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Dell's Adamo Goes After MacBook Air
MojoKid writes "Adamo, pronounced 'A-dahm-o,' means 'to fall in love with' in Latin. Dell is certainly hoping you'll fall in love with this notebook's looks as well as its functionality. The Adamo's chassis is milled from a single piece of aluminum and features precision detailing with a scalloped backlit keyboard. Even the fan holes, which are punched out squares, have an attractive modern design. The Adamo features a thin 0.65-inch profile and weighs four pounds. The new ultra-portable will also offer Intel Core 2 Duo processors and DDR3 memory (up to 4GB), a 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display and a 128GB SSD hard drive. Pricing starts at $1,999 with Vista Ultimate 64." The Dell infomercial spokesmodel (video at the bottom of the link) concludes, "Adamo resulted from the union of technology with pleasure for the style-conscious individualist." OK, so he's no Steve Jobs.
...until the "with Vista Ultimate 64" part.
First we had Microsoft making efforts to change the look of their desktop to be something less "ugly" (a characterisation that even Bill Gates used) that took a wrong turn with XP but resulted in something reasonably coherent and possibly attractive in Vista (and its cousin, Vista SP1). Now we have Dell setting aside their traditional look (a make-it-up as-you-go-along aesthetic designed to appeal to one's inner ricer so those cheap-assed plastic/metal boxes with an in-your-face logo would actually sell) for something that actually looks like it was "designed".
Hell, based on the looks, I'd even consider buying one. Someone would first have to convince me that during assembly, the internals weren't selected from a grab bag of parts taken from a randomly changing supplier list, though.
So, kudos to Dell. But let's face it: the real credit belongs to Apple who forced everyone to adopt a higher standard.
So it costs more than the Air, but has a crappier chipset. It does have more ports, which is good, and unlike the Air it can hold 4GB of RAM. It's also a little bigger, a little heavier, and it has way less processor in it. Plus it comes with Vista - though it's at least the x64 edition, it still will have that much more in driver compatibility issues as a result, and it's still only a Home edition. For that kind of coin, you'd think they would at least provide Ultimate.
And how again is this Dell's MacBook Air killer? The best thing I can say about it so far is it's a little better-looking than most Dell laptops. But I think they're going to sell about 3 of these.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Really? I can run Windows on a MacBook Air. How well does an Adamo run OS X?
It'd probably run great if apple would allow it.
Using Intel's 4500 series? OK, so graphics are not its forte.
It actually cost more than the Air and gives less power? Processor speeds are lackluster as well.
You just have to hate Apple to buy this over the Air. I am not a fanboi of Apple, I do have an iMac (7600gt variety) and a Touch, but damn I always thought Apple notebooks overpriced cases with average internals...
So what happened? What are they truly aiming at? This new laptop of theirs is practically a sales pitch for the Air.
Now, if it started at 1299 then it might be worth looking at...
Sorry, but I really don't understand how this shipped at its price point, especially with such a weak feature set compared to its obvious competition. Slower processors, 1/3rd the speed in graphics, oh I will just stop there.
Oh, Blu-Ray, well it has something at least I cannot do on an Apple...
Great, I am going to have to check myself in at Apple's Fanboi Anonymous group after posting this.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Didn't Sony start first with their VAIO line?
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Apple is still the only computer maker that understands the value of integrated hardware and software design. No piecemeal computer kit thrown together by others will ever quite match the integrated holistic approach of Apple products.
You could have said that Apple has mastered lock-in while appearing to be open.
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You know, I own and regularly use 2 laptops, and I can count the number of times I've removed the battery on zero hands. It's not a big deal to me.
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For all the joking about how Apple is for effete fashion victims, the biggest difference I noticed from the Dell video is that the Apple video focuses almost entirely on functional design. In the Apple video, they don't say they use aluminum because it's sexy, they say it's used to provide rigidity for light weight. Instead of a fancy apartment we see industrial manufacturing. There's no spokesmodel (all the speakers are staff/management at Apple), and the only model is seen only for a few seconds at the end. There's no talk of fashion or aphrodisiac or etched patterns for looks.
I think Dell is totally misreading the market if they think there is going to a big demand for the Adamo based just on how hot and fashionable it looks. That's especially true now...I think conspicuous consumption went out as a life goal for most people about 6 months ago. And even if people are willing to spend that much on a notebook, the way to get to their pocketbooks is to focus on the high-end quality of the product. It's the same reason people buy $450 Gore-Tex coats to walk their dog, or $55,000 SUVs to drive the kids to school.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I don't really like the Apple notebooks except for the MacBook Pro. All the others look like eeePC cheap plastic toy laptops. But, MacBook pros are $2000+.
You must have missed the fact that current Macbook models are machined from a solid block of aluminum, just like the Macbook Pros.
The other reason I don't like MacBooks is that it seems that people who use them seem have fallen in love with their laptop. They always want to have it on and in front of them at all times - always claketing around this or that.
What a strange thing to say. You don't like a certain model of laptop, because its users seem to enjoy using them? Would you rather buy a model which the users are frustrated with, and don't use very much because they are a hassle?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Every time a sealed device (iPhone, Air) comes up someone likes you brings up the external battery.
Such a pointless question though. Who cares when an external power pack the a laptop can run from takes the same amount of space as the spare battery would have? The ONLY time you ever need one of these things is really long air travel, when you're in steerage without a plug. Even when traveling in the deepest heart of Africa I didn't need a spare battery because I just charged off the car we were traveling with (and yes in fact I did need a laptop it was not just some electronic toy I could not live without).
As for replacing it, since you do that once every few years I can't see that as a serious concern.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley