[Chris11115]

Received my replacement Adamo yesterday, no problems at all - battery is working fine, and the bottom of the casing isn't warped on this one. So far no issues at all

Highly recommend SaveonLaptops, the customer service has been brilliant throughout. They could really do with a change of name though, SaveOnLaptops to me just sounds like a scam website some kid has knocked together - I for one was cautious about ordering from them purely on the name alone, and I'm sure others would agree.

[arbuz]

Those who are worried about the warranty problem - I contacted Dell and they have had no problem in adjusting the warranty to give you a full year. In addition, the Saveonlaptops website identifies the warranty as Collect and Return (Dell's basic warranty), but as Dell Adamo is a premium product, it seems on the Dell website that it is "Next Business Day" warranty (i.e. they send an engineer to your house the next day if you ring them before 3pm or 4pm the day before).

In addition, as I said before, I would comment on performance. Installing and using Windows 7 installed on another partition, there is a HUGE upgrade in performance. While Vista was not slow at all, I suggest to everyone to move to Windows 7. Shutting down is real real quick. Booting up is faster than my Quad Core 3GB RAM desktop PC. So anyone of you putting this off as it "only has 2GB RAM and 1.2GHz processor", think again. Unless you use applications that specifically require lots of processing power and RAM ad graphics, you will not need any more performance. All Office applications and Internet Explorer all run very fast and smoothly. Installing programs is real fast, and so is installing 10-20 Windows updates.

A couple of extra details. The system - under normal conditions, i.e. using Word, e-mail, browsing, etc. is silent. The fan is so quiet you can't hear it. The hard disc is a solid state one, so it makes no noise at all. This really adds to the luxury of this laptop. There is no LED indicator showing hard disk activity - but then again, do you need it? It's so quick! If you make the system work hard, for example constantly install programs, or keep browsing through graphics and animation intensive web-pages, or Youtube, the fan becomes audible. But not for long, as it seamlessly reduces speed and calms down again.

About heat - the wrist area and the keyboard never goes above a little "warm", however much under load. However, the area above the keyboard can get uncomfortably warm - but not that you would touch there unless curious. The bottom of the laptop can get warm like that too - but not hot. Using the laptop on your lap is fine, and there are no vents to block, as the bottom panel is a solid piece. What DOES get Hot though is the power adapter. That little block. It doesn't bother me - as I leave it on the floor or desk.

Something worth noting - given Adamo's aluminium and glass design, it's feel is quite weighted (for its small volume). A signal of quality to me. However, opening the lid (screen) of the laptop can be tricky. Need one hand lifting it up, and the other holding the bottom down. And you can't slam it back down when finished - cos it is pretty weighty and you wouldn't wanna try that. So while it is very solidly made of aluminium, the laptop does need careful handling.

And now a question for me to ask - Those of you who upgraded the system to Windows 7, how did you do it? Did you use an external DVD drive, and overwrite Vista, or put it on a second partition? Or what other method. I may need to re-do mine, as I don't like 2 partitions. Thanks, and hope this review has been useful!

P.S. Those who ordered from Saveonlaptops, you are all eligible for free 3-license Bullguard Internet Security as advertised, that you probably didn't pay any attention to. Send them an e-mail and they will ship it to you for free. I've done that, now waiting to arrive.

[Chris11115]

I used an external DVD drive to install it. Had the Windows 7 upgrade disk, but selected the Advanced (or perhaps it was Custom) installation to do a clean install of the OS instead of an upgrade. Definitely worth paying the extra £60odd and doing a clean install of Windows 7, almost halves the boot/shut down time (and removes all the clutter Dell sticks on)

[arbuz]

Originally Posted by Chris11115

I used an external DVD drive to install it. Had the Windows 7 upgrade disk, but selected the Advanced (or perhaps it was Custom) installation to do a clean install of the OS instead of an upgrade. Definitely worth paying the extra £60odd and doing a clean install of Windows 7, almost halves the boot/shut down time (and removes all the clutter Dell sticks on)

Hi, did you install 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 7? I have the 32-bit version and I am struggling to get the ambient light sensor to control the display brightness and keyboard backlighting automatically. I can use the Fn key combinations to do it but not automatically. Does it work for you? Cheers.

[jonlwright]

I just ordered one of these today. Looks very good value and now £599! Plan to install Win7 so would be interested or a response to arbuz regarding the backlighting and light sensor.

[Cavallino]

Just a word of warning jon. I tried to do that but for some reason ended up having a bios not recognising my SSD! But after updating my bios to A06 (through DOS) and the A07 (through Vista), all was well.

[jonlwright]

Originally Posted by Cavallino

Just a word of warning jon. I tried to do that but for some reason ended up having a bios not recognising my SSD! But after updating my bios to A06 (through DOS) and the A07 (through Vista), all was well.

Thanks for that, I guess if I update the BIOS before upgrading the OS then all should be OK then.

[Cavallino]

Yep you should be good!

And my word... No brainer to put W7 on this! Boots into W7 within 10-15 seconds (and yes being able to load programs in that time!)

[s-7-n]

hi there, ordered mine, received one with a warped bottom case as already mentioned by another user. Received mine Sat, no saveonlaptop customer service, so i did call dell and was told to get in touch with the retailer and ask for replacement. Dell is going to reset the warranty without any problems...
My question, did anyone manage to get xp drivers for adamo, i really would like to run nlited xp sp3 but was wondering if anyone managed to get proper xp drivers...
Any replies are much appreciated. thx.

[bardeep]

Whats with the warped bottom of the case?

[s-7-n]

:-) i was wondering the same thing, before the purchase i read this forum....anyway, i have to say the Adamo came brand new, sealed....out of the box and directly noticed the bottom wasnt flat...it seemed like a pin wasnt attached in the middle part or something, you can basically press it but it comes back to its initial position....apart from that its a bit havier the the mac airs but defenitely adamo is more eye catching (my personal opinion), the half glass lid design is specific for better wireless signal in case anyone wondering...saveonlaptops just called, they pick it up on Wed apparently they check and the whole process takes 3-4 days max...will update this thread with the latest info...
question:
there is no backup DVD for Vista attached, was that the case for all of the other buyers??

[E-com]

they dont have a recovery dvd, but there is a partition with recovery software on it. would be interesting to find out if we could theoretically put a win7 recovery image on there instead. i installed win7 through a USB drive, and so far its pretty gorgeous.

Annoyingly i didnt grab all the dell custom backgrounds/user account pictures, ,so if anyone has them i would be pretty grateful.

couple of things:
when ordering, i noticed that instead of being a bundle item, the internet security is just a 0 price item. so i order 3, and low and behold i now have 9 licences of an antivirus i wont use....

also, could someone detail how they contacted dell to reset the warranty? thanks

i love this laptop.

[s-7-n]

received my replacement, all good, bottom wasnt warped on this one, but having the same thing other user had. The bottom corners underneath the wrist have a small flex, laptop's bottom end corners seem solid, no movement or flex. is this the same arbuz experienced? how hard was to release the bottom plate as described in step 8 iFixit? would this be a reason for a replacement? thx
windows 7 32-bit runs really smoth, Vista 64bit used 48%RAM, w7 32bit uses around 27% and its fast!

[derickoo]

now £549


https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Dell...mo_748183.html

[s-7-n]

i actuall tried both the 32-bit / 64bit of W7 and will stick with the 64bit one.... i had issues with the 32bit being the funtion keys worked but no on screen+was missing one driver...Performance probably same, in idle mode RAM using 33% compared to 27% for 32-bit... i dont have any plans doing heavy multitasking..mostly www, music, youtube plus occasional photoshop...
was wondering:
- is it worth putting a 64bit browser (mozilla, IE9)?
- any usefull tweakings of W7 to get rid off unneccesary CPU, RAM usage?

any replies much appreciated...thx

[uber]

don't know how many can take advantage but I picked up the Adamo 13 from Futureshop in Canada for $549 ...about 348 GBP... nice little unit

[majnu]

This is now £500. There is a thread on HUKD on it.

[J400uk]

Originally Posted by majnu

This is now £500. There is a thread on HUKD on it.

... and its the slightly newer model with the 1.4GHz SU9400 CPU (same as current gen MacBook Air 11.6") plus Windows 7 is pre-installed

Dell Onyx Adamo 13 A13/0995

Amazing price!

[Cavallino]

Still says £499