Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

This new forum software seems to not like my flash blocker...

Anyway, I saw what he said. He says it's really sharp. What isn't clear to me is if that is because the new system handles things as a 1:2 pixel map (the way very old laptops handled these things) or if it handles it just as the older M3800 did but the higher resolution simply hides the blur. For example, at half scale let's say a 1 pixel wide black line is mapped to 4 pixels wide with some level of shading. That is of the 4 pixels the outer are light gray and the inner are near black. Well if the screen resolution is 30% higher then the gray pixels are that much smaller and things look sharper even though the system is actually handling things no better than before.

Don't get me wrong, I would certainly tell people to get the 4K screen. I'm just curious if this is truely as sharp as a 1:2 pixel mapping or "technically" the same as the older setup but the blur is hidden by the smaller pixel sizes.

 

Same problem with FlashBlock. Anyway, I'm curious to know how this works too, but without an owner who also has an extremely good camera and lens, I doubt we'll ever get an answer. However, unless the 4K display includes a scaler even though the QHD+ panel doesn't, it doesn't appear to depend on the panel anyway. Playing with my XPS 15, when I set my built-in display to a non-native resolution, my only scaling options in the Intel Graphics Properties application are to Center, Scale to Full, and Maintain Aspect Ratio. What's missing is the additional "Maintain Display Scaling" option I have for my external displays, which tells the GPU to send the non-native resolution signal without any alteration and to let the display scale it as it pleases, e.g. based on the configuration set in its own OSD. The only time I've seen "Maintain Display Scaling" missing from an external display is with displays such as the HP Z30W, which lacks a hardware scaler.

The fact that that option is missing on the built-in panel means that when a non-native resolution is selected, the GPU scales the image to the panel's native resolution (using whatever option the user selected), which means the built-in panel is always receiving a native resolution signal. That in turn means that the scaling mechanism used would be entirely determined by the GPU drivers, not the panel itself -- which makes me wonder if the improvement Bokeh is seeing might be due to newer drivers that might have been shipped with the new M3800. Or as you say, it could just be that the increased pixel density further hides any blurring.

 

Does anyone have a trick to getting older drivers for the M3800 off the Dell website? I think the latest Realtek drivers are causing my display to blank for about 10 seconds right after logging in.

 

Can you just roll back your driver?
Otherwise, try here. I see a version dated 11/12/2013 listed there. Let us know how it goes, I was tempted to install the new audio driver myself...

P.S.: You might try first updating your video drivers as well, if you haven't done that already.

P.P.S.: Is anyone else seeing this issue with the new Realtek driver?

 

The rollback version is the default MS Win7 driver. Anyway, I did the rollback and a complete uninstall of the driver, but the problem is still there. The Realtek was the second thing I updated yesterday and the reboot after install was the first time I noticed an issue, so I assumed it was that. I guess there is something else at play and it must have just been that way for some time. At least I don't restart very often.

 

Hello to everyone. Especially m3800 Full HD screen version owners.
I have some problem with my laptop. Or maybe I just think, it's problem.
Backscreen in the corners much more than in other areas of the screen. It's annoying sometimes. On a black/dark screen when I watching a movie, for example.
In dell support just replace display on new when I turned to him for help. But the new display is the same. Have anyone the same problem? It just 1080p display verson problem or it's on qhd screen too??

 

That's known as backlight bleed, and it exists to some extent in almost any LCD, including good IPS panels. It happens at the edges because LED-backlit displays are lit from the edges, except very high end full-array LED panels as you might find in expensive TVs -- but those TVs are also thicker as a result. Cameras are also more sensitive to that light than the human eye, so I imagine it isn't quite as bad in real life as this photo suggests, but that wouldn't be a defect with your unit. Even desktop IPS displays have that issue, including Dell's premier 30" display and their new curved 34" display, and combined with the "IPS glow" property of IPS panels, it means IPS panels simply never have contrast ratios as high as contemporary VA panels of equivalent quality and therefore aren't the best choice for watching movies.

Looking briefly at my QHD+ panel, I don't see it that badly, but again cameras always exacerbate this, so I'm not sure what you're actually seeing. In any case, as I mentioned above, that isn't a defect in your particular display. Sometimes manufacturing variances can mean that a replacement panel will be better in this regard, but of course it could go the other way as well.

 

Yep, this is mostly true, except for the RGBLED panels that Dell was offering for the Covet version of the M6400 a couple of years back. That panel (and its 16x10 aspect ratio, of course) is in fact one of the main reasons I could never bring myself to upgrade to a newer M6x00.

 

RGBLED backlit displays necessarily use full-array backlighting, so yes they would fare much better here. The more conventional WLED backlit displays can go either way, with the vast majority being edge-lit for cost and thickness reasons.

Sadly I wasn't in the market for a new laptop during the brief time RGBLED displays were offered; I bought a Precision M6300 just before they became available on later models, and I had that until I upgraded to my current XPS 15.

 

Hello guys,
Is it just me, or did most of the actual drivers available for dell m3800 disappeared from support website?
I am unable to find drivers for Intel Management Engine, nvidia graphics, Motion Sensor Driver,Dell Airplane mode and etc...
David