I’m back again with another Gigabyte laptop review, but this one’s a little different. This is the smallest Gigabyte gaming laptop I’ve ever reviewed – a 14″ model called the P34G v2. Despite this small size and a 21mm thin chassis, the P34G v2 still includes strong specifications: a Core i7 processor, a latest-generation Nvidia GTX 860M GPU and 8GB of RAM. That could make for an ultra-portable gaming powerhouse – just the thing for a hardcore gamer on the go. Let’s see whether it can follow through on that promise!

Specifications

 

OS	Windows 8.1
CPU	4th Generation Intel Core i7-4700HQ 2.4-3.4GHz
Display	14″ Full HD 1920×1080 Wide Viewing Angle LCD
System Memory	8GB DDRIIIL 1600 (1x 8 GB)
Chipset	Mobile Intel HM87 Express Chipset
Video Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 4600 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M w/ 4GB GDDR5 RAM
Storage	128GB mSATA SSD
Keyboard Type	Auto-Adjusting Backlit Keyboard
Optical Drive	N/A
I/O Port	USB 3.0 x2, USB 2.0 x2, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet SD card reader, 3.5mm headphone/mic combo, DC-in
Audio	1.5 Watt Speaker x2, Microphone Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater
Communications	1Gbps Ethernet 802.11 n wireless Bluetooth 4.0
Webcam	HD Camera
Security	Kensington Lock
Battery	Li-Polymer, 14.8V, 63.64Wh
Dimensions	340(W) x 239(D) x 20.9(H) mm
Weight	~1.67kg

Specs given are for the review unit received; there are minor variations in terms of OS, CPU, installed system memory and storage options. Notably, up to two hard drives can be installed; either a solid-state drive (128GB, 256GB, 512GB), 5400RPM mechanical drive (500GB, 750GB, 1TB, 1.5TB) or both. Three battery options are also available; the largest, a 63.64Wh unit, precludes the use of a 2.5″ mechanical hard drive.

Physical Features

At first glance, with lid open, the Gigabyte P34G v2 looks quite ordinary. The silver chassis and black island keys are reminiscent of the MacBook, like so many other laptops in the industry.

 

The 14-inch laptop is quite thin at a little under 21mm, with sufficiently small dimensions to fit into a laptop bag intended for 12 and 13-inch models. Given the gaming prowess of the P34G v2, its favourable dimensions and professional (if a bit pedestrian) look are impressive – this is not a traditional back-breaking gaming laptop that screams ‘gamer’ with garish LEDs everywhere.

The keyboard layout here is quite ordinary, and includes a full Function key row, with Ctrl correctly placed at the far left of the keyboard with Fn beside it. The directional keys are a little small, with up and down squished into the space of a single key in the bottom row. Home, End, Page Up and Page Down are assigned to these directional keys via the Function layer, which seems an appropriate compromise given the limited space available.

There is a large and wide trackpad below the keyboard, with a single click bar beneath. Multi-touch gestures are supported, and can be configured to your liking.

LED indicators below the trackpad show the laptop’s wireless connectivity, battery life and backlighting. Miraculously, this particular machine came without a legion of boastful stickers attached, but I can’t confirm all retail models will be similarly unafflicted.

Above the keyboard, there are a pair of ovaloid speaker grilles flanking the circular metallic power button. The laptop’s hinges are dug out of the lower chassis, leaving a nice place for dust to collect.

All of the ports I’d expect are included here. The left hand side contains gigabit ethernet, VGA, two USB 3.0 ports and a mobile/Apple-style combo headphone / mic 3.5mm port. One of the two USB 3.0 ports is marked for charging even while the laptop is off. The mobile-style 3.5mm combo port is interesting; it allows for mobile headsets to be used for both headphones and mic, but shuts the door to headset with separated 3.5mm connectors, which make up the majority of PC gaming headsets. Consider a USB headset if you go for this laptop.

 

On the right hand side, we have a pair of USB 2.0 ports flanking an SD card reader, HDMI and the DC-in. The presence of power on the right hand side is a bit annoying for right-handed mouse users (I’d guess the majority of PC gamers, but it’s far enough back that it isn’t a dealbreaker. There are no other ports on the front or back.

The lid of the laptop is clad in smooth metal in a matte grey colour, with a simple metal GIGABYTE logo in the upper third of the centre.

The bottom of the laptop is similarly simple, with the usual collection of grilles, regulatory information…

and a cover to access the laptop’s RAM (always a welcome addition).

 

Testing Methodology

We’ll follow a similar pattern to our other gaming laptop reviews, evaluating the laptop in work and in play. As well as subjective impressions, we’ll also look at a series of benchmarks to get a quantitive idea of performance. These include four synthetic benchmarks, and two in-game benchmarks. Let’s begin.

Subjective Impressions

Gaming

We’ll have a look at gaming first – because why else would you be looking at a laptop with a discrete graphics card, right? Here, the P34G performs as well as the larger members of Gigabyte’s latest family, thanks to its inclusion of the same crucial components. The GTX 860M used here provides a good performance delta over previous-gen 760/765M machines, roughly equivalent to a GTX 770M. That means you’re able to run most games at comfortable 40-60 fps, given the 1080p screen size and medium to high settings. The most demanding games (e.g. Battlefield 4, Star Citizen) will require drops to resolution or quality settings to achieve similar results, but there’s very little you’ll be simply unable to play on the P34G v2. The CPU and RAM are also up to task, making for impressive speeds across the board.

Games load quickly thanks to the solid state drive, but the configuration I used (1x 128GB SSD) had only 103GB of usable space; that’s a squeeze if you want to have more than a couple full-sized games installed at once. Definitely consider a larger SSD or that option for a secondary, mechanical hard drive.

Like many other gaming laptops, the P34G v2 doesn’t last for long if you’re playing games away from a power outlet. Battery life shrinks to about 1-2 hours, depending on how hard the system is working. That means you can squeeze in a quick session of something on the train to work, but you’ll be lucky to push a quarter of a transatlantic flight without power.

Noise is another factor. While the laptop remains cool under load (at least while on a solid surface like a table), it does get quite load while gaming, running benchmarks or anything else remotely strenuous. This is understandable given the smaller size of the laptop, but again is something to keep in mind.

The P34G v2 has a reasonable keyboard for gaming, with short travel but a sensible layout and good backlighting. Gigabyte have improved the legends of the keyboard compared to previous models, as they have dropped the outlined WASD keys that looked so awful previously (and helped no one). The touchpad is a generous size and works OK, but you’ll want to use a USB mouse for any serious gaming.

There’s no touch screen on the P34G v2, so you’ll be unable to use Civilization V’s touch-screen mode and the various other touch-screen games from the Store.

Working

As a working laptop, the P34G v2 offers the same powerful hardware, good screen and reasonable keyboard as the rest of the Gigabyte lineup… but it is much smaller. That makes a big difference, even going from 15.4″ to 14″, as the P34G is small enough to fit a bite-sized messenger bag instead of requiring a good-sized backpack. In fact, the machine fits well in (at least some) messenger bags designed for 12 and 13″ laptops like the MacBook Air. This portability befits casual use; just toss the laptop in a bag and march out the door.

While the laptop’s size and weight are quite reasonable, there are some downsides compared to non-gaming laptops of equal size. One of these is battery life – the P34G can only last between four and five hours on a charge, even on a light load of web browser and word processor. A compounding factor is the power adapter, which is large and heavy, and partially undoes the portable nature of the laptop.

Other than these factors though, the laptop is generally a good one for work. The system is speedy and applications load quickly, although with the one SSD option you’ll be lacking in total storage space. The screen is another delight, offering a reasonably dense 1920 x 1080 resolution for its 14″ diagonal. Viewing angles here are good, permitting both pair programming and group video watching. The keyboard is another highlight, with minimal travel but a sensible layout and helpful backlighting.

Benchmarks

3DMark

3DMark is a popular cross-platform test of graphics and physics, in a manner that approximates a typical game at four different challenge levels. Ice Storm is designed for mobiles, Cloud Gate is for decent notebooks, Sky Diver is for gaming laptops and Fire Strike is for gaming desktops.

3DMark	Ice Storm	Cloud Gate	Sky Diver	Fire Strike
X7 v2 (SLI)	126314	17026	16348	4783
P35W v2	110792	16097	14297	4286
X7 (SLI)	116534	17586	n/a	4171
P34G v2	54862	13102	11269	3735
P25W	44699	9896	n/a	3228
P35K	86517	13154	n/a	2675
P27K	58487	12372	n/a	2557
U2442	42430	4463	n/a	1147
Aspire S7	34113	3928	n/a	548
Aspire V5	32841	3633	n/a	474

The P34G enjoys the latest generation of Nvidia mobile graphics cards (GTX 800 series), so we’d expect to see better performance here than last generation laptops (e.g. P25W, P35K, P27K) and indeed that’s exactly what we get. The dual GPU solution of the first-gen Aorus X7 also eclipses the P34G.

Compared to our other 800 series laptop, the P25W v2, we get scores at least in the same ball park. The scores for the earlier tests are much lower and the final test is still a bit behind, suggesting lower thermal tolerances due to the smaller chassis of the 14-inch P34G v2 compared to the 15.4-inch P25W v2.

This suggests that if you want to wring every ounce out of the GTX 770M hardware, you’re better off using a larger model; you do pay a price in performance for portability.

Cinebench

Cinebench is a nice cross-platform benchmark that stresses the CPU and GPU. All results are shown using the discrete graphics processor, if available.

Cinebench R15	OpenGL	CPU
X7 v2 (SLI)	123.18	609 cb
P35W v2	103.04	603 cb
P34G v2	91.10	532 cb
X7 (SLI)	88.42	641 cb
P35K	82.34	636 cb
P27K	82.24	560 cb
P25W	58.18	330 cb

The P34G v2 has a good showing in the Cinebench benchmark, beating out the previous generation Aorus X7 (and all previous generation Gigabyte models we’ve tested). The larger P35W v2 does retain a 10% performance delta, again suggesting inherent limitations of the more portable 14-inch design.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is a benchmark that examines disk read and write performance of the solid state drive.