Dell Latitude 7440 Review

Pros: Attractive and durable design; Soft-touch palm rest; Colorful touch-screen display; High-quality audio

Cons: Keyboard flexes; Below-average battery life

The Verdict: The Dell Latitude 7440 is a slick business Ultrabook with speedy performance and a full HD touch screen, but it could use a little more endurance.

The Dell Latitude 7440 is a business Ultrabook that packs a lot of technology into its durable 3.9-pound frame. Starting at $999, our $1,849 14-inch Dell Latitude 7440 sports a fourth-generation Core i5-4300U processor, a full HD 1080p touch-screen display and a 256GB SSD for speedy performance. But is Dell's new Latitude the best business notebook you can get?

Dell Latitude 7440 Review

Design

The Latitude 7440 sports a sleek and attractive all-black design. The notebook's lid is made of a sturdy soft-touch carbon fiber material that reminds us of the Kevlar back on Motorola Droid phones. This carbon fiber is backed by an aluminum frame and reinforced steel hinges.

Underneath the surface, Dell deployed its MIL-STD-810G-tested Tri-Metal chassis for extra durability. This means the E7440 should be able to withstand extreme temperatures and vibrations more than your average notebook. Specifically, MIL-STD-810G-tested notebooks can operate in temperatures ranging between 32 degrees and 95 degrees Fahrenheit and at altitudes between minus 50 and 10,000 feet. Both the $1,749 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s and $1,229 Toshiba Tecra Z40 are similarly certified.

The Latitude 7440's keyboard deck sports the same texture as its lid, which felt comfortable while typing. We love the subtle blue accents Dell added to the Latitude's keyboard. The baby blue color of the keys' Fn symbols matches the outer lining of the pointing stick, which adds a pleasant contrast to the otherwise black body. The E7440's display is capable of folding all the way back, enabling it to lie flat. This is a good position for giving presentations.

Measuring 12.2 x 8.3 x 0.79 inches and weighing 3.9 pounds, the Latitude 7440 has a smaller footprint than the slightly heavier Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (13.3 x 8.89 x 0.8 inches, 3.8 pounds with 3-cell battery). The Toshiba Tecra Z40 (13.3 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches) is a much lighter 3.2 pounds, while the Acer Travelmate P645 is taller and wider but lighter (12.9 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches, 3.5 pounds).

Display

The Latitude 7440's 14-inch 1920 x 1080 glossy touch screen produced vivid colors, but it's not the brightest in its class. When watching a trailer for "The Amazing Spiderman 2," we enjoyed bold orange explosions and we were impressed with the energetic red shade of Spiderman's suit.

The Latitude's display registered 238 lux on our light meter, beating the Toshiba Tecra Z40's matte display (169 lux) and the thin-and-light notebook category average (209 lux). The Dell also shined brighter than the Travelmate P645's 1920 x 1080 235 lux display. However, the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s' 14-inch 1920 x 1080 touch screen notched a higher 294 lux.

We found the touch screen to be responsive during everyday use. We had no issue selecting and moving tiles in Windows 8 and using pinch-to-zoom to enlarge images.

Audio

The Dell Latitude 7440's bottom-mounted speakers produce boisterous audio for a notebook of its size. When blasting "Royals" by Lorde, we felt the bass notes thump, and the snaps in the background sounded crisp against the singer's smooth vocals.

The 7440 also pumps out louder audio than your average notebook. At 88 decibels, the E7440 scored higher on the LAPTOP Audio Test than the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (79 dB), the Acer Travelmate P345 (83 dB), the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (81 dB) and the thin-and-light notebook category average (82 dB).

Keyboard

There are many things we like about the Latitude 7440, but its keyboard isn't one of them. The traditional backlit keyboard felt somewhat flimsy while typing, exhibiting flex when we pushed down on the G and H keys. Key travel was fairly deep, but shallower than the Dell Latitude 6430u's island-style keyboard. We much prefer the ThinkPad T440s' comfortable keyboard with its stronger tactile feedback.

Using the Latitude 7440, we only managed 57 words per minute during the Ten Thumbs Typing Test with a 2 percent error rate. This is much lower than our personal average speed of about 75 words per minute.

Touchpad and Pointing Stick

Overall, the Latitude 7440's 3.5 x 1.8-inch touchpad was smooth. There was no latency when moving the cursor, and the touchpad was responsive to gestures such as two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. We enjoyed using the touchpad's dedicated click buttons, which provide solid feedback.

The pointing stick located in the center of the 7440's keyboard is a reliable alternative to the touchpad. The rubberized grip makes it easy to manipulate the cursor without having to take your fingers away from the keyboard. Dell also features a button in between the upper set of mouse keys that allow you to quickly navigate to the top of a Web page or document when pointing up with the pointing stick.

We easily highlighted text and scrolled around websites using the Dell's pointing stick, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s' AccuPoint pointing stick provided a more accurate experience.

Ports

Built for productivity, the Dell Latitude 7440 comes with all the ports you need. The laptop's right side houses an audio and microphone combination jack, a USB 3.0 port and a lock slot. The left side features a SmartCard reader and an SD Card slot. On the notebook's rear, you'll find a power jack, HDMI, two more USB 3.0 slots, a mini DisplayPort and Ethernet. Dell has also included a docking connector on the bottom of the notebook.

Heat

The Latitude 7440's side-mounted vents keep the notebook cool under pressure. After streaming video on Hulu for 15 minutes, the notebook's underside reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit, lower than the 95 degree threshold we consider to be uncomfortable. The touchpad registered 78 degrees, while the area between the G & H keys hit 86 degrees.

WiGig

Our configuration of the Latitude 7440 supports WiGig technology for wirelessly connecting your laptop to compatible monitors and displays. The notebook is also compatible with the $269 Dell D500 Wireless Dock, which connects to a monitor, mouse and keyboard. However, we found this solution to be much less reliable than a wired dock based on our testing.

Webcam

The Dell Latitude 7440's 720p camera takes colorful yet grainy images. When we captured a self-portrait, our face looked blurry and pixelated. At least the red hair color shown in the image looked true.

Performance

Our configuration of the Dell Latitude 7440 features a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U processor with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. This combination of components enabled the notebook to multitask with ease. With 10 apps open, including the camera app, Internet Explorer, Bing News and the Windows Store, we streamed an episode of "Family Guy" in one window while playing "Cut the Rope" in another and didn't notice any latency or hiccups.

The Latitude 7440 delivered mixed results in synthetic benchmark tests. The notebook scored 4,544 on PCMark 7, which is higher than the 3,493 thin-and-light category average and the Tecra Z40 (2,542, 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U with 8GB of RAM). Both the 2.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U-powered ThinkPad T440s (4,970) and 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4500U Acer TravelMate P645 (4,886) scored higher.

On the Geekbench 3 test, which measures multicore processor performance, the Latitude 7440 score of 5,259 fell short of the 5,939 thin-and-light category average. This is also lower than the Tecra Z40's score (5,326) and the TravelMate P645 score (5,945), but it still beats the T440s (5,151).

It only took 14 seconds for the Dell Latitude 7440 to load Windows 8 Pro, which is twice as fast as the 28-second thin-and-light category average. The Lenovo Thinkpad T440s booted Windows 8 Pro in the same amount of time.

The Dell transferred 4.97GB of mixed media files in 39 seconds, equaling a rate of 130.5 MBps. This is twice as fast as the average thin- and-light laptop (60 MBps) and much quicker than the Tecra Z40's 320GB 7,200-rpm hard drive (23 MBps). Other business Ultrabook SSDs are faster though, including the Acer TravelMate P645 (175.5 MBps) and ThinkPad T440s (188.5 MBps).

The Latitude 7440 matched 20,000 names to their corresponding addresses in OpenOffice in just 4 minutes and 46 seconds, faster than the 6:17 thin-and-light category average. This is also quicker than the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (5:14), but on a par with the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (4:45) and Acer TravelMate P645 (4:42).

Graphics

The Dell Latitude 7440's integrated HD 4400 graphics are suitable for light gaming and streaming video, but don't expect to play demanding games. The notebook scored 801 in the 3DMark11 benchmark. This is lower than the 968 thin-and-light laptop category average and both scores of the Tecra Z40 (869) and ThinkPad T44s (930). The Acer TravelMate P645 scored the highest with 1,783, but it benefits from a discrete ATI Radeon HD 8750M graphics chip.

When playing "World of Warcraft" at the laptop's native resolution on auto settings, the E7440 mustered an unplayable 23 frames per second. When bumping up the settings to ultra, that frame rate dropped to a barely playable 11 fps.

Battery Life

The Dell Latitude 7440s doesn't have the staying power of other business Ultrabooks. During the LAPTOP Battery Test, which consists of continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 40 percent display brightness, the notebook's 4-cell 45 Whr battery lasted 5 hours and 52 minutes. That runtime is shorter than the 6:49 thin-and-light notebook category average, and also falls behind the ThinkPad T440s' standard battery (7:01) and the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (9:28). You'll have to pay $276 for Dell's 9-cell 97Whr battery slice to get extra battery life.

Security

Dell offers a few security options with its Latitude 7000 Ultrabook line. The notebook comes with TPM support out of the box, but you can purchase additional security and encryption software at an extra cost. These include various versions of Computrace ranging from $26.60 to $104.29, DDPE encryption services that cost between $20.30 and $90.30 depending on your preference, and Dell SonicWALL solutions priced between $310.50 and $1,095. The Latitude 7000 line doesn't come with an option for a fingerprint or SmartCard reader at this time, although those features are likely to come in the future. Both the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s and Toshiba Tecra Z40 have offered biometric security configurations since launch.

Software and Warranty

The Dell Latitude 7440 is mostly a blank slate out of the box, but Dell has included some of its own first-party tools. These include Dell Digital Delivery, Dell Power Manager and Dell Backup and Recovery. Dell Digital Delivery is the company's platform for purchasing software, while the Dell Power Manager provides information about your system's battery, including its condition and how much power is left.

This configuration of the Latitude 7440 comes with three years of basic hardware service and three years of limited onsite service after remote diagnosis. See how Dell fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best & Worst Brands report.

Configurations

Dell offers a few configuration options for the Latitude 7440. Our $1,849 review unit came with Windows 8 Pro, a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 256GB solid state drive and a 1920 x 1080 touch screen. This is the most expensive model in the 7000 series line listed on Dell's website.

The least expensive configuration starts at $999 and includes Windows 7 with a license for Windows 8, a 1.7-GHz Intel Core i3-4010U CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB 5,400-RPM hard drive, and a 1,366 x 768 anti-glare non-touch display. It also features a smaller 3-cell 34 Whr battery and 802.11n single-band Wi-Fi, as opposed to the most expensive configuration's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy support.

Verdict

The Dell Latitude 7440 is a business Ultrabook that offers solid Haswell performance, a rich full HD touch screen and impressive audio in a design that's both attractive and tough. Frequent travelers and office workers will definitely benefit from Dell's Tri-Metal military-grade chassis, which is built to handle the bumps, bruises and extreme temperatures that come with being on the road.

However, the keyboard on this notebook didn't feel sturdy enough, and the below-average battery life disappoints. Overall, we prefer Lenovo ThinkPad T440s, which offers a better keyboard and pointing stick along with longer battery life. But if you're in a Dell shop or like what the brand brings to the table this Ultrabook is a good choice.

 See more: Acer TravelMate P645 Review

Read more ...

Dell Precision M4800 Review

Pros: Powerful performance and graphics; Colorful QHD+ display; Good audio quality; Strong security options; Large port selection

Cons: Below-average battery life; Small touchpad

The Verdict: The Dell Precision M4800 workstation provides powerful performance and a sharp QHD+ screen in a secure and durable design.

Dell's Precision M4800 is all about serious power. Built to handle demanding computing and graphic-intensive tasks, this workstation combines an Intel Core i7 processor with Nvidia Quadro graphics in an elegant and durable chassis. A QHD+ display and rich audio system sweeten the content-creation pot. The 15.6-inch notebook (starting at $1,249, and $2,513 as configured) also offers security features that will make IT managers happy. Whether you're having a manic Monday or working for the weekend, read on to see why the M4800 can handle your workload and then some.

Dell Precision M4800 Review

Design

Dell designed the M4800 for function, not fashion. However, there is an understated elegance to its fingerprint-resistant, gunmetal gray, anodized aluminum lid. The chrome Dell emblem embedded in the center of the lid adds a nice bit of sparkle. The front of the lid has a soft curve that draws the eye to the lock button located on the front lip.

We love the speaker grille positioned above the keyboard; its dash and dot design reminded us of Morse code. A set of dark-gray, chrome volume-buttons sits to the left of the grille with the power located on the right. Directly below the keyboard is a smallish touchpad surrounded by a luxurious black, soft-touch-finish palm rest.

The 6.4-pound M4800 measures 14.8 x 10.1 x 1.29~1.37-inches, slightly thicker than the HP ZBook 15 (6.2 pounds, 15 x 10.1 x 1.2 inches). However the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the sveltest in the land, at 4.5 pounds, 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.71-inches.

Durability

Beneath the unassuming chassis of the Precision M4800 lies the frame of a more rough-and-tumble laptop. A rigid magnesium alloy frame reinforces the anodized aluminum exterior. The laptop has also gone through MIL-STD-810G testing for resistance to extreme temperatures, dust, vibration, shock and altitude. The keyboard is spill-resistant to protect against that inevitable coffee or soda mishap.

Security

Our configuration of the Precision M4800 comes preloaded with Dell's Protected Workspace software. When active, Protected Workspace opens potentially vulnerable applications (Web browsers, zip files and PDF readers) in a virtual container separate from the operating system, keeping it safe from malware attacks.

The laptop also features Dell ControlVault, an application that stores sensitive information like encryption keys within a protected boundary that can only be accessed via an authentication scheme set up by the owner or the IT manager.

Display

The M4800 is one of the first Windows workstations outfitted with a Retina-like display. The notebook's 15.6-inch, 3200 x 1800 matte panel is sharp and offers wide enough viewing angles to accommodate three people. However, similar to other Window 8 machines with ultra high-res displays, text is hard to read unless you're zoomed in past 150 percent.

The screen impressed when viewing high-resolution images. In our favorite pastoral scene, the M4800 delivered gorgeous shades of emerald and peridot, and the blue in the sky was deep and vibrant, adding some extra pop to the fluffy white clouds.

When it comes to color and sharpness, though, Apple's Retina Display still reigns supreme. In an image of a German shepherd puppy in a flower basket, the MacBook Pro 15 delivered richer color, especially the blacks in the dog's fur and the vibrant fuchsia of the flowers. The same image on the M4800's matte display looked muted. In terms of sharpness, we saw the waxiness of the flowers and the puppy's individual hairs better on the MacBook. The dog's right-side whiskers were barely discernable on the M4800.

The MacBook continued to outshine the M4800 during the 1080p "The Wolf of Wall Street" trailer. We could clearly see the age lines in Leonardo DiCaprio's forehead on both panels. However, Leo's eyes were a much deeper shade of blue on the MacBook Pro.

The Precision M4800 has a seriously bright screen, registering 323 lux on our light meter. That's well above the 211-lux mainstream average. The MacBook Pro was a full 100 points behind at 223 lux. The ZBook 15 did somewhat better at 295 lux.

Audio

Those speakers aren't just for decoration. They bathed our small testing space in loud, rich audio with balanced mids, highs and lows. As we listened to Lorde's "Royals," the singer's funky alto ruled the track and blended beautifully with the soprano background vocals. The bass was deep, but not overwhelming. Our only quibble was that the finger snaps in the song didn't sound as crisp as they should have.

The notebook reached 88 decibels on the Laptop Audio Test (measuring decibel output at 23 inches from the laptop), matching the ZBook 15 and scoring a hair above the 87 dB average.

Keyboard, Pointing Stick and Touchpad

Comfortable typing awaits on the M4800's traditional keyboard. The keys have a slight curvature that cradles your fingers and offers firm feedback. And with the soft-touch palm rest, we typed for hours with nary a cramp. We scored 60 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, higher than our 55 wpm average. The backlighting was pretty bright, too.

At 3.1 x 1.75-inches, the touchpad is a little on the small side. Just a half-inch wider would have made a world of difference. Despite the cramped working conditions, gestures such as pinch-zoom, two-finger rotate and three-finger press were responsive. Three-finger flick was more finicky, requiring that the gesture be performed in the exact center of the touchpad.

The discrete buttons surrounding the touchpad are mushy, with the exception of the top right button. However, each of the buttons competently performs its function. We particularly like the seamless scrolling experience provided by the pair of buttons in the center of the configuration.

As with other business notebooks, the M4800 has a pointing stick set amidst the G, H and B keys. However, the black nub is slightly recessed, and, despite its small raised dots, was slick to the touch. As a result, our finger kept slipping off, making it hard to navigate. We much prefer Lenovo's pointing stick, which is more prominent and offers a better grip.

Heat

After streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes, the notebook's touchpad measured 79 degrees Fahrenheit, while the space between the G and H keys hit 86 degrees. The bottom of the notebook blew a warmer 92 degrees, but that's still below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Webcam

Using the pre-installed Dell Webcam Central software, the M4800 captures stills and video in 720p. While there was a slight white haze, the camera did a good job of capturing the hue of our blue-green sweater. Overall sharpness could also be better, as images were somewhat fuzzy.

Ports

 It just wouldn't be a workstation without a plethora of ports. On the right, you have two USB 3.0 ports, a DisplayPort and a Wi-Fi switch. There's another pair of USB 3.0 ports on the left, with a DVD burner, 9-in-1 card reader, a SmartCard reader, a 54mm ExpressCard slot, a lock slot and jacks for headphones and a microphone. The M4800's rear has an eSATA/USB 2.0 port, a VGA port, Ethernet and HDMI. And just in case you need even more ports, there's a connector dock on the bottom of the notebook.

Performance

Thanks to its 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4900MQ CPU with 16GB of RAM, the Dell Precision M4800 can crunch numbers with the best of them. The laptop ably streamed an episode of "House of Cards" while running a virus scan with 13 open tabs in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

On the PCMark7 benchmark, the notebook hit 5,701, surpassing the 3,356 mainstream average. It also just beat the HP ZBook 15's 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-4800MQ processor's score of 5,406. On Geekbench 3, the M4800 scored 13,559, well above the 9,047 category average. The ZBook 15 came in second with 12,797, while the Apple MacBook Pro and its 2.3-GHz Intel Core i7 CPU came in third with 11,928.

The M4800's 256GB SSD took 30 seconds to load Windows 7 Professional, just missing the 29-second average. The ZBook 15 was a little faster, booting Windows 7 Pro in 25 seconds. The MacBook Pro started OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) in just 15 seconds.

The Precision's SSD is very fast in everyday use, duplicating 4.97GB of multimedia files in 24 seconds. That equals a transfer rate of 212 MBps. The 52 MBps average didn't stand a chance. Neither did the ZBook 15, which scraped together 48 MBps. The MacBook Pro was close, but fell short at 196 MBps.

During the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, the Precision M4800 matched 20,000 names and addresses in 3 minutes and 39 seconds. That's faster than the 5:32 average, the MacBook Pro's 4:14 and the ZBook 15's time of 3:44.

Graphics

The Dell Precision M4800 packs an Nvidia Quadro K2100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM, meaning it has more kick than your average mainstream notebook. We saw strong results during real world and synthetic benchmark tests.

The workstation hit 2,661 on the 3DMark11, topping the 1,430 mainstream average. This was enough to overcome the HP ZBook 15's Nvidia Quadro K610M GPU with 1GB of RAM, which scored 1,277. The 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro's Nvidia GeForce GT 750M GPU and Intel Iris Pro graphics each delivered 2,275.

On the "World of Warcraft" benchmark, the M4800 achieved 98 fps on autodetect at 1080p, matching the category average. The ZBook 15 hit a frame rate of 42 fps. The MacBook Pro delivered 94 fps at 1280 x 800. When we switched the M4800 to its native resolution (3200 x 1800), the frame rate dropped to 50 fps, while the MacBook Pro achieved 84 fps at 2880 x 1800.

With the settings on Ultra, the M4800 managed 27 fps, which failed to match the 51 fps average, the MacBook Pro (41 fps) or our 30 fps playability threshold. Still, the Dell beat the ZBook 15's score of 23 fps.

Battery Life

We don't expect marathon-like endurance from workstations, but the Dell Precision M4800's endurance was still disappointing. The machine lasted 4 hours and 16 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi). That runtime is an hour less than the 5:35 mainstream average. The HP ZBook 15 lasted 7:46, while the Apple MacBook Pro clocked in at 8:02.

According to Dell, Nvidia's graphics-switching Optimus technology is not available on the M4800 with QHD displays; if you opt for an FHD (1920 x 1080) display, you can expect up to 16.8 hours of rated endurance.

MORE: 10 Laptops with the Longest Battery Life

Software and Warranty

The Dell Precision M4800 is a lean, mean business machine, which means there's no room for bloatware. There are a few Dell add-ons, such as the Dell Power Manager, which lets you change the power usage settings on the battery. The Precision Performance Optimizer automatically tunes the notebook's system settings according to which programs are currently running.

The Dell Precision M4800 comes with a 3-Year Basic Hardware Service with 3-Year Next Business Day Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis. See how Dell fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands Report.

Configurations

Our configuration of the Dell Precision M4800 costs $2,513 and features a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4900MQ CPU with 16GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, an Nvidia Quadro K2100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM, and a 15.6-inch 3200 x 1800 display.

The $1,249 base model is quite friendly to your bottom line, offering a 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5-4200M CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB 7,200-rpm hard drive, AMD FirePro M5100 GPU with 2GB of VRAM, and a 1366 x 768 display.

Dell also offers a $1,689 middle-of-the-road option, with a 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-4800MQ processor that has 8GB of RAM, a 500GB 7,200-rpm hard drive, Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM, and a 1080p display.

Verdict

In addition to its durable yet handsome chassis, the Dell Precision M4800 is a productivity beast. This workstation offers a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia Quadro GPU, which can easily handle graphics-intensive tasks like video editing. We also like the comfy keyboard, sharp QHD+ display and robust audio. However, the M4800 is a little lacking when it comes to battery life.

For $89 more, users can get the $2,599 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro, which offers nearly 9 hours of juice and more-lush Retina display in a lighter, sleeker chassis. However, you'll get far fewer ports and not nearly as many customization and security options. Ultimately, the M4800 is a strong choice for users searching for a notebook with power, durability and security.

SEE more: HP ZBook 14 Review

Read more ...

Dell Precision M3800 Review

Pros: Sleek elegant design; Powerful graphics and performance; Beautiful QHD display; Above-average battery life
Cons: Missing some ports; Not as durable as other workstations
The Verdict: As the world's thinnest and lightest workstation, the Dell Precision M3800 delivers powerful performance in a svelte, elegant chassis.

Dell Precision M3800 Review

While mobile workstations are known for their power, they're generally not the most portable of notebooks. Dell is changing that perception with the Precision M3800, a stylish 15-inch system with a QHD touch screen measuring less than an inch thick and weighing less than 5 pounds. That doesn't mean, however, that the laptop is lacking for power. Packing an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia Quadro GPU, the notebook ($1,799 starting, $2,499 as configured) can keep pace with the top workstations out there. But does the M3800 have what it takes to be the best?

Design

Measuring 14.65 x 10 x 0.71~0.31 inches, the Precision M3800 is the world's slimmest 15-inch mobile workstation. It's thinner than both HP ZBook 15 (15 x 10.1 x 1.2 inches) and the 15-inchApple MacBook Pro with Retina Display (14.1 x 9.7 x 0.71 inches). The 4.6-pound M3800 is much lighter than the 6.4-pound Dell Precision M4800 and 6.2-pound ZBook 15, but the MacBook Pro edges it out at 4.5 pounds.

Designwise, the M3800 is identical to the Dell XPS 15. We're still fans of the modern, MacBook Pro-esque silver aluminum lid with the elegant, rounded corners and the shiny Dell logo stamped in the middle. The majority of the notebook's interior has a sumptuous black soft touch finish. The deck protrudes ever so slightly from the top of the deck, drawing the eye to the silver aluminum border.

If that's not fancy enough for you, the laptop's undercarriage is made of handsome carbon fiber with an aluminum plate in the center that bears its name.

Display

Is there anything as lovely as a QHD display? The M3800's 15.6-inch, 3200 x 1800 Gorilla Glass panel delivers deep, luxurious color with fine detail, similar to the M4800. The MacBook Pro, by comparison, has a 2880 x 1800 Retina Display.

A picture of a mountain with surrounding houses was magnificent. We marveled at the varying shades of green, from the foliage covering the rocky crag to the manicured lawns of the houses below. The sky was a deep royal blue and an aquamarine river snaked through the background. Details were sharp enough to see the unique striations along the mountain and the lines on the highway below.

Our only real complaint regarding the display has to do with the text. As with most ultra-high-res displays, we found ourselves having to zoom in to at least 200 percent to be able to comfortably read text on Kotaku.com, NYTimes.com and Clutchmagonline.com.

We also appreciated the swiftness of the 10-point touch screen that made navigating the finer points of the image a seamless experience.

Measuring 328 lux, the Precision M3800 is plenty bright, topping the 271 mainstream average. The M4800 was just shade dimmer at 323 lux. The ZBook 15 and MacBook Pro shone at 295 and 223 lux, respectively.

Audio

Despite their placement on the bottom front lip, the M3800's bottom-mounted speakers were able to fill our medium-size test room. We played several different songs, including Jay Z's "Tom Ford," Anita Baker's "Good Love" and Guns 'N Roses' "November Rain," and while we noticed a little bit of distortion on higher tones, overall we were impressed with the quality. Using the Dell Audio control panel (powered by Waves MaxxAudio technology), we found the MaxxSense preset made everything sound well balanced.

When we ran the Laptop Audio Test (measuring decibel output at 23 inches from the laptop), the M3800 hit 82 dB, below the 87 dB mainstream average. Both the MacBook Pro and the ZBook 15 scored 88 dB.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The M3800's island-style keyboard is fairly large with wide spacing, but lacks the number pad found on the Precision M4800. The black keys are large with a slight curvature that, in combination with the soft-touch palm rest, made for a comfortable typing experience. However, the backlit keys were mushier than we prefer, which caused us to score 53 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, compared to our usual 55 wpm.

The laptop's touchpad is spacious, measuring 4.1 x 3.1 inches. When we performed gestures such as two-finger scroll and rotate, three-finger swipe and four-finger swipe the pad was highly accurate and responsive. The bottom corners of the touchpad acted as our left and right mouse keys, delivering firm feedback with a barely audible click.

MORE: Dell Best and Worst Notebook Brands Rating

Heat

After streaming a full-screen video on Hulu for 15 minutes, the M3800's touchpad measured 77 degrees Fahrenheit. That's well below our 95 degree Fahrenheit comfort threshold. However, the space between the G and H keys was 98 degrees, and the bottom of the notebook registered a hot 111 degrees.

Still, we were able to use the M3800 in our lap for more than an hour in relative comfort, but we found the fan noise to be somewhat annoying.

Webcam

When we shot stills with the M3800's integrated 1280 x 720 webcam, colors came back somewhat muted, as evidenced by our usually vibrant red sweater that looked maroon in the picture. Our skin tone also looked darker than normal under the fluorescent light in our office, but looked somewhat better under natural light. There was some fuzziness throughout our test shots. However, we could still make out some of our sweater's fabric pattern

Ports

To make a workstation this thin, Dell had to omit some ports, but it still maintains a healthy selection. The right side of the M3800 holds a USB 3.0, USB 2.0, a 3-in-1 card reader and a noble lock slot. There's a pair of USB 3.0 ports on the left with HDMI, mini DisplayPort, a battery life indicator and jacks for power and headset.

However, the M4800 has many more ports: a DVD burner, eSATA/USB 2.0 port, SmartCard Reader, 54mm ExpressCard slot, 9-in-1 card reader, Ethernet, VGA and a dock connector.

Security and Durability

Our configuration of the Precision M3800 came preloaded with Dell's Protected Workspace software. When active, Protected Workspace opens potentially vulnerable applications (Web browsers, zip files and PDF readers) in a virtual container separate from the operating system, keeping it safe from malware attacks.

When you hear the term workstation, you expect the notebook to have some type of durability similar to the M4800's magnesium alloy frame beneath an aluminum frame or its MIL-STD-810G certification. The M3800 has none of those safeguards, relying solely on the aluminum frame and carbon fiber bottom to weather the storm against drops and bumps.

Performance

Got a few spreadsheets you need to crank out or maybe a bunch of presentations? Dell's got you covered. Powered by a 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ processor with 16GB of RAM, the Precision M3800 shrugged off streaming a full-screen episode of "Arrow" from Netflix while running a full system scan with 15 open tabs in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

On PCMark7, the M3800 scored 5,157, surpassing the 3,501 mainstream average. That was more than enough to top the Apple MacBook Pro's 2.3-GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU, which hit 4,779. However, the HP ZBook 15's 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-4800MQ CPU scored a higher 5,406, as did the Dell Precision M4800 (2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4900MQ), with a score of 5,701.

The M3800's 512GB SSD was a little slow on the draw during the Boot Test. It took 32 seconds for the laptop to boot Windows 7 Professional, which is slower than the 27-second average. The M4800 (256GB SSD) and ZBook 15 (500GB 7,200-rpm hard drive) were a bit quicker, launching Windows 7 Pro in 30 and 25 seconds, respectively. The MacBook Pro and its 256GB Flash Drive, however, loaded OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) in 15 seconds.

However, when we ran the File Transfer Test, the M3800 duplicated 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 12 seconds for a blistering transfer rate of 424.1MBps, shattering the 57MBps average. The Precision M4800 was a distant second with 212MBps. The MacBook Pro was hot on its heels at 196MBps, and the ZBook 15 offered a disappointing 48MBps.

During the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, the Precision M3800 matched 20,000 names and addresses in 4 minutes and 14 seconds. The ZBook 15 outpaced that with a time of 3:44. The Precision M4800 delivered a swift 3:39.

Graphics

Able to render CAD projects in a single bound, the Dell Precision M3800 isn't Superman, but it is one heck of a powerful notebook. The M3800 is equipped with both an Intel HD Graphics 4600 and an Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM. That's more than enough power to edit a movie or two and get some reasonably high frame rates while gaming. Best of all, Nvidia's power-conserving Optimus technology automatically switches to the Intel GPU for less intensive tasks such as watching video or preparing a document.

The notebook scored 2,028 on 3DMark11, coasting past the 1,412 mainstream average. The HP ZBook 15's Nvidia Quadro K610M only managed 1,277. The MacBook Pro and its Nvidia GeForce GT 750M and Intel Iris Pro pumped out 2,275, but the Dell Precision M4800's Nvidia Quadro K2100M cranked out an impressive 2,661.

On the "World of Warcraft" benchmark, the M3800 delivered 76 fps at 1920 x 1080 on autodetect. That's below the 98 fps category average--which includes a number of gaming systems--but well above our 30 fps playability threshold. The Precision M4800 matched the average, while the ZBook 15 scored a meager 42 fps.

When we switched to Ultra settings on 1080p, the M3800 averaged 40 fps, falling below the 51 fps average, but beating the ZBook 15's 23 fps. The Precision M4800 maintained its lead, posting 52 fps.

We also tested the M3800's frame rate at its native 3200 x 1800 frame rate. On autodetect, the notebook notched 41 fps, which is several frames higher than the 36 fps average. However it wasn't enough to overcome the M4800's 50 fps.

On "BioShock Infinite," with the settings on low at 1080p, the Precision M3800 notched 62 fps, higher than the 52 fps average. The M4800 was a close second 47 fps, with the ZBook 15 bringing up the rear at 20 fps. Cranking up the settings to high caused frame rates to plummet, with the M3800 notching 15 fps, falling short of the 20 fps average. The M4800 fared a little better at 19 fps, while the ZBook 15 could achieve only 6 fps.

Battery Life

When we ran the Laptop Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), the Dell Precision M3800 lasted 6 hours and 54 minutes. That significantly outpaced both the category average (5:31) and the Dell Precision M4800 (4:16). However, it couldn't keep pace with the HP ZBook 15 or the MacBook Pro, which posted 7:46 and 8:02, respectively.

Software and Warranty

 Dell kept the bloatware to a minimum, instead adding a few helpful utilities and a few productivity-focused applications.

There's Dell Backup and Recovery, a pretty straightforward service that allows users to create backups of their system or selected data and restore said information. Dell has also included its Digital Delivery software that downloads and installs programs that were ordered with the computer.Third-party software includes Adobe Reader X1 and Microsoft Office.

The Dell Precision M3800 comes with a one-year Basic Hardware Service with one-year Next Business Day Onsite Service after Remote Diagnosis.

Configurations

Our $2,499 configuration of the Dell Precision M3800 has a 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ processor with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSHD, Intel HD Graphics 4600, an Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM and a 3200 x 1800 QHD display.

The $1,799 base model comes with a 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB SSHD, an Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU with 2GB of VRAM and a 1920 x 1080 display.

Dell also offers a $2,249 edition that features a 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD with a 500GB SSHD, Intel HD Graphics 4600, an Nvidia Quadro and a 3200 x 1800 QHD display.

The Precision M4800 is somewhat more configurable, allowing users to swap out the optical drive for an additional hard drive.

Verdict

The Dell Precision M3800 laptop is an exercise in elegant productivity. The company has created the world's thinnest, slimmest workstation. For $2,499, power users get a notebook with a powerful Core i7 processor, an Nvidia Quadro GPU and a mesmerizing 3200 x 1800 display.

All that slim sexiness doesn't come without compromise, however. While heavier, the M4800 is more powerful and offers a wider selection of ports, plus a full-size number pad. And, if battery life is of paramount importance, the 15-inch MacBook Pro lasts nearly 9 hours on a charge.

Overall, though, the M3800 is a great choice for consumers looking for the power of a workstation with the slick looks of Dell's XPS notebooks.

See more: 

HP EliteBook 850 G1 Review

Read more ...