Dell may have discontinued the stylish Adamo notebook line, but the company doesn’t appear to be giving up the ultraportable market to Apple and Samsung. Sources tell Cnet that Dell has been readying a new ultrathin ultraportable, and will bring it to market within a few weeks. Reportedly the new notebook will be made from “special materials” and come to market for under $1,000, which is basically saying you need to save up $999.99.

Dell Adamo, Discontinued

There aren’t any concrete details, but what we know so far is that this new notebook will likely be the first 15.6″ notebook to compete in the ultraportable arena, at least in recent memory. From the sound of it, The Dell ultraportable will also have a high resolution display, which we are taking as somewhere north of the standard 1366×768.

The Dell ultraportable is rumored to be using new Intel Core i5 and Core i7 Sandy Bridge processors, likely the same ULV 2nd Gen Core i processors we expect to see in the updated MacBook Air in June.

If all of this comes together, it should address many complaints about previous ultraportables and importantly, it shows that Dell is shooting for a moving target rather than trying to match the current MacBook Air specs, which are already 6 months old.

We don’t currently have a name for the new ultraportable from Dell, but it won’t likely bear the Adamo brand which has been completely laid to rest. Instead, it is more likely that this new ultraportable will mark the launch of a new line. One that doesn’t sound like a Derek Zoolander look.

Via Ubergizmo

Dell Ultrathin 15.6″ Sandy Bridge Adamo Replacement Arriving by End of May is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Products come and products go, but lately we’ve been hearing a lot more about products going. Specifically high priced ultraportables that have been in direct competition with the MacBook Air such as the Dell Adamo and more recently the HP Envy 13, even the Dell XPS 14 wasn’t safe as it was put to rest alongside the Envy 13 this week.

For the past few years these high end notebooks had an edge on the original MacBook Air in terms of specs and were competitive on pricing, but after the MacBook Air refresh last year they lost an edge on pricing as well as weight and thickness. And, as it turns out, many users looking for an ultraportable are willing to use a slower Core 2 Duo processor if it means they get an all day battery and an incredibly small form factor.

Why MacBook Air Competitors Can’t Compete

High Power, High prices: The current MacBook Air is succeeding in part due to the great balance of price and power. While the older competitors chose to try and beat the original MacBook Air in the Specs department, this also meant that they couldn’t compete as well on price — and even less so when the new MacBook Air models came out with lower starting prices.

Apple Store – Ping Ping on Flickr

No Retail Presence: It turns out that the lack of a retail presence isn’t just leading to higher tablet prices, it’s hurting the ability for ultraportables from Dell and HP to gain traction. If you can find someone with an ENVY 13 or a Dell Adamo, go take a look at the notebooks. They are really nice looking machines, that product photos can’t do justice. Similarly the image of the MacBook Air are nice looking, but don’t do the machine justice.

Now remember the first time you saw a MacBook Air in person at retail or at a coffee shop? Being able to see how thin it really is, is important to the buying process. Because HP and Dell don’t have retail locations and you couldn’t find the Envy 13 or Adamo in Best Buy, there was really no way to get a look at the notebooks, which is pretty much essential to developing an appreciation for their key features.

Niche Products: As it turns out the market for incredibly powerful ultraportables is small. No, like really small. Apple showed users what can be accomplished with a fast SSD and an older processor and it turns out, that’s enough power for many users that want a truly thin and light ultraportable notebook. Apple has positioned the Air as not only entry-level Mac, but also an entry-level ultraportable.

Best Buy – jiazi on Flickr

Market Demands of Average Consumers: Most shoppers are looking for a larger 15.6″ notebook or a small netbook, which means that there aren’t a lot of ultraportable 13″ or 14″ notebooks on the shelves in retail. Unfortunately for consumers looking for something more, the market responds to the demands of users and buying habits have made it clear that large low resolution notebooks are what they want. Hopefully the MacBook Air and new thin and light notebooks will spark a desire for something more.

The Future of MacBook Air Competitors: So, what’s a PC maker to do? Go thin and light in 2011. The good news is that from the looks of it pretty much every major manufacturer is planning a thin and light notebook this year from Acer, Asus and Lenovo to Dell and HP. We’ll have to wait and see if these companies can get to market before the next MacBook Air models arrive and if they can compete on price.

4 Reasons MacBook Air Competitors Can’t Compete: Envy 13, XPS 14 Axed is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The Dell Adamo was a thin ultra-portable competitor to Apple’s MacBook Air that has been discounted several times over the past months and was recently phased out. It appears that Dell isn’t leaving the ultraportable laptop market, but instead planning a MacBook Air competitor.

CNet report that Dell is working on a new model that will be released sometime in the next six months. It will not be under the Adamo name, but will just be added to one of Dell’s already existing lineups, like the XPS.

There is little info yet on specs or pricing. But it will likely be in line with the MacBook Air, now the standard for light, ultra-portable notebooks. The lowest priced Macbook Air is $999 for an 11″ model with a 64GB SSD and 2GB of RAM and only an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. With the release of next generation processor and graphics chips from both AMD and Intel, we can bet the successor to the Adamo will likely have a little more oomph in the processor spec than the Air at a lower price.

Unfortunately for Dell, it appears Apple is going to be upgrading the Air already with the new Sandy Bridge platform from Intel.

Dell Phases Out Adamo and Plans MacBook Air Competitor is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Dell is putting an end to the Dell Adamo notebook, and the Adamo brand according to a report from CNet. The Dell Adamo made big waves when it was announced due to a slim and sexy look that we hadn’t seen in consumer laptops, aside from Apple, at the time.

While the Adamo caught attention for the slim form factor, 13.4″ high resolution screen, built in mobile broadband and light weight it has had trouble competing with the recent explosion of consumer ultraportable notebooks, including the new MacBook Air models which are lighter and have an even higher resolution display.

Dell has been clearing out the stock of Dell Adamo notebooks for the past few months, with discounts coming in stages, all the way down to $799 for the base model Adamo. Today, if you try to look for the Dell Adamo, or any Adamo product at Dell, you’ll get redirected to the main Dell page, as if the slick notebook never existed.

If you want the looks of the Dell Adamo, check out Dell Small Business which offers the Dell Vostro V13 ultrathin notebook which is much cheaper, and currently on sale for $399.

Dell Adamo No More, Dell Retires the Consumer Ultraportable is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

$999… to be exact. That’s right, you can now pick up a super-slim Dell Adamo for that price — the low end Admire” version anyway. If you’ve like to pick up one of the slimmest computers on the market for a decent price, this may be your cue. Don’t mix up the Adamo with the Adamo XPS, which is the latest version, and is even thinner. Check out Dell’s official Adamo page.

via Gizmodo

Original Dell Adamo now under $1000 is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

That’s right, the world’s thinnest notebook that Xavier checked out on video the other day is now available through Dell for $1,799. Though it’ll take some time to ship; I just tried adding one to the cart and the preliminary ship date is listed as 12/24/09, which is more than a month from now. Maybe they are really building these things as you order them… who knows. You can’t customize any of the hardware of the Adamo, but I would say this is understandable considering that they probably have to custom work many of the pieces to get it to fit inside this iPhone thin laptop. Full specs below the image and a shot showing the incredibly thin Adamo after the specs.

via jkOnTheRun

• 128GB Solid State Drive
• Intel® Coreâ„¢ SU9400 (1.4GHz/800MHz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
• 13.4″ WLED HD (720P) LCD Panel with 2.0MP Camera
• 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 800MHz
• Intel® GS45 Integrated Graphics with DVI Video Adapter Cable
• Intel® 5300 WLAN 802.11n (3×3) Mini Card
• 20WHr Primary Battery
• High Definition Audio 2.0
• Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1 + EDR)
• Ethernet Network USB adapter

Dell Adamo XPS Now Selling for $1,799 is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

When we first got a look at Dell’s 9.99mm thick concept notebook, the Adamo XPS, it was so thin and light that Xavier wondered if Dell would actually sell the concept notebook.

It looks like Dell is pushing forward on its quest to slice the competition down to the size with new images of the razor-esque looking Dell Adamo XPS leaking out which show us what ports the Adamo XPS will have.

Click for larger image

The first product shot we saw of the Adamo XPS appears to have been a picture of the notebook’s tiny rear end, about as thick as a Macbook Pro’s display, which is the only curviest part of the Adamo XPS.

The rest of the notebook, which Xavier estimates couldn’t weigh more than 2 pounds, looks like it could easily be used to defend yourself from any would be muggers; so long as you know how to use it.

Click for larger image

While still teasing, the new Dell Adamo XPS images do give us a little more info about the notebook. In addition to a solid state hard drive, which is the only storage that will fit in this small package, the Adamo XPS looks like it will come with the following ports.

• 1 DisplayPort connection
• 2 USB connections
• Headphone connection
• An odd shaped power connection.

Even though the Adamo XPS will be priced outside of my gadget budget it’s really exciting to see technology like this out there because it means that someday these smaller parts and batteries will make their way into cheaper gadgets that I can enjoy.

New Images of the Dell Adamo XPS Reveal Connections is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Dell’s Adamo XPS design concept is seriously thin. So thin in fact that it makes the MacBook Air and other ultra-thin notebooks look fat. I got to spend some time with the Adamo XPS last week and was amazed by it. The Dell Adamo XPS measures just 9.99mm (.39 inch) thick, which is about half as thin as the MacBook Air, which measures 17.4mm (.76 inch) at its thickest point. It is about 25% thinner than the iPhone 3GS. Did I mention it’s thin?

Dell launched a teaser page on its site today that allows interested parties to sign up for updates. Unfortunatley, there’s very little information in the way of specifications or information on the page.

The Dell Adamo XPS is an ultraportable-sized device and not a netbook. I don’t know exactly how much it weighed, but it couldn’t have been more than two pounds.

Dell didn’t allow me to take pictures or videos of the Adamo XPS, but I can confirm that the thing is a working prototype. It looks like something from the future and shows that Dell is serious about pushing the envelope when it comes to design. The Adamo XPS has a full keyboard that flips away from the display.

When the Adamo XPS is on a desk it looks too thin to be an actual computer. It’s just slightly thicker than a MacBook Pro’s display.

A notebook this thin would have to overcome several challenges, including heat and battery life.

I’m not sure if Dell will actually sell the Adamo XPS in the future, but it’s cool to show what’s possible. Stay tuned as Dell said they’ll be sharing more info about the concept in the coming weeks.

Dell Adamo XPS: A 9.99mm Thick Concept Notebook is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The Dell Adamo is now available for pre-order at AdamoByDell.com. The Adamo is Dell’s most stylish notebook to date and it is sure to turn heads. The Dell Adamo is now the world’s thinnest notebook available, measuring .65 of an inch thick. The Adamo’s display measures 13.4-inches diagonally and has a 16:9 aspect ration. Its battery is rated to last for a maximum of 5 hours.

The $1,999 version of the Adamo comes with 2GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. For $2,699 you’ll get an integrated AT&T 3G WWAN card, 4GB of RAM and a 1.4GHz processor.

The Adamo notebook will ship with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

The Adamo comes with a lot more ports and adapters than other ultra-thin notebooks, such as the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy. The new Dell has two USB ports, a DisplayPor and a combo eSATA/USB port. DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI, and VGA adapters are included so you’ll be able to connect to any external monitor you want.

Adamo buyers will get to choose between Onyx and Pearl finishes. Dell’s shipping the Adamo in a clear case so you can see your pretty purchase before you even open the box.

There’s no question that this is a sharp looking notebook, but the premium price tag is going to be a tough sell in this economy. The Adamo will appeal to the fashion-conscious, but other vendors have had challenges selling thin notebooks in this price range for full price. The Voodoo Envy 133, MacBook Air and the ThinkPad X300 have all had their prices slashed since their debut. I’m willing to bet that the entry-level Adamo will be available for about $1,700 within a few months.

Full Press release from Dell:

DELL INTRODUCES ADAMO BRAND WITH LAUNCH OF THE WORLD’S THINNEST LAPTOP

· Adamo is first product under new Adamo by Dell brand

· Premium craftsmanship and design inspires new aesthetic across Dell family of products

· Adamo by Dell created to disrupt people’s perceptions of what personal computing is today

ROUND ROCK, Texas, March 17, 2009 Style-minded people who place a premium on precision craftsmanship and design can now add Adamo to their list of must-have items for 2009. Dell today unveiled the world’s thinnest* laptop as a kick off to the new Adamo by Dell brand.

Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning “to fall in love,” will serve as a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.

The News:

Adamo is the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design and features:

· A chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum featuring precision detailing and a scalloped backlit keyboard

· Striking high definition edge-to-edge glass display

· Fully connected with WiFi, Bluetoothâ„¢ and optional integrated mobile broadband** and full complement of connectivity ports with no compromises

· Cool, quiet and robust solid state drives

· Available in Onyx and Pearl colors with a broad range of complementary accessories

· Price starting at $1999

Quotes:

“Great design needs to be timeless and evoke emotion in people”, said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell’s consumer products. “While a premium computing experience was assumed for Adamo, the intent was for people to see, touch and explore Adamo and be rewarded by the select materials and craftsmanship you would expect in a fine watch.”

“Dell continues to signal a commitment to design and personalization across its entire product line and has made significant strides forward in the past year,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. “The Adamo laptop is a showcase for this commitment and a flagship product that will draw buyers to the brand.”

People who choose Adamo will be offered a unique color matched collection of Adamo by Dell branded peripherals and accessories including, in the U.S. an exclusive line of bags fromTUMI. Choices will include:

· External storage option with 250GB*** or 500GB*** external hard drive.

· External DVD+/-RW or Blu-ray disc drive.

· 8GB*** USB drive.

· Connectors and cables including DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI, and VGA.

· Adamo Premium Service (US Only):

o 24/7 access to Dell’s best trained technicians

o Consistent communication with a dedicated personal team

The Adamo by Dell brand is being supported by innovative and new approaches to marketing and promotion for Dell. Designed to challenge people’s perceptions of what a computer is, the Adamo by Dell brand was inspired by fashion, luxury brands and timeless design.

Dell has looked beyond traditional approaches to reaching computer shoppers and launched a provocative campaign featuring:

* A stylish worldwide print campaign shot by acclaimed British-based photographer Nadav Kandar and featuring high-fashion models that reinforces the “fall in love” positioning. Kander, whose work is celebrated in galleries worldwide, also shot the moving portfolio, “Obama’s People,” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year.

* AdamoByDell.com, the centerpiece of the campaign and a highly stylized site where viewers can learn about Adamo, register for updates and, beginning today, place orders. Since its launch last month, AdamoByDell.com has attracted nearly 800,000 unique visitors from around the world and more than 1 million page views.

* Artful packaging in which the product arrives “floating” in a clear box with minimal clutter – a beautiful experience for a sophisticated product.

Dell Adamo Available for Pre-order is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.