Gigabyte U2442 Line

Im the same but sony website says that its a 4 week wait for it so it might be even longer than the U2442 - im just concerned about the noise of the sony http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/675249-noisy-vaio-s15.html and the build quality http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/671101-review-new-sony-s15-vs-hp-dv6t-4.html
also they say the speakers are really bad but that isnt important for me
Also I'd rather not give money to companies like Sony

But yes the extended battery is really good and screen is 1080p but Im still holding out - switched my preference to the U2442V as the only difference now is the CPU and I would rather the extra battery life

 

duplicate post

 

The 3.5 hour figure sounds like battery life with constant use of the GPU. When on CPU/integratated, I would bet the 5.5-6 hour figure is the right one. Dual vents are a great innovation. It was one of the main reasons I bought my 3820TG. It permits maximum GPU overclocking without any heat concerns. I doubt that throttling will be seen on these units.

 

Well I honestly have to get my laptop soon because I'll be leaving in August for college. I wish the 5.5-6hours figure is right, but I'll have to wait for someone to actually test it. Envy is a great all around machine (screen,thermals,performance..etc) but it might be a tad bit too heavy. The Vaio S13 seems ideal for mobility+power, but then there is the s15 with the 1080p screen. Hoping for Gigabyte to release this early so we get some reviews.

 

Hm. For about the same price, the U2442N has an SSD (or possibly SSD+HDD combo) rather than just a slow HDD. U2442N has a slightly larger screen, and it could be better quality -- the S13P's screen is fairly poor asides from the resolution by all the accounts I've heard. U2442N has a 650M rather than a 640M LE, which is a significant improvement for those who have no interest in using a risky BIOS mod to overclock. Even if you want to overclock, the 650M's are likely binned better than 640M LE's and you might get better results, not to mention the U2442N's possible superior thermal and noise characteristics.

The S13P is a great choice if you need something right away, but if you can wait the U2442N could easily be a better buy. The immediate availability, slot-loading ODD (if you care about that), and looks (I prefer the black/gunmetal finishes on the S13P to the silver/champagne finish on the U2442N) are the only things the S13P has over the U2442N, barring any surprises like a totally sub-par screen or poor build quality on the U2442N.

 

Really bad spekers isn't enough. I have heard that the speakers on a smartphone is almost better than Sony Vaio S.

 

You're right about the GPU quality, there's no way to tell whether the quality of the chip in the vaio will be up to running at higher clock speeds until you try it, so it is a gamble.

Cost wise though, I managed to spec an S13p for £940, including the dual core i7 and a 2GB 640M LE. From amazon/novatech I bought an extra 4GB RAM and a samsung 830 256gb ssd to do an upgrade, bringing the total cost to £1100. I'm not sure yet what the price of the u2442 will be here in the uk. Also for someone who upgrades every couple of years, the resale value of Dells and Sny Vaios on eBay here is a little better than Gigabyte models which are not so well known in non-techy circles.

But you're right, I won't know until later! But then there are tonnes of windows 8 laptops round the corner which could also be good, I cant wait forever...

 

Btw you seen this official comment on the Gigabyte Facebook page?


GIGABYTE NB Hi Christian and Jesse. The U2442N will release around Mid-August in Thailand. It will only be available with 640M. There are currently no plans to use the 650M.
17 July at 08:01 · Like


GIGABYTE NB Hi Vinu, We are currently working on the GT650M. We hope it will release by the end of the year. Btw U2442 14” Ultrabook w/GT640 2G is the best performance Ultrabook in the market.
Thursday at 11:52 · Like · 1

 

Has memory on GPU someting to do with performance? You always see GT640M and GT650M with score. Not GT640M 1 GB and GT640M 2 GB.

Actually I haven't a clue what more GPU-memory is good for..

 

Thanks for the live update! Been following this laptop for a little while now as a replacement for my Clevo (don't really game anymore but want the option to handle light gaming).

There's been a lot of discussion involving TB, but aside from using it as an alternate display port/external gfx connection, is there really any detriment from not having it on this laptop? Seems the convenience of USB makes the novelty of TB slightly irrelevant.

Also, any chance you could give an impression on build quality compared to something like the MBair? I have to admit the build quality on macs is very enticing.

Thanks!
Chi

 

In a notebook, it's not going to make much difference at all. Games don't generally see a performance benefit from >1GB of VRAM unless you're gaming at resolutions beyond 1920x1080 with anti-aliasing.

TB really doesn't have a lot of use unless you want to drive a monitor with multiple high-speed connections built-in (like an Apple monitor) or are dead-set on having an eGPU solution at some point. For me, a laptop is all about portability so an eGPU doesn't make sense. If I'm at home at my desk, I have a much more powerful all-around desktop rig. Otherwise, there's not much reason to care about the inclusion or exclusion of thunderbolt.

 

Many users can only afford or want 1 computer that will serve the function of portable notebook and desktop CPU when home, typically wired to a larger Display and KB. That's where Thunderbolt shines, as it would permit a much more powerful EGPU setup when home and still, with a GPU like the one in the U2442N, still permit serious gaming on the road.

 

I don't think this has much truth (on the affordability aspect), especially concerning eGPU setups. Depending on how much eGPU thunderbolt interfaces cost, it may cost more than a dedicated computer (for a complete setup).

 

chiming back in here,
battery life figure of 3.5hr I reported was only what the taskbar icon displayed whilst browsing the web with youtube streaming. (no gpu activity - says the Nvidia icon.) That was with everything including bluetooth on. I may or may not have a chance to test the battery.

multi-tabbed browsing seems to place it between 3h48m and 4h20m (going by the icon) if you confide in these numbers, then i should mention at this time it says 4h20m 89%.

optimistically, shutting off wifi, BT, webcam, backlight, reducing brightness below 30% and I would expect closer to 4.5 hours give or take.

 

thoughts from Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend 3 : Super solid cooling. Takes both noise and heat and sends it away from the back, no sweat.
keyboard only warms slightly in the center after 10+ hrs of gaming (!!) but the palmrest is still cool, amazingly. There is no doubt this laptop was designed for performance. The fans seem to raise more in pitch rather than in volume under stress - much better than you'd expect for such a light laptop. With semi-open headphones the fans just fade away to music and voip. I'll admit, I didn't have much confidence in the heat vent that is partially obstructed by the screen (like a MBP), but the vent actually is divided in half from where the screen meets the vent and somehow it's totally fine running on its two magical fans.

I've noticed HDD has an aggressive spindown - this causes a hit to some game and videos ran from it. This is probably resolvable, but imo it benifits the weakness of the laptop that is its battery. (about 1-3 hrs short of ultrabooks without dedicated graphics, other thin-gamers) Keep your performance applications on the SSD...

Also, Smartmanager from GB has an update with "smartcooling" 07/09, I have no idea what turning this feature on does in detail!! Nothing negative to report so far.

 

I also don't think it's usefull, unless we are talking about some docking station like vaio Z (I know that it's connection is bottle-necked but the idea is great).

 

Anyone know if this is available in Australia? I'm interested in the Gigabyte U2442N

 

This is exactly what I wanted to hear concerning the thermals, especially since GW2 will be my main game!

 

That battery life is probably a deal breaker for me... 4 hours just isnt enough for day usage and if you factor in wear levels after a year or two.
curious if the 2442v version will last longer. 5-6 hours and i am sold.

 

Up for preorder in the US. "gigabyte u2442" | EXcaliberPC.com Two year warranty looks interesting.

 

That Excalibur PC listing is a little confusing. It shows two capacities for the HDD, but doesn't say which (if either) is included in the configuration that's being sold.

Plus, lame having a pre-order option with no indication of an actual ship date. It does give hope that we'll see a U.S. launch of this sometime soon, at least.

 

What is the exact difference between the U2442n and U2442v? they say the 'v' is low voltage and that the 'n' is the 'bruiser' (more powerful). Why would the 'v' be more expensive?

 

According to Intel price list i5 in the n version is cheaper than i7 in v (even though it's ULV) so no big surprise here

 

I do really hope that we will see some comparison benchmarks between 2442N and 2442V in different games. I do not expect that the V version is slower because the GPU will still be the bottleneck but I would love to really know it. Hope I can get this information somewhere close to the release or soon after. If there is no major performance hit in games I would definitely go for the V version for lower temps and extended battery time.

 

Cinebench is by no means a game, yet it's quite fair benchmark. A very close margin between i5-3210 and i7-3517 (2,9 vs 2,83) suggests that U2442V should work almost as well as N version

 

Why do you think of battery life 3.5 h? Must be in real usage and n-version. Any clue how much more v-version can have? The computer must have enough battery, would be very stupid to make that misstake.

Can't see why to choose the n-version instead of v-version. Less watt and almost the same performace, isn't that right?

 

Google translate of the review of U2442N TBumacz Google , should be on their english webpage in few days as well

 

Thanks intresting to read. They are quite critical as often in reviews. Screen is one of the biggest drawbacks as I understand it.

It says "integrated battery", what does it mean? I'm not able to change battery? Battery usally gets worst with time and I see it as a drawback if it's not possible to change. The whole idée with a laptop is that it should be able to carry around and use.

Little worried because the only two computers that looks promising for me this fall (this one and Acer S7), says to have "integrated battery".

 

Integrate battery means that the battery is not user replaceable (without disassembling the laptop, at least, like the Macbook air or something), I think.

 

So it should be able to change battery in some way? How is it with apple? How do you do to change battery?

 

Prices are slightly less than buying from Taiwan. Does the U2442V get better battery life, but still have the same performance as the N version?

 

Not too thrilled about the poor quality TN LCD. Figures the best looking machine of the year has a crap panel.

 

The 230 nits of brightness is disappointing as well.

 

blahhhh TN SCREEEN... REALLY? i didn't want the s13a because of the TN screen. now hearing this laptop has a TN screen too? i was so excited for this laptop top. i regret buying my Vaio Z, and i regret selling it as well. i can't look at any other screens because of it.. blah

 

A $1K ultrathin notebook with a full powered I5, GT640M and mStata SSD, as well as dual venting heat sinks, would have to have a low cost panel. Don't you think? How much did that Z cost? From what I've see, the panel doesn't look that bad for a low budget display.

 

TN isn't intrinsically bad either. There's good TN panels out there. No gddr5 is disappointing though.

The battery is sealed in with the computer, you can't just flip a switch and take it out like with most notebooks. For Apple, you have to either send it in or remove the entire back panel of the notebook. You can probably get a clearer explanation if you google around.

 

how was it playing on this laptop, i love gw2, was playing it all weekend. what settings were your graphics at, did it lag? and hows does it look overall with the screen? pretty good?

 

So I'm still scratching my head at how the i5 can be MORE expensive (and people are saying higher performance??) than the i7-based machine.

Everything I've read says the i7 is more expensive AND performs better than i5 machines, such as a quote from this article:

Give Me the Cache - Comparing Intel Core i5 vs i7 | PCMag.com

Can anyone help me understand this?

Thanks!

 

The i7-3517u is a lower TDP (17W vs 35W) than the i5-3210M. This means that it draws less power than the i5-3210M. The M and the U are to different lines of processors catering to different needs. The M series IVB processors are for more powerful applications, but uses more power. The U series are ULV processors (Ultra Low Voltage) are lower clocked parts (1.9Ghz for the i7-3517u vs the 2.5Ghz of the i5-3210M) and are used to extend the battery life of the notebook. Ultrabooks are required to have ULV processors to qualify under Intel's definition of Ultrabooks and to carry the Ultrabook moniker.

Despite all that, the ULV parts are more expensive than the regular M parts due to (total guess here) a different manufacturing process. But, comparing the two processors, they should perform very similarly in everyday applications as well as gaming because most most will be restricted by the graphics card and not the processor.

Source: Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist - Notebookcheck.net Tech (Number 47 vs Number 63).

Also: Just wondering what kind of battery life can be expected on the U2442V. If it gets over 6hrs, I'll pull the trigger.

Edit: If the U2442V pulls the same idle power (7.2W) as the Acer M5 which also uses the i7-3517u, then it should give about 6hrs of battery life with the 44Whr battery.

 

Thanks for the explanation and link! How come the U (#63) doesn't have a 3dmark score? At 3.0ghz vs 3.1ghz for the M, should their performance be similar?

 

Probably just hasn't been benchmarked with 3dmarks06 yet. And it would be very difficult as they would need to find a notebook with the same discrete gfx card as the one that was used to test the i5-3210M otherwise the scores could be very skewed. It's not like PC benchmarking where every part can be easily replaced and benchmarked against another part. With notebooks, it's a much more complex procedure so I'm assuming they just drop it.

Core i5 3210M review - Specs, Review - NotebooksNews.com From here you can see that the i5-3317u's score is very close to the i5-3210M score in PCMark Vantage. Assuming that the i7-3517u is slightly faster than the i5-3317u would place them at pretty much the same score.

 

I really couldn't have said this better. I am surprised that the matte display can still match up with other matte displays in the 1000 category, (S13A/P at $1200) given the combo HDD with 520/330/75k IOPS SSD + dual fan cooling.

Good to know that I wasn't weird for thinking the display was a bit dim, though. I don't really think the viewing angles are quite as bad as they are made out on that review, maybe the panels are not all the same. See: ( el shakey video)

I happened to notice that the SSD in my u2442n is a faster 128GB from LiteON, rather than the crucial real found in the review. (both are marvel controllers I assume since crucial m4 is marvel).

 

Excuse me if I missunderstand something now. But do you have a U2442n?

So your opinion is that the screen isn't that bad? Better/worse/same as Sony Vaio S13?

What do you think of the speakers?

 

It's not bad, just standard. If they wanted to cheap out then they would have taken the acer route with M3 and throw on a glossy 1366 x 768. Even if gigabyte cheaped out on the panel it would be a justified choice. They picked out a fast OEM SSD (LiteON M3M) paired with WD blue scorpio, full power i5, midrange kepler, intel centrino 2T2R wifi/WiDi, and 8GB ram crammed them into a consistently cooled, ultrabook design. $1000, with 2 yrs global warranty.

As much flak as the S13 gets for its panels, it's also very standard, at 900p for 13" and 1080p for 15". If you like IPS, PLS, or 120hz then prepare to sacrifice size, GPU, or money in order to get it.

I've mentioned this before; I am a headphone person in the most literal way. Headphones are completely my bias and I rarely use speakers ever. To me, the speakers are amply loud (contrary to the review), and the DSP enhancements from creative didn't sound bad enough to uninstall. Not wimpy speakers - around the same or louder than macbook 2009 but not as loud as an imac. The speakers can't overpower background noise without being cranked up to the point of disturbing everyone else. (Aren't headphones great).

 

Hey omghi2u,

Did you or could you by any chance post a review of your U2442n?

And what country are you in. I'm in Canada and there's like no news at all about this laptop coming any time soon. I'm buying for University and this was one of my top choices.

Thanks.

 

It is up for preorder in the US already. It will be available in Canada (I think the distributer is the same for North America). It's already listed on the Canadian Gigabyte site. http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4209#kf If you register, it might tell you which resellers will stock the unit. It also looks like canada will get the U2442V and U2442S versions. The S is the N with a low res display. Can't imagine why anyone would buy that model. Better off getting an Acer M5.

 

I invite you to dig up my posts on this thread, then you'll get a complete, albeit fragmented review from yours truly.

I am a Canadian alien in Taiwan... I feel for you, really I do. Well the other day I actually saw the ads for this machine at the screening for Batman, so hopefully you'll see this in NA soon.
Protip: If you live near the border, see if you can arrange for one of those handy package-holding services or get the help of a relative to avoid those pesky Canadian tax / customs.

 

omghi2u,

how was it playing gw2 on this laptop, i love gw2, was playing it all weekend. what settings were your graphics at, did it lag? and hows does it look overall with the screen? pretty good?

 

Grrrrr I really want to buy a U2442N in Australia. Takes so long for things to be released.

 

On the Gigabyte website, when I checked where I can buy the u2442n, one of the stores is ASI. When I looked at the location of ASI, I see it's only 4.2 miles from where I live. Is this an actual store that I can just walk in and buy the laptop?
I usually like to see the laptop in person before buying it. So it would great if I can check it out at ASI before buying it.