Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Many thanks for such a complete answer.

I certainly agree that from a vision perspective there is no merit in going QHD and there will be a variety of hassles from QHD, such as logging in and out, etc.

That having been said, much of the time I will use an external monitor so the QHD problems will be an intermittent rather than continual hassle.

I guess the downsides of the FHD option that I am pondering are:

1) It is more about $175 more expensive to get the FHD than the QHD if you want everything else to be top spec (at least in the UK), since you “pay” for the ability to do a Custom Build

2) You can only choose the i7-4702HQ processor for a Custom Build, not the i7-4712HQ that is in the pre-configured options. The i7-4712HQ was launched 12 months after the i7-4702HQ so I assume it is “better”, although I cannot quantify that

3) As I understand it the technology of the FHD panel (TN) is not as good as the QHD panel (similar to IPS) – hard to get a handle on this issue as all external reviewers have the QHD, as do most people on this forum

4) I have a general concern that in a couple of years’ time when the industry has moved to High DPI displays as standard, this is something I may regret

 

2. According to notebookcheck the 4712 runs 100MHz faster. That's not a difference you would notice without a stopwatch.

3. The FHD panel may be a form of TN but the M3800 FHD panel has excellent viewing angles. IPS is one form of technology for better viewing angles but there are others (I'm currently staring at an AUO AHVA panel).

4. Even if manufacturers move to QHD in a couple of years and the software companies tweak their software accordingly there's going to be a big financial cost of movement to the new standard. If Microsoft introduce different display scaling for each application then we could take advantage of the higher resolution while retaining compatibility with older programs. If Microsoft don't pull that white rabbit out of their hat then I'll be slow to embrace technology which will require keeping a magnifying glass close to hand and will keep the very high dpi displays for tablets which I hold much closer to my eyes.

Footnote: I'm currently using a 14" FHD E7440 at 125% scaling and if my eyes complain too much then an FHD M3800 (or XPS 15) with big battery may be the next option. increasing display scaling is not a fix for some of my old programs.

John

 

This is a long-shot, but is there any chance the i7-4712HQ processor fixes the issue of the “scratching noise when scrolling” vs. the i7-4702HQ processor? Not the coil whine, I know that is separate and looks like it has been addressed with the revised motherboard.

I guess that would be one rationale to go with the pre-configured units to get the revised processor.

 

As the Custom Build units use the older i7-4702HQ Processor, does that have any impact on whether you receive the old or revised motherboard (revised to address coil whine)?

I don’t understand the technical details as to whether the motherboard and processor come separately or as one unit?

If it is one unit, it could be they are using older (unrevised) motherboards from unused stock with the i7-4702HQ Processor, which may increase chances of getting the coil whine issue?

 

The 4702HQ uses FCBGA1364 packaging and the "BGA" means soldered.

How would the price of this refurb unit on ebay compare with a custom order?

John

 

John. I currently use a 14” E7440 with 1920x1080 glossy touch screen.

I like the screen quality a lot and I understand the screen uses IPS technology.

Would you care to hazard a guess as to whether the FHD M3800 screen would be noticeably worse in terms of quality (and less importantly touch capability) as it uses TN technology (leaving aside the obvious point it is bigger!)?

 

Thanks, so reading between the lines are you saying as it is soldered there is a chance a Custom Build with an i7-4702HQ processor may come with the old motherboard?

At the risk of displaying tech ignorance, I guess I don’t know at what point the processor is soldered onto the motherboard to understand whether it is possible for the revised motherboard to be paired with the older i7-4702HQ processor in newly manufactured units.

Many thanks for showing the unit on ebay. I think I would prefer to get a new unit which should eliminate the chance of getting the coil whine and besides I don’t have the IT capability to replace the SSD to be the 512GB I want.

 

It's soldered on at Dell's factory (or maybe their motherboard supplier's factory), so you absolutely can get a revised motherboard with the old CPU -- that's exactly what people such as myself who have requested motherboard replacements have been getting.

As for the displays, paying $175 for a lesser display is tough to swallow, but if it makes for a better ownership experience, I can see a case for it. I don't remember anyone here saying they've seen both the FHD and QHD+ panels of this system, so you may not find a comparison, but people here who seem knowledgeable about displays have agreed that the FHD panel performs far better than your typical TN panel with respect to color accuracy and viewing angles, fwiw -- I think not quite as good as the RGBLED displays in some Precisions, but that's a very high bar.

 

I suspect your E7440's panel is the LG (IPS is an LG technology). I wouldn't get hung up about whether the panel is IPS or TN or some other technology provided the brightness, contrast and viewing angles are good. IPS just happened to be the first of the widely marketed better viewing angle technologies. See Pirx's comments about the FHD display. He spent a long time trying to figure out whether it was worth getting before he placed an order.

As for the FHD vs QHD+ debate, I'm another person who would be reluctant to go to QHD or higher knowing that anything I run that isn't display scaling aware (and I have some old programs in my collection) may be impossibly small or have formatting problems. I'm still trying to get to grips with FHD + 125% scaling on my E7440 (which, in theory should result in almost the same size text as 100% scaling on the 1600 x 900 15" panel of my Samsung NP900X4C) but some things seem smaller. So those who say they aren't ready for QHD have my understanding and support.

John

 

Through a stroke of luck I actually just got an E7440 as a work machine to replace my E6430, and I have to say I love it. I was hired about a month before the E7440 became the new standard, and I was really bummed out. I consider the E6430 as having come from Dell's "Dark Ages" with respect to styling, which began (on the Latitude line) with the E6x20s and which they're finally starting to pull out of with their more recent offerings like the new XPSes and Latitude/Inspiron 7000 Series systems. The E7440 is a huge improvement in that regard as well as being much smaller, lighter, and (I think) having a better keyboard. My E6420 also had the cramped and generally crappy 1366x768 display, so getting the 1080p IPS display here is a huge step up. Anyway, I've currently got it set to 100% scaling, though I'm still deciding whether I want to bump it up. Things are a bit small, but I like the real estate and not having to deal with switching the scaling setting when I dock the system.

I was going to look up the vendor of the E7440's 1080p display on our internal tool, but it seems it's down at the moment, possibly for weekend maintenance/upgrades. I'll report back if I find out.