Dell launches Precision M3800 portable workstation range

Dell launches Precision M3800 portable workstation range

Dell has introduced its new Precision M3800 Mobile workstation, a 15.6-inch laptop whose existence was revealed back in July 2013.

Although the company doesn't call it an Ultrabook by name, it sits comfortably in that category with a 18mm thickness and a weight of just under 1.9Kg thanks to a chassis made up of carbon fiber and aluminium.

The laptop, which is similar to the recently-announced Dell XPS 15, will sit alongside the bulkier but cheaper Dell Precision M4700 and the Dell Precision M4800.

Aimed squarely at digital content creators a nd engineers looking to run ISV-certified applications, the new laptop packs some impressive specs of up to an Intel Core i7-4702HQ processor (four cores, eight threads, based on Haswell and Turbo Boosting to 3.2GHz), a battery life of more than 10 hours, up to 16GB of RAM, an mSATA port plus a 2.5-inch HDD.

Mobile Powerhouse

The two headliner features though are the Quadro K1100M GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and the 15.6 QHD+ display. The GPU is currently Nvidia's top chip for 15.6-inch laptops with a TDP of 55W and 576 CUDA cores while the monitor crams nearly 5.8 million pixels (3,200 x 1,800), 11 percent more than the Apple's equivalent 15.6-inch model.

A nice add-on is the touch screen capabilities that's combined with Corning Gorilla NBT's glass overlay. That feature has already been embraced by the likes of Autodesk with others likely to follow suit.

Connectivity-wise, there's a USB to RJ-45 dongle plus four USB ports (three of which are USB 3.0 and all charging ones). Dell is also planning for a USB 3.0 docking station that will add even more ports and potentially allow users to connect two Dell UltraSharp 32-inch Ultra HD monitors by the end of the year.

Coincidentally, the official unveiling occurred a day after that of Apple's new MacBook Pro and shares almost the same dimensions. The Precision M3800 will be available for purchase from November 14 globally from £1,149 ($ 1,799, about AU$ 1,930). More details about Dell's latest workstation can be found here.

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