Precision M4600 Owners Lounge

I just realized that I got the non-IPS screen. I just didn't have the money for it, but I wanted 1920x1080. Anyways, I can confirm that Optimus does work with the non-IPS screen. I get about 3 hours of battery life with the 6 cell battery. I don't know how much help that will be to you guys because you all want 9 cell battery results.

 

Fwiw, I've still got my original 9 cell Panasonic battery in my T60p. It's now a month shy of 5 years in service in this machine, I never remove it, and run the computer 10 to 15 hours a day, almost always plugged in to a power source. Its current Whrs capacity is 75% of when it was new (62.80 / 84.24). So, leaving the battery in the machine has not hurt it. I have been running Power Manager throughout the life of the machine.

 

did you try disabling the quadro in bios so it just runs of the intel gpu? that would be interesting
cheers.

 

Hehe, after I saw that I started a download of 06, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

How would you rate the quality of your screen? Have you seen the IPS version? How do they compare?

 

notebookcheck.net suggest it will be in the 10,000-12,000 range. which should be enough to handle most modern games with settings at high to ultra high maybe with anti aliasing scaled down a bit or some minor stuff set to medium

i havent seen the IPS version, but i've seen IPS desktops before. Brightness is awesome (according to the dell specs higher brightness than IPS), colours are great. viewing angles are good but not as superb as IPS.

i was worried about the paper spec saying its 60% gamut vs my old M4400's 2CCFL having 75% gamut, but it seems fine so far, and i am pretty fussy since i work in marketing and fashion which requires me to do proofing on my laptop sometimes.

 

Other less popular benchmarks:-
FF14 bench = 2570
FF11 bench3 = 8550

 

No gaming going on this box here, strictly work but just to see it looks like notebookcheck.net is right on the money, here is my 3D Mark 06 score:

3D Mark Score - 11273

Result


Re. the panel - I have the FHD LED panel and I think the quality's pretty good, it does what I need it to do, which does not include any major graphics work. I have a bunch of 30" Dell IPS panels I use on a daily basis in the office so I am a little spoilt but for what it is this puppy does well, it's never going to be an IPS panel but that's why we pay less for it. I haven't seen the specific IPS panel offered with the M4600 though.

 

I can't comment on the colorss because all I have done so far is browse the internet. I've only had it for three days. What I can say about the screen so far is that it is actually very nice. It can be extremely bright, but is also still very readable at zero brightness. And I can also say that the text is very crisp and not at all fussy. Now I should also say that I have never seen an IPS screen before so I really have nothing to compare it to.

 

Thanks, afhstingray and someone153.

I'm believe I will suspend my search for the "ideal IPS screen" because so many people with FHD screens -- of not only Dells but other brands -- are saying how good they are. If I want better than a FHD, I can always get a separate 24" monitor in IPS or such. For a laptop screen the IPS option is too rare and expensive for the trouble; it restricts the type of machine I can afford, the configurations available, and with options, like Optimus, that I want to use. So my next machine, whatever brand it turns out to be, will most likely be with a FHD screen, not IPS. Unless a miracle happens. But I'm not holding my breath for it to happen.