M6400 Reviews (post here)

Perfekt!!
Just make some pictures of the laptops side by side from different angles.
Unfortunately there is not a single photo of a RGB-LED display in the web. For me it's too late, I already ordered my "Silver Covet" hoping the display will be worth the extra money...

 

Alright, working on more(better pics) and video update..so sometime tomorrow...will post the update

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EJIfxSWWsOU

Here is a demo of the jog shuttle on the m6400...sorry for the crap video quality and no sound..(for most of the parts)

 

I'll put some of the things I've noticed.


The jog/shuttle works great in general. Some applications don't behave perfectly of course, as with any nonstandard device. The great thing is every application is detected while active and is completely configurable. You can use the jog/shuttle in a game to switch weapons, or in a text editor like Vim, to scroll up and down, or in your instant messaging program to insert smilies and frownies. Quicktime jogs video as fast as you move your finger. The shuttle function seems a little iffy... It's a little bit tricky to trigger it, and when you do it's just like if you were moving the jog at a different speed. You have to start your finger in the middle, and it seems difficult to convince the thing your finger is starting in the middle. When you move your finger, it begins sending keystrokes at a certain rate to your video program. I haven't tried it in Premiere Pro yet, which would be the one app I'd expect to behave properly.

There are four configurable hot buttons on the jog/shuttle. So far I have never triggered one accidentally. The layout is very smart. If you want hot buttons, your finger goes at the top. If you want jog, start in the middle. If you want shuttle, start on the bottom. I've never hit the wrong one, even when looking at something else.

Seems to me a feature like this needs a set of plugins for certain software, going on keystrokes is sometimes doesn't work. Maya is difficult to configure for example. The jog works, but it's like playing your timeline set to "every frame". If you move your finger faster than Maya plays frames, it stacks up a queue of keystrokes and continues flipping frames long after you remove your finger. (I got 7 seconds of jog lag once testing it out.)

Backlit keyboard: AWESOME. Can't live without it. In fact it is 90% of the reason I did not consider the HP 8730. Some people might get annoyed at the way it turns on and off, but I forgive it just for being able to see my da** keys when I'm working! (I turn the lights down to minimize reflections on the screen.) You have options for how the keys behave. They can be set to turn on only when the light is low, turn on regardless of light, or not turn on. You can flip this setting by hitting [Fn]+[right arrow], but you can't tell the difference between "low light on" or "on" unless you know the order it flips. There might have been an OSD for that, but I disable all OSD features as they tend to conflict with things. You can toggle whether the keys light up for key events, or for all input events. Unfortunately, a USB mouse does not register, just the touchpad and nub. The backlit keys look great. They're still perfectly visible when the light isn't on. In fact when I opened it, I got worried because they looked exactly like paint-on key letters!

Oh also, key brightness is very adjustable, all the way from "just barely there" to "OMG Nukyalar keys!" I don't think key brightness can be adjusted outside of the dell software. There are four keys that are NOT backlit. They are easy to find though. They are directly above the numeric pad, above PgUp, PgDn, Home, End. The non-backlit buttons are Calculator, Volume Down, Volume Up and Mute.

My unit has maybe the best thermal behavior of any laptop I've had. And it has the QX9300 quad core (45w vs 35w for core-2 duo - 30% more heat) and the Quadro 3700 (again 30% more than the typical gfx card). I haven't tested its behavior under simultaneous stress of cpu and gpu. No time for games this next few weeks! When it's working reasonably hard in windows and Maya it just gets pleasantly warm on the bottom.

The fingerprint reader is behaving slightly different from other machines I've used so I'll mention that. I think it's trying to be more secure and force me to protect my company's data with combined authentication. But, I don't have a company... I just want quicker logins and think fingerprint readers are nifty. Read on for details.

When I first enabled the fingerprint reader, it told me in order to use the fingerprints in windows I also had to set up a boot password and register fingerprints there. I haven't messed with trying to turn it off yet because I think it's cool for someone turning on my computer to be met with a scary white screen saying "AUTHENTICATE WITH BIOMETRIC TO BOOT SYSTEM". Even though they are probably just my sister wanting to check her email over the holidays. I am a little worried about what happens if my fingerprint sensor breaks... It had me set up a bios password also so maybe it detects whether the fingerprint is working right and makes me use it if it is.

Which brings me to my next point on fingerprints with Dell... Sometimes it won't take them. Not as in the fingerprint reader doesn't think the print is mine, as in sometimes windows just wants my password and will not consider using the biometric login. It's happened both on the bios screen and the windows login. It's like windows is aware of a biometric, but doesn't want to use it just then.

Jog/Shuttle PROBLEM: This needs to be fixed because it's a bug. Since I have mouse buttons on the touchpad, I figured I'd just turn tap clicks off and sidestep the touchpad problem. Turning off tap clicks prevents you from being able to activate the jog/shuttle function at all. The Synaptic software stops interpreting taps at all, so your tap on the jog/shuttle button is completely ignored. I can't find any other way to turn it on.

Case: The red color of the case looks much more saturated in real life than on Dell's website. I would not call it orange. It's full-on "Christmas Wrapping Red." Reminds me of the red Raz'r phones that Sprint came out with a while back. (And I would call it "sports car red" to my friends, but it's really not... It's strawberry shortcake, Christmas wrapping red.)

Dell, if you're listening, I suggest a remedy... Make an extended-capacity battery like HP has (I really miss that thing) that plugs in to the docking port, and lifts the laptop up at a pleasant typing angle. They will sell like hotcakes. (Especially if they smell like hotcakes!) [/strongbad voice]


I'm happy to report there are NO capacitive buttons on the thing! If you want a button to push, you push it. If you don't want it to push, you don't push it. None of this "if you don't want it to push, keep your finger out of that whole general area" bullcrap like with HP's laptops.

Keyboard layout: Smart. One of my demands for a keyboard is the ability to very quickly target certain keys: Delete, Home, End, Backspace and Backtick. I use shift-delete all the time in windows, and have found the natural reach of my thumb and middle finger land perfectly. Backtick and Backspace are a little more difficult than usual, because of the top row being sandwiched right on top. Typing shell script and MEL, I will hit ESC a lot. But that is the case for any laptop, and Dell did not resize or reposition those keys like some keyboards do. All major keys are positioned and sized -exactly- like a full size keyboard, so you don't have to relearn how to type at all. My typing has had zero issues except for hitting the stupid nub and moving my cursor in the middle of a word. The Fn key is the only exception. The Alt, Windows and Spacebar keys have been moved over a bit relative to a normal keyboard, so I have to relearn Maya navigation a bit. This is the same on all laptops. I have always wished manufacturers would put the Fn key somewhere else, since it is not used for normal typing tasks. The four non-backlit keys (Calculator, Volume Down, Volume Up and Mute) are easy to find if you remember their positions, since they line up perfectly with the other keys below them. The fact they are not backlit actually helps by making it easier to target Home and End. Visually they are at the "upper right corner" of the backlit keyboard. The keys are very pleasant to type on but fall just short of the full travel of a normal keyboard. They have a little bit less travel than an HP 8710/8730. I think that's a good thing because my fingers do NOT get caught under the edges of keys on this keyboard. It happened all the time on the 8710 I had, and almost never on this. (I've caught the very corner of a key a few times, but it was my fault.)

Ergonomics:

Ports are smartly placed. Anything you want to access is on the sides. Anything you want to access that leaves a cable plugged in, is towards the back and not in your mouse area. USB cables and thumbdrives were constantly in my way on the HP 8710, to the point that the laptop felt 4" wider because of it. With this laptop my mouse area starts at the edge of the laptop, because nothing sticks out until 2/3 of the way back, and that's only if you have Ethernet plugged in. In fact 90% of the time, working without ethernet or external displays, only the very back inch has anything sticking out.

Case Ergonomics Issue: The front edge of it is a little bit unfriendly. Maybe I am sitting too low in my chair, but there is no slant on the front edge of the laptop and that causes the carpal tunnel area of my wrists to sit on top of a hard 90-degree corner while typing.

Touchpad and Nub - I'm having some issues where my mouse is moving and clicking while I type. It's happened maybe twenty times while I was typing this. The palms of my hands are just grazing the touchpad and triggering mouse moves and clicks. I just now figured out that most of my problems are coming from the little mouse nub built in to the keyboard. (what is that thing called?) The "nub" has a feature where tapping it triggers clicks. Bad idea! Maybe I'm a sloppy typer but I've been doing it since I was 6 and I'm no amateur. Every few times I go for the B, G, H keys, my finger will graze the nub and all of a sudden I am typing in the middle of a completely different area of my document. This has happened maybe 20 times while I've typed this review. Now that I'm aware, I'm trying to dodge around it and things are a little better. I think this is the first laptop I've had (whoops just hit it) that has had a mouse nub in the keyboard. Looking for a way to disable the tap clicks on the thing now.....

The hardware wifi switch is great. I love knowing for sure, before turning on the laptop, that I will not have to wait until after Windows loads to turn off wifi. It makes me feel good that I can turn it on in an airplane, and unlike the HP, I do not rely on windows being fully loaded to use their capacitive toggle button to turn off wifi.

Battery Features
There is a hot button [Fn]+[F2] to turn off battery charging while plugged in to AC power. Could help make an underpowered adapter usable if someone finds a smaller one. The button right next to it goes into the Dell power settings, which include an option for "Extended Battery Life Mode" which apparently adjusts some things windows Vista can't. A list:
Use Vista Basic appearance
Put Windows into Power Saver power scheme
Put audio in lower power state
LCD brightness reduces during inactivity
Set color resolution to 16 bits
Powers down security devices
Power down 1394, media card, and cardbus
Power off optical drive
"Turn off Advanced Settings Notification" (whatever that is... ?)

It has a special note saying that if there is a CD in the drive, it will NOT eject if you turn off the drive. (well, seems obvious, but hey.)

The power brick is 7.75" x 4" x 1". Huge. But that is only the dimension of the actual brick. The cords stick out of both ends, so essentially as far as fitting it inside a box, the box would have to be 12" x 4" x 1". That's right, the power brick is essentially one foot long when you include the room needed for the cords to bend to the side. It will not fit sideways in my 17" laptop bag. (yep, the power brick is longer than the laptop with cord room included! By about half an inch, if you are not willing to damage your cords by crimping them at a right angle.) They should really have put both cords at the same end. It also gets hot when in an enclosed space like a backpack pouch. I will have to modify my backpack to include a mesh sleeve for the thing. Most likely I will end up putting that on the bottom of my backpack, since the power brick has the same footprint as the bag.

The contactless smart card reader is right where your right wrist goes when typing. I don't know how those work so I don't know if that's a problem. If you have to leave the card sitting there and not move it, it might be bad. There would be no way to avoid bumping that thing with your wrist.


Widescreen vs. 4:3 aspect

I -hate- seeing 4:3 aspect images stretched to widescreen. It really bothers me. Fortunately the NVidia drivers have a setting that will automatically scale whatever resolution you use, letterboxing it and fitting it properly. Every display device should do this! I love it! If I fire up a game that only does 1280x1024 (which isn't even a correct aspect! It's 1280x960, entire computer industry! What's wrong with you!) Anyway, if I fire up a game that only does 4:3 aspect, the system immediately letterboxes it into the middle of the screen. Perfect! (And even people using 1280x1024 will get circles looking like circles again!)


Fans Just sitting in windows and typing this, with some quiet music playing, I can hear the fan. But just barely. I think the biggest issue with fan noise is their potential to annoy the people in the room who aren't working on the cool laptop. I'm positive the fans in this thing would not be loud enough to bother other people in any setting but a movie theater, and then only before the film started. It would be absolutely inaudible in a coffee shop. (just hit the stupid nub again.) It might be audible in a classroom setting with an instructor talking, if the (nub!) room were otherwise very quiet. The sound of the fan is a low airy whoosh, no high pitches. This laptop is definitely quieter than any desktop workstation. The only quieter laptops will be the fanless ones that are made for getting email and web (nub!) browsing on the go. I give the fans an A+. In fact, through (nub!!) most of the time I've been typing this, only one of the fans has even turned on. The case has been capable of cooling the components without it. (Note: this is a review of operation under low stress ONLY. I have not pushed the CPU and GPU. Doing that on this laptop is difficult and I don't have any utilities yet! I will try to update if/when I manage to stress the CPU and GPU. Otherwise if you plan on rendering frames in a movie theater, look for another noise review.)


Webcam
It IS built in to the unit. But it's pretty terrible. Maybe it's my software but it only records a very low fps even at half-size. Blocky blue/green artifacts all over it at first, but those did go away somewhat after I toggled "Anti Motion Blur" a few times in the Dell software. Not sure why that did anything to help the color but it did improve drastically. I'll have to try something other than Yahoo Messenger. (Maybe that is the problem.) I can't find anything built in to the system for capturing screenshots or even viewing the webcam's output. Far as I can tell you need third party software to even see that it's working. Worth the addon price? Eh, probably. It does also add the microphone after all. Addon price was very cheap. Quality is probably on par with a webcam in that price range.

Note: Webcam is definitely working on CMOS technology and not CCD.
Note 2: The webcam actually lights up when it is in use, making it very obvious when you are "on the record" so to speak. There is no way to physically cover up the webcam. It is behind the glass plate that covers the screen, and there are no slide-in shutters or anything built in to the laptop. Maybe if you poked two small holes in a piece of fabric, you could poke the lid clasps through the holes and have a curtain?

 

Wow, thank you for all that.

I COMPLETELY agree with you on the light up keyboard. This feature was a major thing that started me looking at the m6400 instead of the HP you mention.

Do you really leave a power brick in a backpack while in use? Theres stories of those things starting fires just sitting on fabric and left alone.

You can certainly disable that whole nub thing. I did as I will never use it. It doesnt disable the buttons, just the nub. Cant think off top of my head where I found that. Im still getting used to Vista and feel pretty lost.

But thanks again for all that info.

 

Thanks for the excellent review. Great to hear heat and fans are a non-issue under normal use.

For the keyboard mouse stick/nub (Dell usually calls it "Pointing Stick") you should be able to turn it off under "Dell Touchpad".

I've found fingerprint readers troublesome and since I'm not carrying "For Your Eyes Only" data, don't need it. It also consumes power (about the same as a HD) and when I'm traveling to dicey places I really don't need someone cutting off my finger(s) to steal my $5000 notebook!

Extended Battery Life Mode

 

Thanks guys! I ended up finding where to disable the nub a bit later.

Turns out you can in fact turn off just the tap-to-click function, which is great as I sometimes use the nub in video programs. (After all, it works a lot like a shuttle!) Now my typing has gotten MUCH better.

I had been carrying the power brick around in a bag, but not for this laptop... Just for an older one, and I frequently checked the heat while using it for the first few weeks to make sure it was ok. The Covet power supply I found out should not be kept inside the bag, so I'm going to get some fishnet fabric and construct an external holster for it. I really like being able to sit down and plug in cables without removing the power brick!

I do very much wish that the power brick had both cables coming out the same side. Putting it in the bag without unplugging the power cable makes one of the cables bend at a sharp angle.

Update on fan noise

Initially I was running the laptop in a low-noise situation and fan noise was difficult to notice. I'm now in my room, by myself, with no sound except for the M6400 fans and my typing. The volume is still well below that of your typical desktop workstation, and way below that of my typing, but I'm noticing that one of the fans is kicking on and off every ten seconds or so. Sort of wish it would just pick one or the other you know? There might be a utility to tweak that. Anyway, in a silent room situation, the fans are noticeable, but they still aren't bothersome except that the noise changes every 10 seconds.

To be fair I should mention that at this point I can hear my upstairs neighbors opening drawers in their kitchen, and the laundry machines in the closed room across the courtyard, clinking the buttons on someone's clothes against the sides of the dryer.


Sequoia225, I was angry at Vista too for a while, but now I really don't want to go back to XP. Underneath all the BS they slathered on to the interface, there are some subtle things that are really nice. Like, for example, being able to turn the volume of your instant messaging program down individually, while keeping the volume of your video editing program up. And I really like being able to hit the start button on my keyboard, type 'open wr [ENTER]', and it has automatically found OpenOffice Write within my start menu and launched it.

Of course, Audition 3.0 doesn't work in Vista 64 yet, at least not for me... So I may end up with an XP partition after all.

Check out this site, it will ease the growing pains quite a bit:
http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/windows-vista/
It's a nice item-by-item howto for anything you'd want to do in Vista.

BTW, try to keep User Account Control on. It's a big part of what keeps Vista more secure against viruses and malware. I've had to turn it off temporarily, but so far I've always been able to turn it back on after doing whatever I had to do. Vista works on a permissions system and that takes getting used to. There's a script out there that will help you out. It adds a "Take Control of This Object" item to your context menu. (don't have a link right now, have to find it again myself.) If you have trouble with a program not installing due to permissions handling, "Take Control" of its program files folder and it will clear things up. ZBrush and Mudbox for example require that, as well as Dosbox. Any software badly written enough to store user-mode data in its program files folder. (which is stupid.)

If you have to go back to XP for any software, check out this program:
Sun VirtualBox
You can create a hard drive image file in your My Documents folder, and treat it like it's a new hard drive. You can install XP to it, or even Linux, and boot from the image using VirtualBox. It's really efficient too. You tell VirtualBox what size the other operating system should think its hard drive is, but the image file will grow and shrink according to the actual amount of space taken up. So for me, a virtual install of XP, running Audition 3.0, will prolly take only about 5 gigs and will let me at least edit my projects.

Linux, somehow, works even better this way than running natively! You can even resize the window and it figures it out and fits the OS to the new window size. Kubuntu on VirtualBox is an absolute dream and I love all the free software I get that way.

 

Didn't finish my post. Extended Battery Life Mode, with everything set to maximize battery, how many hours for your system (Q9300, 3700M)?

 

"Update on fan noise
Initially I was running the laptop in a low-noise situation and fan noise was difficult to notice. I'm now in my room, by myself, with no sound except for the M6400 fans and my typing. The volume is still well below that of your typical desktop workstation, and way below that of my typing, but I'm noticing that one of the fans is kicking on and off every ten seconds or so. Sort of wish it would just pick one or the other you know? There might be a utility to tweak that. Anyway, in a silent room situation, the fans are noticeable, but they still aren't bothersome except that the noise changes every 10 seconds."

H'mmm ...

 

M6400 owners. Have you tried the Extended Battery Life Mode with everything set to maximize battery? Battery life?