Unused Adamo XPS prototypes reveal touchscreen trackpads, key-less keyboard
By Donald Melanson 
posted Nov 6th 2009 3:01PM
posted Nov 6th 2009 3:01PM
Dell certainly managed to cram plenty of inventive, even far-fetched touches into its Adamo XPS laptop, but it looks like it went even further out on a limb during the prototype stage, as PC World was able to discover during a brief hands-on time with a few cast off concepts. As you might expect, one of the ideas Dell toyed around with was a full-fledged touchscreen trackpad, which was apparently rejected because Dell couldn't justify the cost of the panel based how much people would actually use it. Another, possibly even more ambitious concept is one that would have completely replaced the traditional keyboard with a series of capacitive-touch buttons (pictured after the break), which would have allowed for a true zero-profile design, albeit at some potential expense to usability. Hit up the link below for a look at a few more prototypes.
Jaw = dropped.
Damn!
You should go get that checked out
Mine too
... but I'd still never buy it in any one of those forms. Should have stayed a concept and then released something usable. Why'd they have to reinvent the wheel and make it square?
This design is really nice: http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/181464-alittletoothick_slide.jpg
If the iPhone's success eventually causes me to own a laptop with a virtual keyboard then that's it for me. game over
It seems to have made it hard enough to buy a smart phone with a physical keyboard
Pity entering text on a virtual keyboard is absolute rubbish and slow. I hate the virtual keyboard on my ipod touch.
Thing is if it can be made less sucky it sure makes devices more compact.
Yeah I think people will eventually realize the cool factor of no buttons is not worth having to type really slow and look at your fingers at all times.
I tried one of those projected keyboards once and it was annoying as hell. Still better than a touchscreen due to being bigger, but hopefully if we ever move away from physical keyboards, it will be due to voice recognition that doesn't suck. http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/
Unlike many others, I think the keyboard on my iPhone is phenomenal. Maybe it's because I have smaller fingers, but I can really go to town on that thing. There are even times I prefer it over my laptop's keyboard. I guess everyone has their own opinions though.
Although, a touch keyboard on a laptop does seem to go a little bit too far..
Still the worst designed notebook ever.
really? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/IBookG3_Palourde2.png
Yes, but it was designed and made in 1999. You obviously have no sense of design, seeing laptops where mostly huge grey buildings at the time, it was revolutionary. So stop with your pesky ignorance. If the ibook G3 was made today, THEN YES, it would be a horrible design. But it wasn't.
Good design is timeless.
I agree with you on worst design ever, but I'm sure the price tag on it makes it more of a desktop replacement at home...
I know I wouldn't carry around an $1800+ laptop... not until money grows on trees :)
Woah, sensitive much. The iBook clamshell was a commercial success, but was in no way revolutionary, because what did the next iBook look like? A standard blocky laptop like everyone else. Here's a maxi pad.
Hey! I loved the iBook design!
iBooks are sexy!
Huge gray buildings? I owned a beautiful, 1.4" thick, 4-lb charcoal Thinkpad in 1999. Put the iBook to shame.
you know what would be good?, if maybe you bagged it after using it.
sure it may not seems much but I am reserving my comment until it is at least released. I must day Ilike that dell is thinking of the future, they are trying out ideas and maybe someday they will hit a design that becomes universal and puts out current design to shame.
Seriously, I hate this design form factor. It really looks backasswards, the footprint of the base should be bigger then the screen and should stick out the back so it can lay flat like the first Adamos did. Imagine you always having to stay in the same exact spot because you can't adjust the top lid. And we thought Apple had the one up on on form over function.
Yes, the 2x10^-6 million people who buy this are going to be bummed.
@N900
****** SWOOOSSSSHHHHH *******
Wait for it... wait for it...... Hey do you drive a Blue Prius?
(peanut)
I still think its ugly but this lets me know that Dell is thinking outside the box in some ways.
Agreed,
It's a swing and a miss but at least they got the bat off their shoulders.
I like the design. Wouldn't buy one because it compromises too much. However, it is good to see the thought process behind the final product instead of just, "hey, here it is, love it and give me your money" (I'm talking about the ipod shuffle). Anyway, it's good that both Dell and HP are competing with Apple hard. We got to change the image that Apple is the only innovator because IMO they get too much credit for stuff. Brovo Dell, and keep it up.
It's a little weird for Dell to be revealing the concepts they rejected. Trying just a little too hard maybe? I'd bet most PC makers have multiple mock-ups and concepts that never make it to manufacturing. I'd also guess that Steve Jobs wipes his butt on more concepts than this in a single day. Life's a bitch and then there's Ives.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Apparently you're not allowed to be proud of your concepts, however fantastic or revolutionary they may be
As for Apple, they don't NEED to show off concepts. All they have to do is 'leak' an image of a SIM CARD TRAY, and the whole internet goes apeshit and makes the concept art for them.
How ugly is this computer? What kind of design is that?
Let this car be the definition of ugliest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/automobiles/collectibles/23UGLY.html?_r=3
Now this laptop is quite beautiful.
Sorry, new link http://www.andysaunderskustoms.co.uk/car%20-%20aurora.htm
I think the worst part is that LCD, why does it have to stick out to hurt people's knee?
welcome to the world.
I hate that hinge design. I wouldn't buy it with your money. Ugh. Fugly!
The way the screen forces the keyboard to be tilted toward the user causes wrist strain.
Still seems to me more like a portable all in one than a laptop. . . When used like that, it seems like it might actually be a good shape for it. I have to say though, a touchscreen trackpad would be awesome on it if it weren't for the fact that trackpads suck.
I hate the way the lid makes it stick up, whoever came up with that idea needs to be fired
The innovation here is great but the form factor of the original adamo was far supirior, with this one its hard to see the point of it.
Exactly, form factor offers no functionality. It's pointless.
At least somebody's using SideShow... at least in a prototype...
SideShow. Wow. Is the closest it's gotten to an actual product? Close but no cigar. In any case, SideShow was supposed to give you access to information without opening up the computer - so in that way it also fails. Ironic name for a technology that was doomed to be forever a wall-flower......
@Jim - no
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/asus-w5fe-sideshow-laptop-hands-on/
And indeed http://www.engadget.com/tag/sideshow/
SideShow has potential, and the trackpad background is a good use.
But about every use I've seen has been WAY overpriced for the functionality you get out of it, and usually been way too gadgety.
You can get 7" 800x600/800x480 displays that are USB controlled and powered, but the $200 going price is way too much when you can add a 17" monitor and USB video adapter for not much more than that.
The link simbr gave has a good use - a MPC case that has a small SideShow on the chassis. With appropriate software, you could use the SideShow as the main control panel for media playing - DVD, Blu-ray, TV, etc - without messing up the main screen with over-large, distracting controls. Or even otherwise headless use as an audio player.
A wifi alarm clock would be another good use, but the few I've seen that head that way are Linux-based (with a skin) stand-alone devices, not SideShow. It could give weather at a touch, full calander/schedule at a glance, etc. Custom alarms, selectable fonts, colors, and brightness. And it could play any music from your PC, not just AM/FM.
But $2000 just to add some nice touches? Only for the wealthy.
it's thin, but it has a huge footprint. It's almost like they took a regular laptop and flattened it like a pancake. Very very poor laptop for travel use it seems. I would take a Lenovo T400s over this.
Still Fugly!
I don't care for the design at all, its just not practical. I do commend dell for thinking out of the box though.
Shouldnt they put a touchscreen touchpad somewhere else too? why not have an extra one?
wow, they managed to drop the only practical and cool feature of this underpowered, unusable almost-2000$ computer? losers. these are the times when im really ashamed of the brand of my laptop, a vostro (which is the complete opposite to the adamo: cheap, thick, powerful and usable as hell).
I'll take my MULTI-TOUCH trackpad with GLASS and GESTURES that takes NO BATTERY USAGE.
I wonder if the optical trackpad worked in sunlight. The Mebius does not... at all.
No thanks. Keyboard keys are already thin enough... when you take the keys out of the equation entirely, you lose tactile response. I prefer to hear the click when my finger hits the key, and feel each key press down as I strike it with my fingertips.
Yet another craptastic slim notebook with shoddy intel graphics. I'll pass till Dell can figure out that for 2 grand, I dont want intel graphics.
I'll bet we see a lot of multitouch lcd or amoled touchpads in Windows 7 laptops and netbooks. Hopefully we'll see desktop keyboards again with built-in touchpads - however this time they'll be multitouch led's. We'll also see all kinds of multitouch mice substitutes - configured as led touchpads or mice/led--touchpad hybrids. I know I want one, if it proves workable and reliable. -- JohnH_in_OKC.