Dell Inspiron 17 7000 Series 7737 vs 7746

I bought an Inspiron 7736 machine from the Dell Outlet a few weeks ago, the i7-4510u/16GB version with 1TB + 8GB flash, 750M graphics. Some things are great on the machine, like the screen, touch screen, quietness, general spec. But a couple of things have been very poor - mostly the touchpad. The machine also has a few scuffs and a slight dent on the lid.

With the 7736 it’s as if the touchpad software takes over the whole operation of the pointer and introduces some problems. That is, if the CPU is maxed out, the touchpad software seems to freeze, so the pointer can’t be moved for several seconds. Also, as you lift your finger (possibly to click or tap) half the time the pointer jumps a centimetre or so. The touchpad software under heavy load even crashes or stops responding, which kills all the gestures until you reboot. Without touchpad software installed, it seems to stop jumping and freezing but doesn’t support gestures or two finger tap for right-click. Also makes it very hard to get it to scroll, it only works if you’re very deliberate and then if there’s not enough consistent pressure the pointer shoots off.

So I thought why not see if the 7746 has improved things, and to see if it has any better battery life, Broadwell CPU performance and newer 845M card. And some things are better! And some things aren't so good....

The good:
It does seem more responsive, and the touchpad doesn't freeze up when you push it hard.
Touchpad doesn't have the jumping issue either. But the touchpad has no drivers it seems, so no configuration options. Though it has gestures out of the box unlike the 7736 which didn’t support any gestures without its software. Seems to be set up to be not very sensitive. Anyway I can live with it.

The different:
The keyboard backlight turns off after not pressing any keys for one minute. A bit annoying when you can’t quite see to relocate your hands or hit a particular function key, for example. Have to wake it up by hitting something like Shift first.

The ugly:
I really wanted a quiet machine, and thought the Broadwell version should be comparable with its 15W CPU. However the fans are on much more often, and usually on a second, higher level. Even with like-for-like load, the 7736 I have sat next to it is much quieter.
And the screen! My 7736 has a stunning image with its LGD02DA LCD panel. Really pops, neutral white balance (to my eyes), awesome contrast. Even when off, it looks black, so much that the whole screen and bezel looks like one black surface.
With the 7746 however, as soon as I first turned it on and the Dell logo appeared, I thought oh no is it not FHD? It looked like the pixels were more visible, like a screen door effect. However when booted it is definitely 1920x1080. But everything looks slightly grainy, like there are tiny (pink?) vertical lines everywhere creating a textured effect, visible mainly on pale & light areas. The screen has a purple kind of cast. When it’s off, it’s not black, but gray. Definitely a step down. The contrast seems much poorer, some subtle borders and highlights of UI elements on screen are almost invisible. Some small logos (favicons) look more jagged, and font smoothing doesn’t seem as effective. It’s as if it’s a lower colour depth. The panel is an AUO119D.

What to do! I’ve heard of people swapping out their screens. But will I get another the same?

 

The problem you mentioned about the screen might not be due to the resolution but more of the type of screen being used: TN or IPS. I don't know about the new 2015 model but when I asked around in late 2013, the 7737 actually had a TN screen for both 720p and 1080p which I think is the case here. Since I dislike the design of the 17in model from day 1 with the bulky screen panel, I'd say keep your money till Dell actually puts something quality and a thinner design, mate.

 

Yes it's definitely a TN panel, in both old and new models. Unlike say the Lenovo Y70 which is IPS. But it's the difference between TN panels I'm experiencing.

Funny how you don't rate it, to me the build quality, look and feel are beautiful, can't find anything that comes close. Forged aluminium etc.

There was a non-touch version with thinner lid, but to me the deeper touch panel is fine.

I mean it's not as thin as a GS70 (which I had previously) but isn't as large a footprint. It's more compact in many ways. Slightly heavy, but feels so solid.

 

I thought as it's a brand new machine, try Dell tech support and see if they'd swap out the LCD panel. So today after waiting for the back order, the engineer came and swapped out the display assembly.

But it's the same screen! And still the grainy effect! It's a whiter image now, but screen door effect (texture) still very visible. And to top it off, there's a dead pixel in the top left corner.

Grrrr, the screen's got such poor contrast, I can barely see the water on Google Analytics map. It's almost unreadable. Pale colours just don't show up.

Not sure what to do now. The machine would be just right if it had the old screen of the 7737. I did think about swapping them round (using the old 7737 lid) but the wireless antenna have a different connector for the AC card!

 

For the keyboard light try press F10 twice

Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

Yes that cycles between off, low and high brightness, but doesn't do anything about the backlight fading out after a minute. Strangely, sometimes it fades out instantly as you finish pressing a key, so with every keypress it lights up then fades out. Must be software controlled.

 

Just wanted to post an update about my 7746 issues. I was still very frustrated by the quality of the screen, as it's what I'm staring at all my working hours. I thought I'd find some "test card" type images to see if everything was reproducing correctly, and found the "lagom.nl" LCD test image suite.

On the contrast test, which shows different colour bars graduating from black to the saturated colour, looked fine for all colours except blue; the blue line had bright spots in several places, so instead of gradually increasing in intensity, it went up, then back down, then up again, etc...

Also, results were seriously below par on the white saturation test, which shows 12 shades of off-white grey. Only one was visible at all from any angle, with any brightness and contrast and gamma settings I could set.

I called Dell and brought up the issues with the screen and said I still wasn't happy with it, and after emailing them a photo of the colour bars, they agreed to just swap out the whole machine for a new one, seen as the LCD replacement hadn't fixed it previously.

So, I now have a different machine --- and the issues are resolved!

The screen isn't an AUO screen this time, however I think it might have been a different component causing the problem as two screens surely wouldn't have been so poor. The new screen is a CMN1735.

The fan sound is much more just the sound of air movement like it was with my old 7737, rather than the fan whining on the 'bad' machine.

And I found a setting to stop the keyboard backlight fading out!! There is a utility installed in C:\Program Files\Dell\QuickSet called BacklitKB, and it gives the options of Off, Dim, Bright (as with QuickSet) but also has settings to turn off the backlight after 5, 15, 30 seconds, 1, 5, 15 minutes, or to stay on all the time. 5 minutes works for me to match the screen backlight. Awesome!

I'm very happy with the 7746 now, I popped in a 1TB Samsung EVO SSD and now it is far more responsive too, the perfect machine for my needs for now!

 

So to sum up: could someone tell if their units have problems with cooling or screen? How is the quality of screen in other units?

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-17-7746-2015-Notebook-Review.144300.0.html

In this review it clearly says it has an ips display...