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The Gigabyte U2442F is an interesting option for any gamer who wants a laptop that is as happy out on the road as it is plugged into the wall playing the latest games. It's not perfect, and some of the design decisions are questionable at best, but even so it's worth considering if you factor in a few important caveats.
We liked
The gaming performance is impressive for a machine that is so thin and light - you'd usually have to pay heavily in the bulk and weight stakes to hit these kinds of performance figures. You will have to ease back on some of the settings to hit smooth frame rates, but it's not an impossible ask for this laptop.
The native resolution of this screen makes for great visuals in your games and movies, and also ensures that it's a versatile option if you're looking to do something a little more work-orientated. It's a great screen, and while the viewing angles aren't insane, straight on it's a positive experience.
The core specification of the Gigabyte U2442F is strong, with plenty of RAM helping to keep things running smoothly. There are plenty of ports and slots for your peripherals and memory cards, too.
We disliked
The general build quality and choice of materials simply isn't high-end. While the internal components do deliver where it really counts, we do demand a little more for our cash than this chassis offers.
While the battery life is mightily impressive, we would have preferred to have a removable battery option - not only for extending the lifespan of the Ultrabook when out and about, but also to avoid costly repairs if the battery does develop a fault.
The storage side of the equation doesn't quite add up as it stands. There is a version of this laptop with a 750GB traditional platter hard drive alongside the SSD and this gives you a much more capable gaming machine - 128GB is just a little on the tiny side for gaming.
Final verdict
Overall, the Gigabyte U2442F is certainly worth considering. Its form factor makes for a far more appealing system than your average gaming laptop. The core components are spot on, and while the SSD is a little on the small side for a gaming machine, it certainly keeps proceedings running smoothly - you'll be the first into your games while your opponents are still loading.
Our biggest beef is with the materials and build quality - we simply expect much more than what we've got here for the money. You shouldn't hear a rattle when you tap a £999 / US$1,099 / AU$1,499 laptop.
There's also the problem that any gaming PC finds itself in the shadow of what Intel's going to do next. Admittedly it's unlikely that Haswell will beat a discrete GPU like the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M, but it may get close, and that should affect the pricing of such machines. As it is, if you absolutely need a new gaming laptop now, this isn't the worst option.
