Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

It depends on your eyesight. I'm running the QHD+ panel at 125%, and that's fine for me. 125% has the advantage that it doesn't suffer from the text blurriness issues that you get at non-standard DPIs, such as 150%. The problem I have is that Internet Explorer keeps changing the zoom level when I move windows between monitors - there seems to be no way to turn off that feature.

 

So apart from text sharpness, is there a big difference when presenting pictures on QHD+ Displays?

I want a 17" Laptop at the moment, but if a QHD+ Display is a real upgrade for photography related things like picture editing or showing my pictures to friends and family members - on a super high resolution screen - is much better, I could see myself going for a 15" Laptop instead.

 

In that case you'll be far, far better off with a 17" screen, and a 15" QHD+ makes no sense at all.

 

Really? I thought with everyone raving about Retina Displays and their crystal clear image quality, it would be a pleasure to watch pictures on it? (Never saw it mysel, mind you).
Can you explain?

 

It depends on what you mean by "presenting". If you'll be presenting to people individually and each person will be sitting directly in front of the display (and you're presenting high-res photography, of course) then yes the QHD+ panel should be noticeably sharper, just like the Retina Display. But if you'll be presenting to people who will be seated farther away than regular working distance, I agree with Pirx that a larger display would be better overall. It's the same reason that when viewing a 50" TV from a typical 7-8 ft away, 720p and 1080p aren't reliably distinguishable -- and also why 4K TVs make no sense whatsoever (even if you have 4K content) because you need a projection setup to tell the difference. Take a look at this: http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Now since you mentioned photo editing, there's a case for QHD+ to be made there. Of course on an FHD display you could always just zoom in more, so it's not as if QHD+ is necessary, but it would allow you to see more image area at a given level of sharpness compared to FHD.

 

I would actually vote for the QHD screen for showing pictures. The advantage to the 17" screen of course is it's bigger so you can see it while further back. If you are close to the screen the extra sharpness of the QHD is nice.

One non-photo benefit to the 17" 1080 screen is, at least for me, you don't have to bump the font sizes. Even with my 15" 1920x1200 screen I bumped the font sizes just a bit in Win7. That effectively reduces my screen area for working just a bit. With a 17" screen I could used the original/default font sizes and see everything just fine.

One note on that clarity, I find cleartype to be very annoying. I would rather have crisp, blocky fonts vs fuzzy slightly smoother fonts. More and more it's harder to avoid cleartype and some webpages are clearly picking fonts that only look good with cleartype. On something like a 17" screen running with no enlargement a character is not that many pixels tall. The cleartype fonts really mess with things at that scale. My aversion to cleartype is a non-issue with the QHD screens.

 

I'm a semipro photographer and also take my camera on every trip i do. When I visit my parents or friends i always bring my laptop with me to show where I've been and what i've done. If i would presenting it to more than two people I can still connect it to a flat screen TV.
I just don't know in what way QHD+ would be beneficial to me in photo editing and viewing compared to a 17" FHD model...(Also remember that 17" isnt THAT much bigger anyway. )

Edit: Thanks Regnad Kcin for your opinion. I like having a small discussion about the pro and cons before I buy...

 

So it looks like there is no real winner between a 17" IPS laptop and the 15" QHD+...both have good reasons for and against. hm

 

Today I noticed that my display shows the color yellow a little greenish.
Compare to my smartphone, my samsung laptop with fhd display, and other lcds on my desktop, the yellow is not displayed as true yellow.

My question is, is it worth spending ca 150 usd on spyder4 pro and try to calibrate the display?
I am on generic mode, not splendid. Everything else is perfect with the display, brightness distribution, viewing angles, contrast etc.

 

If your panel is the same at the LG panel on the M3800 reviewed by notebookcheck then you can try using their display profile. There's a link in the display section.

Or, if you want to go the Spyder route then consider whether the Spyder 4 Express adequately meets your needs. it's noticeably less expensive and will sort out the colour balance but lacks all the options of the more expensive versions. I picked on up last year at a reasonable price and it's done an excellent job on my displays.

John