Dell Adamo

[paulney]

I'm not up-to-date on all the latest in the world of gadgetry. I recently purchased a 13" XPS laptop from dell, and was quite happy with it, considering it a very good bang for the buck.

Today, however, I received a flier in the mail from Dell, and what a flier that is! It's a sales pitch for Adamo - Dell's direct attempt to compete with iMac Air in the luxury laptop department.

Definitely not the right time to be selling 2k+ laptops, but damn, this is one gorgeous mama. The only drawback I see is that DVD drive is external, but I could live with that (I rarely use DVD drives on my laptops if ever).

I can only hope they survive the recession and iMac competition, and maybe come down in price a bit. I'd definitely buy one for $1.5k. My XPS cost me $1.1k, and Adamo is like day and night compared to it.

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Moved to the appropriate forum.

Zim Hosein

Off Topic Moderator.

 

[chuckywang]

That must be the most pretentious website for a laptop ever.

 

[vshah]

yeah, check out the unboxing vid on engadget...it is quite sexy. the website is retarded though

 

[VinylxScratches]

I think you mean Macbook Air. I'd still rather get the Air even if I was going to use Windows XP/Vista/7.

 

[Corporate Thug]

very nice design but overpriced and underpowered.

...and wrong forum.

 

[l0cke]

LOL @ non-removable battery.

Dell's next laptop will be text-only maybe?

 

[Bignate603]

I just picked up a Dell Studio 15 for my wife, got it today. For $650 it was a good deal Maybe not as refined as the apple laptops or that Adamo, but I'm surprised at some of the features that you get for $650. Webcam, backlit keyboard, buttons to control volume and things that you don't press, you just trace your finger over it it. Some of it doesn't really increase functionality of it but my wife is having a great time playing with her new toy.

 

[IlllI]

very pretty. very expensive

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: l0cke
LOL @ non-removable battery.

Keeping up with the Jones'.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: l0cke
LOL @ non-removable battery.

Dell's next laptop will be text-only maybe?

It sucks, but when you can make your components fixed, it allows you do to do more with the design.

The Adamo is nice, but with a price tag like that, I'd sooner just get something else... though, something that competes at that size would probably be just as much money. I guess overall, I'd probably go 13-14" just because of price vs. performance vs. size.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

It's a nice-looking machine but I don't find it a compelling competitor to the Air (or even the base Macbook), which is considerably cheaper.

 

[TheStu]

Although there are certain aspects of the design that I like, overall it doesn't do much for me. Furthermore, I really do not think that Dell is the right company to release a $2000 luxury laptop right now.

 

[nortexoid]

No user-replaceable battery is severely off-putting. Otherwise it's a very nice machine, and I'm glad they went ULV. Personally though, I'd just grab a Toshiba Protege R500 or R600 which is lighter, half the price, and better spec'd (and comes with optical drive, not that I care).

 

[nerp]

Haha, the website is funny.

 

[AmigaMan]

I love the machine, but I wish it had some more muscle in it.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: l0cke
LOL @ non-removable battery.

Dell's next laptop will be text-only maybe?

It sucks, but when you can make your components fixed, it allows you do to do more with the design.

The Adamo is nice, but with a price tag like that, I'd sooner just get something else... though, something that competes at that size would probably be just as much money. I guess overall, I'd probably go 13-14" just because of price vs. performance vs. size.

The X301 from Lenovo has a swappable battery and even has a battery for the optical bay. The adamo is pretty... but that's about it.

 

[IlllI]

some pictures of it taken apart http://content.techrepublic.co...6-13636_11-287411.html

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: IlllI
some pictures of it taken apart http://content.techrepublic.co...6-13636_11-287411.html

That reminds me of this video


Nice laptop and all, but that must be the worst website I have ever seen. All I wanted to do was look at the specs or configure it, sort of like you can on Apple or Dell's website, but I can't find that. All I can do is encounter it, discover it, admire it, or commit to it. It's a computer, not a marriage.

 

[IlllI]

now $500 cheaper http://www.engadget.com/2009/0...ole-new-lease-on-life/
probably needss another $500 reduction for people to take some interest in it

 

[MrX8503]

lol I think people are missing the point of the Adamo.

You pretty much are paying for the construction of the laptop. This is the thinnest laptop on the market right now. Its only .65" thin, and you have to think about this as an engineer. There are sacrifices that you have to make in order to make such a laptop for everything to fit. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Check this out, even the SSD doesn't have an external body. This shows you the extent of the space saving internals.

Bare SSD

 

[VirtualLarry]

Non-removable battery? WTH were they thinking? Force the user to throw away the laptop after three years, and buy another one?

Think of the environmental waste, it's massive! See my thread about pre-builts being bad for the environment.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: MrX8503
lol I think people are missing the point of the Adamo.

... This is the thinnest laptop on the market right now. Its only .65" thin...

Well you can count me in the group who doesn't understand the hype.

I postponed replacing my Latitude X300 in anticipation of the Adamo and found it very disappointing. Thin is not enough on its own: not only does the E4300 have better processor options, it includes an integrated optical disk drive and weighs less than the Adamo -- all in a package that is only .75" thick. And looking beyond Dell, the Lenovo Thinkpad X301 and the Sony Vaio Z790 (with switchable graphics) are both more powerful and lighter.

I finally decided that the Adamo was designed for consumers who have bought into the idea that the Airbook is the standard for "thin and light" and don't know what else is out there.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Non-removable battery? WTH were they thinking? Force the user to throw away the laptop after three years, and buy another one?

Think of the environmental waste, it's massive! See my thread about pre-builts being bad for the environment.

Batteries are nonstandard parts anyway and you can basically only buy a new one from the manufacturer. You can buy from a separate source, but who's to say it wasn't some Chinese made knock-off junk that won't just burst into flames 2 months into its use?

So after 3 years, you'll want a new battery - order from the original manufacturer. All they might have are batteries that have been sitting on the shelf for that long, especially if they upgraded the design and/or discontinued the old model.

And 3 years in - that laptop seems kind of slow - maybe it's time for an upgrade and time to relegate the old machine to recycling/donation or some secondary duty at home, like making it a small file server or just an always-plugged in internet machine.


Overall, the Adamo "super-thin" concept was kind of cool, but the machine costs too much and it wasn't super-light. It started at ~4lbs.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Non-removable battery? WTH were they thinking? Force the user to throw away the laptop after three years, and buy another one?

Non-removable doesn't mean non-replaceable. The batteries in these super-slim units can be replaced by a technician.

 

[slugg]

The website is lame, the laptop is ugly, way overpriced, and it's slow. I'll pass!