Gigabyte U4 UD Intel i7 14″ Laptop Review

A Closer Look

This notebook weighs just under 1KG, which is absolutely astonishing. Actually, if you expand the RAM to 16GB, it’ll weigh over 1KG, that’s how close the numbers are. It’s astonishing though, and despite the low weight, it feels surprisingly rigid and well made. Gigabyte, you’ve done good here!

It’s a pretty simple design, they’ve not done anything overly flashy, and honestly, I prefer this. It’s a flat grey/silver finish with a simple reflective Gigabyte logo; no RGB, no flairs, no curves.

The hinge feels smooth but firm, and while I can adjust the lid with one hand, it stays perfectly in place at any angle.

There’s a lovely Full-HD matte finish IPS-grade screen on this laptop. That’s pretty decent for a 14″ panel, which can often use panels lower than Full-HD due to the increased pixel density anyway. Again, it’s a clean design, slim bezels on all sides, and a fairly traditional keyboard and touch pad layout compliments it well.

Intel Core i7 and IRIS Xe, this may be slim and light, but it’s packing a pretty potent CPU for its size.

The mouse pad is massive, much bigger than I’d have expected, but it looks and feels great. It supports multi-touch, pinch zoom, and has proper clicks on the front corners too.

The keyboard is very well spaced, giving it a natural feel to me, given I use a desktop full-size keyboard daily, that’s impressive. Of course, the arrow keys are moved, and they’ve put the enter key on a diet to accommodate this, but it works. Albeit, I do tend to hit # more than enter, but these are small things you quickly adapt to.

A webcam is built-in, with a pair of stereo microphones. Nothing crazy, standard fare, but it’ll get you through your next Zoom meeting easily enough.

The connectivity is pretty decent. You get HDMI, USB 3.2 and Type-C on the left side. Oh and the power port. However, you can actually charge this via the Type-C if you so desired.

There’s another USB port here, a combo audio jack, and a micro-SD card reader. There’s also a Kensington lock mount, and a power button. So yeah, there are only three USB ports (including the Type-C), and there’s no LAN, but honestly, for a lighter more portable system, I’m OK with this.

On the underside, it’s closed up pretty tight. There’s no big vents or anything! Actually, I didn’t think there were any vents at all at first. But they’re hiding between the back and the screen hinge. Keep in mind, it’s just the CPU that needs to keep cool, and it’s a very efficient chip too.

Branding is kept simple and elegant, which just a small bit of print on the right side of the keyboard.