Gigabyte's New P55K Gaming Laptop Features Nvidia GTX 965M, Intel Core i7 CPU
Gigabyte introduced a new line of gaming laptops this week, starting with the P55K. This laptop has a 15.6-inch screen with wide viewing angles and a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Powering this screen is Intel's Core i7-4720HQ (2.5 GHz/3.6 GHz) processor, up to 16 GB of DDR3L RAM and up to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 965M with 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. All of this runs on a 6400 mAh battery.
On the storage front, the P55K includes a 2.5-inch HDD slot that has a 7200 RPM drive (1 TB) or a 5400 RPM drive (500 GB to 2 TB), depending on the configuration. The laptop also has an mSATA slot supporting an SSD capacity of 128 GB to 512 GB. The laptop's actual storage capacity will depend on the country and region it is sold, the company indicated.
The base specifications list also shows Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, an HD camera, a gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, D-sub, an SD card reader, audio jacks and two 2-watt speakers supporting Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater. Need an optical drive? There are three options: a Blu-ray burner, a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive or a Super-Multi DVD burner.
One of the features highlighting Gigabyte's laptop is a full-range backlit Chiclet keyboard with 0.09-inch key travel, allowing the user to type in a dark room (or gaming cave). The laptop also features what Gigabyte calls the LAN Optimizer, which prioritizes data packets based on the user's settings. This presumably means that users can select gaming data to be more important than streaming Netflix.
Finally, Gigabyte's new notebook measures 15 x 10.6 x 1.1-1.3 inches (WxDxH). It's not the thinnest gaming notebook on the market, but the P55K makes up the difference by offering Nvidia's GPU and the Haswell processor. Unfortunately, Gigabyte didn't provide a starting price with its announcement, so customers will have to check with online shops or the closest retailer that carries Gigabyte products for more details.
Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
-
soldier44 Why even bother with mechanical hard drives in gaming laptops anymore? SSD should be standard now days. 5400 rpm really in 2015 is still an option...Reply -
crabdog Also why do all "gaming" laptops come with i7 cpu. Tom's has been telling us for ages that an i5 can do the job just as well.Reply -
dstarr3 ReplyWhy even bother with mechanical hard drives in gaming laptops anymore? SSD should be standard now days. 5400 rpm really in 2015 is still an option...
Any laptop that ships with a mechanical hard drive should at least have two drive bays so you can have an SSD for the OS/programs and the mechanical serving as storage only. -
theDoItYourselfAmeture ReplyAlso why do all "gaming" laptops come with i7 cpu. Tom's has been telling us for ages that an i5 can do the job just as well.
Mobile i5's are duel core hyper threaded processors, only the i7s are quad core. for some games mobile i5's are enough, but you really need a quad core these days to fully enjoy that 965m. hopefully in the future it may change.
-
Au_equus ReplyAlso why do all "gaming" laptops come with i7 cpu. Tom's has been telling us for ages that an i5 can do the job just as well.
mobile cpu sku's are different from their desktop counterparts. In addition to what was mentioned, some mobile i7 are also HT dual core CPUs, but the Q suffix denotes a quad core sku.
-
jrharbort As a quick note, the i7 4720HQ has an operating frequency of 2.6GHz/3.6GHz, not 2.5GHz/3.6GHz.Reply -
jasonelmore now that IPS 1080p is becomming common place, when can we expect to see the next evolution of screens? OLED Baby.Reply
Once i saw OLED, everything else looks 10 years old -
ps3hacker12 What I don't understand s why does this latop have half the battery of a standard tablet (iPad 4 say for example) ?!?Reply