New Dell Precision M4700 and M6700 Mobile Workstations Announced

Dell today announced the next generation of the Dell Precision mobile workstations. The new Precision M4700, Precison M6700 and M6700 Covet Edition are designed for engineering and design professionals who need "uncompromising performance and dependability wherever their demanding work takes them." The current Dell Precision mobile workstations are a common sight at places liike feature film sets and construction sites because these PCs allow you to run graphics or processor intensive applications faster and more accurately than a typical multimedia notebook regardless of the location.    

Dell is promoting the Precision M4700 and M6700 as "the world's most powerful 15-inch and 17-inch mobile workstations."  The M4700 is Dell's 15-inch mobile workstation replacing the popular M4600; ideal for professionals who need extreme performance but still want a laptop that is reasonably travel friendly. The Dell Precision M6700 provides fixed workstation capability and higher performing graphics with a 17-inch display. The surprisingly popular Covet Edition is back on the 17-inch version ... the Covet Edition features a "Phoenix Red" paint job on the exterior surfaces and edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for added screen protection.

Same Exterior, New Interior

From the outside little has changed for the Precision line. The new M4700 and M6700 offer the same wide array of ports giving users a true "desktop replacement" that can be carried anywhere. The I/O ports include two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 and one eSATA/USB combo ports and three integrated video ports (VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2).

While the exterior of the new Precision lineup appears identical to the previous generation, inside the Dell Precision M4700 and M6700 incorporate the latest Intel Core i5, i7 and Extreme Edition processors and a wide range of choices for professional-grade graphics including the NVIDIA Quadro K-series and AMD FirePro graphics. The M6700 is the first mobile workstation to offer AMD FirePro M6000 with PCIe x16 Gen 3 for faster data throughput.

Another first on the M6700 is NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro, a combination of wireless active shutter glasses, an integrated RF communication hub, and software. The technology automatically transforms various CAD/CAM/CAE, DCC, seismic visualization, life sciences and other applications into full stereoscopic 3D to make the application more interactive and realistic, delivering better results and increased productivity.

Specifically designed for customers doing color-critical work, the new mobile workstations offer a variety of brilliant WLED and IPS RBG LED display options with a wide spectrum of colors including more than 100 percent Adobe color gamut. The M6700 will also be the first mobile workstation to offer optional 10+ finger multi-touch in the coming months.

Both the M4700 and M6700 can power up to three simultaneous displays when undocked and up to five displays when docked and are compatible with the Latitude E-family dock.

If those hardware specs aren't enough, you can also configure these mobile workstations with up to 32GB of DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz memory speed or up to 16GB of RAM at 1866MHz memory speed. Dell also offers an optional SATA3 512GB solid state drive (SSD) for high speed, high capacity storage needs.

The M4700 packs up to three storage devices with up to 1.8TB of total storage while you can load the M6700 with up to four storage devices with up to 2.8TB of total storage. Both the M4700 and M6700 can be configured with RAID 0/1/5 for a range of storage options. In short, the new Precision mobile workstations offer extremely fast, extremely large storage options for graphic-intense tasks on the road.

Built Tough ... And Green

The new mobile workstations feature a durable aluminum and magnesium alloy chassis that is MIL-STD 810G tested. Dell also claims the M6700 is "the lightest 17-inch design" in its class. Both the M4700 and M6700 will offer "all day battery life" thanks to an optional slice battery that connects to the bottom of the notebook chassis, an ExpressCharge battery and NVIDIA Optimus technology, which intelligently and automatically switches between the Intel integrated graphics and NVIDIA discrete graphics depending on the applications that you're using.

The new workstations also have quiet dual fans and cooling solutions for the CPU and graphics to enable long periods of high performance without overheating and an easy ejectable primary hard drive caddy for customers working with large volumes of data or sensitive data and need to remove or swap out hard drives frequently.

Finally, Dell engineers had a greater concern for the environment when they designed the M4700 and M6700. The new mobile workstations are engineered with smarter materials, including environmentally preferable replacements for Brominated Flame Retardants and Polyvinyl Chloride (BFR/PVCs). In addition to being EPEAT-registered, both systems fully qualify for the energy-efficiency standard ENERGY STAR.

If warranty support and security is a concern for your business then you'll be happy to know the Dell Precision mobile workstations are backed by Dell ProSupport, Dell Data Protection/Encryption and FIPS fingerprint reader security features and ISV certifications to keep professional workstation users up and running and their sensitive work and data secure at all times.

All Dell Precision workstations are ISV certified for the top professional software applications from vendors such as Altair, Ansys, Autodesk, Adobe, Avid, Grassvalley, Matrox, Sony, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software, Barco, Schlumberger, Landmark, esri, ffA (Foster Findlay Associates), Dynamic Graphics and many others, guaranteeing application compatibility and dependability.

Pricing and availability

All three new mobile workstations are available worldwide for purchase starting today. The U.S. starting prices are $1,649 for the Dell Precision M4700, $2,199 for the M6700 and $3,579 for the M6700 Covet when all configurations are available.

Dell Financial Services is offering zero-percent financing to US-based small and medium businesses when they spend $3,000 or more on any combination of qualifying Dell Precision, Latitude and OptiPlex systems. That offer is on a 36-month $1 buyout lease and is available August 4, 2012 thru November 2, 2012, directly through Dell.