Dell Precision M3800 - 2013!

Nobody offers a 10 bit UHD display. Yet!

 

The i7 4702 looks like it is a little faster than the 55 watt 2960xm and little slower than the 45 watt 3720qm. Power and tdp dropping from 55w to 45 to 37 seems like that progression you were talking about towards thinner.

The connectivity will be the bigger trade off.

 

What do you mean? Docking or wifi?

 

I'd bet the number and type of ports on the laptop itself.

A M4700/M6700 sports two USB 3.0, two USB 3.0, one eSATA/USB, one IEEE 1394, VGA, Display Port, HDMI, SD card reader, Expresscard 54 and RJ45. That is an awful lot of ports compared to what the M3800 offers. The M4800/6800 drop the firewire port, but keep the rest, so again, a lot more ports.

 

If I''m not mistaken, wasn't it Dell's original intention to dismiss all ports save DP?

Similarly, I recall hearing Apple had the same idea in mind for Thunderbolt. Then let the buyer simply connect from there.

 

Where, exactly, would they put any more ports than they already have? The bodies are exactly the same.

All they could do would be to give one extra USB 3.0 as opposed to the one USB 2.0 that is currently there. This is not the same class of laptop as a m4700 or a m6700. Portability was prioritized over connectivity, hence no RJ-45 built in.

 

WiFi in the office is now 300mbps, and I am sure that 867mbps will be possible if the M3800 has an 802.11ac capable card. This is closing in on gigabit Ethernet in speed, but that speed is not guaranteed with many people using the same Access Point in one area of a building.

Connecting Ethernet through the USB port is not a big deal. It is one more thing that could break or get lost, but not a huge deal.

From the siggraph pictures, the M3800 has 4 USB ports. All of them appear to have the charging lightning bolt next to them which should mean 2000ma charging. 3 of them appear to have SS next to them which should mean USB3.

Also from the pics, the M3800 has HDMI, DisplayPort, and an SD card reader. Assuming that it is HDMI 1.4, it should do 4K video at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps. Assuming that it has DisplayPort 1.2, you should be able to daisy chain four 1080/1200p displays or two 4k displays with the single connection.

The Dell USB3 dock has most of the connections I would use (Ethernet, audio, USB, etc), but does not have the video capabilities to be used with my U3014 (2560x1600) display. The U3014 does support DP 1.2 and HDMI 1.4, so I have some extra options there. With the USB3 dock and pair of U3014 monitors, I would have to make 3 connections for desktop use - power, USB3 dock, miniDP. This config still leaves the HDMI open for screens like the U2410 that are not DP1.2.

3 connections for desktop use is not bad. I am just used to the immediate docking of the E-Port dock. With 3 connections it might take an extra 15 seconds to dock. When I really think it through, it is not that bad.

 

Why the departure from the tradition docking configuration?

 

Hey, I'm not complaining about it, just illustrating the difference between the 3800 and x700/x800 series.

 

The new XPS 15 tapers from 18mm to 8mm and probably has a very similar chassis to the M3800.
Low profile RJ-45 ports are available <10mm, so packaging one in is possible.
This leads me to believe that the XPS 15 was the priority design (makes sense based on volume), didn't spec an Ethernet port, and the M3800 is opportunistically taking advantage of the chassis to test the thin/light portable workstation market.
If the Precision team had been the driving the platform they probably would have found a way to get an RJ45 port into the chassis.

Didn't they use to sell PCMCIA Ethernet cards which had push-push pop-out jacks?
Probably not robust enough for most, but still a creative solution...