***-->The Official Dell Adamo Thread<--***

Here is where you can sign up to get coupons e-mailed to you:

https://ecomm.dell.com/myaccount/subscription/subhome.aspx?c=us&s=dfh&l=en

or you can visit this section of the forum:
Dell Outlet Coupons:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=231526

A Preferred Account is Dell DPA (Dell Preferred Account)...Dell's own Credit Card.. http://dfs.us.dell.com/Pages/DPA.aspx

Hope that helps!

Cin...

 

Count me in lol

I just ordered one for $1050 shipped. I figure I'll keep it if I really like it but I could probably sell it for a small profit I got it so cheap...

 

Thanks Cin',

Does anyone with a Dell Preferred account receive a 2% discount?

 

NP Usually, if you select to pay with your Dell DPA, your discount will range between 2 to 4% depending on what the purchase is!

But, to get the discount..you have to maneuver around the checkout process...You would select Pay By Credit Card as Payment (ie..Visa/MC)..and then..you would get the Option that if you paid by Dell DPA you would save the addtl x% etc..

Cin...

 

There aren't any discounts for DPA when your shopping the outlet (the select cc trick doesn't work in the outlet).

Meh.. I got 15% off so I am not worried

 

Anyone else take the plunge with one of the outlet Adamos that were @ $1099?

To be honest, for the hardware inside the Adamo it isn't worth much more than a grand. It'll be my toy for a while and when I get bored I'll let my wife have it... lol

I'll be back here next week with pics and impressions so stay tuned!

 

Awesome. Looking forward to your review and pictures. Out of curiousity, did you pick pearl or onyx?

 

Oh it is worth more than a grand, just for drawing all the looks from your business partners Screw hardware, that's what desktops are for, notebook will never ever be able to compete with that anyway. I went from M1730 to Adamo, which is a big performance jump, and i'm not missing a single bit of M1730. Adamo does all the regular work for me without any hiccups, and when i feel like playing something or edit video, Core i7 with 24" screen and SLI graphics is on hand under the table

 

I'm also getting questions in regards of fan noise in PMs so here goes.

The fan noise is almost nonexistant. When the laptop is idle or doing a light work, there is literally no heat building up, it's not even warm thanks to CULV CPU, and the fan seems to be either at very low RPMs or stopped completely. Can't really say as there's no noise and i can't feel any airflow with my hands.

Once you fire up some more intensive tasks, laptop gets slightly warmer, but still far from hot. Fan kicks in after ~7-10 minutes of full load, it's noticeably audible and it scared me the first time i heard it, but you get used to it. If you work in area with many people who talk or type, desktop computers, room with open windows with busy road outside, or outdoors you won't really notice. For defence - I have managed to get Adamo to a stage where fans had to go full-out only few times, 4 or so. One was after 20 minutes of playing 1080p video (usually playing 720p, has majority of my movies in 720p, and the screen can't display 1080p anyway unless you use external display), and the rest was when playing CS:Source. Doing most of my gaming on desktop and i'm rather casual gamer, i was just bored at work those few times. Adamo isn't even a gaming laptop or laptop where people expect a ton of performance anyway, it's purpose is completely different, so that won't bother most people, including myself. Browsing internet and doing your office work, you most probably won't hear the fan ever in your life, unless there's 50 degrees celsius at your place.

 

Onyx all the way. lol

I just got my order confirmation and it came out to like $990! Dell didnt charge me for NBD shipping, i guess....

 

Anyone got a link for the Adamo support site on Dell.com?

I can't seem to access it as there ins't an option to select the Adamo.....

 

For those of you who have bought a product from the Dell Outlet, how are they? Could someone have used it for 6 months and then returned it? They say there might be some "visible markings" on the certified refurbished ones, how visible are we talking? I want the huge discount, but is it always worth it? Especially for a $1699 Adamo?

 

I have bought many systems from the outlet and all looked, felt, and even smelled brand new

Seriously, if I had 2 systems side by side (1 new and 1 refurb from the outlet) I bet you couldn't tell. I believe Dell refurbs the systems back at the factories (APCC1/2 for example).

Once the system is good as new it is shipped to the US where Dell techs put the image on the system and pack it with accessories, etc. The only thing you don't get is the nice boxes that the new systems come in (big deal, I know )

I would ALWAYS check the outlet first for what your looking for. You can usually get a BIG discount. Take my Adamo, for example. I got it for ~$950 after taxes and NBD shipping. To me that is practically STEALING the system from Dell. lol

 

Yeah that is pretty freakin' incredible. So of all the systems you've bought, none of them had any cosmetic blemishes at all?

 

I've bought around 10 Dell Outlet items and they are pretty brand new aside from the green refurb sticker.

 

I can also vouch for this, Bought a D630 classified as scratch and dent back in 07, arrived in absolutely perfect condition, perhaps it was a miscategorization on the site, but i like to think of it as luck. lol

 

My outlet mini 9 was as cosmetically good as new

 

My last outlet purchase was a 1730 and it was IMMACULATE

 

Hey all! Well, for those of you that have been following my story...I gotta tell you the next Chapter...
If you read a few pages back you will see that I ordered my Adamo Pearl about 3 days before they slashed the prices 500.00. Long story short, I called, tried to get them to let me pay a little more for the "more expensive" adamo, since what I was paying for the less expensive one was now almost the same price as the more expensive, OR, credit me 500.00 bucks to my Dell account. The answer was NO. I asked could I speak with someone else, the answer was..."You will get the same answer from them as well"
So basically, I was torn about whether or not I wanted to return my Adamo when it came in...get a refund (which would take time for sure) or did I just want to eat it and keep it.
Sooooo....Moving on to the next chapter. I received my Adamo yesterday. Pulled it out...beautiful little thing! Turned it on....had it in my head that I would play with it some, then figure out if I would return it...or not.
Got to the first question (asking if I was in the US) and the mouse pointer was frozen! It would not recognize my finger swipes. So I thought...Hmmmm...just a glitch, right? Turned it back of...back on again...3 times! Each time, mouse pointer frozen in the same place! Would not move, could not click on anything, could not even get past that darn first set-up screen.
I was like..Omg...Ya gotta be kidding me! SO I called to get a return authorization form (I forget the real name for it)...of course they wanted me to speak with Tech help, but honestly...with the 500.00 stuff happening, then waiting 2 weeks for the laptop, then it did not even work....Tech help just did not have anything I wanted...So I will be returning the Adamo.
I actually think I am just going to go with something totally different. MBA...I know...way different. But I was torn between the two when I ordered my Dell, and with all this happening I have just decided to get the MBA...we will see how that goes!
Thanks to all of you that have helped and talked with me. I have enjoyed this thread!

 

You could have formatted the drive & reinstall the drivers, but given your situation, I understand how any "imperfection" could have killed the deal for you. Even if you had no problems, I would have expected you to return it. That's what I would do if Dell couldn't accommodate me for the $500 difference.

Good luck.

 

Sounds like a corrupted OS installation, corrupted driver or maybe a loose cable on touchpad. In any case, it's quite understandable to turn away from Dell after they treated you like that. These days it seems it's all about money and sales volume, and customer satisfaction is at the very bottom of the company's doctrine.

Good luck with MBA and watch the heat

 

Dell is pissing me off ROYALLY lately.... I ordered my Adamo (the $1099 config) and Dell locked up my DPA account.

I can't get in it and called and now they are stating they have to mail me something to verify my info. They can't unblock my account now for like a week or two.

Oh, and my order will sit in Order Processing until I can get this starightened out as no one can change the method of payment for my order.

I just cancelled because I am not waiting 2 weeks for an outlet system that should have come today, but now there aren't any more of the base Adamo's. Oh, and to top it all off, my 15% coupon is no good now because I used it for this purchase. It was only good for one use.

Wow. Dell is really putting a BAD taste in my mouth over this.... Dell has gotten a little bit worse every year.

Guess I'll be buying something else. They didn't want my money anyway, I guess

I apologize for anyone that was waiting for some high-res pics (with my Digital Rebel, no less) and a review. I truly am sorry but Dell is seriously FUBAR lately....

Meh.... That Sony TT is looking awfully good right about now. Found one with better specs than the high-end Adamo for $1600 in the Sony outlet....

 

Hey TUWA...thanks so much! Yeah, hoping she does not get too hot! Of course, the piece of poo Fujitsu that I have now could almost give me 1st degree burns if I did not watch it...lol
Whew...Fujitsu (bought this one, and will not buy another)
I have had Dell's, HP's, and this Fujitsu....Fujitsu has by far been the worst!

 

1099? How did you get that config?

 

Must have been fate ... return the Dell and then reorder the high end version!

 

What do you mean?

In the outlet Dell had 10 or 15 base Adamo's (the 1.2 C2D with only 2GB of RAM). IIRC it is called the "Admire" version. lol

Anyway, they went FAST and I managed to snag one. Then I used my first 15% coupon. That order went ape-$hit due to my stupid DPA account mess.

They told me I could wait for everything to work out but it would take 2 weeks. So I cancelled and said what the heck and ordered the "Desire" version (which there is 27 systems right now in the outlet @ $1699). These are still priced way lower and is an ok deal, but no where near the $950 SHIPPED I had with the other one.

Then I used my final 15% off coupon for that and used my debit card. Then it just sat at order processing (which is payment processing). Called my bank and payment was good to go. But, alas, Dell told me the order was " in held" again.

Whatev... They didn't want me to have an Adamo so no sweat of my back.....

 

So, Sleey is your 2nd order still in *held* position? Or, did you cancel this one too? I wonder what is going on in payment processing, and how many orders are being affected by this, besides yours.

Cuz..those were good deals you got...and, you a good Dell customer, you were the one that got the short end of the stick per se.. It shouldn't be that way...

Cin...

 

I cancelled, cin.

I would have waited for the original order because of the fantastic deal. I couldn't because I am not going to be around for a few weeks. I thought I would be good to go because outlet systems usually ship quick, but not this time around.

whatever... I wish I could get my 2 15% coupons back. That's the part that bothers me the most

If anyone got the "For you" and "For a friend" coupon email and could pm me the "For a friend" code, I would GREATLY appreciate it! +Rep comin' too...

 

Awww...darn.. Major stinkage...major on Dell's part...

Ok...Check your PM, Sleey...I sent you something...I think you will really like... <---went wild with the smilies...too much darn coffee..too little sleep..(has to do with a very long nap last night) lulz.

 

Just to add fuel to the fire, I received my Adamo Pearl 1.2 from Dell outlet on Saturday. I could hardly wait to try it out. Push the power button and up came the dreaded words "Missing Operating System". I could not believe my eyes. I held power button down to turn off and restarted it, same thing. I called Dell and it took me over an hour with about 20 phone transfers to finally get someone to email me a UPS label so I could send back for refund. How disappointing. I have bought many Dell outlet laptops and this is the first one that I have ever had a problem with. No more Adamo's for me.

 

Missing OS??? That's a new one. What's going on Dell?

 

Woah...the last several posts above...ack. Not very impressive.

Sorry that everyone has been having probs with their Outlet orders on the Adamos, or not even being able to get an order produced...

Something..seems amiss.

Cin...

 

Well, the missing os would have been a real easy fix. Just install Windows and your done. You didn't need to send it back.

I do this on every system I buy anyway. lol

It is the very first thing I do. The second is taking it all apart and putting it back together

 

LOL Yeah, but Adamo doesn't come with an external optical drive, and if he didn't have one, or didn't know about the Dell Recovery Partition (do these even come with one?-the manual for Adamo isn't on dell.com) he'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Also it's a matter of principle, if your buying a "ultra premium" product (at a outlet bargain price or not) you should expect the item to arrive in mint condition, with not a item out of place. If Dell cannot even ensure the OS is installed correctly, how does that give the user/customer confidence in the care and pride of the assembly of the rest of the laptop?

 

You don't need an optical drive to install Windows.

As long as the Adamo has USB, which I'm pretty sure it does, he would have been fine.

He also could have a tech at his house in the morning to put in a new SSD with Windows loaded.

Or he could have had the drive shipped out overnight and done it himself.

Remember that this was an outlet system. Someone could have been testing it and accidentally slapped in a blank drive. It could happen and isn't the end of the world, IMO.

Whatever.... I could go on and on but some folks are never happy. At least he was able to order and get it! I never had the chance to see the 2 I ordered

 

Hey guys, I just registered to share info with you. I love this group and your comments have been instrumental in my deciding to purchase an Onyx Adamo from the Outlet. I check this forum daily and love reading new comments, thus my decision to contribute. I bought the 1.4GHz refurbished last week, and I finally received it today.

Here's the deal-breaker: There's a noticeable scratch on the black brushed aluminum cover.... (on the top left edge) and its not a small one. Its completely raw silver metal and an inch long. This is very noticeable... is the brushed aluminum painted? Does anodized Ai scratch that badly?

To be honest, with Adamo's positioning as a high-end design, I can't believe this machine was not certified as "scratch and dent". Now I am not a dell-hater, in fact, I applaud Dell's focus on product design. Also, this is my fourth refurbished laptop from multiple vendors, and the first time I have encountered a visually non-perfect machine. Yes, I have requested an exchange.

Now other impressions, while I wait to test Dell's customer service by email:

Pluses
Machine is beautiful.... I know you've read this before, but sitting next to my D830, this machine appears 1/2 to 1/3 the height.

Overall build quality is very, very nice - except for the cosmetic defects (one kink on the glass cover, looks like a pinprick, and one more on the bottom- both of which i don't like but would have ignored if not for the previous scratch).

WLED LCD is great.... I was concerned about the comments made on NotebookCheck's exhaustive review, but to Dell's credit, my display is very uniform in brightness. Its also very bright at 100%, even when on battery.

Fan at full speed (only on boot-up so far) is still very quiet, not offensive at all. Adamo almost never runs the fan, most of the time, it's completely silent.

Touch controls work nicely, as does the beautifully machined trackpad. I was concerned about the trackpad size, but its not a problem so far. The trackpad is actually larger than the D830. Trackpad and wrist-rests are more flush than the D830.

This is my first backlit keyboard - I love it. I also like that the media bar at the top is touch sensitive, its very minimalistic, and the power button is in the center above the keyboard. I like how the backlit keyboard slowly starts glowing if I run my finger over the trackpad (it automatically fades after a period of inactivity to save battery).

I have no problem reading the key labels on the keyboard, even in bright light. The high-tech sans-serif typeface is nice...

The screen resolution is fine for 13".

The "butt" for the ports area doesn't bother me - I think it works with this design. I disagree with everyone complaining on Engadget.

The sleep light is white, pulses like a macbook, and is centered on the top of the butt, looks nice.

I really like the non-mechanical latch (magnetic, I believe) when closed. Similar to the apple hardware.

Vista runs fine, and this coming from a user with an OC 3.6GHz e8400, 4GHz ram Desktop home-built in a Silverstone TJ-09 (black brushed aluminum, of course), running Vista Ultimate x64. I predict Windows 7 will run even better.

Minuses:

Glare screen - I expected this, so I really only list this so our Dell employees reading this thread can pass the word up that everyone, at least everyone I know, wants a non-glare screen. That said, working on it away from a lit or windowed area, is fine.

Fingerprints - yeah, they're that bad. Simple solution: Dell should add brushed aluminum to the entire cover.

Keyboard spacing will take some getting used to, maybe its the smaller gaps vs. the D830.

Looks like the sides are made of plastic, though at least its matte, and not really an issue.

Surprise: Look, this machine is NOT "unibody". I don't get it, why haven't reviewers corrected this yet?
The Adamo contains a seam between the keyboard area and the side, (separate piece of plastic constitutes the side). If you have worked on a new MacBook, the part of the laptop that contains the wrist-rest seamlessly wraps to the sides in one piece of aluminum - its a very clean feel and something Apple did well in its current machines. This is what I call "unibody". Is this a deal-breaker for Adamo? No. But don't refer to it as unibody if it isn't... (disclaimer: Maybe Pearl is unibody? This only applies to Onyx).

Summary: Adamo is a great machine, but I experienced bad QA in the Outlet. Since I am returning this machine, I didn't bother to load CS4, though I did run FF 3.5.1, and basic utilities. (I really can't make an educated comment on performance.) Yes, Vista is "snappy" enough - more than I expected. Yes, I think I'll be fine with CS4 and Office, though I will report later. I've seen the performance reviews, but with the SSD and 4GB ram, I'm hopeful. I run very few filters in Photoshop, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Suddenly, I am a big fan of Dell, and if they take care of my return issue well, I'll be glad to recommend them. (I am also watching very carefully for dax666, sleey0 and NpgGirl's resolutions... Come on Dell, the world is socially and web-connected now, don't let your most-loyal users down.)

 

Come on sleey0. Give me a break. How in the heck do you reinstall the OS when they don't give you any discs. And how can you ship out a unit without an OS? It seems to me that they never checked this out when they originally got this back. Very poor quality control. All that was in the box when I received it was an AC cord. And those techs that come to your house are a joke. They screwed up my Latitude XT replacing a LCD and they didn't even put all the screws back in. Yeah, I'm just never happy. I bought an Adamo and expected it to work right out of the box. What am I thinking?? BTW, how can you get to the recovery partition when it doesn't even boot to an OS? No one at Dell could even answer that question when I called.

 

You didn't mention that you didn't get the OS softwar, did you? If you did I apologize - my bad (although Windows 7 is free right now. lol).

I have never once let any tech touch my systems. I always have Dell overnight the part(s) to me. I understand that part... Trust me

I really would be upset myself. I didn't realize they didn't send the proper accessories with your system.

I would have just asked for some discounts and had them send an exchange unit. They might have given you some freebees as well (the Adamo external ODD is quite nice - I would have asked for that ) Some ppl see doom and gloom when things like this happen, but I see opportunity - ESPECIALLY with Dell. Anytime I have had a problem with a system just purchased I usually get comp'd by Dell quite nicely. Meh.. To each his own, right?

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

After my horrible experience with SXPS 1640, I dont think I will be buying Adamo

 

I test drove a 1640 from the outlet for a couple of weeks.

AWESOME system. Build quality was superb but the system just ran a little too hot for my tastes. That and the 3670 doesn't play newer games well at all.

 

Sleey...Did you end up ordering, again ~ after all.........??


Cin...

 

I know the answer is buried in this thread but my search has come up fruitless.

Can you upgrade the RAM on the 2GB model? or is it fixed?

 

No, you can't upgrade. The CPU and RAM is soldered so you better choose wisely the first time around! lol

Cin

No, I am going to wait until my DPA account issue gets straightened out before I order again (which should be next week hopefully).

THANK YOU for the coupon, though! I really did appreciate that

 

Oh well..it's expired now anyways.... Hopefully, next round you will be able to purchase one.


Cin...

 

Guys, I just got my new Adamo a few days ago. Beautiful laptop, but the Dell Outlet box contents leaves alot to be desired! Just the laptop, A/C adapter with only one plug (there s/b two, one with a 3 ft cord and the other just plugs into the brick) and a DVI connector. There were no manuals, disks, cleaning cloth, etc.
I also thought all U9400 Adamo came with mobile broadband. It has an AT&T sim card, but no 5530 card. I guess they take them out prior to resale. On top of that, their Win 7 upgrade site says my service code does not qualify for an upgrade. Has anyone else experienced this? I've called Dell and are they not helpful at all!

 

Reading the above statement makes me feel LUCKY that Dell held up my order.

I was expecting the outlet to at least put these systems in the cool packaging they come in. Also, when i ordered mine, my invoice stated the manuals and software were indeed included in the order.

Oh, well. Sorry to hear guys but I guess I dodged a let-down! I would have sent it back anyway if they didn't include all of this stuff....

 

Mine didn't come with the cool packaging either. Same as darrylj, AC adapter and DVI connector, that's it. The Adamo was wrapped in a plastic bag between two styrofoam pieces. When I first opened the box it was like Christmas until I saw how it was packaged. It was like getting clothes on your 10th birthday, quite a let down.

 

For you guys who got your Adamo outlet systems:

How's the build quality of these things? I saw the engadget review and build quality was an issue.

Just curious.... Thanks..

 

I'm surprised, and disappointed. And Dell wonders why they are losing consumer market share. While that packaging job may have been fine to me when i got my Latitude D630, (it is a business laptop after all) I too would have been disappointed by what you opened. After all, outlet system or not, you ordered a ultra premium product and should be treated as such. Is there a PDF copy of the manual preloaded on the machine? I hope so because, unless there is a dedicated Adamo support site we don't know about, the documents aren't available at support.dell.com. I'm kinda shocked that they didn't give you a paper copy along with the traditional Dell OS/Driver disks, and software CD's.

 

There was no manual, no Dell OS/Driver disks and Software CD's. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a CSR who was terrible. He actually told me that even though some items were listed on the P.O./Packing List, there was nothing he could do because the previous owner probably did not send them back!

I use to buy ThinkPads and switched to Dell. I currently have 6 other Dells in my business and this will be last! I'm going back to ThinkPads!