Review: Gigabyte U2442

by Tarinder Sandhu on 7 January 2013, 11:00 4.0

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376)

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Final Thoughts and Rating

...Gigabyte's done a decent job in releasing a high-specification Ultrabook. The U2442 has enough intrinsic merit to be on a shortlist if you require portability and power in one tidy package.

Gigabyte's desire to craft a high-specification Ultrabook is manifested in the £910 U2442. Well-built and easy on the eye on first glance, the Taiwanese firm marries the tastiest 17W Intel Core i7 chip to a genuine gaming-grade mobile GPU from NVIDIA, whose pretty pixels are served up on an above-average HD+ screen. Keeping the goodies rolling by using a fast SSD, the specification sheet is undeniably impressive.

We're not huge fans of the limited-travel keyboard, however, and the thick-ish bezel takes away some of the aesthetic lustre. As far as we can discern, no Intel-inspired Ultrabook is perfect, but, on balance, the Gigabyte U2442 makes a solid case for those looking for premium performance from a sleek machine running full-fat Windows 8.

All said and done, Gigabyte's done a decent job in releasing a high-specification Ultrabook. The U2442 has enough intrinsic merit to be on a shortlist if you require portability and power in one tidy package.

The Good

Well-built, good-looking Ultrabook
Top-notch Ultrabook performance
Above-average screen
Fast SSD
Bloatware-free Windows 8 install

The Bad

Limited-travel keyboard
Fat bezel surrounding panel

HEXUS Rating


Gigabyte U2442

HEXUS Awards


Gigabyte U2442

HEXUS Where2Buy

TBC.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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£900 + is still too much cash to tempt me…
Only five annoying stickers for £910. I'd feel cheated.
For that money I'd expect at least 1 USB 3.0 slots really/ Even my Dell x15 has 1.
Deadlight
For that money I'd expect at least 1 USB 3.0 slots really …
Erm … first sentence of page 2:
Comfortably under an inch-thick at its fattest point, Gigabyte does well on the I/O front, with an SD card-reader, two USB 3.0 ports, full-sized HDMI and a power inlet on the right-hand side.
:O_o1:
Either it's been changed since originally posted, or I'm going mad! ;)