Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

The thread has been a really interesting read. I am still still on the fence regarding the screen. I will be using it mainly for running VMware workstation VM's and day to day infrastructure work ie RDP etc.

Are folk having difficulty running with the QHD screen and native res with these sort of applications?

Is the general consensus is to get the QHD screen and then drop the res to 1920 x 1080 if need be?

Thanks

 

These situations might make it harder to use the QHD+ screen as your guest VMs or RDP servers will also need to be set up with DPI scaling (or everything will be very tiny). Still, you can drop the resolution to 1080p if you like. It won't be quite as crisp as running an actual 1080p panel, but it will be just as usable as you expect it to be.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I think I might just play it safe and go with the 1080p screen, id hate to have to deal with it not being crisp as a standard panel.

Thanks

 

Dropping the resolution would be one option. Another would be to use a free (and awesome) app called Dexpot to create one or more separate virtual desktops that has the reduced resolution and put your scaling-incompatible apps there. That way they run acceptably but you still get the benefit of QHD+ for the apps that can utilize it properly. I haven't tested this personally, but someone else in the XPS 15 thread said it works well, and I can vouch for the general usefulness of Dexpot as a virtual desktop solution (it's like the Windows version of Apple's Mission Control, but more powerful).

Enabling DPI scaling in your VMs and targets would be an option, but at least for RDP you have to perform a registry hack on each target host to show the DPI scaling option, and of course once you make that change, if you RDP in from a regular resolution display, everything will be too large until you change it back.

 

Very interesting option.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4

 

Anyone else having an issue with the nvidia card. My laptop appears to have only been using the intel card, instead of the more powerful 1100. Dell tech has no options other then a motherboard replacement. Im not sure thats the problem.

 

The NVIDIA card is engaged on demand when the driver detects a suitable app is running. Try forcing it by right-clicking an application shortcut on the desktop (not the Metro desktop) and selecting "Run with graphics processor" to force it to use the NVIDIA GPU.

You can also go into the NVIDIA Control Panel under Manage 3D Settings and customize further.

 

After working with the QHD+ screen for months, I prefer it over the 1080 15.6" option that I have used in the past. When the software supports it, it is awesome. As I use the system over the next 3+ years, I expect for more and more software to catch up. Most of my software looks good now. Web looks great. Games and multimedia look great even if scaled.

My opinion is that the 1080 screen is what works with everything now. The QHD+ is the screen for what will be the norm 1-3 years from now.

 

Based on my experience with the M4800, I feel the same way.

 

After spending a day setting up, I finally have mine mostly running. I have the base model, instead of going with Dell's mSATA option, I chose to install my own (Plextor M5M, 128GB). Absolutely loving every part of this machine, I feel like Windows 8.1 comes so much more alive with touch input. I haven't been able to play around in CAD because of some licensing issues with PTC Creo, but gaming wise, I can vouch that the K1100M isn't dead in the water. Able to run World of Tanks at 60fps at fairly low settings, which is all I really wanted it to do, and it doesn't appear to have any significant heat problems. Realtemp recorded a maximum spike of 93C on the processor after a few games, and the processor was allowed to turbo. Much better than my is Lenovo Y470, that thing was a joke (hits 100C normally if allowed full load, this is even after a repaste, had to limit fps to 30 and do some funky under and overclocking to get it playable).

Couple of things that I haven't been able to confirm though.
Is NFC support on the M3800? I know the XPS 15 was marketed with it, but I don't see a driver for it on the M3800 page. I could pop the cover open now and try to look for it, but I don't know what I would be looking for.
Second, when I was installing drivers (I fresh installed Win8 using my own disk), I noticed there was a driver for a 3-axis accelerometer. Does anyone know what this is for? I would assume it's for the "Fast Response Free Fall Sensor", but I have no idea whether it's even relevant for me anymore since I am not using the Dell image and the primary OS is now an SSD.
Last I don't know if it's just me, but some text in some programs looks really defocused for some reason. I'm running the FHD screen (already a nice step up from my last 1366x768, agh), and I've already tried running ClearType tuner, which worked for a few but not all programs.