The Precision M4400 was my third Dell computer. The first, a Dimension 8200 desktop, has been working fine for the last 6.5 years with the only problem being a failed hard drive early in its life. The second, an Inspiron 9100, has been my workhorse for the last 4 years. It too had a hard drive failure (taken care of immediately by Dell), and of course, the backlight went out earlier this year, but on the whole, nothing else went wrong. The thing is built like a tank (weighs as much too) but it’s showing its age. The Precision M4400 was purchased as a replacement - workstation quality laptop with a fast processor, decent graphics card, and support for both XP and Vista.
It showed up yesterday, about 12 days after I ordered it. Obviously, I was excited and I opened it up and turned it on as soon as I got back to my room. I guess that was where the excitement ended.
I got one of the Philips-LG displays that was known to be grainy. On top of that, the keyboard had too much flex and I could both see and feel the center of the keyboard depressing downward during typing. Sure, the laptop was well-built and looked very nice, but after paying extra for a business laptop, I expected top-notch hardware. I knew from NotebookReview.com that the Samsung panel was a lot better but Dell couldn’t guarantee that a replacement screen would be the Samsung, and so, I returned the laptop today. It was in my possession for all of 26 hours - it’s a shame because I really liked the laptop too. I’m back to square one and am considering the ASUS G50V and HP Elitebook 8530w again. For a full gallery of unboxing shots, visit my Flickr photostream at:
http://flickr.com/photos/electrictool/tags/m4400/
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