Dell Adamo 13 luxury laptop - full review

Dell’s Adamo range aims to bring luxury to the laptop market, with the Adamo 13 proving the most visually arresting and exquisitely made laptop we’ve seen so far. The top of the range model comes in at an eye-watering £2249, making the model we got our hands on, at £1649, seem like a bit of a bargain.

The most striking thing about the Adamo is the incredibly thin design. The chassis is the same depth throughout – measuring 19mm – and it’s literally no thicker than two issues of What Laptop. 

Living up to is luxury aspirations, build quality is staggeringly good, and the Adamo’s style has more in common with a fine watch than a regular laptop. The chassis is constructed exclusively from aluminium, and the result is one of the toughest yet most stylish machines available.

Even the touchpad and mouse buttons are made from aluminium, and the clean design sees all the screws hidden, with no removable vents or stickers anywhere on body. It’s surprisingly heavy, however, at 1.8kg.

The 13.4-inch screen also draws attention, with a glossy glass cover that stretches right to the edges of the machine, giving it a frameless appearance. It’s a widescreen panel, with a resolution of 1366 x 768 that results in crisp image quality. LED backlighting aids colour reproduction, and it’s also bright enough to use in any conditions.

As with everything else on this machine, the keyboard is incredibly well designed, with a unique style that sets it apart from its peers. The distinctive type font takes a little getting used to, but the characters are large and clear.

The keys themselves are spacious, and feature slightly scalloped centres to keep typing mistakes to a minimum. Ambient backlighting is built in as standard, with the keys lighting up in poorer conditions – a feature that can also be dimmed or turned off to save on battery life.

With no room for a large fan, an ultra-low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processor is used, running at 1.2GHz. Backed by 2048MB, it provides a capable amount of power. The Windows Vista OS runs smoothly as long as you’re not carrying out too many intensive applications, and is fine for most office work.

Battery life is reasonable, if unexceptional, lasting for over four and a half hours between charges. As with Apple’s MacBook Air, it’s a sealed unit, so you won’t be able to swap for a fresh battery when on the move. Thankfully the power adapter is more compact than most, so it’s easy to take with you.

Due to the thin design, there’s simply no space for ports on the sides or front. Instead, you’ll find all functional items on the rear of the machine, from a set of tidy-looking square holes cut into the aluminium for ventilation, to all of the interfaces.

These include three USB ports, one of which doubles as a high-speed eSATA interface, letting you back up files quickly and efficiently to an external hard drive. You’ll also find an Ethernet port and a Display port, with a plug-in DVI adapter for hooking up external monitors or TVs.

There’s no space for an optical drive – although a matching external DVD rewriter can be bought for an additional £99. A slot-loading Blu-ray drive can be added for £189. While none of these are necessary, the lack of memory card reader seems like a strange omission.

Overall, whatever you think of the price or features on the Adamo 13, it’s impossible not to be blown away by the craftsmanship and attention to detail.

 For more information on the Adamo 13, visit Dell.