Dell Precision M3800 - 2013!

I agree on the "ultrabook style" Precision, but personally, I would have at least preserved the styling of the Precision: flat left and right sides with the curves in front and back. The no dock is a no go for me, but that doesn't mean that it will deter others. What I'm mostly disappointed by is that by looking at it, the laptop doesn't feel like a Precision: chicklet keyboard, no trackpoint, looks like an XPS. Call me a traditionalist if you want, but it lacks some of the things that make a business notebook a business notebook in my opinion. I guess you could say I'm questioning their choice of branding for that notebook, yeah, it has the CPU and GPU that you'd expect to find in a Precision, but that's about it.

 

Everyone has their own opinion on style. I have read reviews that call the M6700 boring. I happen to like conservative styling on the M4700/M6700. The M3800 image in the article looks like it was rendered or heavily edited. I am going to wait until I properly see it and know what the materials are before I form my own opinion.

I am hoping the M3800 will have a WiGig wireless docking option.

I wish it had Ethernet. My wireless network in the office connects at a minimum of 121Mbps and up to 450Mbps. At home I get 300Mbps. If I am in an arena with thousands of wireless devices, I have to have a wired connection. Hopefully the M3800 will ship with a small USB3 to Ethernet adapter.

The 3200x1800 screen means I will have more options the display resolutions we use. The higher DPI should yield much less fuzziness when you use a non-native resolution because the pixels are so much smaller. I can choose to run at 1366x768, 1600x900, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, or 3200x1800 depending on what I am running. At 3200x1800, I will be able to edit a photo at a DPI much closer to what I would see from a printer. At 1600x900, I should be able to play most games with high detail settings.

As long as the M3800 is a third option and the M4800/M6800 are closer to what we expect, it really won't matter whether the Precision traditionalists like it or not. We will have faster versions of our trusted platforms, and other people will have new options.

 

True and I'll likely get either a M4800 or M6800 anyways.

The picture may not represent the final product, I agree, so we'll see when everything is officially released, but I do not like what I'm seeing right now much as you probably gathered from my comments.

 

No Ethernet port... who was in charge of that decision?!?!

I was disappointed when Dell moved from the look/form-factor of the E6400/E6410 series, now it looks like I'm gonna be even more disappointed in where they're taking the Precisions which I considered to be "the last best hope" for decent workstation laptops.

I mean, look what Lenovo is doing to Thin--errr... I can't even bring myself to call them those anymore, really. I know things change but damn, this is some seriously disheartening stuff. Practically "forcing" wireless connections on people nowadays, I see that as somewhat of a security risk personally - WPA/WPA2/etc, it's all fine and dandy but with routers that use WPS and a known exploit available (and relatively easy to utilize), this is not an acceptable course in my opinion.

Oh well, looks like I'll just have to stock up on E6400/E6410 parts for the long haul I suppose.

 

former Apple employee maybe?

 

Don't get too worked up about it yet. We should be seeing M4800/M6800 before long which will be more like the traditional workstations.

 

Very well put.

Still, it would be nice to see Dell release a teaser about what we can expect from their flagship laptops. I just hope the M6800 does not look like the image we currently have of the M3800. It also leaves the question of what place the M4800 has in the Precision line up as the screen is the same size as the M3800.

 

Oh, i can answer that!

The reason the M3800 is 15" and not 14" doesn't have anything to do with the product lineup, it's a space and heat management restraint. That chassis is only 18mm thick and they need to have space inside for one 2,5" drive, two memory slots (it better not be soldered), wifi card, msata drive etc. Add two fans and a hefty battery and suddenly screen size is the last of your worries.

 

I see, thanks. So I wonder if this means that it will be the first precision with only two memory slots? I believe both the M4X00 and M6X00 have the option of up to four.

Does anyone know when Dell will make an official announcement on this? I am hoping it will at least give us a hint at what to expect from the M6800 and M4800.

 

It looks all right, would be better in 14" though. Precision laptops were very thick, which kept me buying them. The another problem, the crappy NVIDIA Quadro K1000M, what a hell 1232 3DMark11 points? The integrated HD4600 is much faster, but the new latitude's Radeon 8790M could be the most valuable in this thin case...