Dell officially confirmed that they will be releasing a new ultrathin laptop called the Adamo. The Adamo is a sleek laptop with an aluminum chassis, with a strikingly similar appearance the HP Voodoo Envy 133. "Adamo" is actually the brand, like Inspiron -- this is just the first machine that'll be out. We weren't allowed to boot it up or do much of anything except take pictures, but it's built really, really, well -- and it's a total smudge magnet, with a super-glossy display and a shiny black panel like the Studio XPS series on the lid.Expansion-wise, we spotted three USB ports and an eSATA jack, and the power adapter is crazy small, with a removable plug for international use.
Dell has not revealed any final specifications, and we are unable to discuss what we saw in the current version, but we did get a chance to handle and use the current Adamo prototype.
Dell has been rumored to be working on the Adamo for a while now, and they've been refining the design during that time. Since the launch of Apple's new MacBook lineup, a lot of people have been impressed by the quality of the aluminum construction, and the Adamo we used definitely looks and feels like a high quality notebook. As a side note, we asked about the possibility of using this sort of chassis Dell's other notebooks. Dell indicated that the amount of time and energy required to produce such a chassis is simply too long to do on a mass scale (not to mention the cost), so it will likely remain in smaller volume products. Dell simply ships far too many laptops to be able to produce that many chassis in a timely fashion.
The ultraportable is purportedly already in sample production by well-known Chinese manufacturer Foxconn but won't enter volume production until the second half of 2009.Adamo notebook may not be available until the second half of the year, a leak from alleged sources of Digitimes says.The current plans are for two base models, one black and the other white/silver. While they both look incredibly stylish, we have to admit that we are partial to the white notebook, since Black has a nasty habit of showing every single fingerprint/smudge, even with a brushed aluminum surface.
While this appears to be an upper end product, Dell has always done exceptionally well in the realm of mass production, so there's a reasonable chance that the Adamo could end up being more affordable than the competition. We hope so, as there's a lot of demand for a light ultrathin notebook that can still pack more power than the current netbooks. Final pricing and details will have to wait until Dell is closer to shipping the Adamo, which should be sometime later this spring.
Dell is probably betting the farm on this and they’ve been doing a great job mixing a little design into their staid line-up.The system has been publicly touted as a direct challenger to Apple's MacBook Air and is designed to be fashionable with more precise construction.Performance is still a remaining question, but it really only matters insofar as it doesn't spoil the experience, kind of like going out with a model.The upcoming Dell Adamo seems to be the XPS13: a thinner than Air (Macbook Air, that said) laptop that might not beat Apple in terms of design, but most likely beat them in price and possibly comfort, thanks to the leather-wrapping. The price of the Macbook Air basically prevented it from getting any significant market share and there's a good opportunity for Dell here. I hope that the XPS13 looks better in real-life than it does in these pictures (the pic above is the best shot)'- we'll see soon enough. The bottom line is: customers want light and cheap and Dell might just give them that!Hopefully Dell comes clean on specs and pricing sometime soon .. Its been confirmed that it will launch for $1,999.
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