Dell Adamo announced: 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo, $1,999
By Nilay Patel 
posted March 17th 2009 1:00AM
posted March 17th 2009 1:00AM
Update: Looks like CNET scored one early -- check out their hands-on here, and a pic of that magnetic cover here.
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ROUND ROCK, Texas, March 17, 2009 - Style-minded people who place a premium on precision craftsmanship and design can now add Adamo to their list of must-have items for 2009. Dell today unveiled the world's thinnest laptop as a kick off to the new Adamo by Dell brand.
Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning "to fall in love," will serve as a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design, aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.
The News:
Adamo is the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design and features:
· A chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum featuring precision detailing and a scalloped backlit keyboard
· Striking high definition edge-to-edge glass display
· Fully connected with WiFi, Bluetooth(tm) and optional integrated mobile broadband* and full complement of connectivity ports with no compromises
· Cool, quiet and robust solid state drives
· Available in Onyx and Pearl colors with a broad range of complementary accessories
· Price starting at $1999
Quotes:
"Great design needs to be timeless and evoke emotion in people", said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell's consumer products. "While a premium computing experience was assumed for Adamo, the intent was for people to see, touch and explore Adamo and be rewarded by the select materials and craftsmanship you would expect in a fine watch."
"Dell continues to signal a commitment to design and personalization across its entire product line and has made significant strides forward in the past year," said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. "The Adamo laptop is a showcase for this commitment and a flagship product that will draw buyers to the brand."
People who choose Adamo will be offered a unique color matched collection of Adamo by Dell branded peripherals and accessories including, in the U.S. an exclusive line of bags from TUMI. Choices will include:
· External storage option with 250GB** or 500GB** external hard drive.
· External DVD+/-RW or Blu-ray disc drive.
· 8GB** USB drive.
· Connectors and cables including DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI, and VGA.
· Adamo Premium Service (US Only):
o 24/7 access to Dell's best trained technicians
o Consistent communication with a dedicated personal team
The Adamo by Dell brand is being supported by innovative and new approaches to marketing and promotion for Dell. Designed to challenge people's perceptions of what a computer is, the Adamo by Dell brand was inspired by fashion, luxury brands and timeless design.
Dell has looked beyond traditional approaches to reaching computer shoppers and launched a provocative campaign featuring:
· A stylish worldwide print campaign shot by acclaimed British-based photographer Nadav Kandar and featuring high-fashion models that reinforces the "fall in love" positioning. Kander, whose work is celebrated in galleries worldwide, also shot the moving portfolio, "Obama's People," which appeared in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year.
· AdamoByDell.com , the centerpiece of the campaign and a highly stylized site where viewers can learn about Adamo, register for updates and, beginning today, place orders. Since its launch last month, AdamoByDell.com has attracted nearly 800,000 unique visitors from around the world and more than 1 million page views.
· Artful packaging in which the product arrives "floating" in a clear box with minimal clutter - a beautiful experience for a sophisticated product.
Product Specifications:
· Intel® Core 2 Duo processors with Intel® Centrino ® technology
· DDR3 system memory
· 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display
· Draft-Wireless N
· High-performance solid state drives standard
· Bluetooth 2.1
· Mobile Broadband* option
· Up to 5+ hours of battery life (preliminary)***
· 2 USB ports, 1 USB/eSATA combo port, Display Port, RJ-45 port
· Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
Available for pre-order today at www.adamobydell.com and shipping worldwide starting March 26, 2009, Adamo will be available online for purchase in 24 countries including U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, U.K. France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, ANZ, China, Honk Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia/Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia.
2GB of RAM...?
Ew.
The MBA can only go up to 2gb
This one can be upgradeable to 4gb though
Sexy machine but fails for the ridiculous price. Thin shouldn't be that expensive, shhhhhiiiiiittttt, i rather go out with a fat one then a skinny shallow gold digging chick. Wait a year or two and you'll see this in the 600's.
"Wait a year or two and you'll see this in the 600's."
Could that possibly be a wronger statement?
@AVG
Yes, he could have written "Wait a year or two and you'll see this in the 500's."
Looks like people would be better off buying a Macbook and a copy of windows saving the extra money.
Its name is difficult to pronounce and vaguely French sounding, so it must be high quality.
intergrated graphics for 1900
ew!
I'm actually buying a Dell 13 XPS studio with sli. Not as pretty as Adano, but pretty enough..way better deal!
This thing makes the Macbook Air look like a pretty good deal all around, also the MBA can run windows/OS X without a problem and has a really nice LED backlit screen something Dell forgot to throw in the MBA also has a way faster processor.
Hey, it's DDR3 in case you didn't notice.
What is it with Dell- do they have a death wish? They had one chance to get this niche right ... and blew it. You want to break into a field as a noob? You sure as hell don't offer an underpowered, overpriced product. Period. As in effing period.
It's so stupid, it makes me want to scream. All that engineering, all that hype and Dell can't get the most basic things right. It needs more ram, STAT. It needs a more powerful CPU, STAT. And it needs to have the balls to announce exactly what kind of screen it's offering and it better damn well be a good one. Hint: It won't be, cuz they would have mentioned it. And it needs to have battery technology/management that delivers an amount of time that doesn't already have "quotation marks" around it.
You want part of this market Dell? Then MAKE a product that MAKES us want to go out and buy it. Or just STFU. All that hype. For a limp bizkit.
//end rant
I just love how hard Dell's trying. They're trying so hard it's funny.
From the obvious French accent on the designer, to the pause before the "league of it's own" catch-phrase, to the black and white pictures of models holding it behind them. They're trying to be Paris-chic, and it's not working.
These guys are suits. They don't do casual. Dell are just so corporate, you can imagine this being planned out in a boardroom, with phrases like "customer experience" and "inspired design" being touted around every couple of minutes.
This would have been so cool...if it was released in 2005.
So apparently no one paid attention in Marketing 101?. This system isn't for us tech people (duh!) That's very very obvious. It's made to be a fashion statement. That's why they have the models and everything looks like it's marketing for fashion magazine. It's an accessory, a statement. I bet it's a huge access for it's target market, which probably isn't Engadget readers, no offense.
And this looks much more beautiful than the MBA.
It's a broken pencil.
@KarlW
I totally agree, though I get the feeling you are subtly suggesting that some other computer companies don't work that way. Sadly, They are all the same, the only difference is that some have hidden their corporate stuffiness better and for a longer period of time.
Still, Dell has been rather transparent in this case.
I think they're trying to tout laptop Uni-body construction that they copied from Apple. But, of course, Dell would never do something like that. If this thing were a $1000 cheaper, I'd consider buying it, but then I realize it doesn't have an Apple logo and it runs Windows. Pass. And besides, the name Adamo sounds totally gay.
So basically, they stuffed a Latitude E4200 into a different chassis. A much thinner chassis, but still. I'd rather get the Latitude starting at $1500 over this chump. More options too.
It sure is thin though.
If you compare this to a Voodoo Envy 133, this is 10X sexier and worth it.
The processor may be slow, but I still think it's sexy.
I honestly dont find it that sexy, the rear end looks terrible and those irregular holes make it look like an experiment in design. The Voodoo Envy is cleaner.
Also, after seeing the specs for size and weight, even the Alu Macbook can compete with the Adamo.
A 1.2ghz processor.
WOW.
Even the Viao-P has a 1.6ghz.
WHAT A RIP OFF!
For 2,000 (and that is just the starting price), I can get all of the sex I want...and then come out with a very lightweight, top quality computer with more than twice the resources.
Get outta the ether people. This machine is grossly overpriced. REMEMBER, THE PRICE STARTS AT $2,000! When Dell is done with you, you could pay 50-100% more for your coveted Adamo. Not in this economy as Dell will most definitely discover.
Brad H, you are comparing the 1.6GHz Atom CPU in the Vaio-P to a 1.2GHz Intel C2D ULV.
The Intel C2D is a supremely better CPU. It also costs double the price. It's designed [the CPU] to use extremely little power while still having significantly better performance than the Intel Atom.
I can't believe half of Engadget posters haven't realised this. And people are bitching about 2GB RAM, hey - you can double it to 4GB or order it and do it yourself. Wow.
The Macbook Air has a slightly faster CPU and that's it's only advantage. The Dell Adamo has a 128GB SSD which is $500 option from Apple. You get 3 USB ports and an RJ-45 jack on the Dell Adamo. To me, it even looks better. But enough with the comparisons, they are two different machines altogether..
1.2 GHZ means nothing.
SU9300 kicks 1.86 atoms for exemple..
It probably kicks a P4 3GHZ too in some applications.
@Daza - that's incorrect - the CPU in the MBA is not a ULV CPU, it's a full blown C2D (small package). GHz by GHz, the Atom is a lot slower than the ULV versions, and the ULV versions, likewise, are a lot slower GHz by GHz than the C2D.
A C2D at 1.6GHz should be about 2x as fast as the 1.2GHz ULV in the Adamo. In addition, the integrated NVidia graphics in the MBA are about 2x as fast as the Adamo's X4500. So it's way more powerful. I am guessing the Adamo has a much longer battery life - it better, considering that it makes pretty significant performance sacrifices.
Design aside, all these companies are just cooking with water, or, in this case, with the available CPUs, chipsets, and batteries. None of the components are exclusive to any one manufacturer. They just make different tradeoffs of speed vs battery life vs heat generation.
I give them credit for making it 0.65" thick. That's about it, pretty lame for Dell to come up with something like that and we make a big deal of it.
If Dell really want to be sexy they should start by dropping the Dell name and create a spin off instead for a computer looking like this.
$2,000 and just that? What did Dell become...Apple?
Ouch, what an insult.
Not to be an Apple fanboy, but unfortunately the MacBook Air has better specs for a lower price. Though I must say, this thing looks HOT.
Yeah, I'm fairly convinced I must be missing something that makes this a better buy than the Air. I'd never buy the Air because I think it's way too limited for fashion's sake, but at least it is thin and light for your ~$2k.
Though maybe a 1.2ghz c2d beats a 1.6ghz Atom?
"Though maybe a 1.2ghz c2d beats a 1.6ghz Atom?"
How is this relevant to this topic at all? This isn't competing with the netbooks and the Air also uses C2D.
Wow, fail, I didn't notice that the Macbook Air was upgraded to C2D.
Also, I see the Adamo has an SSD standard so I revoke about 20% of my scorn. Still seems pricey.
> $2,000 and just that? What did Dell become...Apple?
They're trying, but not yet. The MacBook Air is still cheaper and lighter and better looking and was released years ago. But here comes Dell, bringing up the rear...
@unixsysengie-
Yeah, that's too much for too little. The SSD is the single premium internal component, but my guess is that Dell is getting them at a good price and using them as a point of distinction to try and take the edge off the sticker shock. I have no love of Apple, but I'd probably buy a 13" Macbook and a copy of Windows before I bought this at the introductory price.
But, what differentiates Dell from Apple is that the price will eventually go down as revisions are made.
@UnixSystemsEngineer
"Wow, fail, I didn't notice that the Macbook Air was upgraded to C2D."
Fail indeed...
Especially since the AIR had a CD2 since day one.It NEVER has an atom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air
There's no way this is going to replace my iPhone.
(I just wanted to try out that age old, pointless and irrelevant comment.)
LOL you totally beat me to It! I was about to make the very same post! crummy hardware at a premium price FTW!
I'm not so fond of that part that stick out form behind. SSD aint bad though???
Air with 128G SSD adds $500 bumping it up to $2,299. Most people would probably pay $300 for a 600 MHz faster CPU and the 9400M, however.
I don't think Dell made the right choice by launching with SSD only, even if it's the future and should be pushed more in general.
They should have launched with a regular HDD at $1,499 and at $1,799 with the 128G SSD instead.
@Purple Haze
I would rather spend $2,499 on the 1.83GHz, 128GB SSD Macbook Air....
1.2 Ghz for 2K?
there's a fine line between ridiculously expensive and ridiculously overpriced.
this laptop crosses that line.
People pay for size and weight. Making things small and light costs a lot of money. Not everyone wants to lug around a DTR.
That being said, this looks like a decent X301 competitor.
Shyam D:
People do pay for small size and weight. That said, this thing is four pounds. If someone wanted small and light, they could go cheaper and significantly smaller/lighter with the Air, Vaio P, or even a netbook.
"People do pay for small size"
i thought it was rather the contrary ;p
if you know what i mean
Shyam, you're delusional. The faster and better equipped Dell M1330 weighs the same 4lbs as this and costs about half. Doesn't look as nice, but all things considered.....
This could have been good competition for the MacBook Air and Voodoo 133 (the X301 as well, but its not as sexy as the other two), except then Dell made it a pound too heavy and more underpowered than it could have been. The X301 is much more functional as well, with its integrated DVD drive and WXGA+ res screen.
Yah, yah. I didn't read the 4 lb thing until after I read all of your comments. I just had the expectation that it would be ~ 3lbs.
an XPS m1330 costs less, has more power, and is lighter than this. It's not quite as handsome, but it's definitely a better value.
im very disappointed also. i thought this would be around 2lbs. 4lbs is epic fail.
looks like the toshiba r600 and lenovo x series are still the kings of lightweight and powerful.