Dell Adamo review
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted April 13th 2009 2:13PM
posted April 13th 2009 2:13PM
Update: Dell pinged to let us know that the covering on the lid and screen is actually glass -- we've updated the review to reflect (no pun intended) that info.
Design
If you're just judging books (or notebooks, in this case) by their cover, the Adamo looks like a Times bestseller. From the sleek, sophisticated packaging (a hard, simple plastic shell with clasps at the bottom and a small arrangement of accessories in origami-like cardboard), right on down to the killer industrial design of the system itself, the Adamo is stunning. Once you wrest the laptop from its sexy confines, you find a thin and light -- though not terribly light -- sliver of computing art.
Much of Dell's process for the Adamo seems to be about texture. On the black... er, "Onyx" version we have, the lid of the computer is made up of four separate materials. The view from above starts with a high-gloss, hard glass at the front, moves into a matte strip in the center with embossed "Dell" and "Adamo" logos, which in turns leads into a smooth, brushed metal slab, and finally ends up at the back with yet another strip of dotted metal. Around the back end "overhang," the air vents are stylishly presented as a kind of gradient pixel pattern. From the first look, it's clear that there is an amazing attention to detail here.
When you open the system up, you see more of that brushed metal along the wrist rests, keyboard, and the edges of the glass-coated display. The keyboard is a smooth, chiclet style affair, with slightly curved keys, and a bold, futuristic font. Continuing the texture trend, the trackpad is made up of another kind of metal which has a circular patten that appears to move concentrically inward -- though it's smooth to the touch.
Along the edges the screws which fasten the screen are visible, giving the whole package an industrial feel. Adding to the sleek minimalism is the fact that there are only a few ports available; Ethernet, eSATA, two USB jacks, DisplayPort, and the power plug around the back, plus a headphone jack and SIM tray on the right side.
As far as straight numbers are concerned, the Adamo is a real champ in the size department. The laptop is thin... really thin. Compared to the MacBook Air (0.76-inches at its thickest point) and X301 (0.9-inches), the 0.65-inch Adamo is anorexic. Still, it's not the lightest portable in town, clocking in at 4 pounds (compared to the Air's 3, and the X301's 3.32, respectively).
The Adamo is beautiful, no question. Unfortunately, like many things, that beauty is only skin deep.
We noticed some troubling build issues with the model we were sent. First, the top piece of metal along the "rear end" of the system didn't seem to be fully held in place. As you can see in the video below, the right side had a disconcerting, mushy "give." Additionally, there was an odd rippling in the plastic where the media controls are located, with a bulge around the area of the play / pause buttons. It's hard to tell if that's intentional or not, but it looks wrong to us. These might seem minor, but if you're paying upwards of $2000 for a laptop, this stuff counts. Part of Dell's play here is that these are upscale "lifestyle" devices, but we don't know anyone who likes getting a Mercedes with a bumper that's about to fall off.
We also had problems with some basic design ideas. The keyboard is handsome, but the way Dell is handling power management, the letters are only really visible when the keyboard backlighting is on (on the black model at least) -- and it doesn't stay on long. That's fine if you're really well versed with this layout, but given the fact that the keys have so little travel, and there's a lopsided, left-heavy feel, we found ourselves tapping the wrong key fairly often.
Additionally, on a laptop in this price range, we were expecting some more multitouch features for the trackpad, but all that seems to be offered is a pinch zooming feature. That's clearly a software issue (we hope), since it does seem to have multitouch functionality. Hey, at least the thing is centered.
The guts
The outside is handsome, but the insides are downright ugly. In its attempt to focus on looks, Dell seems to have completely disregarded performance, loading up the base Adamo with a Core 2 Duo ULV chip chugging along at a paltry 1.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, as well as a 128GB SSD drive -- a nice touch -- and Intel's integrated X4500 GPU. Pretty light stuff if you're pushing Vista, which the Adamo naturally is.
In our tests, the performance wasn't exactly sluggish, but it was a regular occurrence to see the CPU meter pegged at 100 percent during basic tasks (like loading a webpage or trying to multitask a few simple applications). The Adamo hardware seems to quickly respond to the pressure, though that's not necessarily a favorable note -- it's all-too-common for the fans to start spinning up while the system is carrying out basic tasks. Sometimes they seem to start up just for the hell of it, so if quiet computing is one of your checklist items, you'll be disappointed.
Using Microsoft's own Windows Experience tool, the Adamo ranked a lowly 3.2 -- almost at the lowest end of the scale for using basic Aero effects. By the company's standards this means the laptop sports the "Minimum specification needed to run Windows Vista Premium features, including the new Aero user interface." Not exactly heartening stuff for an upscale system.
To put it in perspective, we averaged a frame rate of about 10 while playing Quake 4 with medium graphics at 1280 X 720 resolution. It didn't fare much better when we reduced all the settings and resolution... and we're talking about a game from 2005 here. Now, we know most people who purchase this computer aren't interested in it for gaming horsepower, but this line of testing provides a real window into just how underpowered of a system you're buying into.
What we can't stress enough here is that it seems like the Adamo was built for some other, less intensive operating system, like, say... Windows 7. That's fine if you're the kind of person who doesn't mind a little stutter to their video or pauses in between basic multitasking, but you've got to be pretty shallow to spend $2000 on a system and not care how it performs.
Display
The 13.4-inch display on the Adamo looks great. While we would have liked a higher res option (we always like a higher res option), 1366 X 768 is fairly standard stuff for a screen of this size, and more than enough real estate to handle most tasks. In terms of clarity and color, it certainly does Aero proud, though just like the recent Macs we've reviewed, we find the persistent and almost exaggerated glare to be absurdly distracting here. Every computer maker needs to be giving users a way to opt-out of this setup -- it just doesn't work in a lot of scenarios. That said, we're assuming that if you're looking at something like the Adamo, you probably want it as glossy as possible.
Battery life
If you read our reviews, then you know we don't do hardcore battery benchmarks for most products. Instead, we find the best way to put a system through its paces is to get it out into the world and see what the day to day life looks and feels like. Dell promises upwards of five hours of battery life in the Adamos, and while it's true that the system is built for humming along at low levels, it doesn't get anywhere close to that in our testing. Most of the time, we managed to squeeze about two and a half hours out of the Adamo -- and we're talking basic tasks like document editing and web browsing. When we spent time watching video or gaming, not only did the fans hardly ever stop, but the battery life dropped down to just under two hours. It's not exactly a deal breaker, but given the fact that you've got no swappable battery here, it's certainly something worth considering. Generally, you're not going to be leaving the house without the Adamo's very, very attractive wall wart.
Wrap-up
Here's the deal: the Adamo is really expensive. Not just expensive for a PC. Not just expensive for an ultralight. Not just expensive for an underpowered computer. It's just expensive. Expensive in the sense that you're being charged a lot of money for something that seems like it shouldn't cost so much.
When you boil it down, it's not necessarily a "bad" computer -- just not a particularly good one. If you're a basic user with simple needs, this will do pretty much everything you want, but if you're a basic user with simple needs, why are you spending so much money on a PC? You could get a dozen (or more) computers that do exactly the same thing for far less money -- hell, even in Dell's own ecosystem there are myriad choices. For less than half of the cost of the Adamo, you could have a far more robust Studio 15; for about $800 less you could take home a Studio XPS 13 with much heftier discrete graphics, double the RAM, and a much faster CPU -- and still have a fairly attractive computer. Furthermore, the MacBook Air, which has more impressive specs and can run both Windows and OS X can be had for a starting price-point of $1799. The only spot where the Adamo really wins is right up against the X301... and those are pretty different markets by our account.
It's hard to say if releasing a computer like this right now is bad timing or just ignorance on Dell's part. Weirdly, while Microsoft is busy trying to convince users that PCs are a better value with its new ad campaign, the Adamo flies right in the face of that notion -- offering less computing power for far more money, all while wearing its form-over-function aesthetic right on its brushed aluminum sleeve. Is that a daring move for Dell? Definitely. Is it smart? That's for the buyer to decide.
For the $2000 ultra-thin category, the MacBook Air really walks over the Adamo. The faster processor and significantly faster graphics card should clinch it - if not, than the extra 1 lbs of weight should be able to convince people. At 4 lbs, the Adamo's barely any lighter than a bog standard $1299 MacBook (4.5 lbs), which also happens to be
I prereordered the adamo, and I have not regretted it since it arrived two weeks ago.
First off: it turns heads. No questions asked. (Well, actually people do ask "what is that computer", followed by an incredulous "THAT'S a DELL?!?") The black model is absolutely stunning as well as classy. The build quality is amazing - it feels solid (see below in re: engadget's flexing complaint). This is the perfect size laptop - perfect for travel. It's so thin it fits in almost any bag, and it has a small footprint but with room enough for a well sized keyboard and good sized screen. I tried out a VAIO TT, and while it was a nice machine, it was just too small (and paled in comparison to the Adamo's design).
Secondly, it seems as if Engadget got their hands on a preproduction model:
1. The perforated magnetic plate which covers the windows sku stickers etc is quite firmly attached. (See the video where they flex the panel above) In fact, I wondered if Dell had decided against using magnets because I could not figure out how to get it off for a while. In short: it is quite solid on mine. Personally, I am overjoyed they choose to hide the stickers this way because the system looks really sharp without them on the body.
2. The display on mine is covered with mineral glass. Mineral glass is lighter and more durable than regular glass (like that on the MacBooks), but it still has a nice fit and finish look to it.
3. The actual consumer packing features more accessories which were not pictured in the Engadget unboxing (or video): DisplayPort to DVI adapter, cleaning cloth (very necessary), and useless instruction booklet.
In terms of performance, I was pleasantly surprised: I bought the 1.2GHz version with no illusions that this would be a speed demon. However, even in comparison to my HP Blackbird, the Adamo did not appear noticeably slower (on every day tasks, not on stuff like video encoding). In fact, the Adamo boots in about 60% of the time it takes my blackbird. The SSD makes a big difference. HDD access speeds are great (obviously), making operations like loading programs quite fast: although the processor is slower, the SSD is very fast meaning that some programs actually load faster. (My Photoshop CS launches at the same speed on both with a 10 second margin of error.)
I think the compromise of using a slower processor but including the SSD was a good one: the lack of GHz is made up for by the speed of the SSD in everyday tasks (e.g. Word Processing, iTunes Movies/Music, web browsing). The slower processor saves power and only requires the fan to rev up when I am doing some heavier work - unlike Engadget, I rarely hear my processor fan (perhaps another difference between pre-production and production units.) My only complaint is that I see some occasional stuttering when watching a Movie in iTunes and having something like a file transfer or windows update running in the background, but otherwise no complaints (I have not tried downscaling 1080p content and I don't think I should).
In the area of battery life, I am quite satisfied: I've gotten 4hrs pretty consistently out of normal use (Dell's power management settings are pretty reasonable - the screen is still pretty bright).
The bottom line for me is that this is an accessory to my desktop (albeit an expensive one). If you want to use this as your primary computer, I would warn you away unless you restrict your activities to Word Processing, listening to music and watching movies in iTunes, and surfing the web.
What I do is I transfer all the files I need between my Blackbird and my Adamo over my home network. This is not a bad setup: its pretty fast if you use an ethernet cable and wifi is pretty good. What I have taken to doing is copying recorded TV shows from my Blackbird to the Adamo and then watching them on the go - this system works quite well for me.
A hidden bonus which surprised me was Dell's webcam central software: I am pretty sure it embarrasses apple's photobooth. There are so many effects to play around with which follow your face as you move it around: you can have an animated devil and angel on your shoulders, cupid circling you, steam coming out of your ears, or my personal favorite: the werewolf mask (your face even is animated to morph into the face). You can also add wigs, mustaches, hats, etc on top of any other filters you are using, you can add backdrops, and of course add the regular effects (like mirror screen, distorted, etc). Finally, there are voice modulators and even a few "avatars" which replace your image in the video feed and move their heads, mouths, and eyes around as you move yours. (These include a kitten, will smith cartoon, alien, puppy, and others.) My friends who have macs were jealous - a pleasant surprise(I understand you can get this software with other dell laptops.)
I have some unboxing pictures of my retail version if you are curious:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/will4laptop/sets/72157616384392325/
Pardon me for saying so, but I think that most of you, including engadget, are missing the point here. A lot of what has been said is true. Yes, the Adamo is expensive. Yes its specs are lacking compared to what is now on the market. Yes, it is in direct competition with the MacBook Air. Finally yes, the Adamo is lopsidedly focused on style. The problem is that everyone is comparing it to what is out there right now; that being, cheap netbooks, thin and lights, desktop replacements, or any other category of notebook for that matter, and failing to focus on what the product really is. Critics say the same things about the Air. They say that it’s too big and expensive to be a netbook, that its features are too limited to be an effective thin and light, and that the price you pay is for style. Now I’m not trying to say that these statements aren’t true, because they are. What I’m saying is that these critics are missing the point, and here is how.
Apple isn’t selling a huge number of Airs, but when the average consumer thinks about ultra portable notebooks Apple is definitely among the first companies to come to mind. With the release of the Adamo, dell hopes to be counted among that number. What both companies are doing by offering these ostentatious, exclusive, ultra thin laptops, is visibly positioning themselves as key hardware providers for the emerging Cloud computing market.
In the cloud, hardware performance comes second to portability because most of the number crunching happens on the other side of the browser. Thus the criticisms of these products that have been voiced are missing the fact that they aren’t meant to be competitive now, rather, they represent a foot in the door of a new market. But hear you me, as soon as Cloud hits the mainstream, you can expect the lines to expand, the prices to drop, and the specs to get a boost. For now though, the most important function that these laptops serve is associate the brand with portability and desire, and to cement that association into the minds of consumers.
Just as a side note. The name Adamo is a homage to a program developed at CERN to optimize information retrieval from databases over a network. Aka improved network integration. The Dells namesake could just be coincidence; after all, Adamo is a pretty common name. Personally, I think that it’s a subtle indication as to the direction that Dell intends to take this line of products. Into the Cloud.
Great review...
MacBook Air is over priced and never made sense in any market - "lifestyle purchase" BS. It's the worst product in Apple's line-up and reflects little logic, only arrogance and vanity.
This Dell Adamo is just a copy of a useless Apple concept running a horrible OS - Vista. Dell needs to embrace the fact that it can make a high-value computer and clean up their entire line-up and how they sell them. Too many intersecting products, coupons and gimmicks. Downgrade everthing to XP and ditch Vista.
Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out. I hope people see this.
But I do wish for it to be cheaper :(
Oops, I meant to reply to someone...
Pwned.
Wow, absolutely AMAZING! That is one nice looking laptop! Must have it!
RT
www.anon-tools.at.tc
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." -- Steve Jobs
Engadget, you disqualify yourself by starting with a section on "Design" that focuses solely on the physical appearance of the Adamo. The failures of Dell with this machine, mainly its underpoweredness, are based on a fundamental misunderstanding on design.
The MacBook Air was designed to be a lightweight, but capable, laptop, by taking a working predecessor and stripping away everything that is not needed on a day-by-day basis. That it has a sleek and sexy exterior is a nice side-effect.
The Adamo is testament to Dell's misunderstanding that the "sleek and sexy" was its main design parameter.
I wouldn't buy an Adamo, Air, or an X301.
I would rather buy a netbook with over 5 hrs of battery life (Real life tested), run applications w/o straining itself, and is less than 1/2 the price.
Because in the end, these ultraportables are meant for portability and somehow they just fail at it.
This product review seems to have written by someone in 8th grade English. I'm surprised this made it past an editor and is actually posted on a site with laurels.
Why keep this discussion about the two overpriced machines of Dell and Apple when we have the Acer Timeline for $700 to be had?
I don't see how the Adamo wins against the X301 when its has a higher score and twice the battery life.
...
I got my sister an Inspiron 1350. It has that odd bump underneath the play button at the top of the keyboard too.
Some of you may not like the design, but at least it shows that a device can be thin without resorting to design gimmicks and sacrificing ports, unlike the MacBook Air.
With less than 5 hrs of battery life I wonder if QuickerTek is gonna make an external battery for this. I have their battery for the MacBook Air and absolutely love it!
I don't particularly care for the design, too busy, and that flimsy sticker cover... wtf... If you're going to build a luxury laptop why wouldn't you invest some significant R&D cash engineering wise instead of just squeezing the same old crap into a slightly smaller package... you'd never see a Ford Flathead inside a Rolls Royce.
Just surprised nobody mentioned the Voodoo/HP Envy 133 which is in the same class price/performance wise, but infinitely more attractive.
If I were a millionaire it'd probably be the Air...