Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I haven't noticed anything quite as severe as what you described above, but I tend not to use the trackpad much. Most of the time my laptop is parked at my desk with its lid closed, and when I travel I usually have my (awesome) Logitech Performance Mouse MX with me. I didn't used to bother, but I had a few too many occasions where I initially sat down using the touchpad, finally decided to take 10 seconds to connect an external mouse, and was always blown away at how much more quickly I could work as a result -- and that's despite the fact that I'm already a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts.

Anyway, fwiw, in my Synaptics configuration I only enabled two-finger scrolling, pinch zoom, rotating, and three-finger flick. Everything else is disabled, including more commonly used stuff like EdgeMotion and tap-to-click. For clicking, left is Primary, right is Secondary, two-finger is Middle. The more features like that you can live without, the better your touchpad experience will probably be.

 

Yeah, I have that Performance Mouse MX as well, and you are right, it is incredible . I am much more of a touchpad guy though, as I like to move around to different places where a mouse can't always be used. I enjoy the convenience of having my laptop actually in my lap, which makes using a mouse pretty much out of the question during that time. I actually followed what you said above as far as what all you disabled in Synaptics (you posted that earlier in this thread), and while that did help, it still felt like I was fighting with the touchpad rather than just simply using it. I have spent the last two days trying everything I could to get this touchpad to where I was just semi-comfortable with it, and it has been an effort in futility.

If I didn't need to use the touchpad so much, then I would definitely be taking a much longer look at this machine, but as it stands right now, I will probably just return it and stick with my MacBook Pro for the foreseeable future.

Thanks again for your help, and I really am happy for all of the people who are able to enjoy their M3800s!

 

Has anyone else noticed that their track pad and the area where their wrists rests when typing are discoloring?

 

Yep, discussed on the XPS 15 Wiki. Water seems to help, but given how quickly mine started to discolor, I'm not going to bother. Too much of a losing battle.

 

The biggest thing I have noticed with the touchpad is that it does not respond to a finger nail. I had a habit of right clicking with the end of my finger nail or top of the nail. The M3800 broke that habit.

 

I did this to my touchpad. Amazing how it feels and works now. just don't use any water or solvent with the film. I wrote earlier in this thread:

just to share a quick mod. I kept my m3800 as dell wouldn't take it back and I'm getting used to it. I'm still missing the fingerprint sensor for password management.
The quick mod is using a screen protecter to protect the touchpad from wear and tear. I used a spare screen protector I bought from zagg a while ago (invisibleshield) and cut it to the size of the touchpad. It's working fine and not interfering with the touch functions. I was inspired by this site after a Google search: TectY, PC Laptop Touchpad Protector Skin
Important: Don't use any liquid to apply the screen protector as this will certainly kill you laptop.

 

what is the battery percentage showing on your factory setup?
I reinstalled mine with Win 8.1 and battery shows 100%. I installed all the drivers but no Dell apps. On my older VAIO it never reaches 100%. It was limited to 80% due to a battery overcharge protection function. Not sure the M3800 implements this kind of protection.

 

Any modern li-ion battery has circuitry to prevent overcharge damage without having to restrict itself below 100%; instead, the battery reaches 100% and then stops charging for a while. Then when self-discharge kicks in, it will allow itself to be topped up to 100% again.

However, if you WANT to restrict the battery charge level to something below 100% and prevent that constant top-off, the M3800 has BIOS-level settings to limit the maximum charge level and prevent charging occurring until the charge drops to a specified level. That can lengthen your battery's long-term ability to retain more of its charge capacity because charging batteries up to their maximum level, constantly holding them there, and only discharging them slightly before connecting them to AC again all shorten a battery's longevity. Therefore, I've got mine set to stop charging at 80% and then not charge again until it drops to 50%. The battery takes several weeks to self-discharge down to 50%, during which time the system is using AC power only to run the system, with the battery essentially disconnected. The default BIOS mode is "Adaptive", which apparently monitors your usage patterns and adjust these parameters appropriately -- but since I don't use that mode, I can't comment on how well it works.

The only feature I wish these systems had is a "Charge to 100% once" function so that if I really wanted my battery's full capacity temporarily, I could get it without having to reboot, reconfigure the BIOS, and then revert to my regular configuration later. Other Dell systems that button, but those systems don't have the adaptive charging strategy option. Maybe they're mutually exclusive for some reason.

 

thanks for the info.

 

I Need a hard sleeve case and a cooling pad. Anyone bought these accessories?