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.
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Wander7 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I like the MacBook Pro 13" for the design of the hardware and long battery life, but is there an alternative in the Windows world? I know about the HP Envys and they suck. Any help would be great.retrospooty - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
LEnovo X301 - better all around, higher res, more reliable+ an internal DVDdarwinosx - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
More reliable? A cheap plasticky Lenovo? Puh-lease. Plus you run the archaic Windows OS on it. Unless you use Linux. Terrible battery life too.Btw the 13" MacBook has an internal DVD drive not that I really use one anymore. I can't remember the last time I burned a DVD or CD.
This Dell is a slightly gussied up copy of a MacBook. Hardly innovative design. Brought to you by the company that knowingly sold thousands of defective computers and is known for the worst quality control and support in the industry. This one is overpriced too. Anandtech must be hungry for Dell advertising $$ at the cost of their reputation.
gescom - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
@darwinosx "A cheap plasticky Lenovo? Puh-lease. "What are you talking about? What plastic? What cheap?
The internal chassis and roll cage use an advanced carbon-fiber / glass-fiber material that provides both strength and light weight. The case material is made of magnesium, press as hard as you want anywhere on the body of the notebook and it will not flex. Like all ThinkPads, the X301 is designed for accidental abuse and drops.
And you even compare it to a 13" MacBook / pro? Apple machines are far far behind in everything.
Samus - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
Seriously, if not a Lenovo X301, then what would you have us buy Darwin?quiksilvr - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
The ENVY 13 and 15 aren't that great.The ENVY 14 and 17 however, are masterpieces.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/compute...
maratus - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
>>And you even compare it to a 13" MacBook / pro? Apple machines>> are far far behind in everything.
Yes, those crappy extremely low contrast and non-existent viewing angle screens Lenovo puts in almost any of their ThinkPads is a definite sing of the advancement over Apple. So does using inferior GPUs (Intel 4500/5700 for the whole X200, X300 lineup, 2D-optimised version of low-end 310M for T410 and so on). Some say that connectivity is a weakness of Apple laptops. But it does four extremely important things for me:
– MBP does support 2560x1600 (like modern Lenovo and Dell models though) which is a mandatory for me,
– MBP does have high-speed port like FW800. (E-sata is a joke unless it's combined with USB for bus power and even then its power capabilities are far behind of FW800 port). You can run RAID enclosure with two 2.5" / 7200rpm HDDs and fan completely bus powered without single problem. 80MB/s is good for me.
– MBP does have good (and excellent for 15" and 17") battery life.
– MBP runs Mac OS X natively
And while roll cage may withstand a drop why does it flex and creak like a cheap eMachines masterpiece?
mojohacker2010 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
Steve, is that you?damianrobertjones - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
"Plus you run the archaic Windows OS on it"Funnily enough, a collegue in work owns a macbook but refuses to run OSX as it offers 'Nothing new and is basically for stupid people'. Straight from his mouth and he's running Win7 Pro instead of OSX.
Seriously, darwinosx, remove your own head from up your own behind. OSX is no better or worse than windows.
Wizzdo - Wednesday, July 7, 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. Dolled out as an expensive fix for the unhappy Vista era (which itself took forever and mainly brought only incompatibility, high system requirements and general instability and annoyance to its users), Windows 7 added and a handful of OSX like (coincidence?) features and the usual pile of driver incompatibility\workaround headaches along with broken support for psuedo real-time integrations such as professional audio (the vast majority who still use OSX or XP).To say OSX is a toy is to be quite ignorant of its UNIX underpinnings. It is still the preferred platform in the Art (video/graphics/audio) professions which are generally far more demanding and expectant on performance and reliability than most other fields.
Anyhow, one can just do a simple poll of satisfied, hassle free OSX users vs Windows (xp/vista/7). Having to use both daily in practically every possible context, I can tell you which is the most 'toy' like (read: not for serious use) and it just so happens to be the one that plays most of the games ;)