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Creative Bloq
Dell Precision 7780 review: Unbeatable power with a sizeable display
By Paul Hatton,
9 days ago
Our Verdict
The Dell Precision 7780 is a high-performing and well-engineered laptop that has the power that modern-day creative professionals crave. Intel's i7 CPU and Nvidia's RTX 3500 GPU are the brains behind the machine and they won't let you down. I love the 17.3-inch display that has enough screen real-estate to handle applications such as Blender, Photoshop, and DaVinci Resolve. I would have liked to have seen a better placed trackpad and 4K display resolution but these are minor issues on an otherwise impressive laptop.
For
Super powerful Intel CPU
Large 17.3-inch display
Plenty of connectivity options
Against
The Dell Precision 7780 is a professional laptop with creatives in mind. A high-performance CPU and equally impressive GPU make this an ideal laptop for 3D visualisers, video editors, and graphic designers. Head to the 'performance' section for more detailed tests.
The laptop continues to target creative professionals with a 17.3-inch 16:9 aspect ratio display. Many would prefer a bit more screen real estate that a 16:10 display affords, but that would make the chassis larger and heavier. Although not directly targeted at gamers, the UHD 120 Hz refresh rate is more than enough for smooth gaming.
All of this puts it alongside some of the best laptops for graphic design and best laptops for CAD. I've been using the laptop for a range of creative tasks over the course of a a couple of weeks. To benchmark the performance against other machines, we ran tests using Cinebench, Geekbench, and Handbrake.
The Dell Precision 7780 is a whopper of a laptop that is well-designed but isn't going to be turning any heads. The chassis is classic Dell, with a metallic finish to the outer and a dark grey plastic finish to the interior. The dual material and colour sit beautifully next to each other, with the interior plastic having a lovely soft-touch feel, something that my palms were very grateful for.
Every corner of the laptop is purposefully rounded off and the base of the laptop is bevelled off to give the impression that it's more slimline than it actually is. In reality, this is a big laptop. That was always going to be the case; after all, this is a 17.3-inch laptop. At 3.05 kg, it is rather heavy and therefore not suitable for mobile working. The smaller 16-inch 7680 is probably a better bet if you want to be working on the go.
The 17.3-inch 16:9 aspect ratio display looks great and works a treat for all types of work, including graphic design and 3D visualisation. Many laptops are opting for a 16:10 aspect ratio but I'm glad that Dell haven't gone down that route for this series of laptops. It often results in a much too-large chassis that you can get away with on a 15-inch device but not on a 17-inch one.
I was amazed when I tested the opening angle of this laptop. Most times, I get to around 130 degrees and the hinge stops me. For this Dell laptop, I kept on pushing and got all the way down to my desk. That makes for an unbelievable 180-degree opening angle. I won't ever use it like this but it's good to know that I'll never risk pushing the hinge too far and breaking it. Speaking of hinges, they are robust and resistant enough to keep the display perfectly in the location you want it.
(Image credit: Future)
I'll get to what I don't like about the design of the laptop in a minute but for now, let's focus on the connectivity. The Dell Precision 7780 has pretty much everything you could need. The left side is taken up by a power connector, single USB-A, HDMI, wired ethernet, and smart card reader slot. There are also two USB-C ports that support both Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4.
The right side has a lock wedge slot, USB-A, USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack, and an SD card reader. Across all of these ports, there is plenty of support for all types of creatives, including photographers who want to quickly transfer their files from media cards.
Having the ports on the left and right sides frees up the rear of the laptop to be used entirely for cooling. There are also cooling slots underneath the laptop. Effective cooling is one of the additional benefits of having a larger chassis and that's definitely the case here.
I love almost everything about this laptop but there's one thing that was very difficult to love and that was the trackpad. For some reason, not known to me, the trackpad is positioned off-centre. I really would love to know why. It can't be because the user experience tests came back demanding it.
So why is it a problem? Quite simply because it creates a very unnatural way of interacting with the laptop. It is located directly underneath the bulk of the alphabet keys, I assume, in an attempt to keep the two centralised to each other.
Unfortunately, what it has done is mean if you're doing a lot of keyboard work then you've got to sit slightly to the left-hand side of the laptop. But even when I did that I kept making clicking errors on the trackpad, having to click so far to the left-hand side that I kept missing it. I hope in future iterations this will be well and truly addressed because it lets down what is otherwise a well-designed unit.
Features
(Image credit: Future)
Display
The 17.3-inch display is really the star of the show. It is huge and pretty much the largest screen you can get on any laptop. Creatives who don't have a dedicated monitor or want a laptop that can act as a secondary monitor will be more than pleased by the size. The display has a 16:9 aspect ratio and up to UHD 120Hz. So when you're done creating and want some downtime, any game will refresh quickly enough to be buttery smooth.
High performance
There's no lack of power with the chosen CPU being the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13850HX, vPro (30 MB cache, 20 cores, 28 threads, up to 5.3 GHz Turbo, 55). From a graphics perspective, it's the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Ada 12GB GDDR6 GPU, which is more than capable across almost all creative applications.
Built-in security and sustainability
There are some interesting features here, the most notable being the Windows Hello-compatible IR camera with a proximity sensor that recognises you and automatically locks and unlocks to increase privacy and productivity. There is also a chassis intrusion sensor that alerts you if the chassis or BIOS has been tampered with and a full scan FIPS fingerprint reader.
The Dell Precision 7780 performs incredibly well on almost all fronts. The centre piece of this is the Intel Core i7-13850HX CPU, which has a 30 MB cache, 28 threads, and 20 cores (8P+12E) up to 5.3 GHz. I was surprised to see that the Intel i7 hardware outperformed the Intel i9 CPU found on the MSI Vector 16 HX when I previously reviewed it.
This was evident across all my benchmark tests, beginning with the Geekbench CPU single-core test that scored 1,968 and the multi-core equivalent that scored 9,450. Cinebench CPU scores were equally good, with the single and multi-core scores coming in at 1,457 and 15,024, respectively.
Video editors will be delighted to know that the laptop transcoded a 10-minute, 34-second 4K video to 1080p in only 5 minutes and 23 seconds. As a reference, the MSI Vector 16 HX managed it in 3 minutes and 17 seconds.
Blender Benchmark tasks included rendering scenes including monster, junkshop, and classroom, with scores coming in at 169, 109, and 69, respectively.
We also ran a Geekbench GPU OpenCL test and the score came out at a truly impressive 100,785. This is all thanks to the NVIDIA RTX™ 3500 Ada 12GB GDDR6. This gives a substantial throughput of ~432 GB/s. This is a GPU that is designed specifically for professional users.
The weight and size will largely restrict mobile working, which is fortunate because the battery life isn't very good at all. The 6 Cell, 93 Wh, Lithium Ion Polymer battery only managed around 3 hours of creative work. This is a laptop that will need to be permanently plugged in.
Price
(Image credit: Future)
The Dell Precision 7780 default configuration costs £3,118.82. There are no configuration options for the CPU, GPU, or RAM, but it is possible to configure the storage. Storage upgrades are possible all the way from an extra 512GB for £155.22 up to 4TB for £989.82.
If you want something a little smaller and more affordable, then the Dell Precision 5470 is a great alternative. Its compact design, excellent battery life, and incredible power make it arguably one of the best mobile workstations around.
Who is it for?
The Dell Precision 7780 hits all the right notes with creative professionals, including graphic designers, 3D visualisers, and CAD users. The 17.3-inch display gives enough screen real-estate to see all of your work without feeling cramped. A certain amount of side-by-side window action is also possible thanks to the width of the display.
There is also a good nod to gamers with the 120Hz refresh rate, although I would argue that this would be more for casual gamers who want to relax after putting in a solid creative shift.
Should I buy the Dell Precision 7780?
(Image credit: Future)
Buy it if:
You want a creative powerhouse
You need a large display
You want a reliable brand
Don’t buy it if:
You want a well-executed trackpad location
You need portability
You want a 4K display
The Verdict
8.5
out of 10
Dell Precision 7780
The Dell Precision 7780 is a high-performing and well-engineered laptop that has the power that modern-day creative professionals crave. Intel's i7 CPU and Nvidia's RTX 3500 GPU are the brains behind the machine and they won't let you down. I love the 17.3-inch display that has enough screen real-estate to handle applications such as Blender, Photoshop, and DaVinci Resolve. I would have liked to have seen a better placed trackpad and 4K display resolution but these are minor issues on an otherwise impressive laptop.
Paul is a digital expert. In the 20 years since he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Computer Science, Paul has been actively involved in a variety of different tech and creative industries that make him the go-to guy for reviews, opinion pieces, and featured articles. With a particular love of all things visual, including photography, videography, and 3D visualisation Paul is never far from a camera or other piece of tech that gets his creative juices going. You'll also find his writing in other places, including Creative Bloq, Digital Camera World, and 3D World Magazine.
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