

A Macbook Air Competitor? - rlmw
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/25/dells-adamo-13-ultraportable-slips-to-899-gets-a-spec-bump/

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brk
That is a great deal for $900, but I'm not sure it's an MBA competitor.

Screen res is lower than the 13" MBA's screen (1440x900), which to me is a
pretty big deal. I find the 1440x900 res on my 13" MBA just barely workable, I
wouldn't want any less vertical resolution these days.

The other thing is that the Dell runds Windows. While this is totally a
personal preference, I just do not like working in Windows. Had this machine
been available for $500 with a higher-res screen when I got my MBA, I still
would have opted for the Mac. I'm aware of the hackintosh projects as well,
but I don't really enjoy fighting with my OS anymore.

~~~
wyclif
It's a good deal and an attractive alternative, but I don't know why you're
hung up on a Windows install. There's nothing stopping you from installing
Ubuntu Lucid or Maverick, and away you go.

~~~
liuhenry
For me, Linux didn't cut it with application support to become my primary OS.
Even dual-boot was a hassle. Microsoft Office, Adobe CS, Solidworks, ACAD,
etc. aren't supported, and although Ubuntu has come a long way so far, the UX
is still somewhat lacking.

Granted, I'm virtualizing Ubuntu right now for dev. It integrates seamlessly,
and has been working beautifully so far.

~~~
djacobs
When you use Ubuntu natively, it runs like a charm. Compositing makes for an
even more beautiful OS than OS X (in _some_ respects, though there is
sometimes tearing), and the whole thing really jives quite nicely.

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imbriaco
The comparison of technical specifications leaves out one very large detail:
weight. At 3.97 pounds, the Dell is more than a third heavier than the MacBook
Air at 2.9 pounds.

The form factor and weight of the MacBook Air is its killer feature, not its
CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD.

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mark_l_watson
Not for me. I bought an awesome spec'ed Toshiba laptop early in 2010 and
tweaked the Windows and Ubuntu installations. All was good until I discovered
that I just missed the keyboard and trackpad arrangements on MacBooks. In the
last few months I have bought a MacBook Pro and the tiny 11" MacBook Air.

The tiny MBA is awesome to use and as needed I plug into a large monitor. I
still occasionally use the MB Pro when I need a heavy weight Java IDE, large
local data stores, etc., but for most of what I do for work (Ruby, Clojure,
Common Lisp, and writing with Latex) the Air is fully capable and a great
experience. I use the Air about 80% of the time, the Pro about 15% of the
time, and the Toshiba about 5% of the time.

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kungfooey
I don't own a MBA, but I have owned a lot of Dell laptop's over the past
decade (including some of their higher-end XPS laptops). I don't know how good
the MBA build-quality is, but if it's even slightly better-than-average, then
this Dell is in no way a "competitor."

I swore off buying Dell laptops after the last XPS I bought burnt through two
separate motherboards (it's still warm to the touch when idling). Previous
Dell laptops had an array of different issues: hinges that became brittle and
broke, fans that stopped working, etc. Their hardware just seems ridiculously
error prone, which explains why they're able to price themselves so
competitively.

~~~
cal5k
For reference, I own a 13" MBA and the build quality is exceptional. It is
quite simply the best computing product I have ever owned.

Lots of gents around our office have Dells, and they tend to be built like
brick shithouses, so to speak.

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bkudria
Am I better off buying the new (13") MBA, or a Sony VAIO Z?
[http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryD...](http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644570897)

FWIW, I'd want to install Ubuntu on either one (anticipating that the MBA will
be much more difficult in this regard.)

Any advice?

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norswap
An equivalent model is the Asus U35jc (which I just bought) :

[http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U35JC-A1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-
Silver/...](http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U35JC-A1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-
Silver/dp/B003UNHGFQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293377216&sr=8-1)

In particular, the 10h battery life is pretty neat, didn't saw the numbers for
the Adamo.

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adamt
Am I missing something? That Asus is 1.9KG and 2.5cm thick. The current-gen
13" MBA is 1.3KG and 0.3-1.7cm thick? So the Asus is 50% heavier and twice the
thickness.

The Adamo is also considerably heavier than the MBA at 1.8KG (and 1.64cm
thick)

