luxurynotebook present Dell Adamo

Dell Adamo

In these economically troubled times, Dell thought it prudent to release a hideously expensive luxury laptop to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air and HPs Voodoo Envy.

Pros

• Wafer Thin
• Gorgeous
• Solid Build

Cons

• Poor Performance
• Expensive
• Heavier than Air

Editors Rating:

	Design
	Features
	Battery Life
	3D Performance
	Mobility

Recommended for:

	Gamers
	Travelers
	Entertainment
	Business
	Students

dell Adamo Published April 03, 2009 at 07:16:49 AM, by Jesper Berg The Adamo is more of a fashion statement than a laptop, which Dell has proven through its mysterious (until now) adamobydell.com teaser website and the short glimpse we got of it at CES. Not for Gamers From looking at the specs we understand that it’s not a performance laptop by any means – the base model has an ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of 800MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD. The latter will certainly contribute to making it a little faster than the average 1.2GHz laptop, but it’s still a slow machine. The starting price for this thing of beauty is $1,999, but if you feel like splurging you can upgrade to a 1.4GHz processor and two more gigs or RAM for $700 more. Obviously it’s not performance you’re paying for with the Adamo, but its incredibly thin build and eye-pleasing exterior. Quality Time with the Adamo Holding the Adamo actually makes you feel that you’re holding an expensive laptop – its aluminum build is very solid including the keyboard, and the brushed-metal touchpad is surprisingly pleasant to use. It has a very nice-looking edge-to-edge glass display with a 1,366x768 resolution and to save additional space Dell has removed the optical drive, opting for a matching external one (not included) which uses the Adamo’s built-in eSATA port. You may choose between a slot-loading DVD-RW drive for $120 and a Blu-ray drive for $350. DellBook Air While we were playing with the Adamo, close by Dell staff took the opportunity (several times) to point out that it’s thinner than the MacBook Air. It is thinner than the MBA at its thickest point, but you would hardly know that from looking at it as the MacBook Air has a tapered chassis. It’s also half a pound heavier. Unlike the Air, the Adamo comes with a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista installed. Unfortunately Vista does not run all that well on low-end systems, and there’s no option to customize the Adamo with an XP downgrade or Linux. Potential buyers might want to wait until Windows 7 is released, which will work better with slower systems and even netbooks. On the other hand, the Adamo seems to run Vista fairly smoothly, partly thanks to the quick solid state drive. We will add some benchmarks to this page when we’ve had some extended quality time with a review sample. Technical Specifications Processor: 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo ULV Mamory: 2GB DDR3 Harddrive: 128GB SSD OS: Windows Vista Premium Weight: 4lbs Screen: 13" inches Screen resolution: 1366 x 768 (WXGA) Graphic Card: Intel GMA 4500 Battery Life: 5h (claimed)