I’ve had the pleasure this year of reviewing some of the world’s most powerful portable computers, including the ASUS EP121 tablet and Samsung’s RF711 gaming laptop, but this week I took delivery of a Dell Precision M6600 Advanced Workstation laptop.  This machine is one of the most powerful portable computers on the planet with only Sony and Lenovo offering specifications to match it.

The machine that has arrived for me has a 2.5GHz Core i7 Sandybridge processor, backed up with 8Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM.  This is the most powerful mobile processor Dell currently offer though the RAM can be increased to 16Gb of 1,600MHz DDR3 or even a massive 32Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 if you wish.  The hard drives, because you can have up to three, in mine are both 7,200RPM models, one with 250Gb and one with 750Gb.  Dell offer options up to 256Gb SSDs and the third hard disk is a tiny mini-disc option just millimetres thick and the size of a match box.

The screen is a 17.3 inch four point multi-touch affair that matches the full Adobe colour gamut and runs at a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.  This runs on graphics that are switchable between the internal Intel chipset and a powerful nVidia Optimus 4000M processor with 2Gb of GDDR5 RAM.  Internally there’s 802.11 b/g/n wireless (WiMAX is an optional extra), 3G, Bluetooth 3 and GPS.  The machine is backed up, very sensibly for something of this power with a TPM chip and a fingerprint reader.  There are a very generous selection of ports too including 2x USB2, Firewire, seperate headphone and microphone sockets, an ExpressCard slot, an eSATA/USB2 combo socket, SD card slot, full HDMI, VGA, Gigabit ethernet, display port and 2x USB3.  Last but by no means least there’s an excellent webcam built into the screen bezel.

The options on the Dell website for this machine are simply staggering.  You can pick up an M6600 for $1,600 (£1,280) but specify it up to around £5,000.  The machine sent to me costs around £3,500.

This is an enormous amount of money to spend on a laptop but you won’t be lugging this to work and back every day.  For starters it weighs around 4.5Kg but the lid and body are finished in a lovely bronze aluminium that you’ll really want to take good care of.

It’s very upgradeable too, which will come as a relief to anyone who wants to buy one.  Just removing two screws allows the entire bottom of the case to come away.  Underneath there’s quick and easy access to the memory, hard disks, module cards and more.  It’s a very neat and elegant solution.

Battery life is reasonable at around five hours in light use, though you’ll be lucky to get two hours out of the battery when running at full power.  The power supply is weighty too and quite a large slab itself.

But what is the M6600 like to use?  The keyboard is excellent, one of the best I’ve used on a laptop.  There’s the option of backlighting which I have on mine and it makes working much easier and is controllable through several settings.  There’s no scrabble tile keyboard, Dell have instead opted for a more traditional approach but the tops of the keys are wide and well spaced.  The Enter key is a very generous size and, although the left shift key is a little narrow, it’s excellent in general use.  The cursor keys are sensibly placed and the number pad has full size keys too.  Finally there are keys for the calculator and media playback and volume and mute controls above the keyboard.

Below the keyboard is a trackpad that also acts as a digitizer tablet and that comes with a powered stylus that has it’s own controls too.  There is also a nipple control and a second set of mouse buttons if you prefer.  The trackpad can also be turned off if you desire.

The screen is a little reflective but is extremely bright and good in strong light.  The build quality of the laptop too is extremely solid and the machine has an accelerometer that works in conjunction with a motion sensor to lock the hard disks in the event it is dropped.

Performance is excellent with a responsiveness that’s every bit as good as a desktop Core-i7 processor.  You can easily edit high-definition video on this machine.  This is partly the target market though and Dell say the machine is very useful for CAD designers, engineers and people where sheer grunt is every bit as important as portability.  The laptop is ISV certified for these tasks.

The Dell M6600 is an absolute beast of a machine that will comfortably cope with any task you can throw at it.  It’s quiet too in general use with only a very faint whirr from the fans.  It can get hot though, but you’re unlikely to have something this heavy on your lap.  Optional extras include a dock that can connect the M6600 to up to five displays simultaneously via DisplayPort.

There’s really not much to say about this laptop other than state facts and figures about how powerful it is and what it can do.  If you’re in the market for beast and have a budget to match it, I simply don’t believe you’ll find anything better.  I compared the competition from Sony and Lenovo and while they might match the physical power and storage, they can’t touch the Dell for style.  This laptop is a glory to behold and anyone who buys one will never regret their purchase.

To summarise the Dell M6600 excels at everything it does, which is nothing more than you’d expect for the price.  While there are alternatives, I don’t believe any of them are up to this standard.  Sure there are a few niggles but no real faults and so few in fact that I can safely award the Dell M6600 the full 10 out of 10 for quality, power and features.