claims for this machine. The company says of the WebPC that it's stylish; it's quick and easy to set up; it includes easier customer support; and it's "Web-centric," specifically designed for the Internet. Some of this is true, some isn't.
Let's dispatch that last claim immediately. This PC is no more "Web-centric" than any other recent Windows computer. The claim is pure marketing. The Internet setup process is exactly the same on competitors' Windows PCs. There are Internet keys on the keyboard, but others have had them for years. The included free Internet service has a hidden limit, specified only in the fine print: 150 hours a month, after which there's a $1.50 hourly fee.
Dell is right, however, that WebPC is remarkably easy to set up. It comes in a box that has been designed to unpack quickly and simply, and most of the cables are already attached. In most of the configurations, you need only plug in the monitor, the electrical cords and a phone cord. In the high-end flat-panel-screen model I tested, this was even simpler.
It's also true that the new model is stylish. It's only about a third the size of traditional Dell machines, even though it has plenty of power, memory and hard-disk capacity. The top-of-the-line model I tested has 128 megabytes of memory, a 13-gigabyte hard disk, a DVD drive and a 500 MHz Pentium III processor. You can buy snap-in accent panels in multiple hues to change the color scheme.
But the design has its quirks. Most important, Dell has aped the iMac in leaving out a floppy drive, or any other type of removable disk drive the owner can use to share data with another PC. This is a bad decision, and it means you'll have to spend an extra $149 for an external drive able to read and write to floppy disks.
Another oddity: The sleek housing in the flat-panel model requires the PC to be turned sideways, making it awkward to change CDs. The door that hides all the cables is hard to snap in when a lot of cables are attached. And the keyboard omits the usual block of dedicated navigation keys, including the crucial delete key. Instead, these keys are shared with the numeric keypad.
On customer support, Dell is half right. The machine has something called e-support, which includes a bunch of automated self-diagnosis tools and an Internet-based system for sending in questions to Dell technicians. This support process can be invoked by pushing a big button on the front of the WebPC. That makes this the rare product whose manufacturer admits it's so likely to confuse its users that a special rescue button is needed.
These automated diagnostics may well be helpful, and the system can allow technicians to peer into the PC, with permission, over the Internet and transfer needed software to the PC. In my tests, however, the system worked poorlyinstance, when the external disk drive started refusing to eject disks, the diagnostic tests were clueless. So it's a very good thing that Dell is offering WebPC members access to the company's famous free telephone support.
Dell says that the WebPC is just the first of an exciting consumer product line, and that future models will be ever more customized for Internet access and use. The WebPC is a good first step, but only a first step. |
