REVIEWS / HTPCS / DELL INDIA PVT LTD

Dell Zino HD: Too Expensive for an HTPC

24 Feb, 2011, 5:09 pm IST | by Ashish Koshy | HTPCs HTPCs

Quite colorful

Quite colorful
Compact and cute to look at
Front ports are well spaced
This is what lies beneath the Zino HD
Ports behind are a bit cramped
Benchmarks show a good performance by the Zino HD

dell-zino-htpc

PRICE IN INDIA

30,900

TECH2 RATING

6.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

How we test

CONTACT

Dell India Pvt Ltd

 NA

 1800 425 4026 (Toll Free - BSNL & MTNL)

 www.dell.co.in

There are those who look for performance from their PCs while there are some who like fancy and compact designs. Dell plans to woo the latter segment of customers with their newest iteration of the Zino HD. The new Zino HD doesn’t look different from the early models but the hardware has come a long way. The Dell Zino HD has always been designed to fit right into your living room, without eating too much space. Its design lends itself to being a decent HTPC setup.

An HTPC (Home Theater PC) is aimed at those who are looking for something like a media player, but also fits in regular PC usage such as basic office work, internet surfing and a bit of gaming as well.

Specifications:
Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 P840
Memory 2 GB DDR3 1333MHz
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450
Storage: 320GB SATA Hard Drive
Optical drive: 8X DVD Writer
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Basic 64bit

Design and Build Quality
The Zino HD is designed very well both in terms of looks as well as size. At just 8 x 8 inches, it’s a reasonably compact PC that can be kept anywhere. The Zino HD is build well but the top panel feels somewhat flimsy and loose.

Compact and cute to look at

Compact and cute to look at

 

 

Features
In terms of features, the Zino HD has sufficient external ports for different devices. At the front, there are two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone connector and a 4-in-1 memory card reader, all of which are spaced out.

The ports at the back include an Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, one HDMI and an SPDIF port along with others. Unlike the front, the ports at the rear are positioned closely, but then that is bound to happen looking at the fact that the motherboard for the Zino HD has a mini-ITX design. While the Zino HD does have a VGA port, having a DVI out as well would’ve been handy for those using LCD monitors without an HDMI input.

Front ports are well spaced

Front ports are well spaced

 


In terms of connectivity, there are sufficient USB and eSATA ports as you’ve seen above. The built-in Wi-Fi feature means that you can stream videos, movies and songs straight from the internet or from a networked computer or NAS.

This is what lies beneath the Zino HD

This is what lies beneath the Zino HD

 

 

We also opened up the Zino HD and found a 3.5-inch Western Digital HDD and a TS-L633 DVD Drive from Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology. As you can see, things are a little cramped but Dell has managed to squeeze in all of the components. Opening and closing the Zino HD wasn’t the easiest of things, so it’s not advisable to try it.

Ports behind are a bit cramped

Ports behind are a bit cramped

 

 

The bundled keyboard and mouse has been well thought of, but Dell should have gone that extra mile and provided wireless options for those who are looking to use this as an HTPC. Although both peripherals are designed well and are comfortable to use, it would have been a lot better if the user gets to operate the HTPC completely from the couch. A remote control is also an item that could have been bundled.

Tags: Dell , Zino HD , HTPC , AMD , Phenom II , X3 , P840 , ATI Mobility Radeon , Microsoft , Windows 7

Would you buy it?




RELATED STORIES

Dell's acquisition of Wyse Technology finalized

Dell announced that it has completed its acquisition of Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing.

Indian PC market growth sluggish in Q1; Lenovo tops the list

TVs, cameras, PCs to cost more as Rupee turns volatile

Dell updates their XPS and Vostro desktops with Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs

Dell refreshes M14x and M17x with Ivy Bridge and Nvidia Kepler GPUs

Foxconn’s new Nano-PCs launched, will compete with ZOTAC’s ZBOX

ZOTAC ZBOX AD04 Plus Review

DELL FactoryTour

26 Jan, 2007, 09:20 pm IST

DELL FactoryTour

Dell PowerEdge M420 Server

15 May, 2012, 12:29 am IST

Dell PowerEdge M420 Server

Dell PowerEdge T320 Server

15 May, 2012, 12:19 am IST

Dell PowerEdge T320 Server

 

How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order

On video: HTC One V

On video: HTC One V

18 May, 2012, 04:44 AM

4.4

On video: Cowon Z2 (16GB)

On video: Cowon Z2 (16GB)

15 May, 2012, 04:58 PM

2.3

On video: Samsung WB150F

On video: Samsung WB150F

08 May, 2012, 04:23 AM

5.0

MORE VIDEOS

features

Build your gaming rig for roughly 1.2 lakhs

Build your gaming rig for roughly 1.2 lakhs

We’ve seen two budget rigs already, one for around Rs. 35,000 for the...

By Roydon Cerejo

Build your gaming rig for roughly 35k

Build your gaming rig for roughly 35k

A while back, we talked about how one could get a gaming PC running for...

By Rossi Fernandes

Build your gaming rig for roughly 50k

Build your gaming rig for roughly 50k

Rage, Battlefield 3, Serious Sam: BFE are just some of the great PC games...

By Roydon Cerejo , Rossi Fernandes

MORE FEATURES

Dell Latitude 10, first Windows 8 tablet shows up

Atul Malhotra

Mon May 28, 09:37:50

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 310 shows up on Infibeam.com

Atul Malhotra

Mon May 28, 09:22:57

Google Nexus tablet to be unveiled at Google I/O 2012

Shazli Syed Afsa Ala

Mon May 28, 05:34:28

MORE DISCUSSIONS