Gigabyte P35G v2 CF2 Thin 15.6″ Gaming Laptop

The Gigabyte P35G v2 CF2 is yet another model from the new breed of gaming laptops. The thin ones. Just like the Lenovo Y50 or MSI Ghost. This 15.6-incher measures only 0.8″ high, but packs a serious punch nevertheless. It has the Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad-core processor and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M graphics. Both the CPU and GPU are from the latest generations of products. The i7-4710HQ is a slight upgrade over the last year’s 4700HQ. It has only 0.1GHz higher clock speed as an advantage over the precursor. That’s however sufficient even for the most serious gaming. The GTX 860M is a major upgrade if you compare it to the GTX 765M found in some older similar Gigabyte models. The improvement in 3D Mark 11 benchmark is 27 percent, according to the manufacturer.

Speaking of the GPU, the GeForce GTX 860M in this laptop is a “Kepler” version. That’s an older GPU architecture than the “Maxwell” found on some other 860M video cards, but they perform similar in terms of frame rates. They can play the latest games on all settings maxed out at 1080p resolution. The main difference is that “Maxwell” has a greater power efficiency.

Besides good performance, there’s a plenty to like on the Gigabyte’s P35G v2 CF2. The screen is not only Full HD, but also has IPS display technology for wide viewing angles. For richer sound, there’s a subwoofer besides two standard speakers. As a stand out feature, the laptop has mini DisplayPort alongside HDMI and VGA.

The P35G v2 CF2 shines in the data storage department. This configuration sports a large 1-Terabyte 7,200rpm hard drive, supplemented by a 128GB mSATA solid state disk. The main surprise is ugradeability. Users can throw an additional HDD and another one mSATA SSD in. Plus, the DVD burner is removable. Its slot can be populated with a Blu-ray drive or an additional 2.5″ HDD / SSD.

Other interesting features are keyboard backlight, mini DisplayPort for connection to compatible displays with up to 4K resolution, and advanced cooling solution with separate fans for the CPU and GPU.