Dell discontinues ultraportable Adamo laptops

By Adam Rosenberg Published February 9, 2011

Pour one out for our fallen warrior. Dell’s Adamo fought the best it could against Apple’s MacBook Air and other ultraportable laptops on the market, but the battle is now lost. Those browsing their way over to the computer manufacturer’s Adamo product page are greeted with the following message, in red text: “This item may not be available in the business segment you’ve selected. Please contact your sales representative for more details.” A report from CNET further reveals that the ultraportable has indeed been officially discontinued.

The Adamo was introduced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Only .65 inches thick and sporting an aluminum casing, the laptop seemed well-prepared to take on Apple’s MacBook Air, especially with its use of solid-state hard drives and its 13.4-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio high-definition display. The laptop also featured a SIM card slot and offered the option of shipping with a built-in 3G card.

For all of its virtues, the Adamo was done in by a steep price that didn’t line up with the hardware powering it. Like the early MacBook Air, it was priced at around $2,000 when it was released. There’s simply not enough computer inside the Adamo to justify that kind of cost. The counter-argument is that there’s a premium to be paid for the “ultra” in “ultraportable,” but it was too hefty in the Adamo’s case to attract enough of a following.

Dell ran a major holiday sale on the now-discontinued laptops, and another shortly after the holidays. And now the Adamo is out of production. This battle may be lost for Dell, but with the rising popularity and power of tablet devices, you can rest assured that the war isn’t even close to being over.

Topics

Dell

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Computing

This is your chance to grab the Dell XPS 13 at a $300 discount

The Dell XPS 13, open on a table in front of a window.

With the launch of the new Dell XPS 13, the previous-generation model of the laptop is available with a $300 discount from the laptop deals of Dell, bringing its price down to $799 from $1,099. The device is still a worthwhile purchase today, especially with the savings, but since its price has been reduced as part of a clearance sale, we're not sure how much longer it will remain available. This may be your last chance to get the laptop, so before stocks run out, hurry up and send in your order.

Why you should buy the Dell XPS 13 laptop
The Dell XPS reset brings a new Dell XPS 13 that incorporates the design elements of the Dell XPS 13 Plus, but amid all the changes, the 2022 release of the Dell XPS 13 is still a decent device by today's standards. It's in our roundup of the best laptops as the best budget laptop because with its 12th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics and 16GB of RAM, it's going to be more than enough to handle tasks such as researching online, typing documents, and building presentations.

Computing

9 best laptops of 2024: tested and reviewed

The MacBook Air on a white table.

We're at a turning point in laptops. Apple's MacBook train continues to run, all the while Windows laptops are undergoing their biggest transition in decades. Under the banner of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft wants to not only catch up with Apple in terms of performance and battery life but also embrace AI at the very core of these new machines.

These new laptops are all coming out June 18, and include a new set of Surface devices. They're worth waiting for. If you need something now to hold you over, however, we've collected the nine best laptops that you can buy right now.

Computing

Dell’s best cheap laptop just got $220 cheaper — only $280

The Dell Inspiron 14 laptop on a white background,

Laptop deals don’t get much cheaper than the deal Dell has on the Inspiron 14 right now. Usually priced at $500, this Dell Inspiron 14 model is down to $280 as a clearance deal. It’s ideal for basic web browsing and other simple tasks, or for providing your kids with their first laptop for less. Here’s what else it has to offer, but remember -- as a clearance deal, it’s likely to end soon.

Why you should buy the Dell Inspiron 14
Dell is one of the best laptop brands around so while the Dell Inspiron 14 won’t compete with the best laptops, it’s a good entry point. The Dell Inspiron 14 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor along with 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. At this price, we’re just happy to see SSD storage instead of the much slower eMMC storage we’ve seen on other cheap laptops.