Toshiba DX1215 Series All-In-One PC

Toshiba has entered the all-in-one PC market strongly with their DX1215 Series. There are 2 models, distinguished mainly by their processor. The first has an Intel i5-2410M processor that clocks in at 2.3GHz. The second has the upgraded Intel i7 processor. Both of these have Turbo Boost technology in them. Think of Turbo Boost as akin to the turbo boost found in a car. You don't always use it, but the option is there when necessary. In computer terms, Turbo Boost is used when extra processing power is needed. When it comes to all-in-ones the important feature is the monitor. The DX1215 Series comes with a 21.5" widescreen FHD TruBrite LCD display. A long title for sure, but what it means is that you get a high resolution display capable of 1080p output and a 16:9 aspect ratio. It is a touchscreen which means you don't have to use a mouse if you don't want to, and the base tilts to allow you to maneuver the screen to the best viewing angle. As usual with all-in-ones, the computer has Wi-Fi capability built-in. It is also Bluetooth 3.0 capable, which is nice because 3.0 is new technology.

Some of the other basic technical specs include 4GB of DDR3 RAM. 4GB is what you want to try and get in a computer today at minimum. In a laptop 4GB is perfect. In a desktop you can easily increase this to 6GB without drastically increasing the price. Still, 4GB is definitely not bad. And if it isn't enough don't worry, the DX1215 is capable of being expanded up to 8GB RAM. A 1TB hard drive is plenty of space for whatever you need. Whether its music, movies, pictures, or games, 1TB is going to be more than enough. If you're truly worried about having enough space, get an external hard drive. Not only will it increase capacity, it will protect your files in case something horrible happens to your computer. For your viewing pleasure the DX1215 Series comes with the Mobile Intel HD Graphics card and 64MB-1696MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory. Another long title, one that is definitely worth explaining. If you're watching a movie in HD or playing a graphically intensive game, the allocated memory is what allows you to watch or play smoothly. When watching a great movie or playing a fantastic game you're going to want to make sure your computer has excellent audio. The Toshiba DX1215 Series All-in-One has that. It comes with Waves MaxxAudio 3 hardware and Onkyo stereo speakers. Dolby Advanced Audio combines these two and produces high quality sound no matter the volume or quality of the sound file. And if you want to burn your own music or movies you can do so because it comes with a drive which is capable of burning and reading CDs and DVDs.

If you like to Skype your friends then you're going to want a web camera with quality resolution. This all-in-one comes with a 1.3 MP webcam. To be frank it could be better. There are many other all-in-ones and laptops that have webcams with resolutions of 3 and sometimes even 5. Still, 1.3 is not horrible. It just depends on what you're used to. If you want to take pictures from your camera and upload them then you can use the memory card reader found on the side of the unit. This card reader is compatible with SD, SDHC, SDXC, miniSD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, and Memory Stick PRO Duo. While a nice memory card reader is all and well, when it comes to ports it's all about USB's and HDMI's. The DX1215 Series has both. You can find an HDMI input so you can plug in your HD camera, or any other HD device. There is no HD output, so don't ask. As for USB's there are many. 2 USB 3.0's and 4 USB 2.0 ports are more than enough to connect all your favorite devices. One of the 3.0 ports is even capable of Sleep and Charge, which lets you charge a device even when the computer is powered down. Speaking of energy efficiency, the computer is Energy Star Qualified. It most certainly is not an SUV of the computer world.

In terms of software and features, it is going to come with Windows 7 Home Premium, the 64-bit version. It will also come with Microsoft Office Starter, which they advertise as if it's a good thing when all it is really is a trial. You've pre-installed a trial? You shouldn't have. Toshiba Face Recognition is a nifty feature which lets you capture a picture of each user the computer should know. That way, when that person wants to log on, the computer will snap a picture of them and recognize which user is trying to access the computer at that moment. It might be basically the same as entering in a password (and might take longer to do), but hey it's new and sounds futuristic. Sleep-and-Music is a feature similar to the Sleep and Charge feature, but instead of letting you power a device while the computer is powered down, this feature lets you play music from your mp3 device through the computers speakers. There is a slot through which a security cable lock can be looped through. Sounds random but if you're a college student living in a dorm then you know very well why this is important. Since it is an all-in-one it comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Pretty standard fare for a computer in this market.

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Sources

http://technovers.com/2011/06/toshiba-releases-dx1215/

http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-dx1215-all-in-one/19005/