Hands on Dell Precision 7710

Well "feel" is subjective,; as someone who works with these materials I don't find the feel to be "cheap." I think it's more solid than my M6500.

I do use my machine for my day job, and freelance work. Not as much as you, and not suggesting you swap OSs. Just mentioning the fact.

As far as screen... do you have the FHD screen or 4K? I thought my M6500 had the brighter screen at first and I did order the Premium Panel then, but now I find the 4K IGZO on my 7510 brighter, and the text on the M6500 almost unbearable.

 

AFAIK, both HP and Lenovo use the same wifi card (Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 + Bluetooth 4.2 combo) in their workstations as Dell uses in the 7510/7710.

Refer to the QuickSpecs for the HP ZBook 17 G3:
http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04834941

 

Of course it's subjective. And in my subjective opinion it feels cheap.

I will probably put it on Ebay.

 

I got my Dell Precision 7710 yesterday, and cheap is the last word I would use to describe it.

I work with app development, and has since 2008 always used the latest MacBook Pro and the best PC laptop I could find (Lenovo, HP, Dell). The 7710 is absolutely the best laptop I have used so far.

What I like is the chamfered edge, steel border, the screen is very good (I chose the 1080p version since I use it for 3D work, max brightness is absolutely good enough for me) and the feel of the lid and palm rest are good too. Dell has chosen a plastic that does not absorb fingerprints etc like other brands do, and the feeling is really good. Also the fans are the quiet, always-on type that's also present in MacBook Pros, but they are bigger and not so intrusive when pushed.

I'm quite picky with my laptops, but this one has hit all the right spots with me so far.

 

Glad to hear... I think part of the quiet fan operation are the exhaust ports. Not being grille shaped like others I think allows quieter operation. I got the 7510 but the materials and design are similar and happy with mine as well.

 

Anyone know if an mSATA 'drive' will work in one of the M.2 PCIe slots?

 

no, the ports are just too narrow to fit msata. its around 22 mm wide, msata are way larger. if you need to fit adapter + msata in m2 port, best candidate would be 3G modem slot, but its short... 2242 m2 port.

 

Do you mean mSATA (which is in the bigger mini-PCIe form factor and won't fit), or do you mean a SATA m.2 drive (same size, different interface)? I'd be curious to know that latter.

 

I have a spare 500GB Crucial MX200 mSATA SSD I want to use, and was wondering it that will fit in the empty M.2 slot on my 7710.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct500mx200ssd3

 

Will not work; physically a different size. You can get a mSATA to 2.5" adapter and use that in the 2.5" drive slot.