Nothing New in Dell's Sexy Offerings

Dell is desperate to expand its chunk of the consumer PC market and shed its reputation for stodgy design, so Walt Mossberg decided to take a look at two of its flashier offerings: the ultrathin Adamo laptop, and the Studio One 19 touch-screen desktop. They’re not bad machines, he concludes, but they’re not exactly groundbreaking, either. The Adamo is just a belated competitor to the MacBook Air, while the desktop is aping HP’s TouchSmart series.

At $699 the Studio One is much cheaper than the $1,200 TouchSmart, but has a smaller screen. Dell says that’s so it can be used as a kitchen kiosk, but Mossberg found it cluttered up his counter. The Adamo, meanwhile, is thinner than the MacBook Air, but about a pound heavier, has a shorter battery life, and costs $200 more. And both machines run Windows Vista, a big mark against them. (More tech review stories.)