We've oh-so-briefly gotten our paws on Dell’s anorexic Adamo XPS: the world’s thinnest ever laptop, but maybe also the most expensive laptop never to actually be used on your lap?
After months of tantalising techno-tease, the Adamo XPS has shimmied out from under its veil.
The breathtakingly sleek laptop with a barely-there 1cm profile will reach our shores before Christmas, with Dell set to take orders in the coming weeks. Just be sure you’ve got a spare $2,499 in the Christmas saving fund.
That’ll get you the closest thing this side of Windows to the MacBook Air, which the Adamo XPS arguably pips in the “world’s thinnest laptop” stakes, as well as being a hobbit’s toenail lighter (at 1.3kg against the Air’s 1.36kg).
The waif-like and wafer-thin profile of the Adamo XPS is a barely-there 1cm
Under the machined aluminium chassis sits Intel’s 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9600 ULV processor married to 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid state drive preloaded with the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 (we’re guessing this will be Windows 7 Ultimate).
What else do we know? As Apple found, cramming so much laptop into so little space means compromises galore – so while the Adamo XPS has fast 802.11n Wi-Fi there’s no inbuilt Ethernet port.
At least Dell gives you a USB ‘Ethernet dongle’ which plugs into one of the two USB 2.0 ports (one of which is a USB/eSATA combo jack). There’s also a DisplayPort for video output.
The thinner the laptop, the less space for ports – but at least the Adamo XPS packs two USB ports
(one of which doubles as an eSATA jack) and ships with a USB Ethernet adaptor
There’s still no firm work on the battery, although this is believed to be a 20Wh slab (which is user-replaceable) for up to 2.5 hours on the go. A 40Wh battery rated at four hours is tipped to be a tick-a-box option when you order the Adamo XPS, along with an external DVD drive and predictably a line of designer bags.
Dell also says the laptop will feature “built-in location awareness, providing real time local maps to show people where they are”, which we presume means a GPS receiver chip is embedded into the notebook.
The unique design of the Adamo XPS has the keyboard hinged a few inches up from the base of the 13.4 inch HD (720p) screen, with a touch-sensitive ‘capacitive latch’ to open the notebook with a swipe of your finger.
The keyboard then appears from under the display as the laptop opens to sit at a roughly 50 degree incline when opened.
Two views showcasing the unique but likely lap-unfriendly design of the Adamo XPS when
open and ready for action.
Dell explains this that “the body of the Adamo XPS is raised so that the keyboard is angled to enhance cooling”, although it’s likely to detract from usability if the notebook is sitting on your lap.
And finally,
yes, we’ve seen it and touched it. Not for very long, mind you, but certainly long enough to admire the laptop’s fluid lines, high-quality feel and exceptional engineering – and to relish the fact that Windows users can now enjoy a laptop which is every bit as breathtaking and eye-catching as the MacBook Air.