M6900 - What specs are you hoping for?

I just need to figure out what to do with my top of the line M6700 Covet now... Keep or sell?
Hmmm...

 

I'll be keeping mine as backup, but mine is an older m6500 and doesn't have much value for selling. Or maybe I'll experiment with it as an linux server. possibilities are endless

 

Heck, I still have my M6400 Covet, since I gave up on upgrading when they stopped offering a decent screen format (16:10). With that crummy keyboard layout on the 7710 my 6400 may have been the last Dell in that class I have bought. I'm leaning more and more to the Thinkpad P70 at this point.

But overall, the sad observation is that PC makers are more and more devaluing their offerings (in parallel with Microsoft turning Windows into a POS as well, I might add), pinching pennies and cutting every corner they can find. Sure, that's fine for a $300-laptop, but when someone is willing to shell out ten times as much or more, then that someone is a lot less likely to be willing to accept the kind of compromises they are trying to force us into. Plus, the idea seems to be that those machines are bought for media consumption only (which is the only way to rationalize that 16:9 fixation in the PC industry), which, once again, is a strange emphasis when we're talking about a machine that this price point...

 

I'm still leaning toward the Dell 7710 or possibly a 7510. The p70 keyboard really doesn't look or seem much better than the Dell photos, except for the dedicated Home and End keys on the p70. Both require Fn for volume. They are both island keyboards (chiclets). Both Mfrs give us a 10 key pad, and with numlock disabled the 7 and 3 are "dedicated" Home and End.

Until we get reviews, the feel of the keyboards are completely unknown. Even if p70 is better display, upgradability (optical disk bay hdd-sdd-caddy), port/plug locations... I can't really say I'm convinced their support is any good or even average. Too many unknowns about Lenovo as a company and the support they can offer (me speaking).

I'm waiting until I see actual reviews that compare Lenovo p70 side by side against the Dell 7710. And I'm not speaking of only benchmark numbers but usability, User Interfaces! I'd love to see HP's answer in that comparison review too. But I have yet to hear anything from HP about a new workstation *I've not followed HP much and not a big fan after owning a Compaq just prior to the merger, ha.

*edit: yes 16:10 was great, and sucked big when that was taken away. I'm okay because my m6500 was last of the 16:10 Dells I think. But in recent year(s) they saved themselves somewhat by offering 1440 or greater top-down pixel count on the high res screens. Would be nicer to have 16:10 with 1600 vs 1440, but both are better than old school 1200. And UHD? I can't even imagine - I'm drooling - I need stronger eyeglasses though. I would not ever consider a 1080 unless I knew I would nearly always be connected to nicer external display (which I am, which is why I don't complain much if I had to buy a 16:9 laptop).

 

For the record, the display monitor was born out of media. So you really have it to thank. Its just come full circle.

 

For the record, the display monitor was born out of media. So you really have it to thank. Its just come full circle.

 

For the record, the display monitor was born out of media. So you really have it to thank. Its just come full circle.

 

Lenovo's have been really unreliable the last few years, and then add in their spyware fiasco and their lack of service and you have one scary proposition in the new P70... they are claiming they have turned things around now and are offering NBD in-home service. I am interested, but cautious too.

 

Not sure what to make of this remark. So those "media" were born out of chalkboards and painters' canvasses, I guess, and so on, all the way back to cave walls, so there's your full record. We note that those previous media came in all sorts of aspect ratios, with the golden ratio perhaps being the only one that stands out somewhat in frequency of use (that's roughly 16:10, by the way). So what?

Even Microsoft has realized that the 16:9 format doesn't make any sense at all for their tablets and hybrids. But then you still have these clowns at Dell release tablets in a 16:9 format, which are DOA as products because of that inane format choice alone, if nothing else.

 

I'd guess (s)he never saw this one coming

"Free market" - everyone that bought 16:9 consumer (because it is) laptop, basically said to every maker - "Hey, we are perfectly fine with that over-the-night transition all of you (both laptop and display makers) made, keep-up the corner cutting". Why don't you see a 21:9 laptops more often? Because it's NOT economically feasible, that's why. (A lot of the) Newer movies are 21:9, so there goes the only argument "But 16:9 doesn't has black bars."...