Sure, it was only about four months ago that Dell released its XPS 14, but unfortunately, those looking to snatch up the Core i5, NVIDIA GeForce 400M-powered laptop today will have a mighty hard time. Some keen-eyed tipsters noticed that Dell’s 14-inch mainstream system was out of stock, and a quick call to one of our friends at Dell confirmed that the smallest version of the series won’t actually be making a comeback. However, that’s not because the system didn’t sell well — Dell maintains that it actually exceeded sales expectations. Considering it was a very aggressively priced rig that doesn’t really surprise us, but why not bring it back? That’s where things get interesting, and we’ll give you Dell’s exact quote on this one…

“With the transition to Sandy Bridge technology, we chose to re-focus our efforts on incorporating this feedback into future thin and light products launching later this year. Stay tuned!”

Yep, it seems like Dell is gearing up to bring some Adamo qualities back in to the XPS brand, which is actually what were told last year when the company killed off the Adamo brand altogether. We’re staying tuned alright!

Dell XPS 14 discontinued, will be replaced with something thinner and lighter originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s two recent high-end gambles, the 11-inch Alienware M11x “gaming Netbook” and the wafer-thin 13-inch Adamo XPS, both hit a lot of the right notes, even if they themselves are unlikely to be big-volume products.

As in, the ultrathin laptop is literally thin enough to slip trough almost any small opening more than 9.99mm thick. Dell’s Adamo XPS has had plenty of prerelease hype, from teaser photos to hands-on previews, and the final retail product is certainly an impressive feat of laptop engineering.

Let me catch you up. We received a tip back on Monday indicating that the Adamo XPS had disappeared from Dell.com. This of course caught our attention as the super-thin Dell was just announced back in late October and only available for purchase since December.

We of course checked it out and found that the XPS model wasn’t found on the Adamo microsite (www.AdamoByDell.Com), which just so happens to be the first site listed on Google for that model. The Adamo XPS also wasn’t listed alongside the other Adamo models or on Dell.com’s master notebook list that also includes Alienware models. The only way you can find it on Dell.com is if you use the search tool and even then the purchase link on the product page is dead.

We then reached out to our Dell contacts, but they didn’t respond in a timely manner. I then asked two separate Dell chat agents who both clearly stated that the Adamo XPS was discontinued. Satisfied with the conclusion that the XPS was in fact gone, I ran the post not thinking anything of it. It was just another news story to me. But not to dell apparently.

Several other sites ran similar stories on Monday except they simply asked the question whether or not the Adamo XPS was discontinued rather than stating my conclusion that it was dead. Throughout the day, these stories were updated, quoting an official dell spokesmen that stated that the model was in fact still around and not discontinued. Dell finally emailed us and commented on our story nearly six hours later.

The comment:

Hi Mark. I saw your article and thought I’d drop a quick comment to clarify the issue.

The first point I’d like to make is that the Adamo XPS is still available in the U.S. at select Best Buy Stores and on bestbuy.com, still starting at $1,999.00. It has not been “discontinued” as such, but was meant to be a proof point to Dell’s design and engineer capabilities. Because of this, it was similar to a “limited edition”, and most of the original supply has since been accounted for. Those who want one can still get it from the aforementioned sources.

Also of note: the original Adamo is still available on adamobydell.com with a starting price point of $999.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions

JohnBatDell

First, my name is Matt, not Mark. But that comment just confirmed my post. It states that most of the Adamo XPS’s limited supply have nearly been exhausted and the model is currently only available from Best Buy. Right? That’s what it says.

Ok, so maybe calling the Adamo XPS discontinued is a wrong choice of words, because apparently it was only intended to be a limited edition model anyway. But it’s a fact that the model has reached the end of its life and therefore deserves the R.I.P sentiment I gave it in the post’s picture.

This brings us to today as Gizmodo finally ran its Adamo XPS R.I.P. post. (they later pulled it from the front page) Dell quickly sent us an email asking when were we going to update our post because apparently we got it all wrong and Gizmodo ousted us as their source — even though they didn’t in the post, but I still love Rosa. Dell’s request didn’t sit very well with me so I pulled out my Sherlock Holmes pipe and went to work reconfirming my original post.

Once again I confirmed that the Adamo XPS is no longer on Dell.com. It’s still not listed as a current model or available to purchase. The only way you can pull up the model is still by searching for it. AdamoByDell.com, Adamo models, master list.

Then John Biggs and I both contacted Dell Chat Support and were told that the model was “discontinued” and “reached its end of life.” Check the gallery below for transcripts.

Fair enough, Dell told us that Best Buy still had it online and in stores so I checked that out, too. The only thing is we can’t find it in any store besides one in New Jersey. It’s not at any location in Detroit, Flint, San Francisco, SoCal, Denver, Phoenix, Philidelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, upstate New York, or New York City proving that it’s in very limited supply. Once again, check the pics below.

I then called my local Best Buy location where I was told that yes, I could still order it, but I better hurry because it was discontinued.

What it seems we have here is a company trying to save face. You see, the Adamo XPS only hit retail shelves back in December and people just started to get their hands on the product. Laptop Magazine posted their review of it the same day I wrote its obituary. It could be true that the Adamo XPS was just a limited-time product, but it was never marketed as such. Even if it was a Halo project of sorts, why remove nearly every instance from Dell.com and the Adamo microsite? It’s an amazing piece of modern technology that Dell should display for the whole world to see — even if it’s at the end of its intended life.

It’s true that you can still buy the Adamo XPS brand new in the box from a few retailers. It’s just like how you can still buy 2009 model year cars even though they are really discontinued. Except you don’t get a discount on the Adamo XPS.

So long, Adamo XPS. It was wonderful knowing you while we did. We can’t help feeling like you had too short of a life though. You were only available for sale since December and Dell probably spent an untold fortune developing your 9.9mm thin body. It’s kind of weird, actually.

The Adamo XPS launched with much fanfare last October. People were amazed that Dell could produce such an amazing piece of computing goods, complete with a robotic keyboard as John Biggs calls it. It took a couple of months to get the notebook to the retail market, but then in December Dell started to sell it. Best Buy picked it up a few weeks later. But that doesn’t matter anymore. The Adamo XPS is now just a footnote on Dell’s Wikipedia page. It’s no longer listed with the other Adamo models on Dell.com and according to a Dell Chat Rep, it has been discontinued.

Hopefully Dell isn’t done with the line and we’ll see version 2.0 shortly. Maybe at SXSW. That’s where Dell showed off the Adamo line for the first time one year ago next week.

Let’s not forget Acer’s quest to overtake HP as the number 1 computer maker in the world. That’s important to remember as the company is reportably getting into the ultra-thin notebook market this year along with making a Chrome OS netbook and ebook reader. 2010 will be Acer’s year as the company lays outs its plans, which, surprisingly, doesn’t include outing a iPad-ish tablet clone.

The Acer Timeline series lead the industry into the CULV game last year, but even those thin laptops look huge next to a MacBook Air or Dell Adamo XPS. So that brings us to right now as a report just surfaced claiming that sometime this year Acer will launch a true ultra-thin notebook based on Intel’s next-gen Capella ULV processors that bring conventional notebook performance to ultra-thins.

Nothing else is really known about the upcoming notebook just yet. Although we’re certain something will leak curiosity of Mr. BlurryCam. But hopefully Acer’s model will offer not only good looks, but also a more affordable price than the Dell Adamo XPS.