Dell Adamo 13: CULV Goes Upscale
by Vivek Gowri on July 6, 2010 1:51 AM ESTDell Adamo 13: Conclusion
Now we reach the end of the review of what is, in my opinion, one of the best looking laptops of all time. The sheer level of detail in the industrial design of the Adamo is astounding. Dell has put design above anything and everything else about this computer. The single-mindedness with which this computer was designed is almost Apple-esque. It's about the little things - the exposed screw on the hinge, the pattern of holes laser cut out of the aluminum to create a vent for the processor, the Intel and Windows logos which were painted on the bottom so as to not ruin the finish. It's definitely got a luxury feel to it, and I can understand why Dell wanted to charge $2499 or some similarly ridiculous sum for it at first.
At the debut price, the decision is an obvious no. Unless you're loaded and need a really powerful gaming or workstation system, nobody needs to spend more than $1500-2000 on a computer, even at the highest end. But at its current $999 pricetag, the Adamo is attainable, finally. Still, even reduced to less than half of what it was, the Adamo remains expensive compared to other similarly specced notebooks. The difference between when it debuted and now is the level of competition - CULV has taken over the low end portable market, and we've now got $600 machines with 1.3GHz dual cores, 4GB of memory, and 320GB hard drives. Like, for example, the ThinkPad Edge we reviewed not long ago. The extra $300 gets you the standard solid state drive (figure $200 if you wanted to get one from Newegg and upgrade it yourself), a brighter display, and the aluminum unibody chassis. So if you want an SSD, the Adamo’s actually in the same price range as the other systems in this performance class.
But compared to those more plebeian notebooks, the Adamo feels like so much more. Call it an unabashed fashion statement if you will, but for the people that care about style, it's easily the most elegant and classy notebook under $1000. It feels expensive, a truly premium product. And when you think about it, it is – Dell meant to sell these at well over $2000.
It's not a perfect computer by any means. It's not a powerhouse by any means, it's not as small as the MacBook Air, it's not that light for its size, the battery life is pretty poor, there aren’t that many ports, and minor things like the keyboard and speakers are mediocre at best. The singular reason you should consider the Adamo over another CULV thin and light is because of the industrial design and styling.
If you’re not smitten by the design or you’re not someone who really cares about a laptop’s aesthetic qualities, this isn’t the laptop for you. You can use the SSD or the display to convince yourself, but the Adamo’s appeal begins and ends with the shape of the aluminum unibody. And it’s better for it, because if you look at any of the standard performance benchmarks, this system simply isn’t worth it.
But as the esteemed Ferris Bueller once said about a beautiful 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.” The Adamo isn’t the fastest, it isn’t the smallest, it isn’t the longest lasting. But as one of the most thoroughly designed portable computers ever produced, it is definitely choice.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
67 Comments
View All Comments
afkrotch - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
Remember back in the day when the Longhorn Alpha came out? Then those same features showed up in OSX. Then Longhorn got canned and had to be rebuilt all over again. Why not a single word from Mac fans about how they stole Windows features? I'm sorry, but both Apple and MS will steal whatever from each other. Apple is probably the worst of the two. Everything they build is just someone else's work, shined up to be pretty.OSX is the preferred platform in the Art profession? Really? When? 1990s? The only ppl you see bothering with it is stupid college kids or just regular home consumers. Go out into the real professional world and tell me how many ppl still bother. Even all your big companies have long since dumped Apple.
Unix underpinnings. What's the point even mentioning it, when they took all that was great about Unix and threw it out the window. I played with OSX a while ago. Ya, a toy for home. I can't possibly see it being used for any real production work. Right now, I'm a sys ad for our Solaris 10 workstation/servers, Linux google server, Trusted Solaris 8 server, and a couple Windows 2003 servers. Guess what our custom built software is now being created for? I'll give you a hint. It's created by Microsoft.
jkostans - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
I work for an engineering firm, and no one uses OSX. Linux for some engineering apps, and windows for everything else. This is the way 99% of the world works, get used to it. OSX is not superior to windows. If it was businesses would use it more.mojohacker2010 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
"The Lenovo may be a nice machine but... (other than fanboy nonsense) Windows 7 definitely does play second fiddle to OSX in the majority of serious comparisons"LOL...please cite some sources or you sound just like a fanboy yourself. Rather you sound like a very defensive and angry fanboy. Almost all of the head-to-head comparison articles/tests I've seen show windows 7 beating OSX overwhelmingly...
"Anyhow, one can just do a simple poll of satisfied, hassle free OSX users vs Windows (xp/vista/7). "
Really? So you're gonna compare an ecosystem with billions of users vs. OSX, which no one uses, and use that as an argument? LOL
retrospooty - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
"More reliable? A cheap plasticky Lenovo? Puh-lease. Plus you run the archaic Windows OS on it"Uh.. Yes, Lenovo is the most reliable in the buz, and that included Apple. The X301 rocks. Its solid, lightweight and Has Win7, which is far better than OSX in my opinion.
Also, the MAcbook air is its competition. THe X301 is a thin CULV notebook and has an internal DVD player. Yes, its FAR better than the MAcbook air, or regular 13 inch macbook, or dell.
chrnochime - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
Didn't really want to waste time reading when your name even includes osx. Guess the more patient commenters out there took your bait and wasted their time LOLIvanAndreevich - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
I find it offensive when someone calls a high end Thinkpad "cheap and plasticky". If a Thinkpad and Macbook Pro knock heads I'm sure the Thinkpad would survive more often than not.erple2 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
The Envy's suck? Huh. I like mine just fine. It runs circles around any MBP that's available today. And runs quite a bit cooler at that. Granted, that's comparing the 15" MBP...The MBP doesn't get that good of battery life in Windows, btw. At least not significantly better than other C2D based laptops with NVidia processors...
adhan - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I'm not trying to be too much of a fanboy here, but how about a MacBook with Windows running via Boot Camp.sleepeeg3 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Both colossal ripoffs.Wander7 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
thanks for all the comments. I know about boot camp and also the crappier battery life running windows under it. I don't like the Envys because of the bad touchpad ( I have a dm3 now...). My main attraction to the MB Pro are the hardware aspects of the machine and the battery life.I found out Sony makes some nice laptops, but WAY overpriced tho.... I'll just keep waiting.