Micro Mart - 10 March 2016_

Issue 1404 43

ON

TEST

Reviews

Gigabyte P57W

W

e’ve had a few
high-performance
laptops through
our doorsrecently,
each as good as the last and each
offering some pretty impressive
mobile gaming.
We thought we’d seen
everything the industry has to
offer – until Gigabyte sent us its
latest gaming laptop.
The Gigabyte P57W is monster
laptop with a 17.2" IPS display,
an equally impressive 2.6GHz
Intel i7-6700HQ processor, 16GB
of DDR4 memory and a three-
storage system that includesa
256GB Liteon M.2 SSD (with
Windows 10 64-bit Home pre-
installed), a second 1TB Hitachi
hard drive and a swappable DVD
optical drive – with an included
SATA bay caddy to change the
optical drive for another hard
drive or SSD.
Graphics come courtesy of an
Intel HD530 for traditional 2D
work, and for gaming there’s an
Nvidia GTX970M with 3GB of
memory to help shift those
polygons around the screen.
Connectivity is good, with
three USB ports (one 3.0 type-A,
one 3.1 type-C and a standard
2.0 port), HDMI, VGA, gigabit
Ethernet, mini-DisplayPort, an SD
card reader and a pair of audio/
headphone ports.
Obviously, there’s 802.11ac
and Bluetooth 4.1 available as
well, along with a 720p HD
camera and a pair of 2W

DETAILS

• Price: ~£1280


• Manufacturer:
  Gigabyte


• Website:
  goo.gl/EI7nGE


• Requirements:
  Microsoft/Windows
  account

speakers. The keyboard is a full-

sized anti-ghost 30-keyrollover

backlit affair, which is well laid

out and a pleasure to use, even

when you’re not gaming. The

touchpad, too, covers a large

area, isresponsive enough for

Windows use and some gaming

• if you’re one of the lucky few
  who can effectively usea
  touchpad for gaming.
  The design of the P57W is very
  similar to that of the other
  Gigabyte P-range laptops. A jet-

black with orange trim colour

scheme is used throughout, with

a kind of rubberised look to the

chassis, which is quite a decent-

looking effect.

In terms of performance, the

P57W managed to score an

overall 9,655 in 3DMark 11,

which puts it pretty high on our

list of tested systems. Inreal-

world gaming, though, we’re

talking aboutFallout 4at

maximum settings at 1080p, as

well as other titles such asStar

A reasonably priced laptop that combines both performance and looks

Wars Battlefront,To m Clancy’s

The DivisionandElite: Dangerous.

In short, you can happily play the

mostrecent games without too

much trouble.

The battery was surprisingly

good with the P57W too–

something we’ve found Gigabyte

does well when producing its

laptops. Looping a full HD video,

a full charge battery lasted just

over four hours before we

needed to plug it back in again.

Gaming too managed a decent

three hours before the warnings

started to appear. Obviously less

intensive applications could push

the battery life well over five or

six hours, depending on what

you’re doing.

Naturally, you’re going to paya

fair bit for this level of

performance. However, the

Gigabyte P57W is one of the best

gaming laptops we’ve tested for

some time. It looks great,

performs magnificently and has

some great features. So price isn’t

so bad when you think about it.

If you can afford it, then it’s

certainly one to consider.

mmDavid Hayward

Good performance, and

it looks superb

9

8

Quality

Value

99

Overall

iThe splendid and sleek lines of the Gigabyte P57W

iInside though is a beast of a gaming machine