Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Well its only a small thing really, but monitors each have independant DPI scaling. On windows 7, if you have 200% scaling on the XPS, so will a 24" 1080p monitor that could be used as a external monitor.

That and the fact Metro apps look pretty great at full res, which you don't get the option of in W7.

 

Hello!

Thanks for all the previous interesting information.

For me the most interesting thing is the screen. Because it seems that you can only get a glossy (touch)screen,
I want to know, if it does reflect heavily.
Can anybody compare the reflection factor with the MacBookPro retina (because I know this one) or any other laptop?

Any chance to order this laptop with a matte screen? I saw, that the m4800 can be ordered with an anti-glare screen
with the same QHD+ resolution.

Another interestings point would be, if the resolution (FHD vs. QHD) measurably influence the battery run-time.

Any ideas?

 

There is already a comparison photo a couple of pages previous.

No matte screen option (so far).

Seeing as the QHD screen is IGZO it should consume less power I think.

 

Not expecting a matte option to appear in the M3800. You can get it in the M4800. Looks like M4800 doesn't support Optimus with the QHD+ screen for some reason (M3800 does), so you'd lose a bit of battery life there....

 

I would without a doubt get the QHD+ screen. It is bright, clear, very good color accuracy, etc. Compared to rMBP (I am on M4800) I would say the rMBP screen is more vibrant (probably due to glossy) but it is negligible for daily use.

For me, I am in a pickle with the M4800. Without Optimus battery is essentially garbage. On the 9 cell I can't even do much more than 4.5 hours with 1 Microsoft Word document open, 1 PDF, and 2 tabs on 1 browser with brightness at around 40%, power saver, and GPU locked on minimum clock speed. Even on the cMBP (sig) which is rated for 7 hours I can get close to 10 hours (I am a very, very conservative user on battery).

So far there are no confirmations of Optimus on any config (K2100 or K1100 and QHD or FHD) the M4800. We have confirmation of Enduro on M6800, but you can't even order the FirePro with the QHD screen on Premier. Hoping there will be a BIOS update before Friday fixing this.

 

Hi,
first, thanks for all the great info. This is really the best source I could find on the net.
I'm a professional photographer and almost sure I'll order the M3800 to work on the road.

I just somehow don't get the storage upgrade options it has
(mSata max 512GB, 1TB 2,5'' etc) in combination with the two battery types.
Would someone be so kind and summarize the options I have with both batteries.
Ideally I'd like to upgrade to a 1TB 2,5'' SSD and have an option for a second drive (mSata?).
(I need a lot of storage)

thank you!

 

Hmm, that could indeed be useful in certain applications, but it's not relevant for my own usage, at all.

You're kidding, right? Why in all the world would anybody want to use any "Metro apps"? Certainly there's exactly zero of those that would be suitable for any kind of real work...

 

You will always have the mSATA option. If you get the larger battery, you lose the option to have a standard 2.5" drive.

 

9 cell battery - One mSata drive. Up to 512GB as of Nov 2013
6 cell battery - One mSata drive up to 512GB + One 2.5" drive up to 1TB as of Nov 2013.

 

Thanks a lot!
This really looks like a nice machine. I've been using Thinkpads so far but getting tired
of their weight.
Now I only hope Adobe is figuring out the HiDpi Scaling in Win Photoshop soon.
Comments in Adobe forums by their staff memebers don't really look that promising..