It’s a case of ‘better late than never’ as the ultra-portable, ultra-chic and ultra-expensive Dell Adamo plummets to the realm of affordability after a whopping $1,500 price cut!
There was plenty to like about the
Adamo, Dell’s flagship brand 13.4 inch notebook released in late March. But the stylish luxe laptop suffered from terrible timing, launching as the global financial crisis was in full swing.
$3,699 and $4,299 are not the numbers you want to be seeing on a notebook’s price tag when a recession looms. And while we’re far from being out of the woods, Dell obviously hopes that notebook buyer’s now have sufficient dollars and desire for a
discounted Adamo.
And it’s a pretty significant drop. The base model, which invoked a degree of sticker shock with its $3,699 debut, is now yours for a mere $2,199. It’s exactly the same spec – Intel’s ultra-low voltage 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo SU9300 with 2GB of RAM and a 128GB solid state drive.
In the same vein, the higher-spec Adamo with a 1.4GHz SU9400, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and integrated 3G modem skydives from $4,299 to $2,799. The inclusion of the 7.2Mbps HSDPA modem (which also packs a GPS receiver) is especially sweet because you’re not required to sign up to any particular mobile broadband carrier.
The modem is certified for Vodafone and the Adamo ships with a Vodafone SIM card but the card’s not activated, so you can choose your own carrier and your own plan. If you’ve already got a mobile broadband plan you can slip the SIM card out of your 3G USB modem and into the concealed SIM slot on the right side of the Adamo. Load up your connection software and you’re good to go.
The modem is rated for 2100MHz (for Vodafone, Optus and Three) and 850MHz (for Telstra Next G), although road warriors should be advised that the modem doesn’t work on 900MHz, which Optus and Vodafone are using for their national mobile broadband network extensions.
Both models are built around a laser-cut aluminium chassis, although it’s not the full ‘unibody’ shell treatment of the latest MacBooks, with a strikingly elegant yet restrained design boasting clean sharp lines.
The I/O ports, which are mostly (and in some cases inconveniently) arrayed on the rear, include three USB 2.0 jacks – one of which doubles an an eSATA port – Gigabit Ethernet and a DisplayPort socket for video output. The 13.4 inch panel, covered by a single sheet of high-gloss edge-to-edge glass, runs at 1366 x 768 to provide a 720p HD picture.