Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

bought this sleeve case. arrived today. m3800 does not fit in. I'm sending it back.
Belkin F7P131vfC00

Belkin F7P131vfC00 Housse simili cuir avec fermeture aimentée pour ultrabook, Macbook jusqu'au 15" Noir: Amazon.fr: Informatique

 

I had a tough time finding a sleeve that would fit (and not be too bulky) when I had the M3800 as well.

After lots of searching, here are two that I found that seemed like the best fit:

Amazon.com: Samsonite Aramon NXT 15.6 Inch Laptop Sleeve, Black, One Size: Clothing
Amazon.com: Manhattan Portage Nylon Laptop Sleeve (Black, 15-Inch): Sports & Outdoors

Somebody on these forums said that this MacBook Pro sleeve fit his Precision M3800 like a glove, so this may be an option as well:

Collins Sleeve II - Charcoal | Brenthaven.com

I personally HATE neoprene (I much prefer nylon), but that seems to be what the bulk of these sleeves are made of now days. The Samsonite case above is neoprene, while the Portage case is nylon.

Hope this helps.

 

I have the Acme Made Skinny Sleeve Protective Case with StretchShell Neoprene for MacBook Pro 15-Inch - Matte Black and it looks more like rubber than neoprene. Fits the xps15 & m3800 perfectly.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

well I don't want a zipper. I prefer something like the Belkin. Dell do make a neoprene one with a zipper.



And I want something the exact size of the m3800 as I have another bigger case where the sleeve one should fit.

 

I'm not really sure what I can tell you that you don't already know about the two options you're considering. I guess it comes down to how you value being able to use that SSD (and have the possibility of running dual drives) compared to having 50% more battery life. You could always buy the mid-tier option and upgrade the battery later on, but then you've written off the value of the 61 WHr unit unless you can find a buyer. Or you could just sell the Sandisk SSD now....

If you do get the mid-tier version and install the Sandisk SSD, obviously remove the mSATA cache, btw.

 

Finally got my m3800. What can I say about this wonderful machine that hasn't already been said. It's amazingly quiet compared to my old Studio XPS 16 which often sounded like a jet engine. It never seems to get too overly hot. The build quality is top notch. Dell really knocked it out the park.

A couple of gripes.

The keyboard leaves something to be desired. It's not bad, but the super-tiny arrow keys and missing Home/End/PgUp/PgDn buttons (You gotta use Fn to use them) is somewhat baffling. There is so much room on the computer that they could have easily made them bigger and shifted them down like on the Studio XPS 16. I'm still getting used to it. I don't think it's a deal killer, but I do hope I get used to it in time.

While the trackpad is nowhere near as horrendous as the trackpad on the Lenovo W540/T540 that I've been using for a few weeks, it is not exactly great. It's very very particular. It doesn't register my middle finger because I'm missing part of it so I can't do 2-finger scrolling on it. To be fair, this happens with a lot of trackpads, but the MacBook registers my finger fine, why can't this one? Who makes the trackpad for Macbooks... is it Synaptics? And why aren't all trackpads as good???

I hope a driver update fixes the trackpad sensitivity (or lack thereof) issue. I've tried all the settings in control panel for it.

Other than that. I am a very very happy user.

 

Does anyone have a phone number for Dell corporate offices? Is there a Dell representative active on the board or in this thread?

I have returned my troubled M3800s several weeks ago....WEEKS NOT DAYS...WEEKS - Dell not only wont credit my account back but continue to attempt to withdraw funds DESPITE the fact that they themselves confirm I DONT own anything from Dell and I DONT owe them anything - and when u get to a point of trying to clear up this issue for WEEKS its become disgraceful. Not only have I not had any funds credited back to my account..but given that Dell confirms that I dont owe anything, and dont own anything, they continue to attempt to withdraw further funds from my account. Its clear, that short of speaking to someone within Dell's executive level, Im not going to get repeated attempts to withdraw further funds from my account to stop...nor will I be receiving my funds back from Dell. Seems as though without someone higher up straightening this out, its not going to get straightened out because the "left hand, doesnt seem to know what the right hand is doing" over there.

I would really appreciate some help - any help on this because I have been a huge fan of Dell's customer support until now but never imagined that things would reach this level of incompetence!

Thanks

 

Update: Sent you a PM.

 

Hello guys, i am looking into buying one of these for work/gaming and i am wondering if this is due to be replaced. I am asking this because first of all the seem to be on sale atm and Dell has withdrawn the XPS 15 (9530) from the sales. I asked on the online chat and the guy said that the XPS 9530 is getting replaced so i am assuming this is due to a replacement also?

What is the general opinion on this machine btw?

 

I can't answer much about the general opinion. MY opinion is that the machine is really light, like half as my previous laptop was (which my shoulders thank me for when I am travelling). It's also very fast with things that use the CPU. On the GPU side, I haven't used much the Nvidia card because of the Optimus issues in Linux, but coil whine aside, the Intel one is fine for day to day activities (not for GPU-heavy tasks such as serious CAD or serious gaming). And the resolution has spoiled me. Font rendering is so beautiful that now I can't use any "LoDPI screen" (I should patent that term) without taking a deep breath first.