The fine folks at
iFixit and
TechRepublic have teamed up to show us the innards of Dell's new thin-and-sort-of-light ultraportable
Adamo. They also set the laptop up against Apple's
MacBook Air to compare build quality and specifics. For instance, the Adamo packs a 11.1 volt 40 Watt hour battery, compared to the Air's 7.2 volt 37 Watt hour battery, and comprises a greater percentage of the weight of the computer than its Air counterpart -- who knew? Overall the Adamo seems to pack a good amount more technology into a slightly heavier package, and takes a small win over the MacBook for nixing the screws on the bottom, not to mention the huge win over its Windows counterparts for skipping out on the Intel and Windows stickers.
posted Apr 11th 2009 2:34PM
What's wrong with stickers?
Stickers can make a good laptop look vulgar.
Even though I'm a Mac user; the Adamo is a beautiful piece of engineering, both Aesthetically and Technologically.
Good on you Dell.
They look like shit. How'd Dell get out of that, anyway? I thought they were a pretty-much-mandatory part of their agreement with Microsoft.
"Instead they've been replaced with monochrome logos patent-printed onto the bottom of the machine."
Still don't think it qualifies as a "huge win".
Don't these stickers count as advertisement and actually make the laptops a bit cheaper? I always thought so (and there's not much reason why all the manufacturers use them otherwise). And I'd gladly save some money in exchange for 5 minutes of scraping them of the second I get the laptop. Not a big deal really...
with just about any laptop it's not a big deal, they just stick them on the bottom. but when you're designing a computer where style is a big priority, i can see why they would want to hide them.
umm...you do know those actually come off. I dont know why so many people leave them on.
So what peel them off. Like this is a big deal.
Stickers on laptops are annoying, but on desktops they're fine in most cases. A lot of times when people build their own computer, they want the stickers there so as to show off their Core i7 and GTX 295.
Exactly, just take the stickers off and stick them to a dumpster or toilet. Ho ho ho, Windows belongs in a toilet. Of course, this doesn't work as well now that the stickers don't say "Designed for" on them anymore.
Not as thin as the Macbook Air. Macbook Air has a motherboard the size of a standard pencil, this one is too big.
Yeah, but the Macbook air also overheats and isn't that great. Mind you - before I get laid into by Apple fans - I wouldn't buy the Adamo, either. Just too darned expensive. These "luxury-I've-got-more-money-than-you-and-can-buy-nice-looking-but-not-very-fast-laptops" irritate me - they're a waste of money, pure and simple. Pretty, but a pretty waste of money.
Yeah, this thing is slightly bigger than the MacBook Air... I was considering the MacBook Air, but you just give up too much for such a trivial difference in size and weight, so my last purchase was a regular MacBook. Either way, if you do decide to give up computing power to go with one of the "ultra-light" things, at least the MacBook Air is aesthetically pleasing... THIS THING IS UGLY!!!!
Actually, it's overall thinner than the Macbook Air and at this point it doesn't look like its hinge will break.
At (and only at) its thinnest point. Then it tapers to a thicker outline which somewhat negates the usefulness of it being the thickness of a pencil.
Plus, it overheats.
@ Smi,
They have their purpose, albeit one that I don't require, despite really wanting a notebook with no optical drive as I haven't used that archaic component in years.
The MBA not only has a small footprint, and considerably less volume than the brickish Adamo, depsite the Dell being technically thinner at it's thickest point, but the Adamo is greatly underpowered for the amount of volume they had to work with. They couldn't even get the fan to be silent or the battery, despite being bigger, to beat the MBA even when doing low power stuff.
It looks cool and I really like the "junk in the trunk" on the Adamo as it makes sense until ports are considerably smaller, but it just underperforms compared to the MBA and it more expensive.
PS: The heat and hinge issues you speak of the MBA were from the original model running Intel graphics. This new one is fine. the Adamo's first hinge is bit wonky itself. It's very tight that you have to practically ripe the two halves apart. It may loosen up in time from use, but you shouldn't have to do that.
@ Bender the Adamo isn't under powered, Dell learned from Apple mistake with the mba... the mba is carrying too much power in a small enclosure .
The Adamo is just right, making it work, without burning or slicing bread :D
you have some huge designer netbooks there
@Smi
I agree completely, why anyone would purchase one of these laptops is a mystery to me. I can understand sacrificing a little functionality for form, but I think machines like the Adamo just take it too far. I don't think I will ever understand the logic behind these products...
It's the same with the Air; I fail to comprehend why anyone would spend $500 more for less functionality and 1.5lbs. I would rather buy a MacBook and burn the money I saved...
It still runs Windows, like every other computer on the market.
Yes, it's wonderful that there are no other operating systems in the world, isn't it?
True, Macs are toys, not computers.
Well at least we know that you'll be able to get some work done on it then.
@JakeM, No work, just tempted to play games!
I know I am when I finish work on my MacBook Pro, and get home to my desktop PC.
Oh, how awful. Did he at least die painlessly? ...To shreds, you say. Well, how is his wife holding up? To shreds, you say.
:D
Bender, I don't really see why are you laughing. You realize you'll end up chopping your own antennae thingie, don't you?
win for futurama reference
I don't see what the big deal about the stickers is. All you have to do is peel it off.
What's with this trend of non-user-replaceable battery, sealed laptops, soldered RAM, etc? What if any of those components broke? With the thinner design, heat is a problem, and electronics and heat are not good combination. Talk about higher margin AND guaranteed obsolescence.
I want to see a comparison between the Adamo13 and the Latitude E4200.
I'm sure someone much older than you made that same argument about integrate circuits a long time ago. It's just the way things work. You can't get additional shrinkage of components or widgets if you have all these doors and hinges and other places for the average users to fiddle with.
Notebooks use more expensive parts that are slower and less upgradeable than desktops. Them the ropes.
@Bender Bending Rodriguez: I'm all for chipset integration, etc. However, battery, RAM, and storage drive should remain user accessible. Those are the components that are more likely to fail, and having them sealed/soldered is hardly useful for the consumers. Look at the Latitude E4200. It has user-replaceable battery, RAM, and SSD, yet is still super thin-n-light. Even a typical netbook has user replaceable RAM & SSD, and still have smaller footprint (albeit thicker) than the Adamo/MBA.
I agree that they are more likely to be replaced, but we are moving into an era when companies are having to compete on thin, small and overall sveltness of their products as we want more and more portable items that have more power and longevity.
I'm sure that these companies have also found that these components aren't that faulty, that most people don't want to do repairs themselves, and that the average person doesn't upgrade.
I clearly see your PoV, but it's not one that will be returning any time soon. I'm pretty sure that the next Mac notebook revision will be using a screw plate on the bottom so that the HDD and battery won't have a convenient latch. This will lose a feature that is nice to have when you need it, however rare, but will allow for considerably more battery juice, which is something one uses constantly. Surely it upset a few but I think this trend will continue, and not just with Apple a few companies trying to copy their more unusual product offerings.
@BBR - Well, if the trend continues then I'll just buy products from those who buck the trend. I re-purpose old machines, so I notice when something is a PITA to open/fix after it's deemed useless by many others. Plus, look at the demand on upgrading netbooks (ram or SSDs) recently. I don't think the ability to upgrade is going to just disappear. If a company solders on ram or makes the hard drive inaccessible I just won't buy it. I'm assuming there are others who feel this way too.
Unibody mac air is so much superior
Than dell adamo. Air been out since 2007
As a Mac user, I urge you to please refrain from using the term 'mac air' in addition to poorly constructed sentences. Also, the Air was released in 2008.
Were you trying to write a haiku but failed?
No it's not shank.
I think both this and the MBA suck and are only for fools who want to show off that they're capable of wasting their money on crap.
The Air, X300 and Sony Vaio TT are for people that want light and slim laptops. But the Adamo I'll have to agree is made for those you refer to.
Link without ads: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Dell-Adamo/719/1
Sorry but a near-35% weight disadvantage over the competitor is far from just a "slightly heavier package", considering what's under the hood is not even remotely as powerful.
Seriously, why would someone ever consider an Adamo over, say an M1330 (typing from one now) which weighs the same, has a similar footprint, and packs comparatively stratospheric amounts of computing power? Sure, one won't fit where the other will, but ultimately they're both weighing me down the same and it wouldn't matter which one I'm carrying inside my bag.
Does cutting edge design really deserve such a premium?
I agree with you although I do like the look of the Adamo. Unless they can get the weight down there's little point making it slimmer and slower. I'm prepared to pay more for an underpowered ultraportable so long as it weighs little more than 1Kg.
Seriously bro. This thing is a pig. No self-respecting ultraportable buyer would even consider this crap. I have a 5 year old IBM X31 that weighs less.
The Macbook Air weighs less, and I used to laugh at that for trying to be an "ultraportable". It isn't. A modern ultraportable weighs 2.5lbs or less.
It's that simple.
Maybe because the M1330 is guaranteed to fail. Been through 2 motherboards this year.
why would you even mention voltage when giving the battery capacity in terms of energy?
power = current * voltage, having units of energy per time [a watt is a joule per second]
therefore a watt-hour is units of energy [power * time = (energy/time) * time = energy]
electronics use energy, not some arcane combinations of electrical potential (voltage) and energy. if you're given the energy rating in watt-hours, the voltage is completely useless and meaningless. there are only two explanations for saying --
"the Adamo packs a 11.1 volt 40 Watt hour battery, compared to the Air's 7.2 volt 37 Watt hour battery"
(1) you don't know what you're writing about (in which case find a new job)
(2) you don't want to clearly state the facts (in which case find a new job)
awesome
^^^ Yeah seriously. What difference does it make what the voltage is? It has 3 extra watt-hours. Big damn deal.
Does anyone else think Adamo is a stupid name? Beautiful computer, sure, but "Adamo"?
It makes me think about Battlestar Galactica... Adamo/Odama, Potato/Potato, Tomato/Tomato?
It weighs 4lbs. How the fuck is this supposed to be "ultraportable"?
Try 2.4lbs: Lenovo x200s or 2.2lbs: Dell E4200 or 2lbs: Toshiba R600
Those are ultraportables, not this fat lump of shit.
ultraportable is a very loose term used by manufacturers.
generally speaking, it's < 4 lbs, and < 1.5 in. thick.
it's got a much bigger battery than the others, though
FOR SCIENCE!
lol My girlfriends last name is Adamo. I should buy this for her. =P