Tinman Michael Dell has slashed the cost of his top of the range aluminum-clad ultra thin laptops.
The Adamo, which is usually targeted as competition for Jobs' Mobs' 13 inch Macbook Air, is being flogged on the Dell website for $899.
At 0.65 inches thick, the Adamo is about as thin as a 13-inch Windows laptop gets, but above all it is a hell of a lot cheaper than the Air which starts at $1,299.
To make the deal even more attractive Dell has upped the configuration from the $999 model it had been selling for a while. For less than $900 you get a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 Intel processor and 4GB of memory - along with the standard 128GB solid-state drive and 64-bit Windows 7.
Dell used to flog a lower-performance 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo chip and 2GB of memory for $999. You would have to to stump up $1,099 for the better 2.13GHz configuration.
Everything else is the same. There is a nice looking machined-aluminum chassis, 13.4-inch screen, six cell battery, with the option for internal 3G.
The Air has 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and the only difference is that it has more memory which certainly does not make up the price.
Having said that, we do not expect to see a price war between Dell and Apple. People buy Apple gear for the logo and what it looks like, rather than what is under the bonnet. However the Adamo is looking like a sensible choice for those who want a top of the range ultra-thin.
Let's also consider Nvidia 320M vs. GS45 Intel graphics...
Or the 13" MBA's 1440x900 display vs. the 1366x768 on the Adamo. People are always complaining about 16:9 displays and that's what the Adamo has.
Or the 2.9lbs the MBA weighs versus the 4lbs the Adamo weighs.
But the 13" MBA is a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, compared to the 2.16GHz of the Adamo. There is an option to upgrade to 2.16GHz though, apparently.