Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I’d say that discussing touchpad on a PC might not be complete without mentioning the respective version of Windows. I don’t think many people with a Mac hold on to basically a five-years-old OS…

 

Anyone know why on the Dell driver download page for the M3800 the NVidia Driver "A01" is dated Dec 30 2014 but the "A02" driver is dated about a year ago Jan 2014. I just installed the A01 without realizing that it might actually be an older version.

Also, what happened to the Intel video drivers?

 

It looks like A02 is the only one marked as an "Dell ISV Certified". So maybe Dell decided to release some sort of certified version that had gone through more rigorous testing that was only recently completed, which would explain why the more recently posted driver has an older date and version number. If so, it seems you can choose between an older but Dell-certified driver, or a newer driver that isn't as much of a known quantity.

Or you could just get the drivers straight from NVIDIA.

Can't explain the disappearance of the Intel drivers. But on the XPS 15 driver page there's now a driver package for a Dell WiFi card, whereas all XPS 15s still seem to use the Intel 7260, so maybe it's just a database glitch. That XPS 15 page does still list the Intel graphics driver though, so you could always download it from there. Alternatively, the latest WHQL-certified Intel driver version can be obtained through Windows Update, I believe, though that may be significantly older than Intel's latest. And lastly, even though the installer included with the reference Intel package won't install, you can apparently load them manually through Device Manager.

 

Some news about XPS15/M3800: "Dell's larger XPS 15 hasn't received an upgrade, per se -- it's the same design as ever -- but it does have a spanking new 4K screen option. That's "coming soon," says Dell, with a starting price of $2,349. Ouch!"

Dell's nearly bezel-less XPS 13 is about as small as an 11-inch laptop

 

I’ve come to the conclusion, some time ago, that there is no point whatsoever not to install Nvidia’s latest ‘ODE’ driver. From what I have found, Dell does not modify Nvidia drivers in any meaningful way, and I have a hunch it is Nvidia who does most (if not all) of their testing, anyway. Just my two cents.

 

Given all the HDPI problems I've had with the 3200x1800, I can't decide whether going up to 3840x2160 would be a good thing (since things would scale to 1920x1080) or whether it would make it worse.

I'm still very happy with the current i7-4702 cpu -- not so much with the GPU, and am doubtful that DDR3 16gb SO-DIMMs will ever become common/affordable so it doesn't matter much whether the i7-5xxxHQ chips support them. I hope Skylake quad cores make it by the end of this year.

 

Interesting on the screen upgrade. I can't decide if I'm jealous or not. I'm typically a resolution junky but I have found that at least some programs don't deal well with the high resolution. Sadly, Solidworks is one that needs some help. I also don't know if at 15.6" 4k vs 3.2k crosses into the pointless category. It's like when I read about a cell phone with a DPI that's 50% higher than the original iPhone retina display. Sure if I get really close I can see the pixels but for me, Apple was right, more doesn't help at all. It seems like a spec war at this point.

That said, if Dell wants me to try the new one... I would be happy to give it a shot!

 

Yes, I dont think it's worth to spend money on this one with just upgraded display. They could have upgraded the processor and GPU and improve the cooling system, instead of just putting a new panel with an outdated GPU. The GT 750M throttled, from time to time, so badly, and I wonder how it will handle the new 4k resolution display....

The new 4k panel might be the same that is found on the Asus zenbook NX500 and Toshiba Satellite P50t-B-10T. Compared to the 1800p it may have better viewing angles and a higher coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, but the 1800p on the current XPS15/M3800 is much brighter (the brightest I've ever seen on a laptop) and has a higher contrast ratio.

 

i just bought a dell m3800 from outlet when they have new year sale. But today when I received it , on the palmrest there is a tag saying it is xps 15 and the name tag on the undercover also says xps 15. but windows 8 system recognize it as m3800. the video card is also 1100M. Anyone has the same issue?

 

boot into the BIOS and see what it says ?