Gigabyte unveiled its new series of Haswell-powered gaming laptops at this year’s Computex, dubbed as the Ultrablade P34G and P35K. At 0.8-inches thick and weighing 3.7 pounds, the 14-inch P34G is nearly as thin as the newly announced Razer Blade 14, which measures just 0.66-inches thin and weighs 4 pounds.
Gigabyte’s new gaming system will come with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 card in addition to Intel’s fourth-generation Haswell chip. It features a 14-inch matte 1600 x 900-pixel full HD display and a 1TB HHD, as well as 256GB mSATA SSD. Gigabyte also tells us that this model could come with an IPS display, but this hasn’t been confirmed. Along one side you’ll find an Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack and a VGA port, and on the other end Gigabyte has added two more USB ports, a multi-card reader and an HDMI port.
By simply looking at the Gigabyte P34G, you wouldn’t guess it’s a gaming notebook. It comes with a smooth sandblasted aluminum body that’s offset by a black bezel and black backlit keyboard, making it look like any mainstream notebook you’d find on the market. It doesn’t have that hallmark black form factor and colored backlit keyboard that have become the staple of gaming giants Razer and Alienware.
The demo unit we saw on the show floor at Computex didn’t come preloaded with any games, so we couldn’t see those Nvidia-powered graphics in action. We did notice, however, that the keyboard produced a noticeable amount of flex just like its larger-sized brother, the Gigabyte P35K. Even when pressing the keys slightly, we found that the keyboard bounced and didn’t feel very sturdy.
Gigabyte has outfitted the P34G with dual vents on the underside of the device to keep it from overheating, which is a problem that Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan told us the Razor Blade 14 encounters. He did, however, add that Razer was careful to make sure the laptop didn’t get too hot on its touch points such as the touchpad and keyboard. The Gigabyte P34G also comes with a new internal design that allows air to flow more freely throughout the notebook’s body, unlike the narrower air passageway found in previous Gigabyte laptops.
Pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed, but Gigabyte tells us that the P34G could launch in late July for August for between $999 and $1599 depending on region and specifications.
