Gigabyte P35K Review – Slimmest 15.6″ Gaming Notebook with Geforce GTX765M & Great Storage Option
The competition for gaming notebooks, especially in the 15.6″ segment, is getting busier. After ASUS discontinued production of their G5XX series, the opportunity to share the cake is even greater for other vendors, including MSI and Gigabyte. As will pemmz review this time, a stylish gaming notebook with a thickness of 21mm and a 15.6″ screen but equipped with specifications that fall into the gaming category, the Gigabyte P35K. Because ASUS, Alienware and Razer don’t have a 15.6″ line-up, and you happen to be very concerned about the dimensions of a 17.3″ notebook, the Gigabyte P35K can be an option other than the MSI GT60 series. The slim design is certainly an offer that the MSI GT60 series does not have. What does the Gigabyte P35K offer? let’s find out more.
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Design
Thanks God, the currently released P35K does not carry a silver color like the appearance that was widely circulated when this unit was displayed at the Computex event, as well as its P34G sibling that we reviewed earlier. Although this opinion is one-sided, and on several outside forums there are also many who ask for versions such as Computex displays, in the realm of gaming, where most users are aggressive, black is the most suitable color to hide all the “stains” that are often ignored by real gamers 😀 .
In the workstation area, like the P34G, the P35K is also equipped with a backlit keyboard. The level of illumination can also be adjusted, Low, high or Auto. The keys are very soft and sensitive, the type that is comfortable for typing, but gives very little gaming sensation, typical of office notebook keyboards. For a touchpad like gamers, you can see, it is spacious with a full surface design that at a glance hides the click switch. Pemmz thinks this is also a typical stylish notebook design, not a typical gaming notebook touchpad.
Turning to dimensions, the P35K puts its main selling point on its thickness which is only 21mm, sadistic. A small survey that Pemmz held during Indocomtech 2021, showed that P35K was able to become a big magnet for visitors who came. Even more unexpectedly, some pemmzholics who previously had their target product were tempted and some even decided to indent the P35K. The material used in the upper case is the same as the P34G, namely brushed aluminum. At the same time revising the information on the P34G review, these two Gigabyte gaming notebooks use plastic material on the bottom case.
The slim shape makes the P35K battery have to be hidden behind the bottom case like Apple products or ultrabooks. Although hidden, the P35K battery is still removable. Still about the bottom case, only RAM can be directly accessed with a special door without opening the bottom case as a whole. There’s plenty of fresh air inlet ventilation on the P35K, especially the area where the CPU and GPU fan heatsinks meet. Well, for the 2nd version that is currently being marketed, an inhaust hole is added just above the fan blades. FYI, there are a total of 4 speakers, 2 as front, 2 more as rear and a subwoofer facing down which can also be seen directly from the surface of the bottom case.
Specification
GTX765M is a mid-level mobile GPU with 15-20% higher performance than GTX760M. It’s clear, because the GTX765M is awarded a clock speed and shader speed that is 30% higher than the GTX760M. The consequence, of course, is power consumption and an easier temperature to heat. For this reason, the GTX765M is widely positioned to fill gaming notebooks 15.6″ and above. The Xenom Siren and Razer Blade 14 are exceptions.
Of course, the P35K is not the first to adopt the GTX765M, below is a list of gaming notebooks from other brands that have also adopted the Geforce GTX765M. As mentioned above, the GTX765M has excellent performance but is quite friendly in terms of working temperature. Not surprisingly, this GPU is also widely adopted by small gaming notebooks with 14″ sails such as the Alienware 14, Razer Blade 14 and the Xenom Siren with 13.3″ LCD.
The P35K comes with the exact same specifications as the ASUS ROG G750JW that we reviewed previously. The main strength of this notebook is clearly in a slim body but equipped with a Geforce GTX765M GPU. If you follow the ASUS ROG-G750JW review, you can say the P35K is a massive downsizing. Amazingly, like the P34G, even though it has a slim design, the P35K has adopted individual heatsinks for the CPU and GPU which are mandatory for notebook gaming products.
To further maximize overall performance, Gigabyte decided to use 2 mSATA SSDs in the sample version of the P35K that we reviewed this time. In contrast to MSI gaming notebook products, the Gigabyte P35K has 2 dedicated m-SATA slots, which in this review are paired with two 128GB m-SATA SSDs and configured in RAID 0. Apart from m-SATA, the P35K has one 2.5″ SATA which you can attach a conventional HDD up to 2TB. Still not enough? You can also remove the ODD and replace it with a HDD Caddy (Optional) to install the 2nd HDD. No need extra tools to remove the ODD from its place, because Gigabyte has changed the lock from a bolt model to a switch model like removing a battery.
Connectivity
There is nothing special about the P35K connectivity that we are reviewing this time. However, in the edition now on the market, the Gigabyte P35K gives the option of a Thunderbolt connection. This is certainly an added value even though until now Thunderbolt, apart from storage media, is less popular in Indonesia. For video output to external media, unfortunately the P35K only provides HDMI. It could be that this adjusts the GTX765M specifications which are able to support a maximum resolution of only 2560×1600. Like the P34G, one of the USB 3.0 posts on the P35K also functions as an “always on” charger that can charge your gadgets even if the notebook is in the off position.
Feature
The software features on the P35K are similar to the P34G that Pemmz reviewed earlier. And according to Pemmz these features are very useful, especially the Update Manager. Now in the smart manager, it turns out that there is a slight difference where at the Ultraboost point of the P35K there is only a Performance option without any Extreme options like the Ultra Boost P34G. In fact, both geforce 7 series support GPU Boost 2.0. Maybe the barebones size doesn’t allow the GTX765M on the P35K to be pulled to the maximum. Maybe yes. .
Performance
The use of two m-SATA SSDs configured in RAID pemmz sees not optimally boosting the overall value through PCMark 7 1.0.4 testing. It can be seen in the storage score which, when compared to P34G’s score, is only 300 points adrift or around 6%. But again, synthetic testing is not the only reference. Although the performance of an m-SATA cannot be compared to a real 2.5″ SSD, through HDTunes Pro testing, the dual m-SATA RAID 0 configuration on the P35K has an average performance of 600-700mbps.
In synthetic and real world gaming benchmark tests, it can be seen that all comparison products that use the GTX765M show almost the same performance. Especially in the 3Dmark 11 test, the GTX765M on the Gigabyte P35K looks quite stunning. Enabling the Performance preset in the ultra boost option which overclocks the GPU slightly higher proves to be quite powerful. Now for overall performance testing through PCMark 7, the ASUS ROG G750JW, which has not used the SSD option, let alone the RAID feature, is quite far behind.
Well, here you need to pay attention, temperature. The MSI GS70 and Gigabyte P35K have almost the same thickness. The temperature that is read shows MSI is a little more “cool” because it has a larger cooling area (barebone 17.3″). Of course ASUS ROG G750JW is the coldest because it has the largest air circulation space.
Battery testing also looks balanced between the P35K and the MSI GS70, both of which scored in the range of 80 minutes. Only the ROG 750JW from the time of review scored superior scores. There is something a little suspicious about the P35K battery testing. On the info panel it is stated that the manufacturer of the battery is Razer, what is the real relationship?
Conclusion
As predicted in all the review sessions above, the Gigabyte P35K seems to be a dark horse that other vendors must be aware of. With its breakthrough offering a super slim design that supports portability, nowadays it is difficult to find a match for this product. The quality of the LCD is also quite OK, making it an additional sales point for users who will use it as a design computer. The upgrade side is also very good, outside of the GPU, users can customize all the supporting hardware in this notebook. 2 m-SATA slots, easy detachable ODD tray is a very tempting offer, especially for users who plan to upgrade in the future.
Gigabyte is also very responsive in improving the side that is felt to be lacking. The addition of an inhaust as a fresh air entry point is added in a strategic location. With the addition of this inhaust hole, the retail version should have much better heat dissipation performance. We will update again when we have the opportunity to review retail units. So, stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe.
Pros
- Slim only 21mm
- 2 x m-SATA RAID ready slots
- Easy Removeable ODD
- IPS LCD panels
Cons
- Display out only available HDMI
- Backlit keyboard is not bright
Fair
- Thin design minimizes air flow space
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