Dell has just slashed the price of their Dell Adamo 13 in a move to compete with the Apple MacBook Air. Now priced at $799, down from $999, the Dell Adamo 13 comes in a full $500 cheaper than the base model 13 inch MacBook Air. With news that Steve Jobs is leaving Apple in the hands of Tim Cook, should Apple be worried?
Previously the decision between the Dell Adamo 13 and the 13 inch MacBook Air depended largely on whether you wanted to run OS X or Windows 7. With today’s price drop, that decision becomes a little more complicated since the MacBook Air is now 38 percent more expensive than its counterpart. Other than price and operating system what separates these two systems?
Off the bat the MacBook Air and Dell Adamo 13 both feature similar displays – Apple offers a higher resolution display (1440×900 versus 1366×768), but both screens are LED backlit. Build quality has been well received for both units so that area, like the OS, is left to personal preference.
When you consider the move to a more portable laptop you generally sacrifice performance. To offset the sacrifices made in the smaller, lighter and thinner form factor — both the Adobe and MacBook Air use 128GB Solid State Drives (SSD). Memory is also similar, 2GB of DDR3 memory on both systems, but Apple runs at 1066MHz while Dell runs at 800MHz.
So far it seems that the two systems a very evenly matched, but this changes when you begin exploring the GPU. Dell opted to use the Intel GS45 Graphics Media Accelerator while Apple went with the GeForce 320M, both use 256MB of shared memory. Intel has fallen behind in with the integrated graphics, this will change with Sandy Bridge, so the MacBook Air has the edge in this department.
Processing power and battery life are also serious considerations. The MacBook Air clocks in at 1.86GHz while the Dell Adamo 13 runs at 1.4GHz. The combination of the slower processor and Front Side Bus (800MHz versus 1066MHz) are more points for Apple. With up to 7 hours of battery life and 30 days of standby time, the MacBook Air really begins to widen the gap.
Overall, you pay a premium for the MacBook Air. There’s certainly an endless list of areas we could compare, whether that’s connectivity options, ports, weight, trackpad, but the primary categories of speed and battery favor the MacBook Air. Whether or not that is worth the added cost is a tough decision. Let us know whether you’ll be looking at the Dell Adamo 13 or MacBook Air with today’s price drop? Is a 38 percent savings worth a dip in performance?
Out Now | Dell | $799
