The motherboard industry, for the most part, has stepped out of the intense price war, and our first CEO Forum revealed that the majority of CEO’s believe that their future hinges on diversification. Even though the price war has calmed down, motherboard manufacturers are still trying to find that one “original” idea that will become their ultimate life-saver, such as Shuttle has done with the Small Form Factor. While we are likely to see a plethora of XPC imitators, several motherboard manufacturers are entering cautiously other market segments, which they have never touched previously. Gigabyte is doing so with their G-MAX NB-1401, which marks their first dive into the mobility market. At the moment, Gigabyte is fairly confident that they can make it with this new product line, but they are still watching the market closely.

The introduction of this product was way back in early May 2003, and since that time they have had the chance to gain some acclaim from overseas media. However, up and till now, Gigabyte did not have any plans to enter the North American market. As they are just considering entering this market, Gigabyte understands that the configurations for the North American market are going to be different because consumers here tend to use more memory-heavy applications and tend to work in multi-task environments. In a brief string of words, the G-MAX NB-1401 for the North American market is going to be loaded a bit more for the performance side as opposed to the configurations back in its native land.

Seeing as it is Gigabyte’s first attempt at the notebook market segment, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that they chose a Centrino platform. After all, Centrino based mobile systems have enjoyed a high rate of success in terms of sales. And Gigabyte has picked up on this quickly, which will help them minimize their market risk. Desktop replacement notebooks, like those in the Hypersonic league, are still a niche market, and the risks associated with taking this path would be too high. So it would be logical and prudent for Gigabyte to target the typical notebook user, which would ultimately ensure that they hit it off in the mobile system market where they are still new. With this being said, you are probably wondering what kind of notebook Gigabyte is showcasing. Well, the G-MAX NB-1401 is actually considered a thin and light notebook that is reminiscent of an Apple PowerBook. It is actually eerily familiar in design to a notebook we saw in the past, which we will explain later in the review. Now clearing that up, read the first review of the first notebook from Gigabyte outside the boarders of Taiwan, dubbed G-MAX NB-1401.

Construction — Build, Appearance, Size

At the moment, there is only a small handful of motherboard makers that are in the mobile system market segment: ECS, Asus, and FIC. Gigabyte doesn’t actually manufacturer its own notebooks. Instead, Gigabyte has partnered with FIC to produce the G-MAX NB-1401, which is why it may look similar to a previous FIC notebook that we looked at in our Centrino based notebook roundup. We are excited to actually see one of these notebooks on the market because we really enjoyed the design.

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We will reiterate once again that this notebook looks and feels a lot an Apple PowerBook. Its smooth, sleek, and elegant design inherently accentuate the beauty of the notebook. The dark colors are revealed when the unit is opened, which help the user focus on the 14.1" TFT LCD. While we would have liked to have seen a maximum resolution higher than 1024x768 (XGA), the screen on the G-MAX NB-1401 is made by Auo (supposedly of grade A selection), which we did find to be rather top notch. It is, actually, one of the brighter screens that we have seen in a while.

The speakers on the notebook are ultra low profile and are directly beneath the LCD panel. It has been a while since our last look, but we were again surprised how thin the LCD panel is. This just increased our amazement for the placement of the speakers because it is actually a great place to situate them. Looking dead on toward the screen, sound is pumped toward the user, and hands [as well as anything else in normal use] don’t interfere with the sound experience.

The keyboard on the G-MAX NB-1401 is similar to many others notebooks that have Taiwan origins: full-sized, dedicated arrow keys, good key travel, and a reasonable tactile feel (still less than what we have seen on Dell and IBM notebooks). As per our past experience, nothing has really changed. The control key is still in the proper place (far left key), and the keyboard has a Windows key.

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We should note that there seems to be some space (between the top of the keyboard and the buttons: power, default internet browser, and default mail application) of which the G-MAX NB-1401 can take advantage possibly to increase the width of the keyboard. However, this empty space helps convey a sense of less clutter and increased simplicity in the design.

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The touchpad is directly below the keyboard, and is fairly standard in size. Though compared to some of the Dell, HP, and IBM notebooks that we have seen, the touchpad can be considered a tad larger, but the degree of which is negligible. The buttons have a good tactile feel, but the scroll rocker could use a bit of work. The depth of the “rocking” is minimal, and a better tactile feel could be achieved if the depth of the click was deeper.

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There are two sets of LEDs for the G-MAX NB-1401. One is directly below the LCD panel and the other, between the two speakers. From the left to right, the LEDs indicate power state, battery status, hard drive activity, wireless status, caps lock, scroll lock, and number lock.

There is another set of LEDs on the back of the LCD panel at the hinge. These indicate power state and wireless connection status (if the wireless receiver is on or off).

Construction — Build, Appearance, Size (continued)

Because this is an ODM system, we won’t go over the build, appearance, or size in too much detail. Instead, we will refer you to our previous review, which already covers the build, appearance, and size of this system.

From the appearance aspect, the G-MAX NB-1401 is basically the same in layout and configuration with the FIC Centrino laptop that we saw in the past. The big difference is the top of the laptop, which features the Chinese character equivalent of “extreme.” This is supposedly done by laser engraving, and it is supposed to be optional as well as customizable, so as Gigabyte tells us.

The bottom of the NB-1401 only reveals one serviceable part: the hard drive. Everything else, including the MiniPCI and memory slots, is located directly beneath the keyboard.

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On the design end, the G-MAX NB-1401 is actually considered a thin and light notebook, measuring at 12.4" x 10.8" x 1.1" thick and weighs 5.5lbs. This doesn’t make it the lightest notebook that we have seen, but it is indeed one of the thinnest. Marketing wise, the G-MAX NB-1401 has been targeted toward the mainstream notebook user, one needing a balance of mobility and performance. This balance is why it isn’t a sub 4- or 5-pound notebook.

Construction — Under the Hood

Since this notebook is produced by FIC, we will skip the majority of the “under the hood” section, as the only significant change has been from a tan PCB to a green PCB. Read the original FIC Centrino — Under the Hood for more information.

The only significant differences are the processor speed, hard drive, and memory configuration. From the top of the list, the G-MAX NB-1401 comes in five available Pentium-M processor configurations, from 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz. Our system was configured specifically to reflect Gigabyte’s SKUs in North America, and we got a Pentium-M 1.4GHz due to this. At the moment, we do not know if Gigabyte will limit the CPU configuration for North America.

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While the 855PM can support up to 2GB of memory, our system was outfitted with 512MB, which we suspect will be the standard configuration for the North American market. This is due to the heavier memory applications that tend to be used domestically, and the popularity of multi-tasking.

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The hard drive used in the FIC Centrino laptop that we saw a while back used a Fujitsu MHS2030AT 30.0GB 4200RPM hard drive. We noted back then that use of a 5400RPM would be preferred or at least, the option for this. However, we are not aware of any configuration from Gigabyte that uses a 5400RPM hard drive. Our Gigabyte G-MAX NB-1401 uses a Toshiba MK4021GAS 40.00GB 4200RPM, and Gigabyte lists on their product page that the NB-1401 can come with hard drives from 20.0GB to 80.0GB. Since Gigabyte is still working out configurations for the North American market, concrete details on hard drive options for this market were not available.

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Features — Software

The only specific Gigabyte software that comes of any mention is the use of Xpress Recovery in shipping models of the G-MAX NB-1401. Gigabyte’s effort into this is all about making the customer experience easier. They figure that most users easily lose their recovery CDs and manuals by the time they really need to go through a fresh install of their OS; and when viruses hit, the amount of effort going into reinstalling all the drivers is a pain. Xpress Recovery is part of Xpress3 technology of Gigabyte, which they describe as:

Xpress Recovery is the revolutionary BIOS feature designed for hard drive data security. With Xpress Recovery, user is able to backup all his system files and personal files such as mp3 songs, images, word documents or movie files that were stored in the hard drive into a single image file. The image file is securely stored in the hard drive's hidden sector which is undetectable or destroyed by any utility or virus today. If user experienced system crashed, all he has to do is to call up the Xpress Recovery feature during system boot up, and with few simple steps the system is recovered back as original.

Upon the boot up screen, users usually hit F2 to enter the BIOS, as is the case with the NB-1401. However, upon pressing F9, users enter the Xpress Recovery console, which is comprised of two buttons, very big buttons at that. The green exit is to recover back to the original shipping condition of the system, and the red button is to exit.

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You may be wondering how the program can restore, because the necessary information to perform such an operation requires disk space. Well, when you get into a disk management utility, you can see that the space of Xpress Recovery is actually pre-allotted to the program on shipping models. You can choose to remove Xpress Recovery by formatting or deleting the unpartitioned space that Xpress Recovery uses. This will end up giving you more space, but you will lose the capacity to use Xpress Recovery down the line.

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This is a nice feature, but it would have been nice to see Gigabyte bundle a hard copy of a recovery CD, just as a back up.

The Test

Windows XP Professional Test System
	Gigabyte NB-1401	IBM X31	FIC Centrino	IBM T40	IBM T40P	Desktop System
CPU(s)	Pentium M 1.4GHz	Pentium M 1.4GHz	Pentium M 1.5GHz	Pentium M 1.5GHz	Pentium M 1.6GHz	Pentium 4 2.4GHz
Motherboard(s)	FIC 855GM	IBM 855PM	FIC 855PM	IBM 855PM	IBM 855PM	Intel D845EBT 845E
Memory	512MB PC2100	256MB PC2100	512MB PC2100	256MB PC2100	512MB PC2100	512MB PC2100
Hard Drive	40GB 4200RPM	40GB 4200RPM	30GB 4200RPM	40GB 5400RPM	40GB 5400RPM	IBM Deskstar DPTA-372050 20.5GB 7200 RPM
CDROM	N/A	N/A	CD-RW/DVD	CD-RW/DVD	CD-RW/DVD	Philips 48X
Video Card(s)	Integrated 855GM	ATI Mobility Radeon 16MB DDR	Integrated 855PM	ATI Mobility Radeon 7500	ATI Mobility FireGL 9000 64MB DDR	ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 128MB
Ethernet	Onboard Intel Gigabit	Onboard Intel Gigabit	Onboard Intel Pro/100VE	Onboard Intel Gigabit	Onboard Intel Gigabit	Linksys LNE100TX 100Mbit PCI Ethernet Adapter
Operating System	Windows XP Professional SP1
Video Drivers	Intel 6.13.10.3510	ATI 7.79.7.3 (latest available for IBM)	Intel 6.13.01.3460	ATI 6.13.10.6278 (latest available for IBM)	ATI 7.79.7.3 (latest available for IBM)	ATI Catalyst 3.1 NVIDIA 41.09
Benchmarking Applications	Bapco SysMark 2002 ZDM Content Creation Winstone 2003 ZDM Business Winstone 2002 BAPCo Mobile Mark 2002

For benchmarking purposes, we set the pre-allocated amount of video memory to 16MB (default), which left more system memory free for the memory-hungry applications we put it through.

General Usage Performance

As you can see, the G-MAX NB-1401 doesn’t fall completely in line with the sequential processor speeds. This wasn’t a big surprise, since the G-MAX NB-1401 is outfitted with 512MB, as opposed to the 256MB on the IBM ThinkPad T40 and X31. We understand that this is a thin and light notebook, but if Gigabyte offers the full options of processor configuration (Pentium-M 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz), performance won’t be a sacrifice per weight or form factor. The NB-1401 proved to be approximately 10% slower than the 1.6GHz IBM T40p.




In the Office Productivity portion of SYSMark 2002, the NB-1401 falls behind the 1.6GHz IBM T40p by 5%, and actually matches the 1.5GHz IBM T40.

Content Creation Performance

For Content Creation Winstone 2003, the Gigabyte NB-1401 falls behind the 1.6GHz IBM T40p by 12%. In this scenario, we expected the memory configurations of both the IBM T40 and X31 to make a difference.




In the Internet Content Creation segment of SYSMark 2002, the 1.4GHz, 1.5GHz, and 1.6GHz scores are packed closer together. Compared to the IBM T40p, the NB-1401 falls behind by 10%.

Mobile Performance

The battery performance scores from MobileMark 2002 actually show the NB-1401 jump to the top of the Centrino pack here. A note: the scores for the Dell Latitude D800, which we left out of the graph, outperforms the NB-1401 by a small margin. Additionally, we would have expected the scores to fall in line with the processor speeds, but the NB-1401 didn’t do so. We should note that the standard deviation for general MobileMark 2002 is about 5 or 10, and so we would attribute this odd skew to that.




Unlike the previous scores, the NB-1401 falls to the bottom of the graph here. This falls more in line with our previous experience, and we have found the G-MAX NB-1401 to run for 3 hours and 31 minutes, which is just 1 minute over what Gigabyte claims it can run. We are pleased with the battery life for the NB-1401, as a little over three hours is the ideal minimum requirement for which a thin and light notebook should hit. Hopefully Gigabyte’s choice to use higher Pentium-M clocked processors won’t degrade battery life beyond 3 hours.

Startup Time Performance

Conclusion

Gigabyte’s G-MAX NB-1401 has left us with a good impression, and it shows that they have done their homework for the mobile market segment. The G-MAX NB-1401 is simply beautiful. The bright screen and the “clutter-less” design make it a good choice for those interested in a thin and light notebook. While it is on the borderline of the lightweight notebook segment, we are satisfied with the design because it incorporates performance in lieu of a lighter system. The system isn’t powerful in the context of graphics, due to the use of the 855GM, but this should help keep the overall cost lower, which (we have been informed) should be somewhere between $1500 to $2000 US.

Officially, Gigabyte is supposed to announce this product in the USA market soon after Computex, so I am sure this is just the first you will hear of this notebook. The three months that Gigabyte has already had in the Asian market has allowed them to prepare for North America. Their entrance into this market will be targeted towards the mainstream mobile shopper, who is looking for a mix between performance and mobility.

We would tend to characterize the Gigabyte G-MAX NB-1401 as a thin and light notebook with the trimmings of performance, and will work well in this context. This is not necessarily suited well for those who travel a lot, as it is not a sub 4-pound notebook. If you are looking for a complement to your daily personal computer, we would recommend an ultraportable system (like the IBM X31 or the Acer C110). The NB-1401 can function as a “on the go” system, but it is more suited to be your daily personal computer. It won’t bring the same performance as a desktop replacement, but it will sure beat them out in the weight and size/form aspects.

For those curious-minded, Gigabyte’s etching of the Chinese character for “extreme” has been phonetically translated wrong. A more approximate phonetic pronunciation would be “gi” or “ji.” This is more of a matter of semantics, and while we are talking in Chinese, we would prefer the Chinese term of “swai”, which translates to “cool, hip, with-it”, as well as other connotations. Gigabyte’s effort to make their notebook aesthetically appealing goes as far as including a G-MAX mini-mouse and a slick carrying case with the G-MAX engraving [on a few metal plates attached to the vinyl case]. While FIC lays true claim on the component end of the system, Gigabyte has done a good job of pre-marketing this to channel sales, but may face internal competition because FIC is also selling this notebook under their own brand. A good approach for Gigabyte would be to develop their own niche quickly, as not to undercut their ODM partner, but only time will tell exactly what happens.