Pictures and Videos M11X R2

^ I'm guessing your laptop is different b/c it's Brazil? B/c my keyboard looks exactly like what was pictured on page 1.

that black looks amazing.. almost worth the price since i7 looks so far to be underwhelming.

 

yeah you are right i just saw that cause we get the ç in the keyboard ... my both shift keys are so tiny ..

 

We need to have someone do a real battery test. Only surfing, installing a few programs, and some flash video would give us a good idea what to expect.

 

Yes! I'm interested.

 

Agreed, battery life is what concerns me most right now. The dell rep said 5.5 in the video, I'm hoping what was talking real world and not bs like the 8.5 in the R1.

If he was bs'ing the 5.5 does that mean we can expect < 3 hrs on a typical charge. I might cry if thats true.

 

start crying then. I already said the r2 has a CPU advantage over the r1, but real life performance wise in games or normal PC use, you really wont notice (maybe faster load times). So i'm really happy i have the r1, because battery life is more essential to me than a faster load.

 

I really hope that's not the the case. if it is, its going back to dell. I could get an Envy 15 if I wanted that bad of battery life. Reason why people want the MX11. Decent portable machine with long battery life, but a decent gpu as well.

 

Well if anyone here gets 7,5 hours doing anything on your R1 I will be impressed.

The best ive got is like 5 hours doing web sufring / Lowrez videoplayback on integrated graphics. So to me the 5,5 hour sounds like the same as we are getting now. Of course now I am sort of afraid it will mean ~3 hours of real usage with the R2.

That Said logically speaking there is no reason to expect that because the R2 should have a lower TDP for those components overall. Couple that with an Intel SSD that keeps very low usage even for multimedia .. and your sweet.

 

yeah if they say 8hrs and we get 5.5 hours.. the R2's 5.5 means probably 4 hours or 3.5 haha

 

I got over 6 hours....

 

If we can get 5-6 hours of solid real world usage, I will be happy. If its 3-4, its probably going back.

 

I noticed the left side ports are different. So then we can't swap boards?

 

isnt that what i said?

 

What I mean is that I think the Review estimate is 5,5 of normal usage and not the test lap result with everything disabled on min brightness doing nothing.

So I think the battery life will be the same for light usage, but probably lower for heavy use like gaming.

 

lol then you are a wishful thinker. Why would he say 5,5 hours if he could have said 7 hours (everything disbled min brightness doing nothing). He is still promoting the new r2.
Also it makes no sense to compare 5,5 hours to the 7,5 hours of the r1 if they are not based on the same standard.
e.g. nobody would say this laptop can do 5,5 hours light usage and this laptop can do 7,5 hours when you are doing absolutely nothing, this comparison is by definition useless.
The only logical conclusion you can deduct from this is that the 5,5 hours are the maximum as they are to the 7,5 hours of the r1
(BTW let's forget that optimus is inside, while with the r1 you have the option to only run on the integrated card, this will still sometimes run the dedicated graphic card altho you might not want it and still consume more battery life)
And let's not forget that the math we are applying doesn't even apply here. As we are saying that 7,5 hours to 5 or 5,5 hours is the difference between absolutely doing nothing with the computer and normal usage on the integrated graphic card. So we deduct 2 or 2,5 hours off and do the same for r2. BUT in the r2 there is a very real chance that the dedicated graphic card will switch on from time to time with normal usage, which also needs to be factored in.
So if 5,5 hours is the maximum and I deduct 2 hours or 2,5 hours off you get 3 hours. But I wouldn't be surprised it if was more 2,5 hours.

I can understand that you really want to believe that what he said was that 5,5 is under normal usage, but I wouldn't count on it. Everything points in that direction, the more powerful CPU, optimus,... there is absolutely no reason why the battery life would be the same.

 

i actually get 7hrs on my r1 sir. this is with surfing, even watching movies (non-hd) i manage my battery pretty well though.
to be more specific, battery bar gives me an average of 7hrs 15 minutes per charge. ive timed my battery life manually as well and i do get 7hrs

i use one bar for screen brightness
integrated gpu of course
disable OC so that my cpu can throttle down
mute speakers when im just surfing
and set performance profile to power saving
only my keyboard lights are on but they're set to dim and i use red (for some reason i feel red leds use less power)

 

lol is that normal usage then? this is what you always do on a regular bases,...defining "normal usage". I just surf and watch movies with wifi on and set my brightness to low (but not very low) and i get about 5 hours of usage. Also you might have lucked out on your battery; it's already been proven that most of us r1 users don't get the great battery life that dell advertised and that's the point. Not what some of the r1 users can squeeze out of their lucky battery, but what the majority of the r1 users experience and therefore is a more representative fact of the duration of the battery life.

 

this is actually very normal usage for me. i use my m11x for surfing and watching movies. and for these tasks i get a full 7 hours. for movie watching non hd) i turn my wifi and keyboard lighting off battery bar still gives me around 7 hours. as long as battery drain is around 10mws (non hd movie) i get around 7 hours. 720p movies gives me a battery drain of about 15-17mws.
i dont see the value in enabling oc as i really dont need it for surfing and movies. if u turn it on it keeps the cpu at a full 1.6ghz and cosumes more power. so again i state that all these settings are my regular settings and for surfing and movies i get 7 hours

 

it doesn't make sense. the TDP of the R2's cpu + igp +chipset is lower than that of R1's. I'm thinking Dell changed the battery from R1 :/

 

my point is that might be the case for you for normal usage, but to me normal usage is that you just use the laptop without having to think "ow wait i have to turn this off and then this". Everything you have to do as an added measure during to save battery is not normal use, i'm not talking about the brightness, because that's something that automaticly changes when you unplug the battery. And stating that the things you do is "normal usage" is not a valid definition, in MY opinion that is. If the majority disagrees with me, then I'll follow consensus . Also OC the cpu actually undervolts the cpu, to which some posters even claim improve battery life instead of consuming, just a tip

 

i may be mistaken and you may be right about your lucky-battery theory but i seem to recall a review i read on the 11x that stated it got 5 hrs of use with OC on and around 6.5 with OC off. and this is what im getting (well im getting a little more because im frugal with screen brightness) im thinking the reason why the majority of users like yourself only get 5 is that the majority of users enable OC. as ive previously mentioned enabling OC disables CPU throttling and causes a constant 1.6ghz operating frequency, this in turns consumes more power and produces more heat which causes the fan to turn on more and use more power still.

 

There's a couple problems with your logic. First, it's not necessarily an accurate estimation to chop off 2 hours from the 5.5 because the R1 has 2 chopped off. For instance, 2/8.5=24% reduction in the R1 from what that guy claims and what actually happens, so perhaps it's 24% off the 5.5 hours he claims about the R2, which would be 4.2 hours of battery life. ...but that's just an example. The fact is there are an infinite amount of ways to connect two points of data. It's useless to guess now off of the rep's numbers.

Second, you mention the CPU and Optimus are two reasons battery life will be less. In terms of the CPU, the I-5 actually has a lower base clock speed and benchmarks indicate it's a bit slower than the SU7300. By your own logic (you seem to claim more powerful cpu = more power so less battery), it should have better battery life. As for Optimus, there really is no difference between Optimus and manual switching, at least there doesn't have to be. Optimus doesn't change GPUs based on live usage. Instead, it changes to the 335m when programs you specify in a list are run. If you don't want to have it switch to the 335m ever, for instance, you could simply use a blank list. Optimus needs not affect battery life.

 

it has already been proven that OC the CPU does not affect the battery life, if anything it improves it because of the undervolting it does to overclock. The heat issue which has been monitored by many different m11x owners say that it's well in safety bounds and does NOT effect the fan. I also recall that on that first review the dispute was that without or with OC m11x users didn't notice battery drain, and that almost nobody was getting the 7,5 or 8 hours as advertised. The 5,5 or 6 hours I can probably hit if I would care more for my keyboard lights or turn off my wifi, but that's not normal usage for me. I'm on my laptop because i'm on the internet, i don't use my m11x to watch movies (maybe sometimes, but rare occasions) as i don't like to watch movies on a 11 inch screen that's not even that crisp and bright.

 

il do some more research on your claims about OC saving power though i must admit that the m11x undervolting an OC'd cpu does not make sense at all. in any case i was just giving my suggestions and feedback to darkpreacher who said he would be impressed if anybody got 7.5 hours doing anything on an m11x. for me to be able to get 7hrs watching movies and surfing counts i think.

 

First of all I never said I was 100% sure. I only deducted from what the rep gave as numbers. Claiming btw that it's useless to guess is simply not true. As he obviously compared the 7.5 hours (maximum) of the r1 to the 5.5 hours of the r2, saying directly that the r2 would not get to 7.5 hours because of that the i-processors are more power consuming (that's what he LITERALLY said in the video). So we can safely assume that 7.5 hours will never be reached with ANY of the i-processors (and let's not forget he was talking about the i3 processor and he also confirmed that all the i-processors are more power consuming than the 2duo core processors, so we don't need to speculate on that anymore it's a fact)
Hence I also said that taking 2 hours off arbitrarily is not even correct (as you so nicely pointed out). So I don't know what you mean by that, as I said you DO have to factor in the fact that during normal usage optimus WILL see fit when it will be turned on or not. If you have to decide for EVERY program when it needs to turned on, then you are obviously not paying for an extra convenience. Because you have to keep adding programs to the list (which you would still be better of with the r1). The majority of the users will let optimus decide (which is also a safe assumption) where it will affect battery life and much more than the 2 hours i took arbitrarily off, which is something I btw can do, because there is no reason to believe (as the rep said himself that the I-processors will consume more) that it will consume less than the r1.

Yes there are an infinite thing you have to factor in that will determin the outcome but we know this for a fact:
-rep said that i processors will consume more (he was btw talking about the i3 if you can check the review to which he was referring to, that will get you 5,5 hours)
-the gpu is still the same
-optimus will decide for itself (unless you decide for what it can be used or not, but then the manual switching on the r1 is far easier and more simple to use) and if optimus will decide for itself and it turns on the GPU now and then there is no doubt as well that it will consume more battery life than if it's on integrated only (BTW the constant processing and assessing when it needs to be turned on, I have no idea how much that consumes)

and on a side note, this is something we don't know for a fact, but what if the fan issue is not fixed in r2 (as it's still not fixed in r1, so that's not such a far fetched thought)and optimus decides for itself when it needs to be turned on and the fan keeps getting stuck, calculate how much battery you still have left.

Giving people false hope that it will give similar performance should not be done, as this is a significant investment for a lot of people (students,...) They should be well informed or at least if there is speculation, it should be on something real, not just the "hope" it will have similar expectations because the dell rep said so or advertised it. It's clear they like to embellish the truth in their advantage. That's why I can safely assume that when he says the i processors will/do consume more is correct as this statement is in any case not in their advantage.

 

i know some of us can get the 7 hours if they really do their best, for me I can't get 7 hours even if I did my best. So I'm happy for you that you can, really i'm a bit jealous even. But I was just pointing out that the 5,5 hours the rep was giving, was really just a best case scenario. And that people if they are realistic should expect far less (as i've read the interview and saw the video the 5,5 hours was for an i3 processor) so imagine the people getting i5's or i7's.
Why i'm pointing to this fact is that MY main reason for buying an m11x is because of the gaming portability AND battery power. And if I would hear "ow wow it get's 5,5 hours battery life" and after my purchase I realise that was an estimate for an i3 and i bought an i5 and i'm getting like 2,5 hours normal use not even gaming, I would feel like i've seriously wasted my money (and as i'm a student I cannot afford wasting money). And I do understand the sentiment to hope for similar results, I'm just giving some food for thought for people who really want to buy this and battery life is one of the essential buying factor. Cause I know I'd be pissed,

BTW i really hope for everybody who bought the r2 do get similar results, i'm just saying...

 

well in that case maybe u should have read my first post and to what i was replying for.

 

Sorry if I mistook what you meant about the battery life.

Anyway, optimus does not decide for itself. Well, it does, sort of. nVidia includes a list of programs that should use the 335m. You, the user, can add and remove items from this list. So, say you only play one game, and that's the only time you need the 335m. You simply add that to the list and nothing else.

It does not do constant processing and assessing. If you read the manual for the R2 (I did), it says all it does is when a program runs, it checks to see if it's in the list. If it is, it turns on the 335m, and when it closes, it turns it off. It does not constantly assess whether the system load would benefit from using the 335m or not.

 

interesting, then what is the advantage of optimus over manual switching? I thought there was an option "let nvidia decide?" I could be wrong tho

 

strange cause R2 uses an 90w power supply and the R1 got the 65w.

 

That's because the i7+335m at high loads consumes more, but at low/idle it should be the same or less

 

regular use = office, web browsing & movie. the Battery life should be better than R1 if not the same - going by the specs.

maxing out i7 +335m wouldn't be "normal use"

 

I looked at several review sites and found that not a single one of them got 7.5-8hrs of battery life. The most I saw was about 6.5hrs.

 

If i can pull 5-6 just broswing the web and working on word docs then i will be happy. But i get a feeling thats just wishful thinking on the i7

 

I dont see why, it clocks itself down pretty low when you arent doing much.

 

I don't see why i5/i7 should have less battery life than the su7300 on normal use - the TDP of the processor + motherboard is less for the i-series, and if you aren't stressing the processors and kicking them into overclock they won't be drawing more.

Once they start doing more intensive things though I can see the battery life drop as they pull more voltage to increase performance.

 

Right. Someone earlier said that overclocking has no effect on the battery life. If you aren't upping the voltage I could see that but most always the voltage will slide up as the clock speed increases.

 

Straight from the Fedex guy's hand onto my chopping block to install my Intel SSD LOL. The rubberized finish is much nicer than the old plain plastic finish. It's not just on top of the LCD lid, it's the bottom and the sides too. I wasn't going to bother tearing it down to install the BT, but as you can see the keyboard on the left side looks like it wasn't seated properly, see how ASDF is more raised up, so I figure might as well go all the way.

Picture #6 shows the location of the BT connector. It's very easy, if you're willing to teardown your brand new laptop Hey some people get on the phone for hours to save another $100. I spent 20 minutes to straighten out my keyboard and install my own BT to save the $20

 

is the hinges still plastic?

 

Sweet - I plan on installing an Intell SSD as well.

 

@andye39s: Congrats on the m11x!! I was curious what the insides look like, just didn't want tear mine up so fast.

 

Thanks a lot for the great pics!!!

 

Where do you buy the BT module to have it connected internally?

 

They actually didn't remove a USB port. There were 3 on the R1, and there are still 3 on the R2. They removed the VGA port because they needed the space for the new CPUs.

 

Yeah I don't understand why people keep bringing up a missing usb port. 3 are visible as clear as day...

 

and they added a display port!

 

They never added 1, it was always there...

 

^ there's been a display port.

 

Not to sound like a jackass, but anyone can get those kinds of numbers if you turn everything down to the equivalent of a Texas Instruments TI -85 Calculator.

 

wow, I didn't know on the R1 they had hdmi, vga, and a display port...

I feel silly now