Dell Adamo 13: CULV Goes Upscale
by Vivek Gowri on July 6, 2010 1:51 AM ESTDell Adamo 13: Display Analysis
The LCD display of the Adamo is pretty sweet. It has a Gorilla Glass screen, which is an alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass that is used to protect screens on mobile devices. Gorilla Glass is also used on the Motorola Droid, the Dell Streak, and a device from Apple that nobody's ever heard of, the newly released iPhone 4. Basically, this means that even with such a thin display which may not offer the most protection for the screen, this chemically hardened glass covering will ensure that the screen sustains no scratches or damage of any kind.
Which is all pretty cool, but what about the quality of the panel itself? The first impression is that this thing gets BRIGHT. At maximum brightness, you're looking at a white level of 389 nits. That's just about on par with the Apple MacBook Pro line, which have some of the higher quality notebook displays we've tested recently.
However, the display falls off after that, with contrast ratio just about average and unspectacular color accuracy. And though the white level is pretty high, the black level is just as high, so at the upper brightness levels, the screen can appear washed out. Colour accuracy and colour gamuts are pretty mediocre but aren't terrible. Really though, the screen's brightness is it's trump card, and overall, the display looks pretty good, even with the reflective glass covering the display.
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FATCamaro - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Yeah looks just like a mac!! Amazing. Except its pricey and crap.tipoo - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
My friend just bought one of these days ago. One thing you didn't mention is that the fan seems to go off even with just light web browsing, and also seems to have too few modes to choose from (off, medium, jet engine). Now, maybe I'm micro-autistic or something, but fan noise of any sort just drives me up the wall :-PEven with all its flaws though, considering that the price has dropped to half its original price and half the price of the Macbook Air, if you absolutely need an ultraportable it isn't a bad choice for what you pay. The SSD does make a noticeable difference, despite being far from the fastest SSD's out there (speaking of which, some storage benchies would have been nice!).
Nice review though.
darwinosx - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
The MacBook Air is $1399 which is not 2 X $999. You get what you pay for.This laptop is actually better compared to a 13" Macbook Pro which starts at $1099 but is a dramatically better buy.
http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/
Why people constantly compare these to a mac is beyond me since this runs Windows. i understand that Apple is the gold standard for industrial design, quality, and customer service though.
tipoo - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I stand corrected. The rest still applies though.7Enigma - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Why oh why does it come with a G1 (probably got a great deal on the old drives)? With no TRIM on an aging drive, and at this cost I'll pass...StanTech - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
7Enigma: "With no TRIM on an aging drive, and at this cost I'll pass..."For the price, I think I can accept a scheduled http://www.anandtech.com/show/2865/3">"manual trim" compromise, which I think is http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?a...">now supported on G1 drives.
8steve8 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
pathetic that this doesn't have a i3/i5/i7 ULV cpu.Friendly0Fire - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I really hope that Anand's 13 and below laptop review will give us a good comparison. Between the Adamo 13, the M11x, the Vaio Z and Asus' myriad of thin and light laptops (U30Jc, UL30Jt, etc.), there are a lot of choices. I'll be looking forward to more about this!afkrotch - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
I sport a 12.1" HP TM2T tablet. Wondering how it compares to the rest. Granted, you pay more for the tablet features, but a lot of killer deals are out there for it.freeman70 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Wait for the i3/i5/i7 CULV or later processors. You are just wasting money buying a stylish case with an old processor. I am perfectly happy to wait for something really great like sandy-bridge based CULV laptops. Until then I will be content using my Acer 1410 with 4GB of RAM and an Intel 80GB G2 SSD. Don't bother telling me the screen is average. I already know. But considering I paid US$450 (4GB RAM included) when I bought it, I think it's good enough for the time being. I won't upgrade until I can get a decent 32 nanometer CULV CPU, nVidia Optimus graphics, a good 13.3 inch screen, USB 3.0 and still get 8 hours of battery life.