Dell Precision 7710 Owner's Review

I have a couple of questions about M7710 - first, what is the difference between precision M7710 and 7710 without M? Second, more importantly, does it have the MS precision touchpad? It would be great if anyone can let me know. Thank you!

 

There is no such thing as "Precision M7710", the proper name is "Precision 7710". The "M" name is floating around because in prior generations, Dell always prefixed the model number with "M" (i.e. Dell Precision M6800), so some people are just used to writing it.

 

Second Aaron's reply, there is just a Precision 7710 without the M. The touch pad is Alps driven.

I use the Dell point stick all the time, which is much better than a touch pad even coming from a Macbook user. Give it a try, never went back to a touch pad after that.

 

Well, that's really good to know, because that's something I was thinking about doing if I found an FHD configuration online at a good price. So I know to ignore those. Thanks!

 

This isn't true. The cable that goes from the motherboard to the panel is different and has to be changed, but the connector on the motherboard is the same for all the 7710 models. Mine came with the 1080p full HD screen, and I upgraded to the 4k one. You just need the cable as well. It was about 40 bucks.

 

Is there a big difference in battery consumption when the LCD is changed to 4k ? contemplating to upgrade too

 

I honestly didn't even use mine with the 1080p screen for more than a day or two. The general consensus is that you lose about an hour or 2 of battery life. I can still get a good 6 hours or so at least just browsing the web or doing simple tasks. I do most of my work plugged in though, so it's not a huge concern for me.

The extra image quality/resolution is well worth any trade off though.

 

Thanks for insight, you are right and I'll be contacting Dell soon for the price of the upgrade.

 

Seems to me that the most important things at purchase are the screen size (7710 vs. 7510), CPU (which is soldered to the motherboard), and presence of Thunderbolt. Everything else can be later upgraded as desired; is that correct?

 

in addition

If later GPU upgrades are your thing.. 7710 takes MXM Type-B GPU card size. 7510 takes a smaller MXM Type-A.

7710 has two m.2 slots and one 2.5" drive bay. 7510 has one m.2 slot and one 2.5" drive bay.
The 2.5" bays can accept SATA drives or an M.2 SSD via interposer and a caddy.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19681795