Dell Announces New Precision M4700 and M6700 Mobile Workstations

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• magreen - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link

  Yes, I just wouldn't want a 17" behemoth. That's why I'm miffed they stopped providing 1200p at 15".

• icrf - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link

  I have a Dell M6400 from a couple years ago with a 17" 1920x1200 display. I think it's still a TN panel, but it did have an RGB backlight, so it doesn't do too bad. I have to say, the thing is pretty hefty, has crap battery life, but very sturdy build quality and still pretty quick. The second internal HDD bay made adding an SSD simple, which really makes it snappy. I'm glad to see they're keeping internal bay counts high.

• p05esto - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link

  I have the M6500 with the 1366 resolution screen and got that on purpose. My eyes are not that great and I like the native resolution being a little lower. Makes it easier on my eyes, less strain. I'm a programmer and designer, so I use this machine constantly.
  
  Yes, there are times the larger resolution would be nice, but I'm glad there is a choice. I couldn't imagine anything higher than 1920. How can human eyes read web sites like that? Such, blow it up, but that just wrecks quality and isn't native.

• seapeople - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link

  Increase your DPI and the high resolution screen would look much better than the 1366 screen at a comparable text size.
  
  If that doesn't work for you, then maybe get better glasses?
  
  If that doesn't work for you, then ok, yes, I agree, you are the 0.1% of the population who is better served by a poor quality, low contrast, low resolution screen.

• Pessimism - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link

  Lenovo was faster out of the gate with the W530 and my company just grabbed a bunch for the latest upgrade cycle. They beat out both Dell and HP with their Ivy Bridge workstation laptops and got our dollars as a result.

• Ikefu - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link

  I have an M6600 that I travel with (I fly 45+ weeks a year) and I absolutely love it. I hear people complain about the weight on 17" laptops but really all you need is a good backpack that keeps the laptop flat against your back and its not bad at all. You just can't get by with a crap bag that has bad balance. I get 4-4.5 hrs of battery life which is all I usually need between plug ins.
  
  I wish Dell would offer this same chassis build quality in all their models. I would love to see a consumer Precision type line that forgoes the expensive certifications and uses consumer gfx cards but keeps the chassis and other components. I got my M6600 in part due to not wanting the annoying aesthetic you are stuck with in an Alienware. Alienware guts in a Precision Chasis would rock.

• douglaswilliams - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link

  Is there still the issue where if you get the IPS display you can't use NVIDIA Optimus to switch to the Intel graphics?
  
  As I understood it, an IPS display is driven by 10-bits, and Intel can only do 8-bit...something like that.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Douglas

• pbclayton - Saturday, September 8, 2012 - link

  This question is ABSOLUTELY FUNDAMENTAL for people thinking about buying this laptop. Unfortunately most reviewers will have the cheaper normal display and throw in a comment saying that an IPS display is available.
  
  I have the IPS display on the M4600 and the nVidia Linux driver cannot use Optimus. I don't know if it is the same with the Windows nVidia driver. I would be interested to know.
  
  No Optimus is a big issue when travelling. Best case (mostly idle on minimum brightness, which requires fairly dim surroundings) is just under 2 hrs on the 6 cell battery. Any interaction with the computer will reduce that to 1hr30 at best. Had I known that I was trading battery life for the IPS display, I would have gone for the normal display.

• advrsharma - Thursday, July 26, 2012 - link

  I have been using All types of workstation class Laptop/Desktop replacement laptops.In my long term experience The precesion class far outweighs other brands including lenovo w700/701 and HP envy class laptops of same specs.The basic reason is the after sales promptness and logistical backend support and services on systems given by Dell.When one pays heavily for such products one also expects such support.I nly wish it had ecc ram support which Eurocomm gives on some of its laptops with xeon class processors.Hope Dell is listening.The last time I had Ecc ram was on a Sun Notebook long time ago.The benefits are immense.

• erple2 - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link

  I have used the HP Elitebook series at my job for the past several years and have to say that the construction quality is better than the last Precision workstation I used (a 6600). Comparing a Precision to an Envy line is like comparing it to an Alienware - Envy is good for high end consumer (I have an Envy 15), but still can't come close to touching my Elitebook in terms of build quality.