Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review
Our Verdict
The Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is a mini PC with a twist, offer a unique desktop setup that should be corking for offices large and modest.
For
- Not bad operation
- Mini PC meets All-in-One desktop
- Excellent port selection
- Dizzying number of configurations and coverage plans
Against
- Locks you into a new, untried ecosystem
- Setup is a pain
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is a mini PC with a twist, offering a unique desktop setup that should be slap-up for offices big and small.
Pros
- +
Bang-up performance
- +
Mini PC meets All-in-I desktop
- +
Fantabulous port selection
- +
Dizzying number of configurations and coverage plans
Cons
- -
Locks yous into a new, untried ecosystem
- -
Setup is a hurting
The Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is i of the best mini PCs nosotros've ever reviewed, with a design that'south much smaller than the likes of the Apple Mac mini, but without the compromises that come with a stick PC like the Azulle Access3. But what's most hitting about this particular PC is how well the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra goes beyond beingness easy to hide, and simply disappears into your desktop setup.
When you recollect of innovative reckoner designs, mini PCs and all-in-one desktops probably aren't where your mind turns. But the Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra manages to exercise just that, remixing the all-in-one concept with a shockingly slim design that slots into a specially designed monitor stand up, transforming the accompanying monitor into a highly capable part all-in-one. As you'll notice in this Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review, information technology reimagines the office PC as a system that is at once modular and exceedingly sleek and clean.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Design
The 7070 Ultra is genuinely surprising in its slimness. Were I handling the device without knowing what it was, my initial impression might be that it'due south a laptop bombardment rather than a full-fledged desktop PC.
Measuring just ten.08 x iii.78 by 1.one inches, and weighing simply 1.sixteen pounds, the design is slim and compact, even for a mini PC. While it's non as tiny as the pocketable Azulle Access3 stick PC, it'due south a fair bit smaller and sleeker than either the Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny or the Apple Mac mini (2018). It's definitely a far cry from larger tower-fashion mini PCs, like we saw in our Asus ProArt PA90 workstation review.
And while many mini PCs leverage their tiny size to offering some interesting mounting options, letting y'all stow the minor box behind a monitor or under a desk, the 7070 Ultra takes this idea a pace further, with a design that tin actually exist mounted inside a monitor stand up. The result is something like a modular all-in-one desktop estimator, where the stand is compact plenty that you lot could easily overlook the PC inside.
Our review model also shipped with the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra Summit Adjustable Stand and Dell P2719HC 27 USB-C Monitor, which in this example comes without the usual monitor stand, since information technology was bundled with the 7070 Ultra and accompanying stand.
Once the mini PC is properly seated and the embrace fastened to the stand up, the whole package is slimmer and sleeker than many standalone monitors, and certainly more than graceful than the bulk of all-in-one computers I take reviewed.
In add-on to the stand and monitor, our review unit of the 7070 Ultra likewise came with the Dell KM636 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, a wireless keyboard and mouse that share a single wireless USB dongle.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Setup
The 7070 Ultra is itself a very slim oblong shaped mini PC, and the accompanying monitor has a special stand that hides the mini PC inside it to create a modular all-in-one organisation. However, the monitor functions as a standalone display for any PC you wish to hook upward, and the 7070 Ultra is designed to function equally a standalone device too. Every bit a upshot, setting up the 7070 Ultra is a little convoluted. In improver to attaching the stand to the monitor, you will and then also partially accept the stand apart in club to install the mini PC.
The 7070 Ultra fits inside this stand up encompass, through which you'll besides demand to run cables for ability, DisplayPort output to the monitor, USB for wired keyboards and mice, and Ethernet for wired network connections. Some of this cable clutter can be reduced by using the included wireless keyboard and mouse, which instead uses a small USB wireless dongle, as well as Wi-Fi for wireless networking.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Stand and monitor
One unique attribute to the 7070 Ultra is that, while it comes with a stand up that integrates the mini PC into the monitor footprint, the Dell P2719HC that was included with our review unit is as well a standalone monitor. When used with another stand (or even the OptiPlex stand used here) the 27-inch USB-C monitor offers standard connections for hooking up any other PC.
When we tested the included monitor, we found that it offered adept overall capability, merely not much that would make it stand out on its ain. With basic 1920 x 1080 resolution and an average brightness of 252.8 nits, there's nothing peculiarly luxe well-nigh this monitor.
However, it does have splendid colour accuracy, with a Delta-E rating of 0.2 (closer to 0 is meliorate, and annihilation under ane.0 is superb), as well as a solid 106% color gamut. While nosotros won't dig into those numbers besides securely here, suffice it to say that the color and accurateness offered past this full HD monitor are unexpectedly superb.
There was some modest shadowing along exterior edges of the screen, including corners. Even so, unlike many displays which have more noticeable shadows in the corners, the Dell monitor is fairly consistent with the residue of the brandish edges.
With the 7070 Ultra Height Adjustable Stand fastened, the monitor can be raised and lowered, and even has tilting angle adjustment. And the stand up isn't express to this Dell production, or even Dell monitors, as it will work with any VESA uniform monitor measuring 19 to 27 inches.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Ports
The lowest configuration we found for the 7070 Ultra was outfitted with an Intel Core i3-8145U dual-core processor with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, selling for $559.
The next step up has an Intel Core i5-8265U quad-core CPU, which adds $50 to the toll, and higher up that, a configuration with a Cadre i7-8565U processor, which adds $126 to the base toll.
Merely other specs of the mini PC tin can exist customized, with options for upward to 64GB of RAM, in both standard and ECC versions, storage ranging from 500GB hard drives upward to 1TB SSDs, and even options for your wireless card, with a choice of 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi six via an Intel AX2000 carte du jour, or but no wireless connectivity at all.
The included stand can be switched out for other monitor stand options, with a fixed stand that offers no height aligning, a VESA mountain stand that sets the OptiPlex mini PC off to the side instead of within the stand, and the height adjustable stand seen in this review.
The Optiplex 7070 Ultra has a surprisingly robust option of ports forth the edges of its slim chassis. Along i side yous'll find a combination audio jack, a unmarried USB 3.1 Type-A port and a USB type-C port that doubles as a DisplayPort. Most of the ports are along the bottom, with a pair of USB 3.0 jacks, an Ethernet connexion and some other USB-C port which serves as the ability connector for the little arrangement.
Withal, non all of those ports are freely attainable one time the 7070 Ultra is installed in the accompanying monitor stand up. The downward facing ports are all but inaccessible once the stand is assembled, and a process of routing the necessary cables in and around the stand is a real hassle.
On the top edge of the 7070 Ultra is a ability button, and a Kensington lock slot is constitute on the right mitt edge, along with a security screw for secure mounting of the mini PC.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Operation
Our review unit came equipped with an 8th-generation Intel Core i7-8665U processor, a laptop-form CPU made to provide skillful multitasking and speedy performance in a very meaty design. With 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid country drive, the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is surprisingly nimble. Larger desktop towers may offer more muscular processing options, but none will exercise information technology in the cramped surround that the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is fabricated for.
The Optiplex 7070 Ultra copied our four.97 GB exam folder in 6.ix seconds, giving us transfer speeds 737.39 MBps. Compared to a stick PC similar the Azulle Access3 (27.81 MBps), or even run-of-the-mill part mini PCs similar the Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny (169 MBps), the Optiplex is a speed demon. Merely stack it confronting whatever reasonably powerful mini PC, such as the 2018 Mac mini (ii,544 MBps) or the HP Z2 Mini G4 workstation (1,017.viii MBps), and it falls short. That said, hitting the sugariness spot between these two extremes makes the 7070 Ultra well-suited to all sorts of office applications, and more than than fast plenty to become you through your work day.
In terms of general performance, the 7070 Ultra also made a great showing in the Geekbench 4.0 benchmark examination, scoring xvi,684 points. While we expected solid results from the Optiplex'due south Intel Core i7 processor, we didn't expect information technology to evidence upward top performers similar the Mac mini, which scored 13,666 in the same test (Intel Cadre i3-8100B processor, 8GB of retentivity). It handily beat out out the Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny (8,010 with an Intel Core i5-7500T, 8GB RAM) and positively smoked the Azulle Access3 (4,541 with an Intel Celeron N4100, 4GB of RAM), just those results were more in line with what we expected to see. Also not a surprise, the category-leading HP Z2 Mini G4 workstation withal leads the category with 23,921 points (Intel Xeon E-2176G processor, 32GB of retentivity).
And for a machine that'southward more or less made for office tasks and web browsing, the 7070 Ultra proved a slap-up performer in the older JetStream one.1 browser performance test, scoring 288.25 points, beating out the Lenovo M710q Tiny (154.58), the HP Z2 Mini G4 (193.twoscore) and the previous category leader, the 2018 Mac mini (281.84).
With only Intel UHD Graphics to rely on for rendering capabilities, the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is a far weep from a graphics powerhouse. But, this is a tiny mini PC designed for function functions, like e-mail and Powerpoint presentations. And for those tasks, information technology'south well-suited.
In terms of raw numbers in tests like 3DMark's Water ice Tempest Unlimited, the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra's score of 94,806 i'southward much closer to the HP Z2 Mini G4 (126,890) than the Azulle Access3 (27,404), and leads the Lenovo M710q Tiny (69,398) by a sizable margin.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Software and warranty
When it comes to software, Dell provides the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra with a adequately make clean installation of Windows 10 Pro. Aside from some random apps and sample games included by Microsoft, in that location is no bloatware to worry about.
Dell covers the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra with its standard 3-yr hardware warranty, which includes on-site servicing subsequently remote diagnosis. This is especially nice for business users, whoca get some peace of mind knowing that they have more than 12 months of coverage on the work machines they rely on. You can extend this basic coverage out to 4 or v years for an additional $59 or $102, respectively.
For Dell's Pro Back up, which includes 24/7 support and next twenty-four hours on-site repair, you tin can add together an additional $54.15 for three years coevarge, $123.71 for 4-twelvemonth plan, and $270 for a 5-year programme.
ProSupport Plus is the side by side step up in protection, and is a piddling more expensive, but also covers accidental damage and lets you continue your difficult drive in the event of whatever repairs, endmost off one avenue of potentially losing secure data.
For additional coverage against adventitious harm, you can cover the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra for 3, 4 or five years, ranging from $31.25 to $fifty.37, on top of the bones coverage.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Pricing and configurations
The OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is available in a handful of configurations, ranging from a pocket-size Cadre i3 model and upwardly to powerful Cadre i7-equipped models that offer maxed out memory and storage. Prices range every bit high equally $i,900, with a wide assortment of customizable options, and even a choice of picking your own specs to get the exact components and capabilities you want.
Our review unit appears to be a mid-range variation on the peak configuration that nosotros haven't seen offered in a preset model. It'due south outfitted with an Intel Core i7-8665U processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The closest equivalent configuration to our review unit is currently selling for $one,049.
Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra review: Verdict
The Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is an innovative accept on the mini PC, and conceptually, it'south a design that I hope to run into more than of, if merely because it offers a fresh style to expect at upgradable office systems. However, the present design has some existent quirks, with cumbersome setup and cablevision installation. These aren't the sort of bug you run into with a standard mini PC like the editor's option Apple Mac mini (2018).
And the real betoken of concern for whatsoever proprietary modular system like this is obviously, how long volition Dell support this organization? Will the 7070 Ultra be replaced with a new model for 2021? Will there be new configurations available with better than eighth-generation processing hardware?
But as a mini PC, the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is a strong contender for our favorite part mini PC, thanks to its stellar performance and business-friendly design. The power to bandy out the PC or the brandish while keeping the same zero-footprint all-in-one environment is a very cool choice for companies large and small, and I hope that innovation continues.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/dell-optiplex-7070-ultra
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