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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estee - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Sure, it's also made by Dell, but it's almost identical to the Adamo (same .65" profile, display, battery, slightly slower CPU, w/o the ID though) and costs $330 less!Scott66 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I am sure dell will get a few customers complaining about broken USB ports due to having all of the ports on the back.When a person reaches around to plug in a jump drive, one tends to lift the laptop. Unfortunately anything plugged on the back will get pressed down against the desk and either bend itself or, over time, crack the connector on the Motherboard.
Main reason all Mac laptops now do not have any ports on the back, instead using the back for moving warm air out.
afkrotch - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
Think it's all about how users deal with ports on the back. Me for example, I twist my laptop around to access ports on the back. With ports on the side, I tend to lift the laptop sideways to get to them. I personally prefer ports on the back of my laptop, as it's out of the way.rtothedizzy - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
This is pretty much the laptop I want. Love the look. Love the feel. I won't be buying one anytime soon though because it's basically a year or two old technology. It needs to be updated.Give me:
i5/i7 ULV processor with their improved integrated graphics.
at least 4GB of ram
a newer SSD with trim or an option to get a normal HDD so I can replace it with a SSD myself
As soon as it has those specs I'm getting one. That is assuming they stay near the current price and don't go back to the crazy original price. They updated the 11 inch alienware finally, hope that means the adamo is due for an update soon as well. Anyone heard anything on this front??
solipsism - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
When the machine is geared to compete more directly with Macs than most other non-Mac PCs I’d like to see the charts include Macs. You certainly compare them to Macs in text, but never at a glance in the performance and battery charts.tipoo - Saturday, July 17, 2010 - link
Agreed!brianh902 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Looks nice... I am waiting for MacBook Pro 13 to go Core i... That will be the one.mindbomb - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
if it has a 4500mhd, then it can fully hardware accelerate 1080p h264, vc-1, or mpeg 2.And it has the added benefit of being able to output hd audio via hdmi.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
Not Flash... 10.1 still dies at 1080p on 4500MHD. Sorry if that wasn't clear, though I don't know if a high bitrate (say >20Mbps) H.264 could decode on 4500MHD, lower bitrate certainly works.techandtech - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Best alternative is the iPad and wireless keyboard when necessary.And if not that, then the next version of the iPad...