Need feedback on a few Dells

Long time Dell Lattitude user and while I'd like to find something lighter I keep on comming back to Dell. Now considering a Precision M4600, Lattitude E6420 or Lattitude 6520. Need to do lots of MS Office work, photo editing and weather map/radar work. Be nice to have both an SSD and HD and USB 3. Would also like to keep the weight around 6.2 lbs but a great configuration might kill my back but please me greatly. Need a good screen and one or two external screens (have a dual dock already) 512 to 1GB or video memory and 8gigs of RAM.

Have three candidates ...looking for feeback on the M4600, E6420 and E6520. Good, bad or ugly.

Thanks for your help

 

For Photo editing, I'd suggest not getting the E6420. The screen isn't really up to snuff for that type of work. Contrast and gamut are very low.

The E6520 with 1600x900 or 1920x1080, or the M4600 with 1920x1080 or 1920x1080 IPS would be much better alternatives.

 

If you are doing professional work, then get the Precision line. Yes it is more $$ and bulkier but it is for a reason. It has to cool potentially i7 Extreme edition CPU's, and high end Quadro video cards. For Photoshop, color accuracy is a very important aspect, so if you can get the RGBLED IPS FHD screen, it is highly recommended, despite being 550 dollar upgrade, it is worth it. The RAM I would say buy the lowest amount from Dell you can, and get 4 x 4 GB sticks for ~80 dollars and you'll have 16 GB. CPU is up to you if you are comfortable swapping them out yourself if you don't want to pay Dell prices for OEM CPU's.

 

Early this year i had an E6410 and it was solid. My dad has a Vostro 3750 and it's solid as well.

 

The E6520 is high on my list right now with the SSD and modular 320GB HD and modular USB3. Any yes, I'd love to get the M4600 but from what I can tell it weights in at over 7 pounds and I'm not sure I can handle that. Tell me it isn't so.

I'm in a strange situation where I can spend as much as I want, but just can't carry as much as I want.

A

 

I have an e6520 and it's the best laptop I've dealt with in a loooong time.

It seems you can upgrade the screen to the 95% color gamut AUO Optronics screen so you will get a better colour gamut than the already great stock 1080p screen, and while the graphical power is not amazing (it's very very good), you can always eGPU when you need it on your desk.

And the e6520 can also run processors as high in TDP as the 2920xm.