Dell Precision M4400 Review - After 3 Months of Usage

Dell replaced my lemon. The second unit was worse. According to Dell tech support the hard drive was defective (metronome-like clicking and heat on left side) as was the wi-fi (impossible to maintain wireless internet connection). I returned both.

In contrast HP 8530w with same specs was quieter, cooler in temperature than either M4400, less vibration, and no keyboard flex (this seems to be a feature of backlit keyboards since none of my other Dell keyboards have done this).

Dell display was better and perhaps speed was better as judged by perceptibly faster pic download from full SD card.

 

Bad luck, you win some and lose some, glad the 8530w is working out though.

 

Glad to hear it worked out. I've had my m4400 for 9 months, and zero problems of any kind....always happens when I get a long warranty....

 

I've had mine for about a month now. Some notes:


*RGBLED-backlit 1920x1200 screen is better and brighter than even the best of the MacBook displays, although the backlight seems to flicker very slightly and colors maybe oversaturated. When changing brightness the color balance is slightly and temporarily off.

*MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9.04 work brilliantly. (the former is not possible on the EliteBook since the BIOS restricts you to Intel WIFI and Gobi 3G, also destroying the possibility of future upgrades)

*My aftermarket Sierra Wireless 3G modem also works brilliantly in all 3 OSes. (My 3rd OS is Win7; I am capable of turning the radio on and off in all 3 OSes despite the lack of official Dell support for this specific 3G modem)

*I upgraded to a P9700 CPU aftermarket: benefits of P series power consumption with T series speeds. (28 watts and 2.8 GHz)

*Sound isn't as clean as my Toshiba or Asus P5E3 desktop mobo, but not terrible with the latest drivers. Slightly better than my Acer netbook. Volume control is very good. This holds for all 3 OSes, so I don't think it's a hardware issue. Turning off enhancements and increasing bitrate seems to help, even if it shouldn't. Speakers aren't quite as good as the ones on the MacBook Pros, but they are quite loud.

*Dell ControlPoint and the associated installers allow for a functioning fingerprint reader in Windows 7, but the power management portion reverts me to Windows 7 Basic scheme, but only when I'm in "Balanced" and I remove the AC adapter. Killing and restarting Dell ControlPoint System Manager fixes this problem. This may be a relatively unique problem due to my driver installation order and power scheme tweaks. I tried to report this to Dell's Win7 team, but they just had me register for a Win7 upgrade. Too time-consuming to pursue when I have a quick fix.

*Fan speed isn't too obnoxious, although I bent the heatsink when I upgraded the CPU. It's not in 2 pieces like the service manual shows, and I was drunk! I bought a replacement to use with Arctic Silver. I was surprised that the heatpipes are hollow!

*P9700 with 9-cell and 12-cell slice gives me 9-10 hours of battery life! Take that, MacBook Pro. I'll need this for two cross-Atlantic trips I'll be taking over Thanksgiving. Of course the batteries make it a tad thicker/heavier than a MacBook Pro. (understatement, duh.) If anyone knows how to underclock the GPU, let me know!

*90-watt adapter works well enough to charge the unit even. I also use a Kensington 130-watt Air/Auto/AC universal adapter, which initially wouldn't charge the laptop until I did some research and selected another tip.

*The ALPS trackpad sucks. Even Synaptics' scrolling implementation isn't great, but the Alps one really blows. There's no horizontal scroll in Firefox, although you could probably fix that by changing the app name from FF to Netscape. I've found the Vista 64-bit Toshiba drivers are best. That may change. The middle buttons allow for better scrolling in some apps, but not in others. (in some this style of scrolling is jerky, since it's not very popular/well-implemented)

*The webcam occasionally switches to blue/green hues for no apparent reason. Restarting it usually fixes the issue. I think I have the latest Creative drivers for Vista64/Win7.

*Build quality is phenomenal. It's so easy to take apart with only 1 giant access panel! I can't make anything flex or creak, except my after-market SATA HD adapter, which is a piece of junk, but is functional. (no spring-release mechanism)

*RAM is cheaper aftermarket. I configured my M4400 with 1 GB RAM. I wondered why it ran so slowly. Then I popped in the 4 GB I had bought for $40, and the thing started flying.

*Large bezel around screen is kind of annoying and could have been reduced. Screen frame and base are quite thick; thinner than my Toshiba convertible tablet, but not by much. Maybe twice the thickness of a MacBook Pro. A small price to pay to avoid the Jobs tax. (the Jobs tax includes both price and customizability in my book)

*Dell ControlPoint Connection Manager only works with certain driver sets/3G modem models. You can use the Bluetooth driver to turn on/off the Bluetooth radio. Ditto for Sierra Wireless Watcher with my 3G modem. For WIFI I just use the switch or disable the adapter. The latest WIFI drivers on the Dell website include a utility to monitor the connection. This is a variant of the old Broadcom monitor from years back. The most useful aspect is WIFI/radio congestion. I don't like the fact that the Cisco modules get loaded, since they don't work as well as the default Win7 ones do with my school network. Also, their GUI is messed up. With the Broadcom WIFI chipset, transmission speed maxes out at 130 MBps on 802.11n, but you do get MacOS compatibility! Upgrading after market to an Atheros half-height chipset might solve this issue; AR5008X and AR5281 can do 300 MBps, but Atheros chipsets are still unreliable in Ubuntu. 3G antennas work well for GPS reception on my Sierra 3G modem.

*Smudges are a constant concern that you won't find on the EliteBook. Still, it's a small price to pay for an otherwise almost perfect laptop.

*SIM Card Slot is kind of annoying, since to replace the tab you need a SIM or a dummy plastic piece. Smallest of gripes, and won't affect most customers who don't switch out their SIMs.

*GPU can do OpenGL 3.2, but not DirectX 10.1. ATI 5-series on desktop supports DX11, and 4-series supports DX10.1, but they only support older versions of OpenGL. Interesting trade-off. Of course NVidia is and will be great for CUDA/OpenCL/VDPAU/DXCompute.

*Backlit Keyboard works quite well. I keep the brightness on lowest setting, and triggered by the light sensor. The keyboard is very quiet, especialy when new. Keypresses aren't as satisfying as on a ThinkPad, but the firmer, mushier response is pleasing in a different sort of way. More like remote control buttons than snappy-style "clicking" buttons.

*Fingerprint reader is neither Upek nor Authentec, exactly. I think it might be Authentec behind a Broadcom abstraction layer that also handles the other security features. Anyway, it won't work in MacOS or Linux, and the drivers are quite dated. Everything works, but it could work better.

My Configuration:
*15.4" RGB-LED backlit 1920x1200 LCD
*P8600 CPU -> P9700 aftermarket
*Broadcom 432b 802.11n WIFI
*Non-FIPS fingerprint reader
*DVD-RW, plus SATA 2.5" HD adapter aftermarket
*Basic docking station
*9-cell battery plus 12-cell slice
*Bluetooth and webcam
*1 GB RAM -> 4 GB aftermarket
*XXX -> Sierra MC8781 (from USB 881U modem) for HSPA and GPS access (required an extra screw, so I bought a M4300 screwset on eBay for $3)
*Aftermarket 90-watt AC adapter and old Kensington 120-watt Air/Auto/AC adapter

 

I can't seem to find close up pictures of the ExpressCard and CardBus slots.. is their positioning such that you can use one of each at the same time?

 

Absolutely, since they are at opposing ends: the ExpressCard slot is on the left side of the machine and the PC Card slot is on the right.

 

Very good review. It is nice to get such precise -)) information. I also - after some testing with other products - am using Zalman but smaller ZM-NC1000 which is bay the way exactly as wide as my E6400. Both work flawlessly. Dell did this time good job in screen (mine 1440x900 LED 14") and keyboard department. My advice - buy Intel SSD ASAP - your workstation will appreciate it !

 

Great Review - Thank you.
I just bought 2 of these. They seem good for the most part, but I noticed something that I see possibly referred to in a post and wanted to see if anyone else had this experience.

I noticed a reply talking about a "(metronome-like clicking and heat on left side)". It's the metronome like clicking that I'm seeing. But it corresponds to processor activity. I'm just having a hard time isolating it.

Both of mine are identical, except one has a Solid State Drive. However the hard drive activity is in both. Out of the box, they both "tick" at about 12 - 14 % CPU usage, but it's the constant nature that gets my attention. It's rythmic. After installing symantec it went to 15 - 17%, even though the windows search was fully indexed, and the virus scan was complete. I uninstalled both. It reduces the percentage, but it still keeps the same beat. I've removed all the ControlPoint stuff one at a time. Upgrades Nvidia and CD software. BIOS was already up to date. With all of this uninstalled it does indeed reduce it... but it's like the tick is still there just a little bit.

It's far from the end of the world. Just doesn't seem right. And there does seem to be some small hestitation now and then that isn't good. Nothing major... just a small 1 - 2 second hesitation. With both machines.

On the machine that I'm largely testing solutions, I reinstalled Symantec but left all control point stuff off and it does seem to be mostly eliminated, but again, still hovers and constant little 1% that I'm not used to in other idle machines.

Any thoughts? I've looked at the processes that are utilizing the CPU... it was hard to put my finger on any one thing. Touchpad file (apntex.exe) (though touchpad is turned off). It's possible I'm just being too sensitive as I switch to a new machine for the company...