Hands on Dell Precision 7710

Hello,

I just got my new Dell Precision 7710.
Could not find any review about this machine on the internet, so for all of you who ordered the machine and are still waiting to receive their unit, I will try to provide some info about the machine.

The configuration of my unit is:
Precision 7710 No fingerprint reader/no smartcard, no NFC.
Matte Full HD IPS screen
Webcam and microphone
i7 6820HQ 2.7Ghz
AMD W7170M
16 GB DDR4
500 Gb disk (replaced by Sandisk ultra II 480 GB)
Backlite keyboard (French)
No OS (Freedos).
70WH battery (standard one)

The reason I bought this unit is I am going to move to another country soon, but if I cannot stay there, then I prefere to have a laptop I can easily take with me while mooving accross countries.

This machine has the purpose to replace my current desktop setup which is :
i7 2600k @stock
16GB RAM
GTX 680
3 noctua fan for case
1 noctua C12P
Sandisk ultra II

The unit cost me 2000€ shipped, and I took the i7 because I am satisfied with the performance I got with the 2600k. As the i5 6300HQ benchmark far less than the i7 6820HQ, I did not want to take any chance and got the i7.
My hope is that new workstation will allow me to have around the same performance as my desktop, and as I don't play that much games, I don't really need very powerfull graphics card.

I used my unit for less than 4 hours now (including unboxing, installation, etc.), so this really is a hand on and not a full review.

The box of the laptop is really small (thin), you would be surprised they now pack it in such a small package, because when you watch unboxing videos of older precision, the box was huge (no other word than that).

The power brick is big and heavy. hopefully I won't have to move it around as I intend to use this machine as a desktop. This is why I favored this machine, the dockability was the selling point. for the same price I could have got an Alienware 17 with GTX 980m, but I did not like the fact it did not have a proper display port and I don't want to get the graphic accelerator in order to get a "dock". Takes too much place and cannot work without a graphics card in it(?).

The top cover of the machine has a carbon fiber pattern, but it has a rubber coating on it (the one you could feel on most dell laptop palmrest). as you'd expect, the laptop palmrest also has a rubber feeling.

The backlite keyboard has 2 level of brightness (low/bright) and off position. what is nice with it, is you can set its default brightness (on/off) in the bios. You can also set a timer to save battery if needed.

The palmrest is very large, and the edge of the laptop are chamfered (like the iphone 5, or a lot of new smartphone). Lucckilly, it does not hurt your arm if you put them on these edge... I remember with a macbook pro, it would be uncomfortable, but i swear its almost a pleasure to rest the arm on the chamfered edge...

The screen does not look to be very bright, although I do need to turn its brightness down when using at night. colors looks nice and well saturated, still did not put it under my display calibrator to measure its performance... Also I did not check yet if there was any dead pixel.

Although the touchpad is not taking optimal space on the palmrest, it is of a fair size, no issues using it, and 2 finger scrolling works ok (meaning its not too small to be ****).

As for the keyboard, the keys feel ok, although lenovo w530 keyboard provides a more satisfactory feeling. Its a bit dumb there are no dedicated keys for controlling speaker volume. If the media keys were replaced by speaker volume control, it could be cool.

I ran a 3D mark on the machine, and it generated less noise than my desktop, so I guess Dell did a good job with it. The fan emmit a low frequency which is nice. way better than high pitched fan you find in laptop such as macbook pros, or thinner dell latitude e7240. while running a full set of 3Dmark bench, the CPU heated up to 80°c, unfortunately hwmonitor did not catch the fire pro temperature because it was not active when I launched hw monitor...

3D mark benchmark run on power saver mode :
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9656866
3D mark benchmark run on normal power mode :
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9657082
Update: 3D mark benchmark with updated drivers from AMD (crimson). oddly enough, it now show as m390x instead of w7170m. Does it mean its now better for gaming?
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9671467

The score of my desktop:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9656809

The laptop is around 10% less powerfull than my desktop, I am pretty satisfied with that. I only play dota 2 right now, and the next game I will play is need for speed 2015 (in 2016 lol), because I have motion sickness when playing games such as battlefield or COD (oddly enough, I can play need for speed without issue).

I did not have time to assess a load on the battery, but unplugging the power plug, it showed around 5 hours of runtime in economy setting, mid brightness. This is really enough for me as I really don't intend to use this as a laptop at all (will keep my e7240 for this purpose).

The construction of the case seems to be sturdy. no cracking noise when pressing on the palmrest or the screen. In comparison, the lenovo w530 was a great disapointment as the plastic of palmrest would generate noise when pressing on it... same thing with the screen... A colleague of mine who got a T430 also hase such problems on his unit. To me this is just unacceptable when you get a machine worth around 2000€ (which is also what I paid for w530)

One nice thing I notice is the battery can be removed on this unit without compromising the stability of the chassis. This was not the case on previous precision series because the battery included one of the rubber feet. On this one, you can remove the battery without any tool. To release the battery, you just need to use the cover latch once again, and it will pop the battery out.

What I noticed is bad about the unit for now is the power brick which emmit electronic noise when the laptop is powered on. I hope it does not die... Also, the USB ports are really tight... I was really affraid to break my sandisk ultra USB stick, because the plastic of the key feels flimsy. Really hope it gets better with time.


Speakers seems to sound reasonably good. At level 40 out of 100, its plenty power to listen to music. when you put it past 60, it is almost too loud. did not test at full volume yet, don't want to disturb my neigbourgh its already 11:30 PM here.
Update: When you play music very loud, you can hear some distortion (something vibrating). after investigating, it is not the speaker itself which are saturating, but the bottom plate which is doing it. If you play volume 100% with the plate, you hear vibrations, if you remove the plate, no more vibration even at 100%. The plates vibrate when there is bass in the music at around 70% volume and upwards.

I am really sorry I did not have a propper camera or tripod to make the unboxing video. Made in a hurry on an iphone and no editing. also poor light conditions as it was done at night.


I took some photo of the machine with my XT-1, so quality should be fair, although not at its best.

That powerbrick though:

Spoiler

General keyboard layout (french keyboard):

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The IPS screen :

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general view of the machine :

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chamfered edge like on most phones today:

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side thickness

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Rear vent grill detail :

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Texture of display pannel carbon fiber with soft rubber touch

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No kidding, magnesium plates on bottom :

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Internal layout :

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notice how there is no ram installed there... they installed the ram under the keyboard, so I don't need to take the keyboard apart to upgrade the RAM in the future, how thoughtful!


Bottom general layout:

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Well, if you have specific questions, feel free to ask. I know how it feels to have no article about this machine on the internet, this is why I published this although I know it is not premiul quality stuff.

Update:
I did some measurments with i1 display pro, and it show the following average value:
Average delta E : 0.85
lowest average delta E : 0.63
Highest average delta E : 3.33
Contrast is shown at 910:1
white point is set at 6506K

So at first sight it looks like the screen is pretty damn good too.

 

Just got my 7510 this afternoon, and I can share your sentiments on the overall build. Very happy so far. The low end 500GB Seagate HDD blows hard, but I already replaced with a 256GB Samsung 950 PRO M.2 and recycling the HDD for a spare external drive. I don't have any electrical "noise" with my charger. I did get the UHD IGZO panel as I can use the extra pixels for my CAD/CAM work. Haven't installed Adobe CS yet however.

Congrats and good luck!

 

Sorry, I double posted in my excitement. This is the machine I want to get also. Thanks for posting

Regarding the power brick emitting a noise. Call or chat with them online. They should replace it, no problem. You've got pro support, Use them

*Also you get extra kudos for being first to show actual hands on 7710 photos and internals. :cheers I'm earnestly excited to get one


**Is that the 240watt power brick in the photos? My old m6500 power brick is literally the size of a stone brick. You say it is heavy, but it looks smaller-lighter than my 240W. If that is a 240W power adapter, I'm impressed.


*** again, that is a very sexy machine. I would not even use external keyboard and monitor for at least a day or two., it looks so good.

 

Hi, the power brick shown on the photos are the actual unit shipped with the machine. Its size is 2.5 cm thick (around 1 inch), 20 CM length (a bit less than 8 inches) and 10 CM wide (4 inches). the power plug cord is also the same thickness on both end (the one you plug on wall and the one to the laptop.

It reads 19.5v and 12.3A, so it is indeed a 240w adapter. I don't have a kitchen scale to weight it, but with the power cord attached, I think it is around 1.5 kg

 

Thx! Power brick looks the same as my power brick for the M6600.
Which is great, as I use 2 (1 in the office, 1 home as it is quite heavy).
So If I do upgrade at least I save the price of the 2nd power brick

 

The power brick in the photo above is labeled as model "PA-9E", which is indeed the same PSU that has been used in 17" Precisions since at least M6600. Your past investment in power bricks should pay off, you can still use them with this machine.
(I have four of them... Hopefully they'll still be in use when I get around to upgrading.)

 

This is what great with dell precision current series, all accessories are still working with new iterations of machine (docking station and power bricks), unlike lenovo machines which changed powerbrick on Xx30 series, and changed power brick + docking station for Xx40 series and so on...

 

Can an SSD be used in the WWAN m2 slot?

 

I am not sure about the wan port to be used for ssd, but its written ngff, same as the two dedicated m2 slots. I don't have m2 ssd to test it though.

 

Congrats, for the machine and the spec, as well as the review. I'm especially interested in the W7170M. Can you run SPECviewperf 12 with both stock DELL drivers and with the new Crimson? Thank you very much!