Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

Update worked for me. Here is a graphic of what got updated:

 

Interesting.

That Bios update does not pop up as an update for my system service tag.

 

dang the unboxing photos have me itching!!!

Another question is, did anyone NOT ordering this through their work business line have an issue purchasing at all? Or really have an issue getting the discount shown on the Small and Medium Business site? I know the discount applied differs if you select Healthcare, Large enterprise, and others versus Home, but I want to get an idea pricing when I call can be close to what I am showing right now.

Starting Price: $5,306.71
Instant Savings: $1,698.15
Final Price: $3608.56

The above is for the following config:

I skipped on upgrading to SSD, BluRay drive, and more RAM as both of those should be cheaper outside Dell. As far as the rest like the Windows Office Pro I haven't looked around to see if that can be had much cheaper than Dell's offering as from what iv'e seen MSFT has a pretty good lock on pricing it seems...


*The other thing I looked at was Dell's "Hard Drive Data Recovery Service" and "Asset Recovery Svc Label and Box for recovery" items that they offer as I have never used either of them before thus not know much about them really... or if honestly worth it.
Lastely I noticed that they now charge for "Asset Tags on the System Chassis" in the form of either "ProSupport Client Label" or "Basic Support Label" with or without Company name.... what are those? I assume the service tag and all that is still stuck on the bottom of the chassis no matter what, so unsure what the difference is with these.

Thanks in advance everyone! Looking forward to making my purchase of the Covet soon here. hoping I can get decent pricing by calling myself and not going through any company line...

 

I called the small business sales line and told them I wanted to buy a Precision but I was purchasing it by myself, not for a business. They handled this fine, I just had to make the purchase through the small business store and not the home store. The price I got was slightly better than the web price (but only slightly). Got the "Pro support" warranty upgrade for free. I also was able to open a Dell Business Credit account (as an individual, not a business) with no hassle. At the time I made the purchase, they were offering a really good financing deal on Precision mobile workstations. At the moment it looks like it only applies to the desktops, though...

Anyway... No problem if you aren't buying through a business.

 

Same experience as Aaron, I called them, they asked me why a Precision, told them it was for my PhD and that I was buying as an individual. My order got processed through their business store as well and I get to deal with the business customer service as a bonus. They don't care whether you're a business or not, they just don't sell their precisions in the home store since they are targeted at businesses.

 

Good to know! Thanks!


Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

The 3D panel has a max brightness of 400 nits vs the 300 nits for the IPS panel. Professional color work will usually be done in the 140-200 nit range. The 3D panel has to be brighter because the effective brightness goes down when using the 3D glasses. The glasses use shutter technology, so less light makes it to your eyes.

The 3D panel operates at 120hz instead of the 60hz of the IPS panel. The higher rate allows flicker-free operation of the 3D glasses.

Viewing angles on both displays are very good. The IPS has less shifting off to the sides, but the LG 3D panel really shows what TN is now capable of. The 3D does not fall apart off axis like the cheaper panels in consumer models.

The IPS panel just absolutely kills the 3D panel in color gamut, fidelity, and depth. The 3D panel does cover sRGB and has a 72% color gamut. The 3D panel does look very nice compared to other sRGB panels and is much better than the 45-60% gamut panels that are found in many lower end notebooks. But side by side with the IPS panel, it cannot compete with the colors. The IPS panel gives you 10 bit per channel (1024 shades of R,G, and B) and 100% coverage of the NTSC gamut which is more broad than Adobe RGB. The 3D is a 6 bit per channel (64 shades of R,G, and B) TN panel that uses lots of tricks to approximate 8 bit color. Working with very fine gradations of color, the 262,144 true colors available on the TN panel show more banding than the 1,073,741,824 true colors on the IPS panel. Even with the dithering and local switching that helps the TN panel approximate the 16,777,216 colors of 8 bit RGB, they are still approximations of the true colors.

The M6700 with the 3D panel offers full wireless RF connectivity to the glasses. I have only seen optical IR connections in other systems. Dell made sure that the 3D solution in the M6700 is the best you can get.

Don't get me wrong, the 3D panel is VERY nice. Compared to most panels it ranks very highly. The IPS panel is just so far ahead on color reproduction that sets the reference for what a notebook display can do.

 

A bit off-topic: Restocking Fees

I read in the Dell Terms of Sale:


Restocking Fees: Unless the product is defective or the return is a direct result of a Dell error, Dell may charge a restocking fee of up to 15% of the purchase price paid, plus any applicable sales tax.


Is it common to be charged the 15% restocking fee when returning a product for a refund?

I am asking because I have been a client of Dell's for many years and have returned several items for a refund within the 21 day period and have never been charged any fees. They even paid for the return shipping.

Has this policy always been in place or is it recent?

I am considering purchase of an M6700 but have never actually seen one and am a bit concerned that I will not like the 1920x1080 display versus the1920x1200 of the M6300, M6400 and M6500 that I have.

I am unwilling to purchase an M6700 if I have to pay the restocking fees if I return it for a refund.


Thanks,

Antonio

 

I too came from 1920x1200 (XPS M1710) to 1920x1080 and I was very grumpy about the downgrade prior to purchase, but how else to get a quality IPS full gamut display in a laptop? The Apple Retina screen is fabulous, and the gamut sufficient for my needs, but too many other reasons (for my tastes) not to go down that path.

Anyway, I've now had my M6700 for several weeks and I really can't say I've been troubled by or even noticed the missing 120 lines of pixels. YMMV.

 

Just to let everybody know....

Had to call Dell about my screen again, some dead pixels appeared out of the blue after a week of use. A different technician came in and, after a few minutes he told me that the last technician BROKE my SATA lock for the removable drive. The chassis is broken and I'm gonna receive a brand new laptop in a few days.