Dell's Adamo: A Close Look at the MacBook Air Rival

Dell's so-called luxury laptop is sleek, stylish, and skinny -- and it's also capable; here's a close look at this new competitor in the ultralight category.

By PC World and IDG News Service

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Introducing Dell Adamo

Dell has finally unveiled the mysterious Adamo, a "luxury" laptop that could be the PC maker's response to ultrathin laptops such as Apple's stylish MacBook Air.

Skinny from the Side

Adamo has a light and ultra-slim design that makes it easy to hold with a few fingers. It measures 0.65 inches at its thinnest point, and weighs around 4 pounds, with a 13.4-inch screen.

Slick and Shiny

Speculation about Adamo heated up late last year when observers suggested Dell was building a laptop as a response to Apple's MacBook Air. The rumor was confirmed when the laptop was shown to the press at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Dell did not reveal its specifications at the time, saying Adamo was being shown to squash impending rumors about its existence.

Ultraportable Entry

Adamo is heavier and may be bigger than the MacBook Air, but it provides Dell an entrance into the ultraportable market to compete with offerings that include Hewlett-Packard's Voodoo Envy. Dell could particularly face an uphill battle against Apple, which has a leg up with impressive designs and a loyal customer base that allows it to charge a premium for products.

Light Touch

The Adamo laptops are built from aluminum and will come in a choice of two colors, onyx and pearl.

New Look

The laptop has a 13.4-inch LED backlit glossy widescreen (16:9) display with 1366 by 768 resolution. Adamo laptops are preinstalled with Windows Vista Home Premium.

Built for Speed

The laptop uses new technologies that could make it a speedy machine -- it runs on an ultralow-power Intel processor, supports DDR3 memory and includes SSD storage. A battery built inside the laptop provides about four to five hours of run time per charge.

Internal Specs

The basic Adamo is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (the MacBook Air has a 1.86GHz CPU) and comes with 2GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD (solid state disk).

Input and Output Options

The Adamo provides two USB 2.0 ports, a hybrid USB and eSATA port, an ethernet jack, a headphone jack, and a DisplayPort output. It has integrated Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n wireless support. Microphone input is through a small series of dots by the keyboard. Also, you'll find a user-accessible SIM-card slot on the side.

Prices and Options

Prices start at $1999 for the basic model (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300, 2GB of DDR3, 128GB SSD). A high-end version of Adamo is priced $2699, and sports a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 with 4GB of DDR3 memory.