Hahaha, exactly. This is one of the best looking 'gaming' laptops on the market IMO, and one of the very few I wouldn't immediately rule out based on looks alone. I don't want glowing Dragons. I don't want rainbow LEDs that pulse to music. I want something minimalist looking that's actually capable of playing games.
this looks good, I got to the point a few years back where if a laptop had a 1366x768 panel I immediately stopped looking. Also can't stand TN displays either so this looks especially good.
Because having a VGA port somehow ruins the laptop? I get that a lot of people don't use them, but there are many businesses that still have VGA projectors. They bought them 10 years ago and they still work, so they feel no need to spend another $1000 or more upgrading. I could understand saying, "I won't consider buying a laptop today that doesn't have a DisplayPort connection", but to say including a VGA port makes a laptop worthless is a different matter. For a "do everything" laptop that at least aspires to being a business laptop, VGA is still necessary. I'd like to see laptops with HDMI, DP, and VGA to cover all bases, and VGA is the first thing I'd be okay seeing omitted (including a DP to VGA adapter would also suffice). I'd also like to see dedicated document navigation keys, but not everyone cares about that.
Honestly the lack of DisplayPort on a lot of these new laptops is killing me... HDMI (even 1.4 spec) isn't often supported by most monitors for resolutions like 1440p and above, which basically leaves laptops like this with no real chance to connect to higher resolution peripherals and seems to make the laptop almost obsolete before it's even released
Exactly. Why not be prepared for older displays and projectors. All the time at work we have issues finding HDMI cables, Display Port cables, and DVI cables. But good ol' VGA is always sitting right there.
Seriously? So if you are getting it for play only that is fine, but seems like a really lame to dismiss a laptop that has few peers in its size and weight class.
This system is a traveling business man's dream. Not only can I use it for play on the road it has key features that are must for many business uses and yest that includes the old VGA connection.
And if I *don't* see one, I lose all interest. All of the projectors I use at university for presentations are VGA only, and I know this is far from the only place where that's the case. Some people have to work with their laptops, you know.
And no, DisplayPort doesn't do the job; mDP-VGA adapters are horrendous.
What are you even talking about? You should realise the world goes outside your basement. Everyone, everywhere, uses VGA for projector connections, because that's what been run in years gone by, and you know what, it works just fine.
It's also an impressive amount of crunching power in a reasonably small package for any other number-cruncher, who'd usually end up with Thinkpad W series or comparables. Now that most interesting question remains: what happens if that power is actually being used?
A few guys in Austraila have had them for a week now and are feeding notebookreview forum users some info. A ~20 minute Prime95 showed the CPU at 90C while being undervolted 100mV (ambient wasn't mentioned). He went on to say all 4 cores were only 3Ghz throughout the test, implying minor throttling.
Throttling is if the CPUs drop below the rated 2.4GHz -- anything above that is Turbo Boost territory, and given that the CPU is only rated for 3.1GHz with all cores active, 3.0GHz is well withing reason. But we'll see what I get with testing....
Definitely interested in surface temperatures under load. Keyboard, palm rest, and bottom (all over each) That instantly makes or breaks a gaming laptop for me. If I game with a keyboard, it's going to be a desktop I am on. If I am on a laptop then that means I will only have a mouse plugged in while gaming and will use the laptop's keyboard, which is what I think a lot of people do with a gaming laptop. So the surface temperatures are VERY important. I do dislike when reviews don't have them.
I echo the comment about the temps, I would also like to know how loud the cooling solution is under load. Both of these would be nice to hear about compared to the Razer 14, Alienware 14 and GE40.
By the way, Gigabyte also makes a 2442F with a 650M that is a little cheaper and in the same weight class.
I was going to ask why this kind of notebook with this kind of GPU would need a quad-core GPU. For almost any gaming and office work and media consumption scenario, a dual core with the same frequency should be fully sufficient.
Then I checked for prices and found out that INTEL actually asks more for a dual core of comparable frequency. Justification seems to be the better iGPU.
Am I the only person confused by this? Just last week, a German gaming hardware magazine did a comparison of desktop CPUs and found that even a Pentium G3220 can run the majority of modern games at close to 60FPS (when coupled with a Titan). So for a gaming notebook, having a 25W dual core instead of the 47W quad core would seem very reasonable, specifically when the GPU is just a 760M which should leave you GPU-limited on most games in Full-HD.
I suppose it's a combination of future-proofing, "more cores sell well" and the fact that an Intel Quad won't hurt (consume more power) if not more than 2 threads are used.
Sure, it will consume only a little more, or even the same, power in a 2-core load case, but the notebook cooling system and power supply system still need to be designed for the full TDP. And maybe more importantly, if pricing policy would be closer to the desktop CPUs than a dual-core instead of a quad-core would allow the system to be sold for 100$ less.
Comparing the number of mobile Haswell parts vs the number of mobile SB/IVB parts it's clear Intel hasn't launched the low cost half of the product line yet. OTOH with Saltwell being intended for up to the pentium line; it's possible that most of the sub $300 price range will never see a mobile Haswell CPU.
Lastly, I think it's less the better GPU than that the dual core parts currently out are all lower wattage models intended for thin laptops and ultrabooks.
I'd like to see decibel measurements on idle, during gaming and stress testing vs. ambient noise level, and whether there is throttling/turbo while loaded with Prime95+Furmark simultaneously and what are the peak CPU and GPU temperatures. Also, few words about fan control (what is the curve like, are there noticeable steps or on/off type control, is fan noise whiny or unobtrusive broadband swooshing).
I feel like I've been waiting for this laptop for a long time, so it's great to see the little pre-review here. I'm between this (pending the review) and the Acer V7 that you reviewed, so I'd be interested in some comparison thoughts (i.e. "I'd get the V7 if I ___ but I'd get the Gigabyte if I ___"). Thanks!
Also, have you caught wind of when Gigabyte expects them to be available, since excaliberpc currently has them on "backorder"?
Excaliber may have sold out quickly -- they didn't show backorder when I first saw their price. As for the V7 comparison:
Build quality, I think Acer might have a slight edge (I know, I know...), and the Acer has a touchscreen. But the P34G is faster, lighter, and who gives a crap about a glossy touchscreen that I don't want to use anyway because I have a touchpad that works fine? Oh, and the Gigabyte has a larger SSD that's not just for caching, less bloatware, and a matte display. Battery life will likely favor the Acer, sadly -- hopefully Gigabyte can do a BIOS update that addresses the issue.
I use my laptop for quite varied purposes, ranging from playing games to running genetic statistics programs. I need that horsepower at times, and I suspect that others in the market for a notebook like this are also looking for a single machine which can excel at a number of tasks. Perhaps classifying this as a "gaming notebook" is a bit of an oversimplification, though I understand the reasoning.
Cool, was hoping for a review of this one. I'm still trying to find something portable enough to throw in my backpack along with my work laptop for international trips to pass some of the hours gaming. In thinking about the power supply though, I may be SOL on anything that's really this capable on the 3D front. I think the in-seat power sources usually max around 75 watts. I may be limited to something like an HD 5100/5200 (Zenbook Infinity or rMBP refresh).
It'd be great if you could also measure the temperature difference when the laptop is sitting on a soft bed. And take note of whether the speakers sound any different also when on a bed. Also in one of the other forums discussing this laptop (whirlpool.net.au) someone mentioned that there is an "annoying electrical buzz" coming from the right side of the laptop... could you check that out?
This sounds very interesting. The laptop looks beautiful in the pictures. I definitely would not want a laptop with glowing dragons or an alien head on it.
The one thing I'd be worried about is the screen resolution. For non-gaming, 1080p on a 14 inch will make things look too small, unless you turn up the magnification. Windows 7, Office 2010, and most web browsers don't make things look right when you turn it up to 125%. So you're stuck between things looking right but too small, or big enough but distorted. (I have a 15.6 inch 1080p laptop and have this problem. I eventually decided to leave it at 100% magnification rather than 125%, but I'm not happy with it. I wish 1440x900 laptops were still made, or Windows software accomodated current high resolutions.)
For gaming, as Jarred Walton says, the GPU might not be up to playing current generation and future games at this resolution. And since the only reason you'd get this, as opposed to a pure ultrabook or at least non-gaming laptop is gaming, that's a pretty big deficiency. All LCD panels tend to look awful whenever they're not being run at max resolution, so saying "you can just turn down the res" isn't much of a solution. Someone would be better off with a native 720p panel than having to downscale to that res with a higher-res panel.
So, all-in-all, I know that the better quality AHVA display is supposed to be an advantage over the MSI and Razor Blade, but I'm not sure that it is, because of the high resolution.
Oddly enough the best solution to the 'too-high of a res to be usable in desktop mode' might be an even higher res panel, specifically one that's an exact multiple of an existing common size (e.g. 2560x1440/2560x1600/3200x1800). Windows can't work miracles with legacy apps, pixel doubling is the only good solution at the moment. A 3200x1800 panel seems about right at 14" with a usable desktop of 1600x900.
I consider 1920x1080 a good fit for 14" without using magnification, maybe even a 13.3". CPU power is not needed only for gaming and even if gaming is the deciding factor it might not be the only use for the machine. Resolution scaling in gaming is not optimal but how awful it looks depends on the size of display.
I don't see a perfect solution here. Display with a 2560x1440 resolution (Zenbook UX301 option) would be good for 1280x720 gaming with pixel doubling, but what about Windows 8 scaling... the scourge of the seven seas!
On 1920x1080 being a good fit for 14" or 13.3" without magnification, to each their own, I guess. My vision is good, and I don't like how 1080p looks on my 15.6" laptop. It would only be worse on a smaller screen.
Regarding power, I was referring to the GPU. I know that GPU's can also be used for certain processing tasks, but that isn't very common. (And don't the professional GPUs work much better for those tasks anyway?) And so the GTX 760m GPU, while not really that great for 1080p gaming (at least for the most intensive recent games and future games), is still expensive and huge overkill for someone that just wants a fast laptop for, say, Photoshop. You can get a fast i7 laptop without a GTX-level gaming GPU.
Like you said, resolution scaling looks awful. How awful shouldn't matter. The only reason someone would buy an expensive gaming laptop with a GTX 760m is to make their games look good. Otherwise they could get a cheaper laptop with, say, a GT 750m and turn down the settings to Low. (And "Low" settings would probably look better than down scaling resolution.) Compared to a native 1600x900 screen (which I think is what the MSI and Razor Blade have), downscaling to 900p on the Gigabyte will look much, much worse, even though the Gigabyte panel's intrinsic quality is better. So someone who games with this will probably have to turn the quality settings down earlier. I'd love to see the final review compare the three laptops at their native resolutions using recent games like Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite, because downscaling the Gigabyte to compare them at the same resolutions doesn't accurately represent how many or most gamers will actually play.
I don't know what options Gigabyte had as far as panel availability. Maybe there were no great options. But this choice doesn't seem ideal.
Yah they really need to do something about resolution scaling. I know metro handles it but lets face it we're all running win8 in desktop mode with start8 or classicshell (LOL). Personally I found 1080p @ 15" a tad too small and would love 1600x900 but how rare is that these days. Its actually one of the major things thats stopping me from considering a new laptop.
Its one area where Apple is clearly superior but I can't see a good way around it given all the legacy apps/APIs except for the Apple solution of pixel doubling.
I really hope they build this again when Intel's 14nm CPU's come out; cause that's the earliest I'll be upgrading my laptop and this looks like EXACTLY what I want. For the first time ever the history of laptops!
are those 4:3 or 5:4 or 16:10 instead of today shitty 16:9 that's only good for movies? of yes, laptop are moving backward instead of forwards. looks like now the only option to get productive notebook are mac? Any suggestions?
When will we be getting a full review? I'm interested in the P35k but I'm not sure about the cooling system and there are a bunch of people that got their units bent down the middle. There seems to be a structural weakness due to the positioning of the optical drive.
I've been waiting for the full review too! I'm hesitating on purchasing the laptop and am interested in knowing more about its battery life and cooling.
Yea I'm really looking forward to seeing the full review as well. I am really torn between this computer and the MSI GE40. If you could make some sort of comparison between the review in the conclusion or a recommendation that would be awesome as well! Specifically I like the battery on the GE40, but the cooling and backlight on the P34G are big positives. I'm worried that the battery just isn't on par at all for the P34G and would make it worthless as a portable laptop.
The P35K has the same CPU SKU and weighs more. How is the P34G meh? It has more horsepower (though a less amazing display, battery life, and compute [crystalwell]) than the much more expensive new rMBP 15". For someone looking for a lightweight and powerful laptop the P34G hits a lot of points really well without costing $2k.
Is the review coming up soon? I'm thinking of making a purchase for the holiday season. It'd be great if AT had a review of the build quality and performance.
I've been using mine for about a month now. Build quality on my unit was very good. It has held up under daily use and still looks new. I think the screen is excellent, though it has a bit of a grainy look on large expanses of white due to the matte surface. I can't detect it otherwise. My laptop came in at about 3.6 pounds. Speed is excellent. I've run complicated statistical analyses and games up to Skyrim, and all has been silky smooth. I did have my unit customized so that everything runs off a 512GB msata ssd, and I replaced Windows 8 with Windows 7. Battery life is adequate for me but not stellar by any means. Some people on forums have had issues with build quality, but I suppose we always see good and bad units.
I got some questions for you: 1) How long battery life do you get with just light work e.g. Office word and wifi? 2) Hows the heat and noise (fans go crazy?) 3) How does the keyboard feel?
Agree with everything you say, If you are after the best 14" lightweight, powerful business notebook, this is the best value for money around and Gigabyte deserve plaudits for bringing onto the market when bigger named brands all seem to have lost the plot. As an architect I use this all day (and a lot of night) 3d modeling, rendering, CAD, video, travelling weekly thru airports.. and if thats what you do, you wont be disappointed. Last night in bed did a total annual solar insolation study for a 250 townhouse urban development in about 3 minutes, an then flew around the solar mapped model in realtime all on this little brute... its very impressive... hot, not really... noisy.. no more than the crap on TV... battery life short.. but if your really working you will be plugged in anyway. Stop thinking about it and do yourself a favour, buy it!
Oh, mine is a 16Gb, 256 SSD combo, and amazingly still a spare slot for another SSD (im looking for as Samsung 512Gb drive :).. Finally, screen is great. I looked at the bigger giga's but Im on the road weight was a big factor and the GTX 765 is only a little faster.. I very happy with my choice.. :))
So, what happened to that full review? This laptop seems pretty fantastic as a portable workstation or for gaming. At this point, just review the P34G v2.
Gigabyte eventually sent me my missing memory, They e-mailed me to confirm my mailing address, and I confirmed and asked them to send me the tracking number, but they didn't, so I had to e-mail them again to get the tracking number. So I got the tracking number the day before it was to arrive. Every good mail-order business knows that you always send out a tracking number as soon as the tracking number is created. In fact UPS even has a spot to type in the e-mail address of the receiver when composing a shipment.
Gigabyte in the past has stood for quality motherboards, but what I have been seeing lately really disappoints me.
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munim - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It looks like it's from 2005.JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Right... show me one laptop from 2005 that looks anything like this. Oh, it has a display, keyboard, and touchpad just like every other laptop in the past 15 years or more, but laptops in 2005 tended to look more like this:http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2006/ab...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2006/ab...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2006/ab...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2006/ab...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/dell/xp...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/system/laptop/...
You may not like the P34G aesthetic much compared to a MacBook or Razer I suppose, but laptops in 2005 looked pretty awful by comparison.
jabber - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
You mean it looks like an adults laptop rather than a LED festooned kids toy monstrosity?Needs more dragons does it?
Actually looks like a laptop I would buy and not be embarrassed to be seen with in public.
Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Hahaha, exactly. This is one of the best looking 'gaming' laptops on the market IMO, and one of the very few I wouldn't immediately rule out based on looks alone. I don't want glowing Dragons. I don't want rainbow LEDs that pulse to music. I want something minimalist looking that's actually capable of playing games.littlebitstrouds - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Funny stopped caring what people thought about me when I was just a kid? Some people like LEDs?RandomTaskManager - Saturday, October 12, 2013 - link
You'll start caring again when you're an adult and people's opinions about you directly effects your pay check.Bull Dog - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
this looks good, I got to the point a few years back where if a laptop had a 1366x768 panel I immediately stopped looking. Also can't stand TN displays either so this looks especially good.8steve8 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
to be honest, since 2009, if i see a VGA port on anything, i lose all interest.JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Because having a VGA port somehow ruins the laptop? I get that a lot of people don't use them, but there are many businesses that still have VGA projectors. They bought them 10 years ago and they still work, so they feel no need to spend another $1000 or more upgrading. I could understand saying, "I won't consider buying a laptop today that doesn't have a DisplayPort connection", but to say including a VGA port makes a laptop worthless is a different matter. For a "do everything" laptop that at least aspires to being a business laptop, VGA is still necessary. I'd like to see laptops with HDMI, DP, and VGA to cover all bases, and VGA is the first thing I'd be okay seeing omitted (including a DP to VGA adapter would also suffice). I'd also like to see dedicated document navigation keys, but not everyone cares about that.Andrew Lin - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Honestly the lack of DisplayPort on a lot of these new laptops is killing me... HDMI (even 1.4 spec) isn't often supported by most monitors for resolutions like 1440p and above, which basically leaves laptops like this with no real chance to connect to higher resolution peripherals and seems to make the laptop almost obsolete before it's even releasedClockworkPirate - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It's got HDMI as well, why not be prepared for someone's old VGA projector?FITCamaro - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Exactly. Why not be prepared for older displays and projectors. All the time at work we have issues finding HDMI cables, Display Port cables, and DVI cables. But good ol' VGA is always sitting right there.Clintre - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Seriously? So if you are getting it for play only that is fine, but seems like a really lame to dismiss a laptop that has few peers in its size and weight class.This system is a traveling business man's dream. Not only can I use it for play on the road it has key features that are must for many business uses and yest that includes the old VGA connection.
Friendly0Fire - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
And if I *don't* see one, I lose all interest. All of the projectors I use at university for presentations are VGA only, and I know this is far from the only place where that's the case. Some people have to work with their laptops, you know.And no, DisplayPort doesn't do the job; mDP-VGA adapters are horrendous.
piroroadkill - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
What are you even talking about? You should realise the world goes outside your basement. Everyone, everywhere, uses VGA for projector connections, because that's what been run in years gone by, and you know what, it works just fine.Notmyusualid - Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - link
Stupid comment.I use my VGA port all the time, and the quality on the big screen is way better than the HDMI (though I don't know why).
So what is your argument?
superjim - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
This could be the holy grail of thin gaming laptops if it can manage the heat well.MrSpadge - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
It's also an impressive amount of crunching power in a reasonably small package for any other number-cruncher, who'd usually end up with Thinkpad W series or comparables. Now that most interesting question remains: what happens if that power is actually being used?superjim - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
A few guys in Austraila have had them for a week now and are feeding notebookreview forum users some info. A ~20 minute Prime95 showed the CPU at 90C while being undervolted 100mV (ambient wasn't mentioned). He went on to say all 4 cores were only 3Ghz throughout the test, implying minor throttling.JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Throttling is if the CPUs drop below the rated 2.4GHz -- anything above that is Turbo Boost territory, and given that the CPU is only rated for 3.1GHz with all cores active, 3.0GHz is well withing reason. But we'll see what I get with testing....Freakie - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Definitely interested in surface temperatures under load. Keyboard, palm rest, and bottom (all over each) That instantly makes or breaks a gaming laptop for me. If I game with a keyboard, it's going to be a desktop I am on. If I am on a laptop then that means I will only have a mouse plugged in while gaming and will use the laptop's keyboard, which is what I think a lot of people do with a gaming laptop. So the surface temperatures are VERY important. I do dislike when reviews don't have them.hfm - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
I echo the comment about the temps, I would also like to know how loud the cooling solution is under load. Both of these would be nice to hear about compared to the Razer 14, Alienware 14 and GE40.By the way, Gigabyte also makes a 2442F with a 650M that is a little cheaper and in the same weight class.
hfm - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Make that the U2442F-CF2.http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E1...
ShieTar - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I was going to ask why this kind of notebook with this kind of GPU would need a quad-core GPU. For almost any gaming and office work and media consumption scenario, a dual core with the same frequency should be fully sufficient.Then I checked for prices and found out that INTEL actually asks more for a dual core of comparable frequency. Justification seems to be the better iGPU.
Am I the only person confused by this? Just last week, a German gaming hardware magazine did a comparison of desktop CPUs and found that even a Pentium G3220 can run the majority of modern games at close to 60FPS (when coupled with a Titan). So for a gaming notebook, having a 25W dual core instead of the 47W quad core would seem very reasonable, specifically when the GPU is just a 760M which should leave you GPU-limited on most games in Full-HD.
MrSpadge - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I suppose it's a combination of future-proofing, "more cores sell well" and the fact that an Intel Quad won't hurt (consume more power) if not more than 2 threads are used.ShieTar - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Sure, it will consume only a little more, or even the same, power in a 2-core load case, but the notebook cooling system and power supply system still need to be designed for the full TDP. And maybe more importantly, if pricing policy would be closer to the desktop CPUs than a dual-core instead of a quad-core would allow the system to be sold for 100$ less.DanNeely - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Comparing the number of mobile Haswell parts vs the number of mobile SB/IVB parts it's clear Intel hasn't launched the low cost half of the product line yet. OTOH with Saltwell being intended for up to the pentium line; it's possible that most of the sub $300 price range will never see a mobile Haswell CPU.Lastly, I think it's less the better GPU than that the dual core parts currently out are all lower wattage models intended for thin laptops and ultrabooks.
koekkoe - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I'd like to see decibel measurements on idle, during gaming and stress testing vs. ambient noise level, and whether there is throttling/turbo while loaded with Prime95+Furmark simultaneously and what are the peak CPU and GPU temperatures. Also, few words about fan control (what is the curve like, are there noticeable steps or on/off type control, is fan noise whiny or unobtrusive broadband swooshing).davejake - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I feel like I've been waiting for this laptop for a long time, so it's great to see the little pre-review here. I'm between this (pending the review) and the Acer V7 that you reviewed, so I'd be interested in some comparison thoughts (i.e. "I'd get the V7 if I ___ but I'd get the Gigabyte if I ___"). Thanks!Also, have you caught wind of when Gigabyte expects them to be available, since excaliberpc currently has them on "backorder"?
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Excaliber may have sold out quickly -- they didn't show backorder when I first saw their price. As for the V7 comparison:Build quality, I think Acer might have a slight edge (I know, I know...), and the Acer has a touchscreen. But the P34G is faster, lighter, and who gives a crap about a glossy touchscreen that I don't want to use anyway because I have a touchpad that works fine? Oh, and the Gigabyte has a larger SSD that's not just for caching, less bloatware, and a matte display. Battery life will likely favor the Acer, sadly -- hopefully Gigabyte can do a BIOS update that addresses the issue.
RandomTaskManager - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Somethings to test:Dark room tests: Do the screen and keyboard get dim enough for comfortable usage in dark rooms and on planes when they turn off most of the lights?
Bright room tests: Is screen bright enough and is the anti glare good enough for sun filled rooms and for outside?
How much does under-volting improve battery life, temperatures, and fan noise?
How much does under-volt + overclock increase performance and effect temperatures and battery life?
Thanks for doing this review. Been keeping an eye on this laptop since it was announced.
dis39tif - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Any chance you'll get the Gigabyte P35K to review? It's the big brother to the P34G, with a 15.6 inch screen, Nvidia 765M and larger battery.Could you also comment how games look if you run them at less than native resolution (900p)? Thanks!
dczyz - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Another request for the p35k. Looking at that or the new Mac Book Pro's depending on how that re-launches.aferox - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I use my laptop for quite varied purposes, ranging from playing games to running genetic statistics programs. I need that horsepower at times, and I suspect that others in the market for a notebook like this are also looking for a single machine which can excel at a number of tasks. Perhaps classifying this as a "gaming notebook" is a bit of an oversimplification, though I understand the reasoning.Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Cool, was hoping for a review of this one. I'm still trying to find something portable enough to throw in my backpack along with my work laptop for international trips to pass some of the hours gaming. In thinking about the power supply though, I may be SOL on anything that's really this capable on the 3D front. I think the in-seat power sources usually max around 75 watts. I may be limited to something like an HD 5100/5200 (Zenbook Infinity or rMBP refresh).StinkyToes - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
It'd be great if you could also measure the temperature difference when the laptop is sitting on a soft bed. And take note of whether the speakers sound any different also when on a bed. Also in one of the other forums discussing this laptop (whirlpool.net.au) someone mentioned that there is an "annoying electrical buzz" coming from the right side of the laptop... could you check that out?MF2013 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
This sounds very interesting. The laptop looks beautiful in the pictures. I definitely would not want a laptop with glowing dragons or an alien head on it.The one thing I'd be worried about is the screen resolution. For non-gaming, 1080p on a 14 inch will make things look too small, unless you turn up the magnification. Windows 7, Office 2010, and most web browsers don't make things look right when you turn it up to 125%. So you're stuck between things looking right but too small, or big enough but distorted. (I have a 15.6 inch 1080p laptop and have this problem. I eventually decided to leave it at 100% magnification rather than 125%, but I'm not happy with it. I wish 1440x900 laptops were still made, or Windows software accomodated current high resolutions.)
For gaming, as Jarred Walton says, the GPU might not be up to playing current generation and future games at this resolution. And since the only reason you'd get this, as opposed to a pure ultrabook or at least non-gaming laptop is gaming, that's a pretty big deficiency. All LCD panels tend to look awful whenever they're not being run at max resolution, so saying "you can just turn down the res" isn't much of a solution. Someone would be better off with a native 720p panel than having to downscale to that res with a higher-res panel.
So, all-in-all, I know that the better quality AHVA display is supposed to be an advantage over the MSI and Razor Blade, but I'm not sure that it is, because of the high resolution.
Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Oddly enough the best solution to the 'too-high of a res to be usable in desktop mode' might be an even higher res panel, specifically one that's an exact multiple of an existing common size (e.g. 2560x1440/2560x1600/3200x1800). Windows can't work miracles with legacy apps, pixel doubling is the only good solution at the moment. A 3200x1800 panel seems about right at 14" with a usable desktop of 1600x900.KingSeanston - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
I consider 1920x1080 a good fit for 14" without using magnification, maybe even a 13.3". CPU power is not needed only for gaming and even if gaming is the deciding factor it might not be the only use for the machine. Resolution scaling in gaming is not optimal but how awful it looks depends on the size of display.I don't see a perfect solution here. Display with a 2560x1440 resolution (Zenbook UX301 option) would be good for 1280x720 gaming with pixel doubling, but what about Windows 8 scaling... the scourge of the seven seas!
piroroadkill - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Ideally? Maybe 1680x1050.MF2013 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
On 1920x1080 being a good fit for 14" or 13.3" without magnification, to each their own, I guess. My vision is good, and I don't like how 1080p looks on my 15.6" laptop. It would only be worse on a smaller screen.Regarding power, I was referring to the GPU. I know that GPU's can also be used for certain processing tasks, but that isn't very common. (And don't the professional GPUs work much better for those tasks anyway?) And so the GTX 760m GPU, while not really that great for 1080p gaming (at least for the most intensive recent games and future games), is still expensive and huge overkill for someone that just wants a fast laptop for, say, Photoshop. You can get a fast i7 laptop without a GTX-level gaming GPU.
Like you said, resolution scaling looks awful. How awful shouldn't matter. The only reason someone would buy an expensive gaming laptop with a GTX 760m is to make their games look good. Otherwise they could get a cheaper laptop with, say, a GT 750m and turn down the settings to Low. (And "Low" settings would probably look better than down scaling resolution.) Compared to a native 1600x900 screen (which I think is what the MSI and Razor Blade have), downscaling to 900p on the Gigabyte will look much, much worse, even though the Gigabyte panel's intrinsic quality is better. So someone who games with this will probably have to turn the quality settings down earlier. I'd love to see the final review compare the three laptops at their native resolutions using recent games like Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite, because downscaling the Gigabyte to compare them at the same resolutions doesn't accurately represent how many or most gamers will actually play.
I don't know what options Gigabyte had as far as panel availability. Maybe there were no great options. But this choice doesn't seem ideal.
wintermute000 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link
Yah they really need to do something about resolution scaling. I know metro handles it but lets face it we're all running win8 in desktop mode with start8 or classicshell (LOL). Personally I found 1080p @ 15" a tad too small and would love 1600x900 but how rare is that these days. Its actually one of the major things thats stopping me from considering a new laptop.Its one area where Apple is clearly superior but I can't see a good way around it given all the legacy apps/APIs except for the Apple solution of pixel doubling.
Hrel - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Great news! Gigabyte had the good sense to provide Windows 7 drivers on their website!!! Unlike some other, very stupid companies. cough* Acer cough*Hrel - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
I really hope they build this again when Intel's 14nm CPU's come out; cause that's the earliest I'll be upgrading my laptop and this looks like EXACTLY what I want. For the first time ever the history of laptops!AbbyYen - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
are those 4:3 or 5:4 or 16:10 instead of today shitty 16:9 that's only good for movies? of yes, laptop are moving backward instead of forwards. looks like now the only option to get productive notebook are mac? Any suggestions?mirceag - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
When will we be getting a full review? I'm interested in the P35k but I'm not sure about the cooling system and there are a bunch of people that got their units bent down the middle. There seems to be a structural weakness due to the positioning of the optical drive.ItzWarty - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
I've been waiting for the full review too! I'm hesitating on purchasing the laptop and am interested in knowing more about its battery life and cooling.NorwaySnow - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
When will the full review be posted?mjnitz02 - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Yea I'm really looking forward to seeing the full review as well. I am really torn between this computer and the MSI GE40. If you could make some sort of comparison between the review in the conclusion or a recommendation that would be awesome as well! Specifically I like the battery on the GE40, but the cooling and backlight on the P34G are big positives. I'm worried that the battery just isn't on par at all for the P34G and would make it worthless as a portable laptop.LilBoy_SM - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Will you be doing a review of the larger sibling, the P35K model? Also want to read the full review for the P34G.bobwya - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Yeh all I care about is the P35K. Please, please do a review!! It's already on pre-order in the UK... This model (the P34G) is MEH...willis936 - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
The P35K has the same CPU SKU and weighs more. How is the P34G meh? It has more horsepower (though a less amazing display, battery life, and compute [crystalwell]) than the much more expensive new rMBP 15". For someone looking for a lightweight and powerful laptop the P34G hits a lot of points really well without costing $2k.Geronemo3 - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
Any update on the review?NorwaySnow - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
We are still waiting.aex90832 - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
and.......still waitingConnoisseur - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Is the review coming up soon? I'm thinking of making a purchase for the holiday season. It'd be great if AT had a review of the build quality and performance.NorwaySnow - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
I dont think a review is coming at all. Guess Ill buy the Asus UX302LG insteadgrannanj - Sunday, November 10, 2013 - link
Will you please provide the review for this unit as promised?aferox - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
I've been using mine for about a month now. Build quality on my unit was very good. It has held up under daily use and still looks new. I think the screen is excellent, though it has a bit of a grainy look on large expanses of white due to the matte surface. I can't detect it otherwise. My laptop came in at about 3.6 pounds. Speed is excellent. I've run complicated statistical analyses and games up to Skyrim, and all has been silky smooth. I did have my unit customized so that everything runs off a 512GB msata ssd, and I replaced Windows 8 with Windows 7. Battery life is adequate for me but not stellar by any means. Some people on forums have had issues with build quality, but I suppose we always see good and bad units.NorwaySnow - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
I got some questions for you:1) How long battery life do you get with just light work e.g. Office word and wifi?
2) Hows the heat and noise (fans go crazy?)
3) How does the keyboard feel?
gsharp1953 - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Agree with everything you say, If you are after the best 14" lightweight, powerful business notebook, this is the best value for money around and Gigabyte deserve plaudits for bringing onto the market when bigger named brands all seem to have lost the plot. As an architect I use this all day (and a lot of night) 3d modeling, rendering, CAD, video, travelling weekly thru airports.. and if thats what you do, you wont be disappointed. Last night in bed did a total annual solar insolation study for a 250 townhouse urban development in about 3 minutes, an then flew around the solar mapped model in realtime all on this little brute... its very impressive... hot, not really... noisy.. no more than the crap on TV... battery life short.. but if your really working you will be plugged in anyway. Stop thinking about it and do yourself a favour, buy it!Oh, mine is a 16Gb, 256 SSD combo, and amazingly still a spare slot for another SSD (im looking for as Samsung 512Gb drive :).. Finally, screen is great. I looked at the bigger giga's but Im on the road weight was a big factor and the GTX 765 is only a little faster.. I very happy with my choice.. :))
quorm - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
So, what happened to that full review? This laptop seems pretty fantastic as a portable workstation or for gaming. At this point, just review the P34G v2.WayneSallee - Saturday, March 21, 2015 - link
The motherboard on my laptop started going bad in less than a month of use.When I sent it in for repair, they stole one of my sticks of memory and are refusing to send it to me, claiming that I have to send my laptop to them.
They are claiming that if I install the memory, it will void my warranty.
And to think that a major motherboard manufacture is claiming that installing memory voids the warranty.
Absolutely amazing.
Wayne Sallee
[email protected]
WayneSallee - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Gigabyte eventually sent me my missing memory,They e-mailed me to confirm my mailing address, and I confirmed and asked them to send me the tracking number, but they didn't, so I had to e-mail them again to get the tracking number.
So I got the tracking number the day before it was to arrive.
Every good mail-order business knows that you always send out a tracking number as soon as the tracking number is created. In fact UPS even has a spot to type in the e-mail address of the receiver when composing a shipment.
Gigabyte in the past has stood for quality motherboards, but what I have been seeing lately really disappoints me.
Wayne Sallee
[email protected]