Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

Good to hear that, minus the bleeding, it is indeed a stunning display.

 

Can you take some pictures?

 

I'm on the verge of purchasing a M4400 from the outlet with 4GB Ram, a 250 or 320gb hd, and a T9550 or T9600 proc. Backlit keyboard...

Question: Is it worth it to get a LED lit display at the WXGA or WXGA+ Res?

 

LED and RGBLED are two different things. On the M4400, RGBLED is only available with WUXGA (1920x1200) display. Simple LED won't give you the improvements that RGBLED gives.
LED's main advantages over standard CCFL backlight are:

• Lower power consumption
• Instant-on (they don't need 30 minutes to get to their full brightness, which CCFLs do - they need just a minute or two to get to full brightness, and are already very, very bright right after they've been turned on)
• CCFLs will loose a good amount of their brightness over the years (I think it was something about 50% within 3-4 years)

 

CUDDLE BUNNIES!

Had my M4300 jacked from my car this afternoon, along with my audio interface and monitors... and only a week after ordering a SATA caddy + drive to swap into my DVD bay. Have been on the net most of the night trying to figure up a suitable replacement.

The M4400 is a obvious option, although I'm a little concerned at some of the problems people in the thread seem to be having? I absolutely loved my M4300, and am looking for the same quality of machine.

I'm planning on running XP, w/ a suite of pro audio apps (Ableton 8, Sonar 8, E-MU 1616m) ... anyone using the M4400 for similar applications? Any problems?

Also, in a nutshell, what are the major technical differences between the two display types RGBLED and the default? I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around it.

Next, will the M4400 support direct video output to two monitors without a docking station? At what max resolution? Will I be able to use the laptop display as well?

Oh, and can anyone provide any concrete usage comparisons between the M4400 and the Lenovo W500?

Last, given my experiences in the past 24hrs, I'm also very intrigued by the lo-jack asset protection option. Useful or no?

Thanks all for your contributions thus far in the thread. They've been very helpful.

 

First @ d3lta, if I understand your question, YES its worth it; but I would recommend the WXGA+ at minimum (1400x900), to have have an experience commensurate with the other great components of this machine (e.g. FX770M GPU w/OpenGL).

As Christoph pointed out, LED based LCDs are generally better display techs (I greatly prefer WXGA+ and RGB LED vs the CCFLs), but many here also have good experiences with 2CCFL @ 1900x1200. Considering cost/value I would go with WXGA+.

That said, I don't know of anyone who has actually opted for the lower 1200x800; as you sense, it seems like running a Volkswagon Passat on a set of doughnuts -- just doesn't seem to comport with the rest of the system.

@ dodeca; So, I find the 1400x900 screen once calibrated, is very, very good (I have the AUOptronics model)... Can't imagine how awesome the RGB LED must be. But given uses in your question, your major consideration may be resolution rather than qualitative differences amongst LEDs. If you want to have high resolution native screen along with maximum external output (gpu determined), you may go with a 1900x1200 option.

 

I have a couple of questions for M4400 owners.

1) On the palm rest area, there is a little rectangle with a couple of wireless type symbols on either side of it, what the heck is that?

2) I've got some jerky movement with the pointing stick under Windows 7. I've tried it without the Dell drivers and it is better, but I need those to disable the stupid touchpad. Any remedy for this?

Thanks.

 

the screens on the m4400 are much nicer than the W500. the only thing the w500 has thats nicer than the m4400 is the switchable graphics, which gives u better battery life. it also runs cooler.

the m4400 has a displayport, which can connect to anything from dual DVI to hdmi etc, you just need to get the right cable, i got my sales rep to throw in one for free.

so in a way, yes, it dosent need a docking thingy, but no, it needs that cable adaptor, unless ur monitors have direct support for displayport

 

for the first question, that is the symbol for a contactless smartcard. you can use either a standard smartcard (the slot on the right hand side of the unit) or tap a contactless smartcard on the palmrest.

for the jerky mouse movement, try going into the dell mouse setup in the control panel, and reducing or disabling "touchcheck"

its a feature that helps stop accidental touching by your palm of the touchpad, however as a side effect it seems at default settings to create jerky movement. there is a touchcheck sensitivity slider, i find reducing it to quarter way gives the best performance.

hope this helps

 

Ah, that's a smartcard reader. Kind of sad I didn't pick up on that because I saw it on the spec sheet.

And yes, I've tried toying with the settings for touchcheck and everything else. I too found the 1/4 setting to be the best, but overall it is still very poor. Perhaps they will update the driver and fix, certainly hope so.

Thanks for your help.