Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

I don't have the specifics on Dell, but I can say that a restocking fee is not unusual; and is something virtually all retailers do. Nevertheless, restocking frees are negotiable, and are typically dependent on the condition of the returned product:

When the product is returned intact and with all the pieces present there is typically no restocking fee--and almost certainly none if it is unopened. Many online retailer also have a 100% refund if the product is returned within a specified period. Still, you need to check this before purchase.

 

How is everyone doing in terms of productivity on their 16:9 monitors? I went back to my old high school as a guest speaker for a computer club there and saw that half of the computer monitors in the room had been "upgraded" from its former 16:10 aspect ratio to now 1920x1080, 16:9. I'm not sure what the former resolution was, but it was definitely not as high as the new 1920x1080 monitors they have now. Even though the resolution wasn't as high, the students in the class, the teacher said, started out wanting to use the new monitors, but later on in the year, they started racing each other for the squarer, lower resolution monitors right before the class starts.

Is it really that much better? I'm not sure about everyone else, but maybe there is some truth in that 16:10 is an environment that is a lot easier to work in than a 16:9 environment. Don't get me wrong, I love this machine, but if there was anything that were missing, it would be the 16:10 aspect ratio. I think I may have been a lot more productive on a 16:10 monitor than a 16:9 one, and feel that I have been a lot more productive in the past because of it. Does anyone else feel the same or is it only me? I would be glad if it were only me, because then I know it's still possible to be extremely productive on a 16:9 machine, which is all I want to hear. From other people, I have heard that 16:9 is a nightmare to work in.

 

16:9 changed my workflow, but I have adapted. 16:10 was better for vertical real estate, but widescreen is useful to have multiple windows side by side. I'd consider 1920c1080 to be a downgrade from 1920x1200, nut it is defintiely better than 1440x900 which is what I was using before. 1920x1080 on Excel feels pretty good, the FEM software I use had a widescreen interface settings and it works much better at 1920x1080 than on my research supervisor's rMBP (given that it's running at half the actual resolution of the retina display) regardless of interface settings.

I can also fit two pages side by side in MS Word, it required some adjustments on my part to effectively work that way in Word, but now it works nicely. Would I be happier with a 1920x1200 display, sure, but I don't feel impaired by the 16:9 aspect ratio. In the end, it all depends on what you do and how you adjust your workflow. Hell if anything, 1920x1080 has been pretty good for having a ton of toolbars on the side of what I am working on. Now, if the ribbon interface of Office could be put on the side.

tl;dr: It's more a matter of how the GUI is designed than actual aspect ratio (to an extend, 21:9 is definitely too wide and not high enough). We have some interfaces that were made in the days of 4:3 monitors that don't work that well with 16:9, but some interfaces made with widescreens in mind are nice to use.

 

For me the ratio is of far less consequence than the pixel count. If the screen is 1920 wide then it's 1920 wide and I can comfortably view two documents/spreadsheets/browsers side by side. So in one scenario I have only 1080 lines vertically vs 1200 lines of yore and may need to scroll a little more, but it's very little impediment to productivity.

No way would I ever race for a lower resolution screen just to get a different shape. I can see no logic in that at all. I mean, I do have a 1280x800 laptop and it sucks by comparison as having anything displayed two up is almost impossible to view usefully as sideways scrolling is often involved as well as vertical scrolling. Even with a single window open and maximised it's still just a tiny window onto my data compared with the 17" 1920x1080 display of the M6700.

I would prefer 1920x1200 even more, and 2880x1800 even more than that, but you can only buy what's available and the M6700, for me, offers the least offensive combination of compromises.

 

Going from 1920x1200 to 1920x1080... My first ever laptop "upgrade" that left me with fewer pixels than before. I was a little worried about it but ended up not noticing the loss of vertical space too much. I mostly do software development work so it's just some fewer lines of code on the screen. I can see it being a slightly bigger issue if you work with photos or video and actually have to change your workspace layout or something. Depends on your workflow.

In the end, the reality is that 16:10 displays are only going to get harder to come by from now on. Time to get used to 16:9.

 

There is nothing magical about the 16:10 aspect ratio. Its just one random ratio among many. If anyone feels different, its more likely that they're just used to one and experiencing the inherent resistance to change that most humans have.

I switch back and forth between the two daily and never give it a second thought. The best monitor AR is the one that's your work. For me, that's the 16:9 since I'm mostly involved in media.

Still, I could just as easily write a term paper or surf the web without giving the AR a second thought. As far as I'm concerned, the small difference is pretty much inconsequential.

 

Hi guys, long story short, I made a report to the premier colour settings about the windows priority thing and he.
suggested this. Now like many other suggestions on this thread, the problem might come back again. For me it's good so far. But it'd be good to see if it works for you guys too so here it is.

Thank you for contacting Portrait Displays.

This problem could be related to the desktop partition feature in PremierColor. Try turning off PremierColor, then go to the following directory in your computer:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Portrait Displays\Plugins

You will see a folder there named DP. Rename that folder to DP.bak, then reopen PremierColor and see if you still have the same problem.

 

Got my replacement laptop a couple of days ago, reinstalled all my software, calibrated the monitor and now it is actually working! The screen is great, all ports seem to be working, my RAID transferred without any issues, all go to go.

The mSATA that came with the new machine is from LITEON instead of the samsung 830 i got last time, but it seems to work just fine for my Win7 partition.

After 3 screens and a laptop replacement, I'm happy and would still recommend buying it, as long as you get the NBD warranty. Dell has been iincredibly responsive to all my issues and made sure I was happy all the way.

 

What is this about exactly???

 

great to hear that. I didnt even bother installing it again after I upgraded to Windows 8. I guess I'll give it a try.