I was amused to see early shots of the latest Dell OptiPlex desktops. These are pretty much the mainline of Dell’s line-up, and are among the most popular desktop PCs in the country. Electronista talked about the new line-up’s “industrial, metal” look, which Dell credits for dramatic reductions in power consumption. And despite Dell’s much-remarked-upon commitment to industrial design, the new boxes are incredibly hideous.
Why? Because Dell is perfectly willing to sacrifice a design vision in order to save on manufacturing costs. Compare the box at left to a Mac Pro. Both have metal grill faces, but only one is metal all over and uses modified commodity components in order to maintain a consistent look. Dell, meanwhile, dropped in ugly black plastic components for the drives and sides, presumably because it was a lot easier than speccing a custom mold for all parts. AND they left in the floppy drive, a full 10 years after Apple ditched it.
This, in a nutshell, is the difference between Apple and nearly every other computer company on earth (Sony might be the one exception, and HP is improving): Apple just won’t compromise. If a computer is going to be an imposing metal tower that recalls a steel factory, it will be that all over, even if it’s nearly impossible to engineer. A company like Dell, on the other hand, will throw such interesting design ideas out as soon they get hard to pull off. Apple is committed to engineering designs exactly as crafted, down to the millimeter and the routing of interior cables. A company like Dell wants to provide just enough design and taste that people aren’t actively repulsed by its products.
It’s not even close.
Electronista via Engadget
56 responses to “More Comical Evidence That PC Design is No Threat to Apple”
The floppy drive is the best joke of the whole thing. LOL
A FLOPPY Drive?
People still use 3,5-inch floppies in 2008?!?
For realz, who is using floppies?
Apple Please Buy out Dell & sell the company off and give the money to the hare holders
its the humane thing to do
that has got to be the ugliest POS I have ever seen
I still use floppies for transferring OLD files between OLD computers.
you’d be surprised. I work in the main computer lab here at my school and there is a bank of public computers (about 10 total) there as well. Most of the students use flash drives, but I have seen a couple of older people (teachers, students??) using floppies. Not to mention the public access computers where nearly a third of the people that use them use floppies. And guess what?? They are all Dells. Dell caters to a different market, the low-end, school-business-public computers, especially with this line of desktops. Why are they going to spend money taking out the floppy when some of their users still use them?
Some legacy systems still require floppy disks. I work in IT for a factory. We have several industrial scales, controllers, etc. that have software or licenses on floppy disks. And guess what? We use Dell Optiplex computers. Maybe Apple can afford to tell its customers what they want, but Dell has to actually listen to theirs.
But yes… it is ugly.
Ryan, nothing wrong with using floppies to transfer files between old computers, but this “OptiPlex” is a far from being an “old computer”.
they may be ugly, but the dell optiplex has been one of the most reliable enterpise pc lines period. i’ve been getting them here at work since the pII/266 gxa, and i support hundreds of them. except for a run of bad motherboard capacitors on an older model i’ve very little trouble with them, they’re easy to service (unlike *some* apple products) and they’ve just been really solid. i love my macs, but one doesn’t buy a dell optiplex for it’s looks.
when it comes to design,DELL is the WORST in world.most of the time it seems that they are intentionally try to make their computers as UGLY as one can possibly imagine.I have never seen any thing uglier than this computer.
Even old computers had ethernet. Well, the Mac ones did. If it is small enuff for a floppy, it is small enuff to email.
bet it’s got blue-ray and fire-wire
I look at that and I look at my Mac Pro and all I can do is laugh. The cluttered plastic block on the metal grill is such an ugly contrast.
Though Dell will probably have the last laugh on me since it will probably be my next work machine my companies replaces my current Optiplex with.
If I saw someone using a floppy in the lab, I would knock it out of his/her hands and then push them down.
Firewire? Doesn’t looks like it. But, floppies? Hell, yeah!
You can get floppies at yardsales and fleamarkets for a nickel each, or less.
Great for archiving photos. Each cropped jpeg photo fits snugly on an individual disk. Each photo is labeled, and stored in my safe deposit boxes.
It’s getting a little unwieldly, with 17000+ photos. So, I’m gonna consider upgrading to Zip disks.
Wow, 3.5 floppy. That’s sorta remarkable to see on a new machine, I just recently tossed out 3 boxes of unopened 3M 3.5s! Didn’t use them much when I got them in 1994 since they held so little and even on Win3.11 their usefulness was meager.
Such arrogant comments. My graphics studio is half Macs and although I appreciate their strengths (they have weaknesses, too, which is why I also use PCs), I don’t go around slamming others just to make myself feel superior. Is that iNsecurity I smell from the Mac diehard posts above?
Right on Mr. Roberto.
“Is that iNsecurity I smell from the Mac diehard posts above?”
I suspect so; that or they have little pee-pees…
I love my Mac too, but don’t feel the need to beat people about the head
with that fact.
Comparing the Optiflex to the Mac Pro is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Mercedes S Class. Naturally the fit and finish are entirely different because you are in two different price points. When comparably equipped the Optiflex comes in at $1500 while the Mac Pro comes in at $3000.
Dell OptiPlex = mainstream corporate desktop
Mac Pro = high-end dual-Xeon workstation
Not a fair comparison at all. A Dell Precision is more in the league of the Mac Pro, but configured to similar spec, the Dell is more expensive.
Strange but true.
Earth-to-Ryan …. Floppy disks are DEAD, long DEAD. Haven’t you heard of flash USB drives ? Dell makes probably the ugliest machines on the planet. And, if you think the exterior of the computers are ugly, wait until you see the inside of the computers ! The key to Apple’s computers are well designed, elegant, simple, with a clean look. Sell Dell and give the money back to the stockholders !
By the way … price has nothing to do with it. Dell’s expensive computers still look like crap.
so funny to see people defending the ugly box. apple is light years ahead.
Wow, I had no idea so many MAC users were elitists… I agree with Roberto, I think they are over-compensating for something. I love my mac, but to hate on another machine that has plenty of upside, a solid reputation, and a good sales record… The mac is not the messiah, just a solid machine.
I don’t think it’s particularly ugly, more just non-designed.
As for including a floppy drive, so what?
If that’s what Dell want to include and doesn’t charge extra, it’s fine by me if there are people out there still using them.
I’ll stick with my handsome Macs though!
Nice to see that Apple fans can depended upon to value style over substance (after all, if they cared about the technical merits, they wouldn’t be Apple fans).
Be that as it may: yes, it’s hideous, and yes, having a floppy drive in 2008 is absurd.
Oooh! A tray drive for 2008?
How innovative is that?
and
Will someone show me where the 800 Firewire is?
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