Dell on Wednesday offered a peek at a "design concept" for a stylish, high-end laptop that could become the computer maker's next challenge to Apple's MacBook Air.

A profile of the laptop, which would be the newest addition to Dell's ultra-thin Adamo line of notebooks, is shown on a Web site specially created to show off the PC. The system is slightly less than four-tenths of an inch thick. That's almost half the thickness of the first Adamo Dell released in March. That system is 0.65 of an inch thick, which is the same as the Air.

Dell is clearly going after Apple's Air with its Adamo line. In sending an email announcing the new Adamo site, Dell called the latest system a "design concept" and gave no other details.

The Air and current Adamo have starting prices of $1,499. The Air has a faster Core 2 Duo processor, 1.86 GHz versus 1.2 GHz, but the Adamo comes with a solid-state drive instead of a hard drive. Both systems have 13-inch displays, but the Air weighs three pounds and the Adam four pounds.

Dell used the same marketing scheme in trying to generate buzz for the first Adamo. The company launched a teaser site in December 2008, the month before Dell showed the system briefly at the Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas.

Ultra-thin laptops under an inch thick are alternatives to less-expensive netbooks. The thin systems typically have more power, full-size keyboards and larger displays than the mini-notebooks--as well as bigger profit margins, making them more attractive to vendors.

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