Dell Adamo XPS

Ever since the MacBook Air was pulled out of a manila envelope, other laptop manufacturers have attempted to dethrone it as the world's thinnest laptop.

Dell's first effort, the Dell Adamo, certainly invited comparisons to the MacBook Air, with its aluminum "Unibody" enclosure, thin profile, and non-removable battery. Unfortunately, its $2,000 price tag was deemed way too expensive. Now, Dell is poised to take a second shot at the crown with the Dell Adamo XPS, which continues the luxury theme of its predecessor, adds a couple of "wow" features to its arsenal, and brings the price down to $1,799.

Features
The laptop's WLED screen measures 13.4 inches (diagonal) and has a 1,366-by-768 resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The Adamo XPS also comes with a DisplayPort connector on the left side, and a headphone jack on the right side. Interestingly, the Adamo XPS drops one of the three USB 2.0 ports of its predecessor (it now has only 2 USB 2.0 ports, one on either side) and moves all the ports from the back of the system to the sides.

Unlike the original Adamo, the battery on the Adamo XPS is user-removable. The standard battery is a 4-cell, 20-WHr lithium-ion battery, with an option for a 40-WHr battery. Dell claims a battery life of up to 2 hours 36 minutes for the standard battery and 5 hours 17 minutes for the optional battery, as measured by its own labs testing. Based on those claims, I have to say that bundling a battery that lasts only about 2.5 hours on an ultraportable laptop that will no doubt spend very little time tethered to a wall outlet is somewhat questionable. Yes, customers will have the option to upgrade to the longer-lasting battery, but why not just bundle that one from the get-go?

The Adamo XPS comes with 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi as standard, with an option for a Dell Bluetooth 2.1 adapter. Curiously, this iteration drops the mobile broadband used by the original Adamo, as well as the Ethernet port (though 10/100 Ethernet and DVI are available via a dongle).


Components
With the buzz surrounding the Adamo XPS, no one had really known what components would be inside. Until now, that is. The Adamo XPS has an Ultra Low Voltage 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 CPU and 4 Gbytes of DDR3 memory. Like the original Adamo, the Adamo XPS comes with a 128-GB solid state drive (SSD). Users can opt for 250-GB and 500-GB spinning drives, but they are both external. There is no built-in optical drive available, a nod to keeping the Adamo XPS thin; however, there are optional external DVD and Blu-ray burners. These options will cost you (how much isn't known – exact prices aren't available as of this writing), and may add considerably to the final price of the system. The Adamo will ship with Windows 7 Premium 64-bit, which one might have surmised since the ultraportable was featured at the recent Windows 7 launch.

All in all, I was certainly impressed by the look and feel of Dell's newest Adamo. It's definitely made to appeal to those for whom design and portability are a big factor in their buying decisions, and it's heartening to note that Dell has managed to bring the price of the Adamo XPS down without skimping for the most part on luxurious touches. It remains to be seen if the outer eye candy will be matched by the system's performance.

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