Gigabyte 15.6-Inch Full HD Gaming Laptop Debuts

There is a new gaming laptop up for order, or there will be as soon as Gigabyte finishes whatever loose ends have to be tied up in regards to shipments.

Called P2542G, the mobile personal computer is a gaming notebook with a Full HD screen (native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and a display diagonal of 15.6 inches. We've already run into people who feel that there is no point to Full HD on that screen size. There is no shortage of people holding the opposite view of course.

For our part, we feel that if tablets are using Full HD or better screens, laptops may as well do it by default. The 15.6-inch P2542G relies on a third-generation Intel Core i7-3610QM Quad-Core central processing unit (CPU).

For those who don't know, that chip has a base clock of 2.3 GHz and a Turbo Boost limit of 3.3 GHz. Up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM back the chip up (two slots of 4 GB) and graphics prowess is brought to the equation by a 2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M discrete GPU.

Needless to say, the Optimus technology, which automatically switches between the GPU and the one integrated in the CPU, is present and accounted for. That said, storage space is provided by a hard disk drive with a capacity of 750 GB. An mSATA SSD may or may not be present, depending on customer selection. If it is, it will play a part in the Intel Rapid Start Technology SSD caching.

What's more, a Blu-ray writer is included in the feature list, complete with the ability to scribe rewritable disks in up to BDXL format. Other hardware parts present are Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, a 4-in-1 card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, audio/mic jacks and, of course, video outputs (HDMI, D-Sub). Finally, a Kensington lock keeps the notebook safe from thieves.

We're not sure about the battery life, but the price of the laptop should be around $1,100. European stores will probably go for 1,000 Euro or so.

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