Published in Reviews

Dell's dazzling Adamo put to the test

by on22 June 2009

Index



Input Devices

Now for our gratuitous keyboard closeup.

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The keyboard feels good. There's not much travel, and it feels solid. It's spacious, but the keys are packed closely together, so if you're a fast and sloppy typer you'll make a few typos before you get the hang of it. We have no major complaints about the layout either, although the Enter key could have been bigger. We also feel the automatic backlight control should kick in a bit sooner, as it tends to keep the keyboard dark even in pretty dim lighting.

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A significant drawback of the ultra-thin design is the hump at the back which houses the battery and cooling system. It reduces the surface area available for the touchpad and palmrests. It doesn't make the keyboard less comfy to use, but it does mean that the touchpad ends up pretty small, especially compared to the Air.

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It works well, and the brushed metal finish feels great, and the keys are nice, too. However, multi-touch input is limited to zoom, or pinch, and Dell really should have added more functions to it. Considering you get more multi-touch features on a €249 Inspiron Mini 10v, this is a disappointment. Speaking of the Mini 10, its touchpad features integrated keys to increase the size of touch sensitive area, and this solution might have worked well on the Adamo as well. Hopefully Dell will add more multi-touch features through software updates.


Last modified on 22 June 2009
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