Steps 1–30: Teardown
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Dell Adamo Teardown
Introduction
We partnered with TechRepublic to show you the beautiful inner details of Dell's all-new Adamo. Dell has clearly positioned the Adamo as a competitor to the MacBook Air. Does it have a chance? We'll find out.
Tools used in this guide
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
Paginated Single Page Steps
Step 1
—
Teardown
We're happy to be partnering with TechRepublic on this teardown. TechRepublic is a great news and problem-solving resource for IT professionals.
We'll post updates on twitter about this and other things we take apart.
The shipping box is substantially larger than that of the MacBook Air (white box), but the two machines are nearly identical in size.
Step 2
Ladies and gentlemen, Adamo has left the
buildingbox.Now we know why the the box was so large: the Adamo is encased in a "time-capsule" plastic casing, which in turn is protected during shipping via black plastic shipping caps.
MacBook Air packaging requires less effort to remove.
Step 3
The Adamo's time-capsule cryo-chamber protection system ensures a safe voyage through spacetime for all components on board.
We were kind of expecting a high pressure hiss and a dense fog to roll out as the container automatically opened itself. Didn't happen. There are two plastic tabs on the bottom of the case that had to be pushed quite firmly in order to release the Adamo from its clear sarcophagus.
Lenin would be jealous.
Step 4
The Adamo and the accessories. All our accessories were black, matching nicely with our "onyx" Adamo. We assume (given the price tag) your accessories will be white if you purchase the "pearl" version.
The AC adapter is 45 watts, just like the MacBook Air's. The power brick design is elegant, but the actual plug isn't nearly as slick as the Air's MagSafe connector.
Step 5
The rear ports of the Adamo, from left to right:
RJ45 Ethernet
eSATA USB
2x USB
AC Adapter
The right side of the Adamo houses a SIM card slot and an audio out/headphone jack.
You get a total of six ports with your Adamo, double that of the MacBook Air. It's a shame that they couldn't just put a DVI display port on the computer itself, and instead chose to include a bulky adapter.
Step 6
Adamo, meet Air. Now that you're acquainted...
The Adamo's dimensions, as compared to the MacBook Air:
Width: 0.23" larger
Depth: 0.56" larger
Height: 0.11" thinner
It's interesting how the Air plays tricks with height. It certainly looks thinner than the Adamo...
Both the Adamo and Air have very high torsional rigidity. This is largely due to their unibody constructions. It's hard to say which is more rigid, but the Adamo is heavier so it feels more solid.
Step 7
The Adamo's elegance clearly beats the Air from this angle.
The Intel and Windows logos are not the typical stickers; they're painted into the case.
Unlike the Air, there are no visible screws on the bottom of the Adamo. However, the gaps between case bottom and frame are significantly larger than the Air's.
Getting inside may require some ingenuity...
Step 8
It's time to use a metal spudger.
The Adamo uses a very slick locking system to hold the bottom panel in place.
The locking system utilizes three tracks of pins that span the inner left, right, and front edges of the computer. The pins lock into slots machined into the bottom panel, creating a very tight and secure connection.
The bottom panel is removed by simply sliding the metal ear (shown in yellow) connected to each set of pins (shown in red) to the right using a thin metal spudger.
what are all the accessories that come with the adamo?manuals, cds?
iFixit Staff
We showed everything we got. The 'box' doesn't have room for a DVD (and the Adamo doesn't have an optical drive). The manual is shown in the picture (small black booklet). WYSIWYG.