News - Dell Precision M3800 is "thinnest and lightest workstation ever"

[Biscuit]

Seriously? The touchpad hasn't suddenly vanished, and the USB ports and bluetooth connection for an external mouse haven't fallen off. Nobody is forcing you to use the touchscreen. Do you really want to make your laptop more expensive by requiring a diferent FRU to be manufactured without the touchscreen (because yes, if you have to build two different screen configuration BOTH will be more expensive than if you just built one model with an integrated touch panel because you then require two different manufacturing, QC, etc lines instead of one). Hell, you may find that occasionally touching the screen can get some gross-seection tasks done faster than mousing over (just as most fine-selection or path-tracing tasks are faster with a mouse, or text entry is faster with a physical keyboard). Adding an extra interface isn't going to make the existing interfaces suddenly vanish, just as the invention of the mouse didn't result in the keyboard vanishing.

I kinda agree with both of you, i wish the touchscreen thing would disappear entirely but at the same time there is no harm in it being there and not being used.

[Dooms]

The only issue is that touchscreens seem to mate themselves with gloss screens (due to the glass panel) so until we get rid of touchscreens we won't get rid of the gloss!

[will2]

For such a long intro, couldn tyou have at least mentioned the screen size ?

(I also prefer MATT screen and NOT to touch it)

[TheAnimus]

so you reckon a mbp is a waste of money?

Well isn't that just a huge generalisation.

They aren't used really by business, which often speaks volumes about the price vs value of something. Most freelance web developers types that use them really don't need one, people are often bizzarely emotional about kit. A classic example being photography, try and say something along the lines of "damn wish I'd had a smaller sensored camera to have been able to get this photo better" and they refuse to actually think about the requirements your giving, and instead defend their choice, normally with something along the lines of I'm a professional.

People think they are a tech status thing. In a way they are right. Did I need a series 9? No, could a device half the cost have done it just as well? Yes. Would it have looked as expensive? No. That ultimately is why many free lance web types will use a mbp, status.

[tickedon]

Also, maybe it's a sign of my age, but personally, I've no interest in a laptop workstation. What I want from a workstation is, for a start, more than a 500GB SSD or 1TB HD, and what I want from a laptop us ultimately just enough power to get the job dobe, the best battery life I can get (and high power doesn't help extend battery life), and minimum weight..

Some people do have an interest, though I'm working in London at the moment and don't currently have enough room where I live to have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and tower sitting somewhere. My 17" Dell Precision laptop is therefore absolutely perfect as something that can offer a ridiculous amount of performance, yet can be easily moved and stored somewhere when not needed.

The Dell M3800 looks great, and I'm very much in favour of a touchscreen for Windows 8 since getting a Dell Latitude 10 tablet. Windows 8 + touch screen = a really good experience.

[Saracen]

Some people do have an interest, though ....

Oh, sure .... but that's why I prefaced my remark with "but personally".

.... The Dell M3800 looks great, and I'm very much in favour of a touchscreen for Windows 8 since getting a Dell Latitude 10 tablet. Windows 8 + touch screen = a really good experience.

And that's another assessment I'd say deserves a "but personally".

For me, the only benefit to a touchscreen is that it enables the MetroUI to work as designed, but the MetroUI not only adds nothing I want, but gets in my way. I'm certainly not specifying hardware in the basis that it enables something I don't like or want anyway.

So, personally, Windows 8 + Start8 Utility (or an similar) = good experience.

Windows 8 MUI = me buying different hardware, or switching to a different OS.

Again, personally, MS can stick MUI in the same place they can stick Office365, and XBOne with built-in Kinect and/or 24/7 net requirement, and that Adobe can stick a subscription-only Photoshop, and that Google and MS can stick cloud file storage options. I will never willingly give Google access to the time of day and under no circumstances will I ever store personal files with them. I'd give up all forms of computing first.

But these are all a personal perspective.

[aceuk]

my current mobile demo rig is a Precision M4600 with 32Gb of RAM and a pair of SSD's

Only 4 Gigabytes of RAM? That's not much.

[Guy]

Only 4 Gigabytes of RAM? That's not much.

Er...

Not enough RAM capacity for me sadly - my current mobile demo rig is a Precision M4600 with 32Gb of RAM and a pair of SSD's - battery life isn't great though.

[TheAnimus]

Clearly he meant 32 megabits.

[aceuk]

Er...

Lowercase 'b' = bits, uppercase 'B' = bytes.

It may sound pedantic, but there's a huge difference between 32 Gigabits (i.e. 4GB) and 32 Gigabytes.

[jim]

Good plan though, I might start selling my hard drives on ebay with Gigabit capacities.

[Moby-Dick]

Apologies to the units pedants I'll just use a generic "Gigs" next time and leave you guessing

[TheAnimus]

Well to be honest, we will still be guessing.

There isn't anything like a clear convention around GB/Gb/Gib/GiB etc.

[ThermalDroid]

Mac book air for carrying around, showing clients stuff (for it's weight, show me a ultrabook with more power and less weight and I'll happily switch) and then a big hand built workstation at home for when I need all that grunt. Whine all you want about the expense or pointlessness of an Apple machine but gosh damn it they build the most solid notebooks out there in my experience (for now).

[TheAnimus]

Mac book air for carrying around, showing clients stuff (for it's weight, show me a ultrabook with more power and less weight and I'll happily switch)

Sony Vaio Z series, the new haswell ones not only pack a better screen, but they weigh 300 grams less. And you can put the extra battery on, which makes it weigh as much as an Air to get 22 hours battery.....

You're Welcome.

[Biscuit]

Sony Vaio Z series, the new haswell ones not only pack a better screen, but they weigh 300 grams less. And you can put the extra battery on, which makes it weigh as much as an Air to get 22 hours battery.....

You're Welcome.

This is another one i have been looking at actually... the Macbooks series are not ones i have even considered.

They are not even the most solid notebooks around, not by a long shot. Lenovo have held that crown for a long long time imo. I will admit that with regards to style, Apple where ahead of the game once but now that everyone is making ultra portables its just unnecessary premium.