Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

Yes sure, the M6600 was a really great laptop, but the M6700 seems much better

I got an M6600 during my last year before my graduation, and everybody was "loving him", powerfull and quiet, the must have^^
And from what I understand, the M6700 is a pretty good improvement in that domain, so I can't wait to test it, and publish my review (French one^^), also by comparing it quickly with the M6600.

 

I think the only thing hold it back right now are the video drivers. I think Nvidia still has more performance to unlock.

I also really want to see how the AMD 6000 is. The Radeon versions are faster than they look on paper.

 

How quiet is the machine when not loaded (i.e. normal browsing or light development)?

 

K3000M is $300 more that the default M6000. What do you see as the advantages of the K3000M over the M6000?

 

Is there optical out (S/PDIF) the 3.5, or is it just stereo? This would save me a lot since my receiver predates HDMI.

I also couldn't help but notice that the m6700 is also angled forward several more degree than it's m6600 predecessor. Any comments on how that feels?

Perhaps you could include a travel caddy for those ejected HDD and/or optical bay. I could imagine a host of configuration depending on location and intended use. One of those little touches, you talked about?

 

i hope you can keep at least a portion of that list public. we users know best what we need. a few years back i ranted on Apple forum and demanded that headphone jack would be switched to the bottom of the iPhone ... i was told to go **** myself, and yet iPhone 5 will have a bottom headphone jack ....

your fans idea is great. physically it should be no more difficult than removing the battery, although one would have to shut down the machine first while with a removed battery you can still run on AC.

they might even try to come up with some kind of sensor which gives you % indicator of cooling capacity as there is with battery capacity. this sensor could measure cpu/gpu wattage, cpu/gpu temp, air temp at intake and fan speed and based on those 4 parameters calculate whether the system is operating at 100% efficiency. if not it would alert you to obstructed airflow. if i was Apple i would patent this crap.

the part in most need of cleaning however is in my experience ( with desktop hardware ) is the heatsink, and not the fan. removing the fan though would allow better access to the heatsink. ideally i would vaccum the heatsink from the inside after having removed the fan.

actually the Asus G75VW that i returned to best buy about a week ago had removable fan filters LOL. removable fan filters could certainly be a start, although Dell suggests simply wiping the dust off the bottom of the chassis.

even better improvement would be to copy what Apple does and put an air intake on the back of the notebook between the exhaust fans. this would allow the notebook to keep operating when it is put on a soft surface and bottom intakes are blocked.

however the biggest improvement on a 15" model would have been a 16x10 aspect ratio 1920x1200 screen. i almost didn't order the M4700 based on that alone. they probably keep that screen too small on purpose to force people to buy the more expensive 17" model. personally i think it is wrong to cripple your own products on purpose in hope of driving your customer to your more expensive product ... because the customer can always go to the competitor you know?

Retina MBP was purposely crippled by Apple by omitting a hard drive bay to force you to pay megabucks for their proprietary 512mb minituarized SSD. so did i pay ? no i went with a Dell.

i don't really think marketing people understand what they're doing. they probably just try to ruin the product because they heard somewhere that its supposed to be their job.

note that apple had 2 notebook products designed expressly for the purpose of screwing the customer - the plastic macbook ( where keyboard backlighting was omitted to punish the customer ) and the 17" macbook ( with same performance as 15" but for $500 more ). they now discontinued both those products.

if i can convey just one idea to Mano it is that success in business comes from serving the customer not screwing him ( unless you are Goldman Sachs ). you see Mano Goldman Sachs is playing a zero sum game - they HAVE TO screw people - it is literally their job. but when you actually MANUFACTURE something ( or at least design something that is made in China ) it is different. it is NOT in your interest to cripple the product.

after all of Dell's efforts to cripple the M4700 i ordered it because it was LEAST crippled of all 15" notebooks on the market. you see what is going on here Mano? Dell didn't win the customer - Dell lost the competition to drive the customer away which all marketing departments play.

for the M4800 put a 16x10 screen on there like Apple does.

i see Nvidia as more future-proof. Nvidia is seeing a lot of success lately from Geforce to Tegra. ATI isn't seeing nearly as much success and AMD is falling off the radar. to me this means that Nvidia is less likely to run out of $$$ needed to keep developing drivers.

that said my application is not professional, so i wasn't looking for something that gives maximum performance for a year only to replace it with something even faster next year. my application was to get something that will work ( even if slowly ) for a longer time ( 3 - 5 years ). so i was less concerned with maximum performance now and more concerned with tolerable performance later.

and since i didn't need maximum performance i just went with the 15" and K2000M. although if i was getting the 17" i would have went with K3000M but i decided i didn't want to wait.

 

You're beating a dead horse. The 16X10 is dead, and its not coming back.

Incidentally, you do realize that this is a Dell m6700 review?

 

The review is very positive thus far and am enjoying reading it even though I am only likely to buy a new laptop when the M6800 comes out. If you keep talking about speed performance of the GPU etc then that could change....

Few things have surprised me thus far, are that you say it is quieter - I find the M6600 very quiet already so that is impressive. The only time I really hear the M6600 is if I am working on it in the middle of the night when there is so little ambient noise.

You say the GPU is substantially faster - that is to be expected, but I am looking forward to your real-life tests on things like Vegas Pro etc.

Have I understood correctly that it is running cooler? If so that is also a positive. I frequently operate my M6600 in rooms with no aircon where the inside temperature is 39 degrees Centigrade and it always worries me but the M6600 has not even flinched in that regard.

The fingerprint scanner and smart card reader also looks better quality, and to be honest it should be.

Future Dells: One thing I would like to see from Dell in a future M6XXX would be a built in stand. I like to work with the laptop raised and at an angle and while I can do this with a stand I buy, I can't take such a stand with me when I travel. I doubt it would be that hard to do, I do not need any fans built into it just different levels of elevation at the front and angles etc.

 

hehe. i disagree ! Retina MBP runs 16x10. iPad3 runs 4X3 ! ! ! if anything it's the PC that is dead and Apple kicking butt.

on an M6700 though 16x9 is appropriate because the laptop itself is wide and narrow. but M4700 is a more square shaped laptop so a 16X9 screen is a huge fail.

another change i would like to see is rounded corners. yeah it looks cool with the sharp edges and i like how it defiantly looks the opposite of apple when everything else is copying it ... but it's not very practical when you try to put it in a laptop case or sleeve. this is a problem because the precision is larger than a typical notebook of same screen size and any sleeve or case will already be a tight fit.

i would also like to see sleeves made for it by dell that would be custom fit for its peculiar shape. i have a G-Form case for my iPad and that is an example of the type of padding that should be used - then put a kevlar weave on top of it for abrasion and puncture resistance.

17" is a desktop replacement so superior portability is not expected, but a 15" MUST be optimized for transportation - otherwise there is simply no reason for it to exist. the only reason to go with a smaller screen is for better portability but with its sharp edges and no custom sleeve Dell is falling short here.

 

For those interested, there have been numerous articles forecasting the industry move to 16:9. Here are a few links for your reading pleasure:
Widescreen LCDs going widescreen by 2010 -- Engadget
Where Displays Are Heading
DIGITIMES archive & research

The articles state that the transition will occur even though "the transition may confuse consumers and leave IT managers unenthusiastic". I think we have seen that here