XPS 15 or Precision M4500

hey i am in the market to buy a new laptop. As the title would suggest i am confused between both the laptops.

The specs are
processor : i7 740 (SB will take atleast 2 more monts and i cant wait till then)
HD : 500 GB or more

I am not a addictive gamer (but do play game sometimes). I would use it as workstation. My priority are good screen, build quality, looks, durability.

I know some of the pro's and cons of xps 15 as compared to M4500.
Like
pro : USB 3.0, better speakers
cons : has to be build quality and looks

What i dont know is how would the B+RG LED display stack up against the display of M4500 which is supposed to be very good. Also how good are the speakers of M4500.

And as a whole which system would be better.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

You are comparing apples to oranges. Mobile workstation vs high end consumer notebook.

Really depends on your budget and what you are doing, you didn't really list the what you were doing. Seems like you have your priorities mixed up, you want durability and reliability and looks. I would go for the Precision, buying a consumer grade notebook to do work I don't think is a good idea. If you can, get Complete Care or On site, it is worth it.

 

I would be using it for MATLAB, coding, Virtual box etc and occasional gaming

 

any1 else. Any sort of help is appreciated

 

You get what you pay for. One is built for occasional use at home, the other for 8+ hour everyday use and heavy travel... The Precision has US based tech support, next day on site hardware repair, a real docking station, and is built like a tank compaired to an XPS.

 

The XPS has a slightly better screen in terms of color reproduction, but the Precision still has a good 1080p panel. (be sure to select that option, or at the VERY minimum 900p!)

The M4500 is built very similarly to the Latitude E6510 I used to own, and I'd say the speakers were adequate for most purposes. They were a bit better than the tiny ones on my M4400 (though the speakers aren't the main thing I care about in a laptop). The color reproduction on the Latitude's 1080p display (which is 99% likely to be the same one in the M4500) was typical, though a bit better than on the 720p panels I've seen on the same laptop.

 

I am in a similar boat as you - running mathematica for my classes in applied mathematics. I purchased an outlet xps 1647 but due to an issue with the DVD burner they wanted me to send it back to the depot for repair. I ended up rerturning it and got an outlet m6500 for $1119 with much better specs:

17 inch WUGA
i7-820QM
dual hard drives
ATI fire pro 7820
4gb ram (will upgrade to 8 wiht my other 2 slots)

The big thing for me was the superior support and 3 year onsite next business day service included in the price on the business line of laptops. If you call in, you can often get a 20% discount off the outlet posted price.

 

Hands down the M4500 for workstation purposes, especially if you travel.

 

Or...you could get the M4600, that should have USB3!