M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

60% Gamut is depressing on the regular panel. Now that means more of us will have to consider the IPS option.



How about battery life information? If nothing is published yet, can we assume the new M4600/M6600 will have a boost similar to what Lenovo W520 saw over the W510 (nearly 100% longer battery life), and if that is so what are we looking at for ballpark battery life on 6cell vs 9cell on the Quad Core CPUs?

The W520 has a 95% Gamut, 500:1 contrast, 270nits FHD (TN) panel, reputedly as good as the XPS15 FHD panel.



PS - For Canadian customers: I'm told by my sales rep that the M4600 IPS option in Canada is a $530 addon! Compare that to $370 IPS option in the US when our dollar is higher than the USD!

 

It's not an exact answer, but I feel confident about it. The second drive is probably going to be in a caddy in the multi-bay. From the pictures, it doesn't look like there's anywhere else for a second drive to go.

 

Sorry if I'm slow on the uptake here, but being new to this Dell forum I'm not aware of any history various posters have disclosed. Are you a Dell employee or customizer?

In any case, the question I asked the Dell chat rep was if it would be possible to upgrade the graphics card (specifically referring to the available Quadro 2000m) in the future. She indicated that it would not be because the graphics card is soldered onto the motherboard. Maybe she was confusing the Intel integrated graphics?

I hate to keep droning on about this point for fear of thread jacking, but it would be an important point of differentiation versus the Lenovo W520 if the card on the M4600 were indeed upgradeable. That capability alone would be worth some of the difference in price.

 

Well, just purchased my M4600.

Core i7 2720M
2GB RAM (aftermarket upgrade)
250GB HDD (maybe upgrade later)
FHD IPS display
Firepro GPU (Why is this rated higher than both the 1000m and 2000m?)
9-Cell Battery
Fingerprint Reader
Backlit Keyboard

$1917 before Tax


Would've liked it to be a little cheaper, but it's understandable considering it just came out.

 

With firepro? I'm seeing $2150 with those options.

 

I was thinking about the possibility of getting the (lighter) M4600 if I could figure out a good RAID0 option. I use the DVD extensively, so I don't want to give that up for a second hard drive. Therefore, for RAID0, I would need to use the PCIe slot for one of the drives, but that would only allow SATAI or SATAII. So, maybe I'm back to the M6600..... One compromise with the M4600 would be to give up on RAID0 and use the PCIe drive as my data drive and the 2.5" drive as my OS drive (and get a SATAIII, e.g. OCZ V3 MAXIO or Intel 510).

What do you think?

Note that I want fast boot times, very fast program loading, and fast video editing/decoding. I have an Intel X25M G2 160 GB right now.

 

Try playing around with the same config on different base models. The higher base models contain more features but aren't as expensive as taking the lowest base model and adding all of the features as upgrades.

 

I'm looking at the quote I received and I chose the IPS screen but in the email I received it's listed as

"15.6 HD+ (1600 x 900) Wide View Anti-Glare RGB LED Back-Lit Display, Dell Mobile Precision M4600 "

The resolution is listed wrong, but RGB LED is the IPS screen?

 

I had the same issue.

Guess we shall find out! lol

I think the order is right but the description is wrong, at least I hope.

 

I called a sales rep and talked to them... for two hours. If you have the time and patience, calling Dell to build and purchase (not just build online and checkout over the phone) can save you quite a bit.

It's the same thing with mine, must be a mismatch in the database. My rep told me not to worry about it.