With Adamo, Dell aims to elevate themselves to the status of a fashion designer, to offer a luxury computer that by the very virtue of its high price tag delivers a sense of exclusivity, that only those who can afford one can have one. That only works if everyone wants one, and so the Adamo is adorned with etched patterns similar to those associated with Gucci or Louis Vutton, and immersed in an abstract ad campaign full of black and white photographs of models in haute couture while emphasizing concepts of love, admiration, and desire. The result is a computer that is not only tacky in cost, but impractical in design.

 

Style

The Adamo is available in a choice of Onyx (Black) or Pearl (white) colouring and of the two it’s the Pearl model I have for review. The Adamo is very flat, wide, and rigid, like a kitchen cutting board, offering no beveling or surface molding. Typically with a plain space like this you want a decoration that delivers a sense of terrain, the usual tattoo designs tend to accomplish this, but instead Dell has opted for three horizontal bands. One is coated with an off-white finish, the middle is a plain aluminum band with some branding on it, and the largest one is naked aluminum, etched with an intricate wallpaper pattern. The decoration itself is nice enough, not as iconic or eye-catching as Dell’s marketing suggests, but using horizontal stripes on a wide body is a no-no for a good reason, it only serves to accentuate the body’s girth and it’s just as unappealing here.

Similar to Apple’s Mac Book Pros, the Adamo uses a machined aluminum chassis. This doesn’t include the entire bottom, which is still a separate piece of thin aluminum that pops off to give access to the battery and hard drive. The whole point of a unibody chassis is that it encompasses the whole casing, including the bottom, to deliver full, structural strength, so it defeats the purpose here.

Where the Adamo does catch the eye is with its metallic-capped, backlit keyboard. The scalloped keys and cybernetic fonts are quite cool and slick and supported by a set of touch keys for multimedia playback just in front of the display.

Design

To achieve a remarkable thinness of 0.65 inches, the backside of the laptop has been extended past the display and several components have been shoved into that space. This places the speakers behind the display, making them difficult to hear, the two USB ports in the middle of the back, making them hard to reach, along with the display port, eSATA, RJ-45 port, and fans. The headphone jack didn’t quite make it to the back and so sits on the side at the very back corner.

This makes the laptop’s backside heavy and difficult to balance it on your lap or knee as it wants to tip backwards. It also makes it seem heavier than it is when carrying as gravity pulls the back down to the ground, which counters the effect you want from an ultra-thin laptop.

This does create a laptop that is completely blank of any ports or lights along the front and sides. To achieve this, Dell had to sacrifice a number of features including a physical on/off switch and indicator light for the Wi-Fi, a memory card reader, microphone jack, and perhaps the most egregious considering the cost, an optical drive. There’s isn’t one.

Performance

The Adamo is offered in two configurations, the $2,500 “Admire” and the $3,400 “Desire”. Both include a 128 GB solid state drive and 64-bit Windows Vista Premium, although most of the software that can deliver on the 64-bit speed requires an optical drive (external ones are available at an additional cost). For the price, the processors included aren’t very impressive. 1.2 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 2GB of dual-channel memory for the Admire and 1.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4GB of dual-channel memory for the Aspire. The graphics card is integrated with 256 MB, which according to Windows delivers a performance rating of 3.2 out of 5. You won’t be using this system to play games or perform video editing.

This limits the Adamo to common applications and internet-based uses and for that it delivers quite a bit of pep, but is no different than a laptop that’s a third or even a quarter of the price.

The battery is a six-cell lithium polymer rechargeable and using my standard test (Wi-Fi on, power-saving off, and music playing on repeat) I received three hours and twenty minutes in use. Charging the battery can be confusing as the battery light indicator never changes colour, remaining instead a constant white. You’ll never know when the battery is full until you boot up the system.

Connections

In addition to Wireless N, Bluetooth, and an Ethernet jack, you can also insert a SIM card for a direct link to a mobile broadband account, which is more convenient than having to tether and configure a connection to your cellphone and not a feature offered by many manufacturers.

Display

The Adamo comes with a 13.4” WLED (White Light Emitting Diode) widescreen display that includes a glass screen instead of the usual plastic. While the use of WLED technology allows for a brighter, energy-efficient display, its white light here tends to bleach out the colours, something the generic display drivers aren’t compensating for. It’s not too noticeable of a weakness when simply surfing the web, but with movie trailers and clips the effects stands out a lot. The iconic comic book yellow fonts in The Watchmen trailers look creamy and almost pastel yellow on the Adamo’s screen.

What’s Latin For Unrequited?

Adamo, from the Latin meaning “to fall in love with”. That’s Dell’s explanation for the name. If its love the manufacturer is looking for I’m afraid I don’t feel it for their latest creation, which may feature high-end materials and some quality components, but is uninspired in its sense of style and too fair in its performance and use. I think an ultra-stylish Netbook would have served the same needs and allow Dell to still deliver the same sense of luxury, but at a lower price.