Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Thanks but I haven't asked any questions about the m3800 before. I don't know how I took the presence of the the fingerprint reader for granted on this kind of machine. My Vaio Z cost me 3000€ three years ago and I've been using the fingerprint reader ever since to log on to my vaio and to to all websites which require login. I just have to save my credentials for the site in the app and slide my finger over the fingerprint reader to login on my next visit.
I'm keeing the m3800 over the weekend to see if I can get used to the small keyboard but apparently I'm not managing it :-( I use the machine a a dev machine and this keyboad does not make thins easy for me. My vaio keyboard is way better and smoother. Another issue I have is the palm rest surface material or coating. Looks like this kind of coating is going to catch a fair amount of dirt and does not seem to be easy to clean. I don't even know what to use to clean this kind of surface and can't say how it will last. Any feedback from people with other dell laptops with this kind of material and a few month of age? XPS maybe?
Otherwise the laptop is working fine. No issues so far. I also miss the scrolling on the touchpad: when you're on the web and you just slide your finger along the right edge of the trackpad to scrll down. Now I have to go looking for the tiny Arrow keys ! Someoe mentioned synaotics drivers so I'm going to test that and see if I can get back the scrolling feature.
the QHD screen is great by the way.

 

Win8 has a few ways to simplify logon if you don't feel like typing a password and losing the fingerprint reader is an insurmountable inconvenience for you, including a PIN as well as a picture password. As for website credentials, use LastPass. Way more convenient when you're using another machine, useful for other stuff (Secure Notes, credentials shared with other accounts, etc), and has had its security design verified by security experts, whereas Wave Systems had an issue where their fingerprint-secured saved credentials were being stored in the registry in plaintext.

Not sure about cleaning the keyboard. I agree it's not the best "business-class" keyboard like the Latitudes and other Precisions that don't share designs with XPSes, but I don't find it terribly annoying. I'd start with basic water to avoid chemical reactions until it's clear what the material is and the information comes from a reliable source, i.e. not a random Dell phone rep.

As for scrolling, the Dell Touchpad software allows two-finger scrolling, which I actually prefer because with the edge scrolling I would often accidentally start scrolling when I just wanted to move my cursor up or down and my finger happened to be on the right-hand edge, whereas I never accidentally have two fingers on the touchpad. I adjusted to two-finger scrolling immediately and prefer it immensely. The Synaptics drivers let you enable either or both methods of scrolling though.

 

typing on a MacBook Pro in apple store right now. the keyboard is waaaay better. there os more space between buttons and the enter button is a bit bigger but usable. I just remembered the two finger scrolling when I started using the macbook here before reading your post. but I think the m3800 is going back as the keyboard is really not easy to use the way it is and it is positioned way near the screen far from the palm reste. I can type on the macbook without having to stretch my hand further near the screen. i took pics of the macbok pro and I'll post a side by side comparison.

 

Hello!

I'm thinking about buying a Dell m3800, but I'm unsure if it is the right time.
I have two questions and because there are many previous Dell owners here, maybe you can answer it.

1) Does Dell make changes to laptops, if they have certain issues.
The m3800 (and XPS15) may have the whining, but I think this could be corrected, if they change something in the production process.
On the other side, they could replace the mSATA (SSD) by a NGFF.2 port?

2) Does Dell offer additional options to an existing laptop after some time has passed?
I'm thinking here of a matte (anti-glare) display. Maybe they'll offer it (to premium) customers in the future? Any chances here?

Hope anybody can answer these question from his experience or maybe somebody with connection to Dell can give some insights?!

Regards
Sven

 

Dell can make changes to products if there are widespread complaints. The recent "Latitude 6430u cat urine smell" saga is a perfect example. Again, others may have a different experience or different expectations, but the whine I'm hearing is no different from the whine I've heard on several other laptops. It's quiet enough that typing or pretty much any other noise will drown it out, and even when I hear it, it's not especially irritating. It's just sort of white noise.

But if it bothers you, I'd wait a few months to get a replacement to increase the chances that your replacement unit will be fixed. Some people report success with replacements, but since new machines are still shipping with whine, replacement now might be a crap shoot. I personally won't bother with a replacement over this because replacing the motherboard is a major task, and these thin and light machines don't make it easier with their microscopic wires and connectors. I've had several cases where the work performed actually did more harm than good, either because the replacement part had some other issue or because something got dinged/damaged during the service. In fact I've got an extreme case of that going on right now with a brand new Inspiron 7437 that's supposed to be a Christmas present for my sister.

As for additional options, usually they're things like larger hard drives if they become available, and on higher-end machines, faster CPUs and GPUs as they become available; the latter is especially true on Alienware systems. I don't remember a case of them adding new display options post-launch (and I work with a LOT of Dell systems and keep an eye on them), but on this model specifically I wouldn't count on a matte display being offered. It would require not using the edge-to-edge glass, which would require redesigning the display assembly, would also ruin the chic look they're going for here, and might even require them not to have a touchscreen. But like I said earlier, the gloss actually isn't bad at all. The only time it became annoying was when I was sitting with my back to the enormous windows looking out on the runway at an airport on a sunny day, and even then it was more of an irritation than a total blocker. Under regular indoor conditions it's a non-issue. You can see some reflections if you focus on them, but if you're focusing on the screen content (which is in a different focal plane), your brain will naturally tune out the reflections.

They won't redesign the features on the motherboard though, so that mSATA port won't change to an NGFF port. And why would you want that right now? The only NGFF SSD I can find right now is an 80GB Intel unit....

 

Yes, in the sense of repairing design defects; slight different revs of the motherboard or even the case to fix things is very normal.

OTOH on a regular business-line machine (which the M3800 may or may not be) replacing the mSATA card with an NGFF.2 port would NOT happen as that's beyond the scope of what corporate IT would normally accept.

Because this is also an XPS, it's possible the range of changes will be larger, but I think it's more likely that if those happen at all they will only be on the XPS if at all.

Yes, quite routinely -- mostly small stuff like newer processors from the mid-generation refresh (most notably with Sandy Bridge e.g. i7-2720qm -> i7-2760qm), and larger disk drive capacities. New screen options are much less usual, but not unknown -- the Ivy Bridge XPS 13 got a 1920x1080 screen upgrade option partway through the product cycle, and I think the same may have been true for the Latitude E6430u.

None of these reflect any guarantee of anything changing with the M3800.

 

wow just went to the Canadian site and the m3800 is no longer for sale! lol! the setup i ordered just became available on Wednesday and here we are Saturday and the system is no longer for sale...maybe all the backup issues have Dell suspending sales? dont know.

 

The issue that is very disappointing about this new laptop is that the Warranty is only one year standard instead of the 3 years precision standard warranty. So they must not be very confident in their long term outlook of this laptop. You are essentially paying an extra 300.00 on top of this for a 3 year warranty, or are getting 300.00 less in value at this price point.

Ill pass.

 

Happened a while ago with the XT3 which alternated between open for sale on the web site and "contact sales" for a while.

 

I consider it more impressive than anything that Apple offers but I agree , 3 years should be standard on a high end laptop (like the Precision line).