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

Well, that's tomorrow, so you have something to look forward to! Report back ASAP about the SSD, if you could. Also, the condition of the unit. You got Pearl? Pearl is nice (i'm using a Pearl Admire now with 128GB), but the Onyx is really nice too (which I have one that was busted up from the Outlet, and am waiting for Dell to replace).

Now that I have a 256GB Onyx coming, I may just send back the busted up Adamo and get a refund, or depending on what they send me (maybe a Desire!), I might keep or sell it.

Extras? Nope. Same price as you, and overnight shipping also.

 

Haha nice, my uncle has the Onyx model and I played around with it before I took the Pearl, the black definitely looks nice and sleek but the top part of the lid is a crazy fingerprint magnet!

How do you like the engraving and overlook of the Pearl vs the Onyx?

I actually took the mandarina duck sleeve and the dvd drive, kinda regretting not taking the blue ray though :/

Yeah it is supposed to arrive tomorrow but I never for the email saying it was shipped and it still says in production... damn those in production outlet models! haha

Edit: SHIPPED!!

 

Hey lilyang,

Did you get the regular mandarin duck sleeve or the locking one? Either way let me know how it is as far as quality, feel, and looks.

 

Mandarin Duck.. that almost sounds like something my parents serve at our Chinese restaurant.. lol

But I think you are confusing it with the Tumi Sleeve that comes with or without the lock, I opted for the Mandarina Duck one since it looks more casual but still nice as compared to the Tumi which looked a little too mature and business for my liking.

I will let you know how I like it!

 

lilyang,

Did you not get your Adamo today? I've waited for your review of the 256GB SSD!!! Mine comes tomorrow.

 

Check my thread

 

Adamo XPS.

The "VERY" thin Adamo XPS has me very interested. Do any of you guys have any thoughts about this machine and do you have any idea when and if Dell will have it available?

I've ordered the Sony Vaio X but the XPS seems to have better specs. The sony is shipping at the end of this month and there is a 30 day return privilege
with no restocking fee.

Thanks,

Don

 

Woohoo finally just got back from the fedex base and finally setting up my Adamo

lancorp I have the pb22 as well!

Well the notebook itself is flawless but the charger face has like 4 dings on it :/ oh well haha

 

This is an outlet model right?

Looking forward to reading your first impressions report. I'm looking seriously at the Envy 13 but but the initial reports I'm reading over on the Envy owner's lounge are not promising.

 

Yep this is a outlet model

So far I am very pleased especially with the build quality, it feels rock solid
It is taking me a little while to get used to the keyboard though

I am currently installing batterymon and other testing software but does anyone know a good hdd speed test?

I add more updates soon!

 

Is there any flex in the keyboard? (The Unibody MacBooks are the standard by which I judge all keyboards.)

 

When I am typing I only notice the keyboard flex around the center when I push down harder then normal typing pressure for me, but it is definitely there

 

HDTune - a good HD test

 

Yep googled and found that one unfortunately the freeware only comes with transfer speed

On the second go around I found a couple light scratches and a sort of scrape near the hinge and a small ding on the lid edge, could be worse I suppose :/

 

Good to hear! I think ATTO drive testing software is the defacto standard for SSD's. You can get a trial/free version. Just Google it.

Did you get Onyx or Pearl? I think I like the Pearl better than the Onyx because I cannot see the letters on the black keyboard! Now, I just have to figure out how to take it apart and get the 256GB SSD out to put in the Pearl one!

Are you going to put Windows 7 on it? If so, can you try putting Windows 7 to sleep, and see if the battery discharges at a fast rate? Yesterday, I had the Pearl one charged up, but asleep, and went to a client site, and in waking it up, the battery was at 36%. The unit was cold, not hot, though.

 

Thanks I will google ATTO as soon as I get back from class,

I decided to get the Pearl model since I have seen the Onyx in person already I like the etching a lot as compared to the brushed aluminum

There was that guide on engadget on how to take it apart a few pages back I believe

I am going to try to install Win7 today and I will keep you updated on the discharge rate, how long did you leave it sleeping?

 

Mine did the same thing on win7....
1. go to power options in control panel
2. click on change advanced power savings for the power profile you are using
3. Expand Sleep
4. Expand Hibernate after
5. Change the on battery number to a smaller value
(I use 20 minutes because, for me, if its more than 20 minutes, its going to be several hours and i can stand the extra few seconds to resume from hibernation)

And, btw, resuming from hibernate/sleep does work pretty well...

cheers

 

thanks for the info, but I'm not sure what that is accomplishing? I don't normally use Hibernation (especially on SSD's due to the large amount of data that gets written), and normal sleep should not drain that battery that fast.

The power LED pulses, like it's asleep. I will do some more experimentation.

Thanks.

 

Just an update. I left the Onyx Adamo in sleep mode last night with a fully charged battery, and now, 15 hours later, I woke it up and the battery was on 88%.

That's not too bad. I will have to experiment more with the Pearl unit.

FWIW, I managed to figure out how to take the bottom off the Adamo and switch SSD's (putting the 256GB SSD into the Pearl unit). Very easy.

The Onyx looks nice also, but the lettering on the keyboard just isn't very visible.

 

Hmm 88% is not bad

I like the Pearl since it seems like 80% in the outlet are Onyx
Although I feel like the Onyx is a little more masculine and there is a person next to me with a plastic macbook who turned to me and said nice unibody macbook lol

 

Unboxing from Engadget on Adamo XPS.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/dell-adamo-xps-coming-in-time-for-the-holidays-for-1799-unbo/

 

CNET Hands-on report: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10391013-1.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

 

Well, in one sense, that could be taken as a compliment, but then again, it sure seems to attest to the intelligence of plastic macbook owners!

Yes, the Pearl is very classy, IMHO...one thing I've noticed is the Onyx shows fingerprint oils and the Pearl does not.

 

Is there any invisibleshield for the adamo yet? Im thinking about picking up the new adamo desire in onyx.

 

Unlikely since it's such a niche product. It's all pretty sturdy, though. All aluminum and the top has glass which doesn't scratch easily.

 

Haha yeah that was one reason I went with the Pearl, the top lid of the Onyx is nothing but fingers!

Nope checked Zagg right after I ordered and nothing but I don't think I would need it either way. The Mandarina Duck sleeve is awesome and glad I decided on this rather then the Tumi.

lancorp what battery life are you getting in W7? any difference from Vista?

 

I had both the Pearl and Onyx. The Onyx looks much more sleek but the Pearl doesn't show the fingerprints.

I think the White was kinda out of place on the Pearl though so I'm gonna have to go with black

 

I've not ever run Vista on it. Windows 7 only. Mostly plugged in. Running it yesterday on battery (started at 36%) and went downhill pretty fast.

 

Yeah I agree the white looked funny to me at first but I like it, though if I had a second go around I may take the black just because you always want what you don't have haha

The Pearl definitely looks classy and elegant though, also on the keyboard backlight brightness is it supposed to only have 3 settings? and without and display notification?

 

Mine is the same, so I would suppose that is correct.

 

Oh okay I thought it was supposed to have a meter on like the lcd brightness and I also just realized my dvd drive has not arrived yet so not W7 today

 

If you have a 4GB USB drive, you can use a free program called UltraISO to read your Windows 7 DVD and make a bootable USB flash drive that you can install Windows 7 from. Just plug into your Adamo, turn on and press F12 and choose to boot from USB device. (of course, you make the bootable USB thumb drive on your other computer that has a DVD drive!!).

It's much faster installing Windows 7 that way and much more convenient.

I can tell you what to do in UltraISO if you want...

 

Yeah that would be awesome! What do I do?

 

Well, I pretty much summarized what you need to do, but basically, get UltraISO (google it and download and install it), then plug in your 4 or 8GB USB flash drive into your computer. Run UltraISO, and make an ISO file of the Windows 7 DVD.
Then, run UltraISO again and open that ISO, and drop down the "Bootable" menu, and choose "Write Disk Image". Then just choose your thumb drive as the destination and click on WRITE. Pretty easy.

 

Cool thanks lancorp I will give this a try!

 

I have a brand new Pearl external DVD drive if anyone wants it.

It came with the bundle I ordered but I ended up returning the system. PM me with any offers

 

LOL Sleey I swear I saw somewhere you said it was a keeper!

and why didn't you decide earlier I forked out $120 for it

 

Edit: Doh nevermind

 

I have the Onyx still, I just returned the Pearl (yes, the Adamo is a huge keeper IMO).

I don't need the Pearl drive is all

 

Ah I understand, when you said it was a keeper it was half the reason I decided to get one! lol

 

Okay so just got Win7 installed, but the only drivers listed on Dell support on the Adamo are cd drive and communications, are there any for touch pad etc?

Also I guess no more stardock as well?

 

You have to do something funny to get all the downloads for the Adamo.
When you get to the downloads page for the Adamo, it shows like 7 files. Drop down the OS chooser and choose Vista. Let it show you the Vista downloads. Then, choose Windows 7 again, and magically, all the downloads appear.

There is also something call My Dell Downloads (or similar) where you register your system and you can download all the software and apps that normally come with it. It's on the same page.

 

Oh, BTW, you were the first to post on page 100!!!

 

Almost all the drivers are installed from the Win7 disc anyway so don't worry too much about drivers.

M$ has done a REALLY good job with Win7

 

Yes, I think on the Adamo, everything was found (except bluetooth). Mostly updated drivers on dell.com and some apps...

 

Ah nice! WOOT page 100! haha

Thanks lancorp I will check it out, the first thing I noticed was my touch pad had no scroll or zoom!

 

okay I just got done installing all the drivers but after this I noticed my lcd brightness setting looks different and I now have 14 different keyboard backlight modes as compared to the 3 before lol

 

Same here. Since it's an LED backlit LCD, you'll have 15 levels of backlighting.
The backlit keys I see too, now that I've updated drivers, also have 15 levels. Too bad there isn't an on screen indicator for the KB backlighting!

 

Just curious if you installed via USB flash or did you chicken out and install via DVD??

 

Nope took your route and did through a thumb drive and it worked great! Only other thing I think I am missing is the battery life estimated time. When I am on battery life the battery meter does not give me an estimated time remaining and neither does batterymon.