Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

So after a week of using mine, i like it a lot. My only issue with it now is that i had received a defective unit.

For some reason when i open/close the lid - the laptop shuts off. I have also noticed the top left area of the touchscreen has some flickering.

I loaded Win8.1 adjusted my settings to have the laptop sleep when the lid is closed, but whenever i turn it back on - the thing does a cold boot. I suspect this is due to the problem above where the laptop shuts off when the lid is closed.

My rep will be exchanging a new one and i had requested an upgrade to the 512GB msata for the delay in shipping, receiving a defective unit, and now waiting for supply for a new unit.


I am glad Dell is working with me on this though.


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Hi,

I have just received an M3800 demo unit from Dell, and at first glance it's an amazing laptop! I have noticed one deal-breakingly disturbing issue which i hope is a design flaw, and this laptop is a first-batch model or something..

Underneath the laptop, there are airvents in the carbon, and underneath the right side of the laptop, I can see a fan through the vents. If i press slightly on the carbon that covers the fan, that fan starts rattling against the cover, and even a light press stops the fan from spinning. Is this also happening for anyone else?

I usually carry my laptops with my right hand, which always triggers a very loud rattle now. Luckily this is a demo unit.

I haven't found a single trace on the interwebs of somebody talking about this, so my hope is that this demo model really is one of the first batches and has been fixed since.

Kind regards,

Bart

 

I'm considering buying an M3800 and have a few questions I'm hoping someone can answer.

I need to get a laptop pretty quickly, so only the most inexpensive model is an option for me, as the others all say the estimated shipping date is mid-March. I also have reservations about the QHD+ display of the other models, so even if they were available I might still go with the most inexpensive one.

Questions:

1. The M3800 comes with a matte display, correct? The dell rep I chatted to online said it did, but since I don't see it stated on the product page I'd like to double check with someone.

2. The hard drive is listed as being a "500GB 2.5” Solid State Hybrid Drive." What does "Hybrid" mean? Is it a HDD combined with a SSD? Does it not perform as well as a "real" SSD?

3. Are the memory and hard drive upgradable on the M3800? I might want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB at some point, and if the "hybrid" SSD isn't as fast as a "real" SSD, I might want to put in a new drive.

4. The battery life isn't listed anywhere on Dell's website, but I found a review that said it lasted up to 10 hours. Is that accurate?

Thank you!

 

As far as I know the screen is glossy/touch not matte (though probably with an "anti-glare" coating).

Hybrid means a regular drive paired with some speedy cache (basically a small SSD, but accessible only to the HDD). The drive controller will "learn" what files are accessed frequently and decide what to cache on it's own (for speedy reads), and some cache will be used to speed up writes.

Yes, you can upgrade the drive and memory - look up the owners manual - you'll need a torx bit to get the bottom cover off.

For the battery, probably not, but maybe if you're really efficient and lean heavily on Optimus.


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Just to expand on this basically perfect response, the display is glossy, about the same as the current MacBook Pro. It's not as reflective as some earlier glossy laptops were, but it's definitely not matte. The only time I've found the gloss distracting is when I was at an airport and had my back to large floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the runway on a sunny day AND intentionally leaned off to the side to make the light shine directly on the display. Other than that, yes you'll see reflections in the display under normal usage if you force yourself to focus on them, but once you start working on it, your brain naturally tunes them out because they're in a different focal plane than the display content, so it's a non-issue. And this may not apply to the FHD display in the low-spec model, but the QHD+ panel is also so bright that it can counter pretty much any glare you'd see anyway. I find it so bright that I use it at no more than 60% brightness ever. Every other laptop display I've used has always been at 100%.

The hybrid hard drive is definitely not as fast as a real SSD -- but then it's nowhere near as expensive either. The hybrid drive has an 8GB SSD cache built into the drive itself (as opposed to other specs that have that drive AND a 32GB mSATA SSD cache unit). That cache is invisible to the system and is managed exclusively by the drive itself. If you search "Seagate hybrid hard drive review" you can find benchmarks. The consensus is that they're worth upgrading from regular hard drives because the performance boost is noticeable (after it learns what files to keep in cache, which can take a while) and the cost over a regular hard drive is negligible, but they're still nowhere near full SSD speeds. But you can always add an mSATA SSD later if you choose since that slot will be available on your spec.

Don't expect anywhere near 10 hours of battery life under what most people would consider light typical use. Most people are reporting about 4 hours on the 61 WHr battery that comes with the spec you're looking at. Of course your mileage will vary, but this is definitely NOT a laptop intended for all-day battery life. It's a high-performance laptop that just happens to be thin and light and offer reasonable battery life.

 

Hi Guys,

i'm following this thread since weeks and ordered my m3800 at 23.december. i already got an e-mail from dell where they told me that the delivery date will be extended from end of january to february the 5th. ok, no big deal, only a few days until i got another e-mail today. They are now telling me that my delivery date will be extended to the 19.March ! i was shocked and i'm feeling a bit deceived. i really need the laptop at the beginning of february and was wondering if i have any chance to make them sure that i will get my laptop in that time. I read that some of you had this problem, but in this scale ? I can't and don't want to wait 3 F*!/ing months to get my laptop. Sorry for my manner of expression but this message is hitting me hard.

 

Call up and complain. Stay polite but be firm. You may be able to get a discount at least.


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Thank you both so much for your replies. I'm really glad I asked about the screen, then, since the person I chatted with on the website said the screens were matte!

Do you find that you are able to use the laptop outdoors, or is there too much glare with the glossy screen?

Are you both happy overall with your M3800's? Do you feel like it was a good choice?

 

I don't actually have an M3800, I've just been following the thread. My old machine died on me, and I ended up ordering an M4800 before the 3800 was available yet. I'm happy with my choice - I'll take the extra weight for the extra horsepower and a matte screen.


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Aside from my unit being defective, the only gripes I have about this thing are:

1. No pause/break key
2. No levels of dimming for keyboard, it's an on or off state
3. Keyboard could be more softer, sometimes my keys do not register as I do not strike it hard enough.
4. 61kWh battery drains really fast. My screen is usually at about 30-40% and I only do light web surfing/web page editing. With full charge, I get about 3 hours of use with "High performance" enabled. 4 hours using balanced, and 4.5 hours with battery saving plan activated. The battery saving plan sucks, everything lags - even wifi, i'm sure I can adjust this within Window's power plan.

Overall, I am still please with it. It's construction - the body is solid. I have not experienced the issue that an earlier poster had posted regarding holding the laptop on the right side with the fan making noise. The vents, where the fan is, is very sturdy on mine.