Latitude vs Precision

Still working out some issues due to my use case (dual boot drives, windows not behaving well, Ubuntu doesn't have 100% skylake support etc.. But I expect these due to my unique use case that's not certified/tested by manufacturer)

Overall, happy with it. Good build quality, good specs, good experience. With edock, can drive dual external DVI monitors along with internal laptop, all independent. No thunderbolt/USB type c, my nexus 6p cries...

As you see, there's not a lot of choices for a HQ quad at 13-15" with matte screen, and good dock. I chose e5470 due to my experience with e7450 purchased for someone else

One note about the Dell edock for e5470- they made it backward compatible with existing edocks, which is a good and bad thing

Bad: you need to use a spacer, so laptop+dock takes up a lot of space on your desk(unless you want a usb3 or Wigi dock, but I don't think you can drive 2 external monitors without CPU usage on those)

https://m.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2t3cyd/if_i_ever_meet_the_guy_at_dell_who_decided_to/

T460p dock doesn't have this issue.

 

I will also likely be dual booting Linux and Windoze. Probably Debian. What's the issue?

Glad to hear you like the 5470.

Does anyone know anything about Lenovo build quality compared to Latitude? Perhaps I'd be better off asking in the Lenovo forum...

At the moment, I'm 80% happy with the T460p. The quad CPU and dGPU cement it. I need to confirm the enterprise level build quality. Lenovo has had a strange history what with pre-installing malware, cheap consumer products etc.

 

The 5510 is really close in size for the amount of desk space it uses. Amazingly compact for a 15" system.

Unless HP has snuck one out when we weren't looking, they're the ONLY full-power/quad-core 14" business notebooks available, and it's better choice this generation than in the past (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge: only Dell, with the really nice but quite clunky and large E6420/E6430, Haswell with only the T440p, and nobody made a Broadwell one... there may be an Ivy Bridge or Haswell 14" HP I've missed, but I avoid their stuff.)

Pity nobody has managed to get a quad-core CPU into a 14" chassis that thin and light.

The "3-year warranty" batteries may be a worthwhile upgrade if you have a lot of issue with that. The one I got with my E6430 is still doing really well for my brother.

I've gotten used to the need for a spacer with the E7440 my wife has. I still prefer it to Lenovo which has a TON of different incompatible docks; one dock model straight through for what, 6+ years is pretty good.

Probably. I've used the older T440p a bit, and had a lot of coworkers on them, and haven't heard many complaints. The Dells are easier to service/work inside, if you want to upgrade or do your own part replacements once the warranty is up.

Dell, Lenovo, don't care -- ALWAYS wipe the machine and install your own clean OS.

 

if you don't use m.2 2242 and stick with a single storage, don't think you'll see the windows sleep issue. I got the dell wifi card, maybe fewer issues with the intel wifi card (which usually works well in linux). maybe Ishould do a clean install from 16.04 LTS instead of my upgraded 16.04beta->LTS

remember that T460p will have discrete+igpu, could cause issues on linux too


t460p may have wifi issues as well on ubuntu 16.04
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4i6p88/t460p_wlan_problems_on_ubuntu_1604/



as I said, linux/ubuntu isn't certified officially by dell, nor is WWAN m.2 2242, will expect some issues (that will be ironed out eventually)




dell has a history of issues too, but business-line shouldn't be that vulnerable. I do a clean install (ubuntu, windows 10 from microsoft clean ISO with only updates from microsoft to minimize any potential issues)

http://arstechnica.com/security/201...tps-certificate-fiasco-provides-removal-tool/

 

Just to keep in mind though, with reference to notebookcheck.net's review, the display for 1080p on the t460p may be high in contrast and all but its reproduction value is very poor. You may need to check with Lenovo on info regarding the WQHD screen coverage. However, if you're just concern with resolution, just ignore me haha...

 

The display is second in importance, next to the CPU+GPU. Resolution doesn't matter nearly as much as color accuracy. It seems the 4K Precision screen is king in that regard, but between the Latitude and Thinkpad, which has the better screen do you think? Notebookcheck seems to rank them about equally bad.

The Latitudes at school definitely have a subpar screen compared to my old MacBook Pro.

Maybe I will go with the 5150 after all. I'm hesitant to go HiDPI because it seems Windows hasn't completely acclimated to the idea yet.

 

Dell sells the E5470 with a supported Ubuntu install (ditto the Precisions.)

Not comparing equivalent generations, with the W530 (regular FHD, not the premium IPS), T440p and my E5470, the E5470 is a bit better, but that's not a useful comparison. Keep in mind also that Dell often buys more than one manufacturer, and the quality can be somewhat different (AUO and Samsung, for the E5470.)

It really depends on your software. My M3800 is the absolute BEST thing short of a Mac for Photoshop and video editing (and I intend to keep it for that) because of the HiDPI IGZO screen. Unfortunately, it's really problematic for software development because the environment I work in (Java/IntelliJ) only works sort of OK with HiDPI and is nearly useless for HiDPI-internal and non-HiDPI external.

The color quality, brightness, and contrast on the HiDPI precision (and XPS) screens is way beyond anything else I've seen from Dell, including the old Precision FHD IPS screens. The regular matte FHD screens on the 5510 and 5470 do appear to be pretty good (and quite wide-viewing angle) but at best up to the older premium IPS screens and maybe a bit behind them.

The older Latitude screens tended to range from "terrible" to "meh" up through the E6x30 generation, and often depending on which screen you got.

 

Precisions yes, but not Latitudes. If I could, I would definitely avoid paying the Windows license fee.

It seems the Precision HiDPI has the edge over the E5470 and T460p HiDPI screens.

Why do you say that? Mac displays are certainly high-end, but it's not like Apple custom-manufactures them. They too buy them from Samsung (or LG). Windows looks great on it too. It seems like the PC manufacturers just don't buy high quality panels for some reason.

Damn! I want Dell's quality and consistency with the size of a 14" and the dGPU of the Thinkpad.

I might just bite the bullet and get the 15" Precision.

 

Via Premier, they have Ubuntu available on the E5470 and E5570. There is no build-your-own option for the E5470 on the public page as far as I can see, but phone sales might be able to configure one.

Assuming your applications run well with your OS in HiDPI mode, definitely -- the IGZO (Precision HiDPI) screens . I've found the experience very poor without a HiDPI external monitor to match them to, and intentionally went back to FHD for my personal system (and wasn't given the option of HiDPI with the Ubuntu preinstall one for work.)

Adobe has been working with the retina MacOS machines for a lot longer, and purely subjectively, the displays seem better to me (they're also the only ones left still using 16:10 rather than 16:9.)

Hardly a big enough reason to get a Mac which I'd see little advantage to (and plenty of annoyance with) OTHER than using Photoshop, of course.

 

Not to derail this thread into Mac vs. PC, but as a Mac owner, there's nothing a Mac can do that a PC can't from my perspective, even in the arts. Color calibration, audio interfaces, and critical capabilities are all available on PC too now.

Years ago, Mac was light years ahead. But as they've relaxed their reigns, I can't see Mac as the leader in the creative field anymore than any other capable computer. The only real advantage Apple has is in music production as Logic Audio is still the best audio production package available. I am curious to hear why you think they are.