Gigabyte is perhaps best known as a motherboard maker, but over the last couple of years it has launched more than a few notebooks. One of the more interesting today is Gigabyte M1405 that is very much a laptop, but with an extra touch in the form of a powerful docking station.
M1405 was announced during the Taipei Game show earlier this year and is soon ready to launch. The 14″ aluminum case, and hardware inside, weighs 1,7 kg. Other specifications include Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor, up to 8 GB RAM, 500 GB harddrive, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics and 6 cell battery; nothing spectacular. What does make it interesting is the things outside the box.
Gigabyte was proud to fit a 14″ display in the older 13.3″ chassis, which you could tell from the very narrow bezels. You can compare with other 13,3″ models and you will see they have a much thicker bezel and of course smaller screen. They had a convenient system to control minor functions with the push of a button, e.g. switching energy profile. An interesting solution is the possibility of removing the DVD player and replace it with a 3 cell battery. That gives you a total of 9 battery cells and up to 10h battery time. A clever solution for those that don’t need an optical drive.
Gigabyte M1405 also has an accessory to make it stand out. A docking station with a built-in Nvidia GT220 1GB graphics card. This may be a very interesting solution for those who are looking for a notebook with long battery times and power to play real games when you get home.
The price isn’t set yet, but count on €900 and up. The neat docking station will cost about €200 and there will be package deals. The launch is slated for Fall and will be worldwide.
