A bold sliver of design ingenuity, a modern engineering marvel. Once you get past the initial confusion — “where did the rest of this thing go?” — the Dell Adamo XPS wows with its impossibly slim profile. At 9.9mm, the Adamo XPS really is the world’s thinnest notebook, and by far slimmer than the VAIOs, the Macs and the HP Envys. Heck, this is slimmer than a CD jewel case. The feeling is one of holding a thin aluminum tray that has somehow magically managed to fit in most computer internals.

Open it up by sliding your finger over the heat-sensitive latch (more wows ensue), and Dell’s secret to the ultimate laptop slimming package reveals itself. The keyboard fits into a recess the size of the 13.4-in screen, which means that the hinge swings up to become the rear support , slightly elevating the keyboard in the process.

And while it helps with heat dissipation, it’s especially tricky considering the quandary — this is a Rs 1.5 lakh laptop, after all. Do I let the hinge rest against my knees, or rest its slim edges on my legs, hoping I don’t do anything sudden that’ll throw this off? Despite its slim appearances, it’s sturdily built and feels solid — very reassuring if you’ve just spent that aforementioned one-and-a-half-lakh.

Now, to run Windows 7 smoothly, Dell’s packed in as much power as they could — a low-voltage energy-efficient processor, 4GB of RAM, a 256GB solid state hard-disk, and a bright 16:9 13.4 in high definition display. An integrated graphics card means that movies and videos will chug along nicely, but games are a strict no-no. Everyday tasks are a breeze, and that’s about the most you should expect from the pared-down internals. Ports are conveniently located on the sides, and Dell includes two slick-looking accessories — a 500GB external hard disk and an external DVD writer — in the price. About fair.

Where the Adamo XPS suffers more than anything else is battery life, and it’s a big Achilles Heel. Depending on how you use it, the battery lasts between 1.5 to a little over 2 hours. Bit of a pity considering 4+ hours of battery life are a netbook standard, and they’re one- seventh the price at best. The only redeeming factor — you can swap it out for a larger 40WHr battery, which is twice the current capacity, but it kind of kills the form factor. Not a good idea, since the form factor is pretty much why you’re buying this, right?

Obvious comparisons to the MacBook Air abound, not surprising given both share the all-aluminum looks and the desire to be the thinnest ever. The MacBook Air is a little thicker, but for approximately 30 grand less gives you a far faster processor, better NVIDIA graphics, and much better battery life, and you can run both Windows and the MacOS on it.

It’s difficult to recommend the Adamo XPS to everyone, not that it is meant to be either. It’s beautiful yet purely impractical, but there’s nothing else like it for now. If your laptop is intended to impress everyone around you, this is your best bet.

• Rating: 7/10
• Price: Rs 1.5 lakh
• URL: http://dell.co.in

Power drive

Don’t confuse this little red devil with a regular flash drive. It’s the Infinite USB Memory (IUM) drive, and no, it’s not something out of Star Trek. It’s the computer peripheral’s equivalent of a bottomless pit — this stick creates a local WiFi network for media and data to flow from your PC to anything — to another PC (think of it like an ever-growing flash drive), to a Blu-ray player, a photo frame or a printer or even a game console. All you need to do is plug this into the USB port of your device, and off you go transferring data just as if you’ve plugged in a normal USB flash drive — no drivers or special software required!

• URL: http://infinitec.com/
• Price: $130

Total control

Know what’s better than the plethora of universal remotes crowding the market? Turning your phone into one, that’s what! Now for the iPhone/iPod Touch in your life, comes the RedEye mini. It’s a simple plug-in Infrared (IR) adapter that plugs in to the earphone port of your iPhone, and allows your

Apple device to beam out any number of infrared commands. And then, using the free RedEye app for the iPhone, your TV, DVD player, lighting system and anything else that speaks IR is within your reach. You can even set it up for pre-set activities like watching a movie, and in one-button-press, it will fire up the TV and DVD player, dim the lights… you get the picture.

• URL: http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye-mini/
what-is-redeye-mini/
• Price: $49

Music made easy

If playing the guitar is your thing, the i-tab is the gadget made for you. Designed to clip on the headstock of any guitar, the i-tab is a 5-in touchscreen device that displays and scrolls chords and lyrics in

perfect time, almost like a little musical teleprompter for guitar players. It’s got a built-in speaker, headphone jack, stylus, USB port, TV out for karaoke nights, and 4GB of storage. It can also be used to display guitar lessons and play backing tracks. You also get thirty songs right out of the box, and more via its online store.

• URL: http://i-tab.com/wp/
• Price: $199