Life ain’t easy for super-premium ultraportables, especially when CULV laptops are selling for peanuts and even Apple is cutting prices. As Engadget reports, Dell has followed in the iPhone maker’s footsteps and slashed the price of its Adamo notebook.
The Adamo launched at $1,999 four months ago, and it delivered a novel mix: a thin, Apple-style aluminum unibody enclosure, a low-voltage Core 2 processor, a solid-state drive, and Windows Vista, all as standard. Dell was essentially going head-on against the MacBook Air, which was then available for $1,799 with a mechanical hard drive and $2,499 with an SSD.
In early June, though, Apple brought those two Air variants to $1,499 and $1,799. Surprise, surprise: the Adamo has quietly dropped to $1,499.
The base variant still comes with a 128GB SSD, which ought to be quicker than the 4,200-RPM mechanical hard drive in the cheapest MacBook Air. On the flip side, the Adamo doesn’t have a GeForce 9400M chipset—just plain old Intel integrated graphics. If you’re carrying one of these things around, though, it’s probably more to look smug at Starbucks than to play video games.
cool, thanks!
buy.com, j&r music world, and some smaller no name outlets online
or an Acer Timeline for $899 (or less)
He probably means that both the Adamo and MBA target ’boutique’ users who value image over, um, dollar value.
Hence his next example of the T400s (an excellent machine btw) as a workhorse/productivity machine in the same pricerange.
And for the record, I have an X300, and the 1.2 GHz C2D (which turbo boosts to 1.4 under load) is perfectly adequate for office and productivity (MS Office, Matlab, Mathcad) use especially with the SSD.
where did you get that from? it’s one of the ones I’m keeping my eye on, but I’ve only found the core solo models so far 🙁
Well he did get it for a good price so that skews the value versus normal pricing.
Or get a $250 Dell Mini9 from the Dell Outlet. Because a laptop is a laptop, right? No real differences.
…which is an odd comment for you to make since you own a Mac and are gushing over the build quality/value that you got for it. Strange.
Yes, albeit only when comparing two products where “value” is next to meaningless. If they want a good product for that $1500 market then go snag a wonderful Thinkpad T400s. .83″ thick with a disk drive, medium volt processor and A MATTE SCREEN! Genius.
You’ve got to take a win when you can.
Yeah, I absolutely love my 13″ MBP. The operating system isn’t better (also isn’t worse), but the hardware is simply spectacular. .95″ thick and it still has a full slot-loading drive, a full-volt processor, two fully serviceable RAM slots and spectacular battery life.
I paid $870 for my macbook and I’m not sure I will ever be able to buy anything less (although those thinkpads and their matte screens are purdy).
Heh, in that sad attempt at flaming you actually sort of admitted the there’s nothing else that compared to the MBA lol
It’s all good man, it’s hard sometimes to admit the truth. Takes a lot of courage 😉
Adi
I think you’ve forgotten that this is a thread about high-end thin and light laptops. Not 15″ POS bricktops.
LOL. these apple fanboys are the best….
Besides the Adamo, most of DELL, HP, ACER, Toshiba notebooks offers more features than any comparable macbook with lower prices but look around these thread full of …such hypocrisy
😀
Oh, the irony ! Feels like one of those rare moments..
Adi
nah, I think it’s because the games suck.
I wonder how many of those they sold in the first place.
3G would be a nice feature on the Air. Get on that Apple.
I’ve always been annoyed that I couldn’t go to a store and look at a Dell in person. You’ll never be able to replace the screen, keyboard, or touchpad on a laptop so it’s important to know what your getting. Maybe the Adamo is worlds better than the air in terms of build quality or feel but I’ll never know.
I’d much rather have my Acer Timeline for $900 with a C2D 1.6ghz and 8+ hours of battery life.
Adi, I don’t think Cyril was saying that the Adamo was a better product or value, just that its price has fallen, and that it was notable for having an SSD as standard. Personally, I think that with 3G and Vista, plus lack of graphics, the Adamo is targeting corporate use, so it’s not quite going after the same market. Maybe a person who is constantly traveling in one area, who needs a very light laptop with Office ’08? Maybe for a VP or sales guy at a business with an exclussive Dell contract? I’ve hear that Dell allows only Dell laptops in their meetings…
Agreed. This is one of those rare occasions where the Apple alternative is a much better value no matter how you look at it.
Mmm, 1.2GHz C2D and Intel graphics for $1499.
I think I’d sacrifice the SSD and go for the 1.86GHz, 9400M MB Air myself.
And $2299 for the 1.4GHz C2D? That $1799 2.26GHz MBAir looks a bargain next to it. Sure, the Adamo has 4GB and a SIM slot for 3G data … but $500? Oh, the Adamo is 33% heavier too! Thin AND LIGHT, Dell. You’re practically competing against the $1199 MacBook Pro, and that’s a lot cheaper.
Not that I’d buy either, but if forced, it’s the $1800 MBA all the way.
Wow Cyrill, just wow… You know what, i’m too tired to come up with my own comments this morning to your FAIL comparison so I’ll just copy some comments from Gizmodo that really sums up what’s missing in your “article”.
”
04:24 PM
Wait wait wait. So YOU’RE telling ME, that a 1.2 GHz C2D Dell Adamo costs the same as a 1.86 GHz C2D Macbook Air!?!? And this is a good thing, HOW again? ”
There, I feel better now.
Adi
hey they should always support gamers! this is why pc gaming is not booming because hardware manufacturers and such don’t care to support it even on a basic level.
Maybe they can respin it with some future CULV processor.