Keyboard and Trackpad
Speaking of typing, the U2442V keyboard is one of the best I’ve used on any Ultrabook. The feedback is excellent and it’s easy to tell when you’ve pressed a key far enough for proper input. At the same time the keyboard is not too loud which I always appreciate when I have to work near other people. The keyboard is backlit and you can set the U2442V to automatically turn it on when it gets dark; this seems to work fine although it would be nice if the light faded-in/out instead of turned on/off suddenly.
The keyboard is great but has a bothersome software-based issue; the trackpad is disabled for almost a full second when you press any key on the keyboard. This is a feature from the ELAN trackpad software that is installed. The feature is called TP and is designed to prevent your palm from hitting the trackpad accidentally while you type (which, to be fair, would be more annoying). TP works for that purpose but ends up being rather annoying (especially when you are trying to quickly fill out a form) so I decided to turn it off. Unfortunately disabling the TP feature through ELAN’s software doesn’t seem to work. Once or twice the TP feature also seems to have gone awry and caused the trackpad to freeze for several seconds at a time.
Caps lock also seems to have some intermittent issues. For some time the keyboard would freeze for a second or two after turning caps lock on or off. I can’t seem to recreate it now but it may be related to the TP/ELAN issue.
Fortunately both of these issues are caused by software and can be fixed with the right download which Gigabyte will hopefully provide soon.
The trackpad itself is textured and has a single mouse button beneath it which clicks as a left mouse button on the left and a right button on the other side. The middle of the button the button doesn’t click even though there is no line to separate the two buttons . This is rather annoying because, whether you are right or left handed, you’ll have to position your thumb somewhat awkwardly to hit the button where it can be most effectively pressed. Using the trackpad-as-a-button approach or splitting the dual button into two full buttons would have prevented that issue.
There’s a nice bonus feature found on the trackpad. Pressing the right mouse button while the computer is turned off will light up the indicator LEDs to show you how much battery remains in the computer. This isn’t a unique feature among laptops but most are shown on the side or on the battery itself. Seeing the remaining charge without flipping the unit or leaning to the side to find a small button will likely result in more use.
Screen
The Gigabyte U2442V screen is matte which actually looks quite beautiful next to so many other devices equipped with glossy displays. The bezel on the left and right of the screen is quite trim while the top and bottom are a bit wider and will get on the nerves of some of our bezel-width-weary readers. I find no issue with the bezel width myself and the screen feels quite at home flanked by it.
At 1600×900, the U2442V screen is higher resolution than most Ultrabooks but it isn’t the highest (there are a few 1920×1080 Ultrabooks out there). Contrast is quite good with brighter hues, but very dark tones tend to blend together unless you turn the brightness way up. The U2442V’s screen gets bright enough for outdoor readability. Inside in a lit room it feels fine at 50% brightness. Gamma is set too high out of the box and you’ll definitely want to play with Windows’ calibration tool (Start -> calibrate display color). I made some changes to the gamma and took a bit of blue out of the greys which made things more pleasing.
Despite poor performance in darker scenes (and in the deep dark caves of Minecraft), the display looks pretty good thanks to the higher-than-average resolution and the matte finish.
Speakers
The speakers are hardly passable as far as I’m concerned. They don’t get loud enough for my taste and, like most laptop speakers, they are entirely devoid of bass. The treble that does remain is tinny and lacks any sort of punch to it. Gigabyte tried to make up for this by including a tiny utility from THX which applies some software tuning to the sound. To my surprise this actually manages to pull a bit more out of the tiny speakers, but only at the cost of frequent distortion. From a practical standpoint the THX adjustments change nothing — the speakers are still bad. Not a deal-breaker for me though as I almost always prefer to use speakers or headphones.
Fans / Noise
There are two sizable heat vents in the back of the U2442V (one for the GPU and one for the CPU). The unit seems to have good thermal design as the fans are often turned completely off or are running at a low hum. They do get going as the processing becomes heavier but I never once heard them ramp up to unacceptable levels.
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The u2442n was on my list but I ended up getting a Vaio S13 Premium. Have you seen the Sony in person, and if so, how do you find they compare to each other?
don’t forget to mention that the i7 is low-voltage, which might save some battery life, but won’t give you any performance boost compared to the i5.
This is something i’ve been debating.. the value of the i7 version over the i5.
If I’m going to be using the 640m a good deal of time, is it even worth it to go for the low voltage i7 processor setup? I plan to purchase today, so I’d like to get a feel for which one would be better.
My gut tells me to go for the i5 and save the extra Franklin for buying a second ssd to throw in there.
trust your gut ;)
“HD4000 in the U2442V performed about 60% faster than HD4000 in the Lenovo U310 (16.31 FPS vs. 10.73 FPS). Differences in the processor (and probably amount of RAM) are definitely the cause.”
This is exclusively because the U310 has single channel memory setup and the Gigabyte doesn’t. CPU and RAM capacity doesn’t make that big of a difference. Probably 10% at best, even including different GPU clocks.
Still no ultrabook available with thunderbolt, decent screen and form factor smaller or equal 13″.
c’mon that isn’t too much asked is it?
Wow, super impressive PERF numbers and connectivity options. The battery and weight questions are quite important, though…
Adam
Battery tests please. I’ve been waiting for this piece of information ever since. It will be the deciding factor in my choice between a U2442V and an M5. Keep up the good work. I love you guys.
Hi,
I think this laptop supports >128 SSD but cannot find where to purchase such model (UK). US shops could also be an acceptable alternative. I reckon buying a 128SSD version and then adding an extra module would breach the warranty. In fact, how many years is the manufacturer’s warranty ?
Hey Niko,
I’m looking at getting this on amazon.co.uk … I posted a message on the gigabyte support site asking about warranty. A week later and no response…
Saz
***
So I’ve pulled the trigger and love this laptop! The screen brightness is incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever needed it over 50% and that’s overdoing it for me personally. There is a slight screendoor effect, if you’re looking for it.
My only question that I can’t seem to find the answer to, is once you disable the trackpad using smartmanager, is there a keyboard shortcut to turn it back on? I normally do this when I plug in a mouse, but seem to consistently forgot to turn it back on before closing the laptop and removing the wired mouse.
Any ideas? It’s an elan trackpad, and nothing in the Gigabyte support docs say anything useful.
Wht’s ur finally decision? i5 3210 or i7?
There’s a new ver. U2442F with 256 SSD & GT 650M
I went i5. The GT 640 is well enough to play the games I want and I no longer have any big internal drives on any home computers. I’ve gone with a USB 3.0 portable external drive for all static media so the 128GB drive works well enough.
Some people have noted that the fans on the i5 version run a bit too much for them. For me, it’s tolerable as casual computing and when I game, I can pop in headphones, just don’t set it directly on your lap when you do game as it generates some heat. So, if you are concerned about fan noise, i7 would probably be the better choice for you.
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
THX for Ryan’s experience.
I’m actually care the noise of fan, also the purpose of the lap is for engineering work, sometimes might be running the SC II, primary care about the speed, guess 128SSD is quite enough, no matter i5 or i7.
wht’s size of ur external HDD? 2.5″ 1T? how about the usb3.0 speed on writing? need lots of files transmit for daily work.
Although, by first mention, in my area TW only provide the 128SSD + 750HDD U2442V i7,
non SSD only ver. And you got the bundled Win 8? I really hate that…..
oh! finally~ Any “Break” key can use? can u set “raid” option in BIOS? can u turn the autosense back light?
THX for Ryan’s experience.
I’m actually care the noise of fan, also the purpose of the lap is for engineering work, sometimes might be running the SC II, primary care about the speed, guess 128SSD is quite enough, no matter i5 or i7.
wht’s size of ur external HDD? 2.5? 1T? how about the usb3.0 speed on writing? need lots of files transmit for daily work.
Although, by first mention, in my area TW only provide the 128SSD + 750HDD U2442V i7,
non SSD only ver. And you got the bundled Win 8? I really hate that…..
oh! finally~ Any “Break” key can use? can u set “raid” option in BIOS? can u turn the autosense back light?
Hi, thanks for sharing.