PREVIEW It’s not often that the mere sight of a laptop draws gasps, but the early tantalising glimpses of a 9.99mm-thin, MacBook Air rival from Dell a few months back had us salivating in sceptical expectation. Now, taking aim at the luxury ultraportable market so dominated by Apple and Sony, the Dell Adamo XPS slithers into the Labs for an exclusive preview.
The good news is that our hopes have most definitely not been dashed. It really is impossibly thin, and beautiful in that special way that can draw a crowd within seconds. Brushed aluminium reaches all around – every line and edge softening into a luxurious arc – and it’s light, too, weighing just 1.44kg.
Even the on switch will have you cooing with delight. Gently brush a finger over the 2in indent at the laptop’s edge and the white LED glows blue to signify that the latch has been activated. The keyboard pops free from the Adamo’s underside, and folds down to reveal the 13.4in display and a sea of dark, aluminium-capped keys. But rather than placing the hinge on the edge of the chassis, the Adamo’s is indented by about 5cm, so the keyboard props up permanently at an angle.
It’s certainly an off-the-wall design, but Dell has invested some serious time and effort into getting it just right. The keyboard, for one, is better than it has any right to be. The curious design initially leaves the Adamo looking a little top-heavy, and hence prone to tipping over. But in practice it just works: we tapped away while sat on a packed commuter train and not once did the Adamo feel unbalanced.
Those Scrabble-tile keys have a firm, crisp action, and feel both comfortable and responsive under the finger. The trackpad, meanwhile, works well: the two discrete buttons depress with a dull, muffled click, and there are both vertical and horizontal scroll zones. The only mild annoyance is the trackpad’s close proximity to the space bar – just occasionally our thumb stole the cursor and flung it back to a previous paragraph.
The 13.4in, 1,366 x 768 display is glorious. LED-backlighting gives it blinding brightness when the occasion demands it, while viewing angles are wide and colour reproduction is spot-on. Contrast could be a little better, with blacks in particular looking a little grey at times, but it’s still a fantastic screen.
And while you’d be forgiven for thinking a low-voltage processor spells disaster on the performance front, the Adamo feels rocket-powered compared to most CULV laptops. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit saunters along, booting quickly thanks to the 128GB SSD, and programs bound into life with surprising vigour. More-demanding applications reveal the Core 2 Duo SU9400’s limits, but that SSD helps the Adamo feel like the supercar its price tag suggests.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 2 yr return to base |
Physical specifications | |
Dimensions | 340 x 272 x 10mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.440kg |
Travelling weight | 1.8kg |
Processor and memory | |
Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 |
Motherboard chipset | Intel GS45 |
RAM capacity | 4.00GB |
Memory type | DDR3 |
SODIMM sockets free | 0 |
SODIMM sockets total | 2 |
Screen and video | |
Screen size | 13.4in |
Resolution screen horizontal | 1,366 |
Resolution screen vertical | 768 |
Resolution | 1366 x 768 |
Graphics chipset | Intel GMA X4500MHD |
Graphics card RAM | 128MB |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 |
HDMI outputs | 0 |
S-Video outputs | 0 |
DVI-I outputs | 0 |
DVI-D outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 1 |
Drives | |
Capacity | 128GB |
Spindle speed | N/A |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Hard disk | Samsung SSD PB22-JS3 TM |
Optical disc technology | N/A |
Optical drive | N/A |
Battery capacity | 1,800mAh |
Networking | |
Wired adapter speed | 100Mbits/sec |
802.11a support | yes |
802.11b support | yes |
802.11g support | yes |
802.11 draft-n support | yes |
Integrated 3G adapter | no |
Bluetooth support | yes |
Other Features | |
Wireless hardware on/off switch | no |
Wireless key-combination switch | yes |
Modem | no |
ExpressCard34 slots | 0 |
ExpressCard54 slots | 0 |
PC Card slots | 0 |
USB ports (downstream) | 2 |
PS/2 mouse port | no |
9-pin serial ports | 0 |
Parallel ports | 0 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
3.5mm audio jacks | 1 |
SD card reader | no |
Memory Stick reader | no |
MMC (multimedia card) reader | no |
Smart Media reader | no |
Compact Flash reader | no |
xD-card reader | no |
Pointing device type | Touchpad |
Audio chipset | Realtek HD Audio |
Speaker location | Base |
Hardware volume control? | no |
Integrated microphone? | yes |
Integrated webcam? | yes |
Camera megapixel rating | 2.0mp |
TPM | no |
Fingerprint reader | no |
Smartcard reader | no |
Carry case | no |
Battery and performance tests | |
Battery life, light use | N/A |
Overall application benchmark score | N/A |
Office application benchmark score | N/A |
2D graphics application benchmark score | N/A |
Encoding application benchmark score | N/A |
Multitasking application benchmark score | N/A |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | N/A |
3D performance setting | N/A |
Operating system and software | |
Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
OS family | Windows 7 |
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