Dell XPS 15 or M3800? QHD+ or FHD display?

I'm in need of a new notebook ASAP and have finally boiled down my best choices as either the Dell XPS 15 or Precision M3800. I'm wondering if some of you can help answer some questions to help finally determine the specific model & configuration that will be best for me.

1. I've heard that the new XPS 15 and the M3800 are virtually identical. When I look at the spec sheets, the XPS 15 mentions features like NFC and "stellar audio" using MaxxAudio Pro by Waves. The M3800 makes no mention of either of these. Are there features on the XPS 15 that are NOT included on the M3800?

2. What are people's experience with the QHD+ display and FHD display? I've read of problems with some applications to scale properly for QHD+. Are these beginning to get resolved? Is the display that much better that it is worth overlooking these problems until they are addressed?

3. Any input on which config is better between the (1) less expensive M3800 model with 256GB SSD + 500GB hybrid drive and the (2) more expensive model with 500GB SSD?

4. Are people successfully negotiating with Dell for prices cheaper than what is shown on Dell's site? If so, I'd love some help on how to go about doing this.

Thanks for your input I hope to make a final decision by tomorrow so I can get my order in.

 

Dell XPS - ment for Gamers and Day to day users and multimedia
Dell Precision - Meant for professionals like architects , graphic designers etc to run Adobe and Autodesk Softwares..

 

does anyone have input on FHD vs. QHD+ displays? Now that people are getting their hands on both the XPS 15 and M3800, it would be great to hear how the QHD+ is working out. Is it too much for a 15.6" display? What apps are currently problematic? How is working out with Win 7 and Win 8.1?

 

If it makes any difference, the non-QHD+ models will ship WAY faster than the QHD+ ones (apparently). The current estimated ship date for QHD+ models isn't until early March (March 7 as of today). Some users have gotten their models earlier than expected, but don't get excited, as it doesn't seem to be a common occurrence. Also it looks like the FHD screen is of a lower quality apparently (it still looks nice though, according to users) and does not have as wide of a viewing angle as the QHD+ model. The FHD model is a TN display as well.

I don't know anything about color reproduction and accuracy between the two panels, however.

Adobe apps (with the exception of Lightroom and one other -- I think it's Premiere, but I'm not sure) are not scaling well to the QHD+ resolution as of yet, but there are workarounds with changing DPI settings, etc. Also some games have an issue with scaling as well (even at a 1080p scaled down resolution).

A lot of users like the QHD+ display, and say it's, well, gorgeous. I wish I could find the specific post, but one user said something along the lines of the display looking amazing, and in Windows 8.1 it looks incredible when the apps are scaled correctly and they work, but it doesn't look so good when you're using an app that doesn't scale so well (i.e. Google Chrome).

This is all on Windows 8.1 (I'm not sure if these apply to Windows 7).

I don't own an XPS or M3800 yet, either. This is just what I've read on the forums.

I don't know if this helped you too much or not, but no one else responded so I figured I'd just do it.

 

What config. of the M3800 costs $5k?

 

Right? lol i think i paid $1200 for mine, and threw a 2.5 SSD in it and called it a day. No major problems here other than some coil whine when the backlight of the keyboard is off and plugged in. Love this thing so much power and mobility in one!

Precision M3800 15.6" QHD+3200 x 1800 Laptop Intel i7-4702HQ,8GB RAM,256GB msata, 256SSD