Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

If the matte screen is a must-have for you, then get the M4800. The trade off is some extra weight/size, but then you don't have to have the touchscreen that the majority of people don't seem to want anyway.

 

I don't need touch screen at all. I'm actually coming from M4800 as a preferable choice (more storage space choices, no need to have a dongle to connect to network, etc). But I'm really worry about latest developments with support for Optimus and Enduro (graphics switching).with its WQHD+ screen. First they said it should be supported, now folks are returning their M4800 because they were told it's not... Ability to run on Intel's graphics is important for my day-to-day use (longer battery life, less heat pressure on fans, etc). So, I have to wait until this (artificial and I hope temporary) problem will be finally resolved. I know that M3800 shares the same motherboard with M4800 and it indeed supports graphic switching. So, there should be no problem to do the same in M4800. If it will not be possible though and if M3800 will offer matter screen option (without any touch support) I'll buy it.

 

I'm also waiting on an answer to that question (I received my M4800 about a week ago). It's possible I'll return it, but battery is less critical for me - I definitely bought this machine for the performance and the screen. If it turns out there will be no Optimus support, I will definitely be very disappointed.

I got a decent deal on this machine considering it's brand new, so I am a little hesitant to send it back.

 

FWIW, I spent some time with a Thinkpad today that has Lenovo's new trackpad. It is loaded with hurt -- squishy feel, doesn't register right click consistently, long spring travel to click, single/double touch is spotty, etc. It seems only Apple can make a well engineered quality trackpad.

I had great hopes for the M4800, but the Optimus issue makes it a non-starter. I can't imagine getting a notebook with a Haswell chip and getting poor battery life. What exactly is the point? The M3800 seems like a great machine, but only has one tiny storage slot (mSATA) with the big battery. And now it seems likely that it will suffer from trackpad glitches -- and touchscreen issues.

Overall, it seems I will just wait until the Intel refresh coming in February 2014. Hopefully many of these quality/bad design issues will be sorted out by then.

 

Yes indeed.

I'm not defending Dell, they really should maintain the best QC standard for their top of the line models, but the "flawless manufacturer" is a myth.

 

Dell use its own alps driver, usable but not worthy of mention. Hp with synaptics probably would be better.

 

A point well taken. I didn't intend to imply that Apple is flawless. In my experience, Apple's QC has been better than Dell's, but they both fall into the "generally good QC" category.

Apple's trackpad is not perfect, but in my experience, its hardware is nicer to use than most/all PC trackpads and, for the most part, its software works better too. I was really hoping that the trackpad Dell put into the M3800/XPS15 would work as well or better than Apple's.

 

It's only me or this thread seems to show 42 pages, but it only has 39 pages

 

Heh, Yeah, I definitely thought there were 40 pages yesterday..
Obviously something has happened, because there are only 389 posts right now but the thread is showing 42 pages..

(oh, and there it god fixed... now showing 39)

 

same here, but fixed now. Weird.