Dell Precision M3800 - 2013!

Yeah, I was trying to customize the M4800 to 32 GB of RAM, but there's no option for it!

And only 256 GB SSD??!?!?!? Seriously?!?

 

Those two things you might be better off adding yourself anyway, assuming that's an option for you.

 

For example?

You should have said the biggest advantage over thin and light since that pretty much applies to all of them.

Actually, we do--since the laws of physics still apply: Cutting down on space means soldered rather than modular. And remember, Dell is after the same market that caters to Apple, where the things you mentioned above does not seem to matter.

 

It looks easy enough to remove the bottom panel from the system. Hopefully they'll make it a little easier to replace certain components (battery, memory, disk) than it is in the rMBP. Some things like the GPU I wouldn't be surprised (or too disappointed) to see soldered. Anyway, we won't know until someone actually gets one and opens it up.

 

The hard drive should be a standard 2.5" unit (they wouldn't be able to offer a platter drive otherwise.)
I'd be willing to bet that the ram isn't soldered on. I would also be willing to bet that the case will be relatively easy to get into and the battery will be user serviceable but obviously not replaceable without opening the case.

 

I'm not entirely sure what part of my statement you're referring to. I think it's pretty obvious that the available options for M4800 configurations currently available is pretty limited. Some countries are worse than others. I also think it's pretty obvious that the sitauation will improve over time to be more like the customizability in the M4700 store.

Fair enough, but not all thin and light laptops are as unconfigurable as the rMBP, and not all fat laptops are as user serviceable as the M4800.

There are certainly many physical limitations to configurability at the moment, but Apple goes above and beyond those. The battery is glued to the unibody chassis. Several thin laptops have batteries that are hard to access, but still user removable inside the chassis if capacity has decreased. The flash drive in the rMBP uses a special connection. As far as I know OWC still offers the only drive that can be used as a replacement. Expanding storage and replacing old batteries are among the most important services I want to perform on a laptop if I want it to have a long life.

 

Yeah, but it's still possible to design a powerful and thin laptop. Economically not viable though..

 

To an extent, yes, but you can only cut on the space so much before you start running into heat issues if you want a standard fan + heastink cooling scheme.

 

Just as an fyi, the new HP zbook14 has a removable bottom panel which let's you access hdd/ssd, ram and battery. Pretty neat little setup they have and maybe a clue as to how to allow serviceability in a semi-ultrabook form factor.

Link to video showing back cover removed: http://www.slashgear.com/hp-zbook-14-hands-on-the-worlds-first-workstation-ultrabook-10297125/

To me workstation users expect a certain degree of in field serviceability that requires easy access to at least these components. I am betting that HP, Lenovo and Dell all get that and this philosophy will make it into the entry level workstations as well.


Sent from my HTC

 

As much as it pains me to integrate with the thin and light bots, I must say I'm impressed. HP has done a lot and only sacrificed the optical drive. And with mSATAs now available with over 400GBs, it should be one impressive machine. I also like that both RAM dims are front and center.

But just so that no one thinks I've gone totally soft, I still hate those chiclet keyboards. The guy that oked that should be tar and feathered.

Ps BTW, am I missing something or did they really take away the Batman signal HP glowing logo?