M4800 Owner's Thread

My M4800 arrived yesterday afternoon, tracking never worked and it was purely by accident that I was home early. As soon as it was delivered though the status on the order did change to delivered .

This laptop is quite imposing, especially with the battery slice added to it.

The reason for me to choose a FHD screen was to get optimus, that and anything new and shiny rarely working with Linux. I had a QHD screen before on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and would always set the resolution to 1080p because the hidpi scaling didn't work that well.

I haven't been able to do any real world battery tests yet but on windows with the slice connected it claims to give me around 12-14 hours of battery life when I am doing very light surfing whilst downloading a visual studio express iso file.

If that turns out to be true I'll be very content .



As a side note if anyone is having issues finding a decent bag that fits this monstrosity, the Crumpler Muli L backpack has just enough space in its laptop compartment to fit the M4800.

 

For power consumption under linux the program powertop is the program of your choice. It also shows several methods to save energy. And if it has collected enough data it gives often a good approximation of what hardware part draws how much energy. But that is not always working acceptably....

 

I have mine in a Thinkgeek.com Bag of Holding currently, and it's doing a fine job. Previously I was in a monster 17"+ Targus backpack

If you've got FHD and Optimus working, your idle draws should be very low. If the slice really does double battery capacity like it claims, you should hit 10-12 hours of light usage, yes.

Using the slice occupies the dock connector, correct? I use my dock pretty constantly.

 

The slice does indeed connect to the dock connector.


It looks ridiculous, but it does put the laptop at a nice angle. I am still wondering if I want to get the dock or not.

 

Eww. That's about the same angle as the dock, but it's a narrow slice, so the laptop will lean left or right when I type on those sides. Not a fan.

I use my dock more than I would use additional battery life. With the K2100M disabled when on battery, I'm either doing light work or looking for an AC outlet anyways. I could force Optimus off and use the K2100M on battery, but that's not a happy place. Basically, the slice doesn't add much for me. :\

 

I can't get mine to lean, though I haven't used it on my lap with the slice. But we all have different needs . I got the slice because I don't want to look for outlets when I am traveling through Europe by train or airplane for work or to visit family.

 

Yeah, didn't mean to be down on the slice in general, just "Nope, doesn't work for me". Working for me is one of those things that most folks I've met don't care about, but it ranks pretty high in my criteria.

I wish the docking station was wider. It's only about half the full width of the laptop itself, and it can lean a little, which causes the connection to drop and reconnect sometimes. I can actually trigger it by typing hard, but I have jackhammer fingers.

 

Does anyone know how to enable vPro on this machine? I have the WiGig card, and I cant use "Ctrl+P" to enter the MEB setup screen during boot. Is there another way?

 

Which WiGig card? If your machine includes vPro (not all M4800s do), then it must have the Intel 7260, as the Dell 1601 is only used in non-vPro setups. Also, if your invoice doesn't say anything about vPro, you don't have it. It's not the default.

 

Is it possible to add an Intel 7260 and have vPro enabled after you've received the machine? My invoice does not mention vPro, but would be very useful to have