Dell Adamo vs. MacBook Air

We poke, prod and measure to figure out which belongs in your chic Italian leather notebook bag.

For those seeking the smallest, sexiest notebooks on the market, there are no closer two choices than Apple’s trend-setting MacBook Air and its late-coming competitor, the Dell Adamo. Though strikingly similar in many ways, they differ enough that true fashionistas will want to take a good hard look before plunking down $2,000 for either one. We’ve poked, prodded and broken out the calipers on both units to figure out which belongs in your chic Italian leather notebook bag. Read on to see which emerges victorious.

Dimensions

We never thought we would see the day when laptops would duke it out over a few millimeters the same way supermodels might over waist size, but in the world of fashion laptops, size is everything. Technically, the MacBook has a smaller footprint than the Adamo, but it’s less than an inch in all directions: The Air measures 12.8 inches wide and 8.94 inches deep, while the Adamo measures 13 inches by 9.5 inches in the same dimensions. On the all-critical thickness aspect, the Adamo has the Air beat by a hair. It measures just 0.65 inches tall, while the Air measures 0.76 inches thick. Sure, it’s like taking a deck of cards and sliding a few cards out, but because nobody’s paying attention to the footprint and thin is everything, we’re giving this one to Dell.

Winner: Dell Adamo

Left: Dell Adamo; Right: MacBook Air

* Editors note: Please check out our reviews of the Dell Adamo and MacBook Air.