Hands on with the new Dell Adamo XPS
After months of teaser shots and cameo appearances, Dell has officially announced pricing and other details for the revamped Dell Adamo XPS laptop. Without setting a specific date, Dell says it expects to "begin taking orders and shipping the Adamo XPS in time for the holidays." The ultrathin luxury laptop starts at $1,799.
We had a chance to take a quick test drive with an Adamo XPS earlier this week, as well as capture some hands-on footage on a Flip handheld video camera.
Our initial impressions of the Adamo remain largely the same after getting to handle it at greater length. The system is ridiculously thin, especially for a 13-inch laptop. Unlike the 11-inch Sony Vaio X, which weighs next to nothing, the Adamo feels slightly heavier than it looks, even with an solid-state hard drive. Dell says the Adamo starts at 3.2 pounds, which is nearly twice the weight of the Vaio X.
The Adamo opens in an unusual way, with the lid shut tight until you swipe a finger on a heat-sensitive strip centered on the front edge. Then the lid lifts up, tilting the screen back and lifting the keyboard on its unusual inset hinge.
At least on the nonfinal version we played with, the lid opening action wasn't as smooth as we would have liked. When using one hand to lift the lid, at about the halfway point the front of keyboard tray itself started to lift off the table, requiring us to hold it down with our other hand.
Dell's new Adamo XPS has an unusual inset hinge.
(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET)When fully opened, the keyboard sits at maybe a 20-degree angle. It's an unusual setup, but one that provides a more ergonomic typing experience than the average flat laptop keyboard. We also liked the keyboard's metal keys and the reasonably large touchpad.
The system's components seem to be located behind the screen, as the ports (two USB, a headphone jack, power connection, and mini DisplayPort) are on the side edges of the lid. The screen itself is a 13.4-inch LED, with a 1,366x768 resolution. The Adamo's lid has a larger footprint than the lower half, and when closed, the keyboard essentially fits inside the inset lid.
With a 128GB solid-state drive and a 1.4GHz Intel ULV processor, we have high hopes for the system's battery life, which Dell claims is up to 2.5 hours with the default battery and a bit more than 5 hours with an optional extended battery (which we haven't seen in person yet.)
While the new Adamo has a much more radically unique design than the original MacBook-like Adamo, the high starting price means it's still likely to be relegated to coffee shop curio status, along with other luxury laptops such as Sony's Vaio X and HP's Envy 13. Not that there's anything wrong with that; high-end concept-car-like products like these invariably trickle their technology developments to mainstream systems down the road.
We're waiting for a final shipping version of the Adamo XPS to arrive, at which time we'll run it though our standard battery of benchmark tests.
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New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan. 
anywho good points, i didnt know that, but its still remarkably thin.
You can buy a Macbook Air for $1499.... and it's faster, thinner, has longer battery life (5 hours).. and is lighter than this Dell.
If you are married to the idea of getting a SSD drive... the Macbook Air with a SSD is $1799... and it's even faster with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo (1066MHz frontside bus), 2GB Memory (1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM), and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics...
Fanboyism aside... what incentive is there to get the Dell? The extra USB port?
Seriously.. am I missing something?
You are 110% right!
@Dell
The Dell Adamo XPS is a FUGLY piece of useless (how do you use it without a desk) crap!
Michael Dell needs help! Better yet, just copy Apple!
Adamo is thinner than MacBook Air
i do agree that the MacBook Air is a superior notebook though
Honestly, I don't see the point in either one of them. I don't understand why people would be willing to spend so much on a laptop just because it shaves a couple pounds off while seriously hindering performance and storage capabilities. Instead of the Adamo, just get a full function laptop for a lot cheaper or a MacBook or MacBook Pro if you're more into Apple stuff. This ultra-thin stuff just doesn't make sense to me unless it's going to match the specs and price of current full laptops, but then again I'm not ridiculously wealthy.
Dell:
Pro: Thin, good warranty.
Con: Heavy, low battery life, expensive (sony approach won't work).
Others: Other than good warranty Dell has, there is no other reason to buy this product. Why pay more when you get almost the same performance on a netbook.
Apple:
Pro: thin, unibody, long battery life, reliable OS (my opinion)
Con: Out of date hardwares, expensive (not a surprise here)
Others: They have no network for their OS, basically they have no share in the netbook market, need a tablet form, and they need to catch up with new hardware faster.
I think they actually stopped using the term "laptop" for this very reason.
Apple's products aren't (generally) overpriced (well the 30" panel looks damn silly next to the 27" iMac ... but that's an exception). Apple don't make "budget" systems - but that's quite a different thing.
Don't you mean LCD or maybe LED-backlit ? Otherwise, nice looking wafer-PC, though $1,800 can buy alot more capability elsewhere.
I always tilt my keyboards up higher in the back than the built in option offers. My guess is that this design is perfectly suited to very fast touch typing. But my guess is that you can forget using it on your lap without a laptop rest underneath it, which I always use anyway.
Other than that this looks, and I'm sure it feels like a very nice design. I just don't know if the extra money is worth it unless it's infinately upgradeable.
But in the case of laptops, thinner laptops makes them easier to pack in your suitcase or backpack. And thinner generally (though not necessarily) mean lighter. So there is that portability factor. If you travel with your laptop a lot and I do, it is a consideration.
In this case an "ultralight" makes sense. I agree I'd not buy one with my own money either - but they do make good sense for some users.
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/default.htm
That's why we have the term notebook (its not supposed to be taken that literally either). I guess we should come up with a whole new term for people to take literally.
Thanks for playing.
The correct term is either a Windows PC or a Mac PC.
Also, if people are willing to shill out thousands of dollars to buy Apple made junk hardware, there are others who are willing to pay more for Windows based junk hardware as well.
Now see, losers are there on both sides. Was that so hard?
Wow.
Wow, is it nice where they live?
I read something about it having some ARM-based subsystem that will only be able to do simple things like web browsing, and it's supposed to have ridiculously-long battery life. How does that fare?
How exactly are you supposed to open it on a cold day while wearing gloves?
- by ejhayes76 November 5, 2009 10:46 AM PST
- Looks ugly and uncomfortable to use.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (78 Comments)I have a Dell XPS M1330, with a 13.3 LED screen and it isn't much larger than this Adamo. I think my laptop weighs about 4.5 lbs and fits well in bags for traveling and is the best compromise of size and power, if you ask me. Plus I can use the XPS M1330 on my lap without issue (it doesn't heat up much).