Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X ASG 2024 Laptop can be used for Gaming, Content Creation, and AI rendering. It comes equipped with the Intel I7 14650HX and the Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU along with 32GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. I was impressed with just how many features Gigabyte managed to pack into this lightweight unit. **Unique Features** 1. The Aorus has Advanced Optimus that saves you from having to restart the computer or go into bios, every time you switch from Optimus to dedicated or integrated graphics. 2. Gigabyte, through its control center, has integrated AI to switch between graphic cards, or even change power modes depending on what application you open. Stable diffusion is also available in the control center to render graphics. **Design/Build Quality** There's a matte surface (great for avoiding fingerprints) with a hard plastic bottom and surface, and aluminum lid. I was a little disappointed that it only opens up to about 120 or 130 degrees, so you can't lay it flat, but the hinges are nice and strong. There's a light projector with a purple AORUS that illuminates from the back (kind of cool,) and there's an iridescent logo on top of the lid. I didn't notice any flex on the screen. The trackpad is large with small satisfying clicks. There are two vents on the surface, two vents out the back, and vents on the left and right. You will notice 7 translucent keys on the keyboard, the Dolby Vision Atmos logo, subtle Auros graphics, and a power button top center. There is also non-slip rubber on the bottom to prevent sliding. Design and build quality is solid, but with the translucent key caps, iridescent logo, and RGB highlights, it will be hard to hide that it's a gaming laptop. **Display** The display is a 16.0" 16:10 WQXGA QHD (2560x1600) IPS with a 165 Hz Refresh rate. It comes with adaptive sync, 100% sRGB coverage. It's pantone validated (must have for content creators using the Adobe Suite) and TUV Rheinland Certified (which means it is low-blue light emitting and takes better care of your eyes.) It comes with Dolby Vision, Gsync, 2 Display Ports via USB-C and 1 HDMI 1.1 out. This means 3 external monitors. (I hooked up 2.) It's specced at 400 nits of brightness but this one goes well over 500 nits. You can also take this one outside with some sun and still see what you're doing. There are slim bezels on the sides with a Webcam up top and thicker bezel at the bottom. The display boasts a 3ms response time which is great for gaming. TestUFO testing for ghosting shows a good image. There's a very good 178 degree viewing angle and an anti-glare finish. This display is very good quality and great for gaming/content creation/rendering. **CPU** Equipped with a 14th Generation Intel I7 14650HX it will reach speeds up to 5.2 GHz. There are 16 cores, 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores. I feel like this is the sweet spot. You get plenty of power and Gigabyte manages to keep this one very cool. On Cinebench R23 I scored 1840 on the Single-Core test and a Multi-Core test of 21206. Very good scores here and capable of handling any gaming/software with ease. **GPU** Equipped with an Nvidia RTX 4070 and 8GB of VRAM, it maxes at 140 watts. The RTX 40 series is great for increasing frames with Frame generation and DLSS technologies. I scored 12600 on TimeSpy with standard settings. In gaming mode I hit 12900, and in Turbo mode (fans are maxed) I hit 13100. Note: During the Timespy test I did average 88 degrees on the CPU and 71 on the GPU. The clock frequency was right at 5.2 GHz on the CPU. The 4070 is more than enough to play any AAA title at High to Ultra settings. **HDD** There's a 1 TB NVME SSD, plenty of space, and fortunately there are two M.2 SSD slots so you can expand later if necessary. These are the latest generation PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe M.2 SSD up to 4TB. I hit about 5000 MB/s Read/Write speeds on CrystalDiskMark 8.04 on the 1 TB SSD that was included. **Memory** There are 2 DDR5 slots with DDR5-5600MHz memory sticks in them. These are very good speeds for memory. Gigabyte didn't cut any corners here. You can put up to 64GB in this system, but 32GB is more than enough for just about anything you throw at it. Memory never exceeded 16GB used on the performance monitor during gaming or while using content creation software. **Keyboard** There's almost no keyboard flex so it's a solid build. The Aorus comes with 3 zone RGB backlighting, and has up to 1.7mm key travel (supports n-key which is great for hitting multiple keys at once.) There are semi transparent W-A-S-D-Q-E-R keys that are soft and quiet. On the downside there is no per-key RGB which would allow for more customization. It does support macros if you want to save your common key combinations. **Ports** 2 Type-A supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 1 Type-C supports USB 3.2 Gen2 DisplayPort 1.4 1 Type-C Thunderbolt 4 (Supports USB4, Display Port 1.4) (Delivers power of 100 watts) 1 MicroSD (UHS-II) transfer rates here are exceptional 1 Audio/headphone jack 1 RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet 1 HDMI 2.1 (I'm using this slot for one of my monitors to save the USB-C for something else) There's a nice selection of ports. I do wish they were a little higher up (away from the hands) or in the back of the laptop out of the way. **Webcam** The webcam is an IR (face recognition) 1080p at 30 FPS. There's a built in array microphone, 2.1 MP camera, and it supports Windows Hello Face authentication. This is all you will need for any zoom/teams meetings. With good light it looks great, in low-light it's good enough. **Tech** Equipped with Wi-fi 7 you get the 6GHz band too. It comes with Bluetooth version 5.4, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos (which is like 5.1.2 surround sound.) This is essential for gaming so that you can hear thing around you. It's also great for movies. **Sound** There are two 2W Speakers that are bottom firing. Speakers get louder than most laptops I've had, but with little bass as usual. **Battery** There's a big battery in the Aorus at 99WH. There's a fast charge of 50% capacity in 30 minutes. With normal to light use (such as web browsing and other functions outside of gaming and video rendering, you can get 8 or 9 hours out of a single charge. There's a small 240 watt AC adapter (nice for traveling.) I'm happy with the size of the battery, the run time, and the intelligent power switching provided by AI Power gear. **Fans/Cooling** The fans are silent most of the time. Some gaming laptops struggle with cooling and have to blasts the fans to compensate for inadequate cooling or space. Gigabyte really nailed the cooling in this laptop. When the fans are working hard, the highest sound I measured was about 51 decibels, not too bad. You will see CPU temps idling in low to high 40s and GPU temps in mid to high 30s depending on what power profile you choose. There are 5 heat pipes with a really well engineered system. There's a large intake on the keyboard surface and four outtakes (2 on front, left and right), no vapor chamber, no liquid metal, but surprisingly cool. **Software** Gigabyte Control Center monitors temps and utilization but it also does much more. RGB Lighting - You can also select 8 different LED effects or even customize them. This will change how your keyboard looks and the pattern. AI - This is also your control center for AI. If you choose AI Boost and click on the settings, you can literally change power delivery by choosing different profiles. The default power range is 90 to 120 watts, Creator is 110-135 watts, Turbo is 125-150, Gaming is 110-135, and Meeting and Energy saving are both 65-100 watts. AI Power Gear switches between integrated and discrete GPU and dynamically adjusts power management. AI Boost will detect what application you're using, and it can adjust the CPU, GPU, or fan curve for higher performance. Gigabyte control center also offers AI Stable Diffusion for rendering. Other Options - You can turn the keyboard to white backlighting or off (which might be nice in a professional setting.) You can also choose different fan control profiles which will determine when the fans kick in and how loud. I adjusted my battery to stop charging at 80% here, and you will find many more options available to customize your system. **Games tested** (All at highest settings with DLSS when available) Temperatures were very impressive! Senua's Saga Hell Blade 2: FPS Ave: 52, GPU Temp:75, CPU Temp: 75 Shadow of the Tomb Raider: FPS Ave: 154, GPU Temp: 70, CPU Temp: 70 Alan Wake FPS Ave: 75, GPU Temp: 70, CPU Temp: 70 Cyberpunk 2077: FPS Ave: 75 GPU Temp: 74, CPU Temp: 70 Forza Horizon 5: Extreme Settings, FPS Ave: 82, GPU Temp: 71, CPU Temp: 70 **Conclusion** This is an exceptional laptop that does so many things well. Gigabyte covered every possible option for gamers and content creators with the added luxury of AI. Gigabyte gets everything out of the CPU and GPU here with no throttling that I could detect. When you analyze every element of this laptop, it's an exceptional machine with hardly any weaknesses. I'm a fan. Highly Recommended. **Pros** * Cooling is top-tier * Display has a ton of features, >500 Nits * Design is slick and sturdy * AI features/Gigabyte software * 1080P IR Webcam * CPU, GPU, Memory speeds are well above average * No bloatware **Needs Improvement** * Lacks per-key RGB * Ports on sides (none in back) * Chassis only has metal on the lid * Some options are hard to find (not intuitive) in Gigabyte Control Center software * Micro-SD (Not full size)

As a huge gamer who has to travel a lot for work I found myself wanting a good Gaming laptop for on the road. So, I was excited to get my hands on the Aorus GIGABYTE 16X. This 16 inch gaming laptop boasts an impressive lineup of specifications, including a 165Hz display, an Intel i7-14650HX CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. After putting it through some performance tests and daily usage, here’s my thoughts focusing on its build, gaming capabilities, screen resolution, battery life, and the Aorus built-in software. Build: The Aorus 16X is truly a sleek laptop with a striking design,with a sturdy build quality and doesn't come off as too “gammery” when using it in public. The RGB lighting on the keyboard and the Aorus projection logo on the back adds a little touch of gaming flair without being overly flashy but it can be turned off if you prefer. The top of the laptop is made of aluminum which gives it a nice premium look and feel where the rest of the laptop is made of a sturdy plastic. The trackpad on the AORUS 16X is the perfect size for gaming laptop, offering ample space for multi-finger gestures and smooth navigation. The trackpad surface is made from glass, providing a smooth and responsive experience. Then when gaming, the touchpad has great palm rest touch detection, so you don't accidently register it when playing games. Gaming Capabilities and Performance: The Aorus GIGABYTE 16X is a beast when it comes to gaming. The combination of the Intel i7-14650HX CPU that has 30M Cache, up to 5.2 GHz,16 cores: 8 P-core and 8 E-core and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 with 8GB of VRAM, where it can boost Clock up to 2175MHz and has a maximum graphics power draw of 140 Watts, allowing it to deliver outstanding performance. I tested it with several demanding games like "Cyberpunk 2077," "Ghost of Tsushima,",”Resident Evil 4” and "Call of Duty: Warzone," and it handled them all flawlessly. The games ran smoothly at Medium to High settings when using Nvidia’s DLSS where the frame rates would consistently be above 100 FPS. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM at 5600 MHz ensures that multitasking and running memory-intensive applications are a breeze.To truly get the best out you're Aorus 16X when gaming, I highly suggest using the Nvidia GeForce Experience app. This is a helpful app for those who are new to PC gaming.The app will scan all your games and give you the best option to optimize each game to its recommendation for the best settings that your hardware can run. Screen Resolution and Display: The 16-inch display with a 165Hz refresh rate is one of the standout features. The screen is an IPS WQXGA 2560x1600 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which provides sharp and vivid visuals that enhance the gaming and viewing experience. The high refresh rate allows for buttery-smooth gameplay, which is very noticeable in fast-paced action games and competitive first person shooters. The colors are vivid, and the contrast is excellent, making both dark and bright scenes look stunning.You will notice a little backlight bleeding with dark backgrounds but that is expected from ISP displays, but it's not too noticeable. The display also performs well in outdoor settings with minimal glare, thanks to the anti-glare coating. The screen comes with a built-in FHD 1080p webcam for video chats and it also allows for Windows Hello for unlocking your laptop with your face, which is nice since this laptop does not come with a touch sensor unlock button. Battery Life and Charging: Battery life is always a concern with gaming laptops, but with the Aorus 16X it performs decently in this regard. On a full charge, I managed to get around 4-5 hours of moderate use, which included browsing the internet, streaming videos, and some light gaming. During intense gaming sessions, the battery life would give me about 2 hours of playtime, which is expected given just how powerful the hardware is. For extended gaming sessions, I recommend keeping the laptop plugged in to maintain peak performance. This also affects the actual performance when gaming. So in order to get the best performance you are going to want to keep your laptop plugged in, that being said you can still game when it's not charged but you will see a pretty steep decline in gaming performance, so keep that in mind. Ports and Connectivity: The Aorus GIGABYTE 16X comes with a generous selection of ports, which includes: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1 x USB Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) 1 x USB3.2 Gen2 (Type C, support DisplayPort 1.4) 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x RJ45 Ethernet port 1 x 3.5mm audio combo jack 1 x MicroSD Card Reader This variety of ports ensures that you can connect all your peripherals, external displays, and accessories without any hassle or need of a port dongle. The inclusion of Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1 is especially useful for high-speed data transfer and connecting to my high-resolution external monitor that supports HDMI 2.1 or my VR headsets. Internally it comes with the new Wi-Fi 7 wireless chip for faster speeds and lower latency. Currently, I have a Wi-Fi 6e router, but was still able to get my full bandwidth of 900 Mbps for both uploads and downloads, so I can only assume if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router with Gigabit internet that this laptop will have some of the fastest speeds over Wi-Fi. Along with the Wi-Fi 7 chip it also has the latest Bluetooth V5.4 chip that allows for better connections and lower latency for your Bluetooth enabled devices such as Headphones, keyboards, and mice. The built in speakers are just ok for laptop speakers in that it has two downward firing speakers under the laptop, but let's be honest most people will be using a gaming headset or headphones over bluetooth when using this laptop and the built in ones get the job done. The Laptop comes with 1TB of storage and has an additional M.2 slot so, you can add an additional NVMe SSD for more storage. The same goes for RAM, in that it is also upgradable with two slots to get you up 64GB of RAM. Built-In Software: The Aorus Control Center, which comes pre-installed, is a comprehensive software app that enhances the overall user experience. The AI Nexus utilizes AI to optimize the system performance based on the current task. For example, it can dynamically adjust power settings and fan speeds to balance performance and thermal management depending on if you're gaming, rendering videos or just surfing the web. The AI-driven features are particularly handy during gaming, as it makes sure that the system runs at its best without having to manually tinker in the settings. The software also offers customization options for the RGB lighting, keyboard macros, and system monitoring, giving users full control over their setup. It comes packaged with Windows 11 Home Edition, but I recommend upgrading to the Pro edition, so you are not limited in some of the admin and customizations that the Home edition does not have. Pros: Great Gaming Performance: Handles the latest games at medium to high settings with respectable frame rates. High-Quality Display: 165Hz refresh rate with excellent color and sharpness. Robust Build and Design: Sleek, durable, and portable. Ample Ports: Wide selection of ports including Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. AI Optimization: Aorus software intelligently manages performance and thermal settings. Cons: Battery Life: Limited battery life during intensive gaming sessions. Performance not Plugged in: Performance will take a dip when not plugged into an outlet. Fan Noise: Can get quite loud under heavy load. Weight: 5.0lbs is on the heavier side for laptops Overall, the Aorus GIGABYTE 16X is a powerhouse gaming laptop that excels in delivering top performance and an immersive gaming experience on a laptop. Its high-refresh-rate display, powerful internals, and its plentiful ports make it a standout choice for serious gamers on the go. While it comes with a premium price tag and some minor drawbacks like battery life and fan noise, the overall performance and features justify the investment. You can't go wrong with picking this laptop.

I was quite surprised by this gaming laptop. Most are clunky, using simple shells with more of an ‘off-the-shelf-components’ vibe to them. Enter this 2024 Aorus 16X laptop and Gigabyte blew away a lot of those assumptions. The internals are still great for gaming, but the overall package (design) is much more streamlined and compact for a 16” laptop, which is great! _Performance__ But before talking about design a bit more, let me mention performance. The 4070 in this machine is great. Sure a 4080 might eke out more fidelity in demanding games, but for me it’s more than suitable. Frame rates are consistently over 60fps in the current games I played on it, and for the price I can’t complain. The 165hz screen doesn’t disappoint either. With nice, high pixel density that makes using this machine for productivity also quite good. Colors are punchy, despite a more matte finish on the screen, and blacks are quite good for an IPS panel (not OLED level, of course, but still looks nice in games with a lot of black.) _Design__ Now back to design. While the chassis is largely plastic, it feels solid and compact. A unique raised bottom panel provides airflow channels while keeping the profile much more streamlined and wedge-like. In short, it’s not endlessly huge and chunky. It feels much more portable than most gaming laptops on the market that have similar specs. It also utilizes Windows Hello facial recognition login, which is another rare commodity on gaming laptops, - but boy do I love having it here. It’s just nice to get logged in and running without the annoyance of passwords or codes. It also contains two m.2 slots, with only one in use at purchase, so expanding your machine’s storage to up to 2TB is an option. Memory is also upgradable in 2x SO-DIMM (DDR5) slots, but Gigabyte suggests that its max is 32gb, which is what this ships with anyway. RGB color features seem fairly tasteful, with the back lights shining up from the bottom of the screen a bit when open. WASD lights are interesting, but also a bit distracting at times, since it makes spotting the letter markings a bit harder. These can be turned off in software though. One last feature that I appreciated was the low-profile charging brick. All gaming laptops forego an internal transformer, so you’ll find the need to lug around a big black brick to charge it. Luckily, Gigabyte’s is the best I’ve seen, it’s thinner and a bit wider, but easier to travel with. Overall, I really appreciate the design here. I don’t prefer having sporty graphics on my laptop, but the ones here are fairly minimal in person. The top of the shell is simple and professional. It’s plenty powerful for my gaming needs and with its nice, pixel dense screen, it’s great for productivity too! Good Stuff - Streamlined design, looks more professional - Compact with thin bezels - Solid, yet minimal hinges that contribute to smaller footprint despite 16” screen - 4070 graphics are plenty for enjoying modern games, even if not always at the highest settings - Great, high resolution screen is good for productivity too. - Screen black-levels are not OLED level, but good - great colors vibrance too - Accessible memory and SSD slots for upgrading - RGB Lights seem tasteful, even if I don’t care for some of the slogans and graphics on the shell - Love having all ports on the sides, not the rear - Windows Hello face login is convenient Less than Good Stuff - Fan noise can be on the louder side at times - Power plug cannot be inserted all the way - Battery lasts only around 90 minutes, but I always plug in my gaming laptops anyway. - Would have appreciated a simple, protective sleeve for the price - WASD in clear keys make it a little hard to see key labels

The Gigabyte Aorus X16 is a nice update from previous Gigabyte laptops. The Aorus X16 has what I consider amazing build quality. I have had a couple of gaming laptops before that were much more expensive ad did not feel as quality or as solid, had massive back light bleed, or all the above. It has no chassis flex, no creaking, and most everything feels like metal, even the non metal bits. It a nice looking matte black aluminum lid with a nice gloss Aorus logo in the center of of the lid and another along the right outside edge of the keyboard. It has an RGB strip in the bottom of the monitor that reflects off the cooler and the can match or be different that the RGB keyboard. This year they decided to add a curvy back end between the exhaust ports and move the I/O ports to the side of the laptop and put in a panel that says AORUS and is back-lit by RGB to flash the AORUS logo on your desk. It is also less of a finger print magnet than my Aorus 15, probably because the lid is aluminum on this model and the keyboard tray is a textured matte plastic. The laptop is easy to maintain and mostly easy to work on as the internal components are smartly laid out and the expansion slots are easy to find. My biggest knock is they used Torx T6 screws to put the bottom shell on instead of more common #1 or #2 Phillips screws. Unless you have a purpose built electronics kit the likelihood of you having a Torx driver lying around isn't that great. Oddly enough the internals ARE held together with #0 and #1 Phillips. It weighs in a roughly 5.1lbs, and combined with the big CPU GPU cooler it is not the most portable laptop, but its nowhere near as bad as a lot out there. It comes with a chonky 240w power brick that is able to power the i7-14650HX and RTX4070 very well, and when not plugged in allows the NVIDIA Optimus Mux switch to run the integrated graphics and give you a reasonable 6-7hr web-surfing time and 3-4 streaming time. Gaming on a gaming laptop while on battery is generally a terrible idea and it proved true on this one as well. FPS suffers heavily running on integrated graphics and unless you drop settings to as low as they’ll go and the battery dies pretty quick after about an hour and a half or so in my testing. It has a 99Wh battery which is as big as airlines allow so you can fly and frag if you so desire. The laptop comes with a 16” 165hz display. At 2560x1600 the laptop has a 16:10 resolution that has more vertical height than a 2560x1440 display. It looks much better when doing productivity work, and if the game supports it, you get another 160 pixels in height to see whats going on in your game. However some games don’t and you'll get black bars at the top and bottom of your screen but its nothing really distracting. Also a great to have, this monitor has NVIDIA Gsync to help eliminate screen tearing in video games caused by fast movement. It works extremely well and helps keep you immersed in the game. The laptop comes with an RTX4070 with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM. This GPU is a great choice to power your gaming sessions. This GPU is plenty to run the majority of games at very high graphics settings and will do great in with heavy ray tracing. The 40 series includes Frame Generation, which reads the frame being displayed and the next frame and creates and inserts a frame between the two. This, along with NVIDIA's DLSS, has the effect of increasing FPS and the smoothness of the game, making it more enjoyable to watch. You don’t have to run these in many games, especially FPS games that rely more on quick reflexes than super detailed environments. Frame Generation can increase input lag, which will make it seem like what you do with the controls takes longer to show up, which can get you killed. Therefore, I recommend to test it in the game you're playing. It is best used in single player games, which are usually more graphically intense anyway and where Ray Tracing is at its best as well. DLSS on the other hand, is great to use in FPS games to help increase FPS while not increasing input lag. It will reduce the detail of the game to some extent, but its nothing you’re going to notice while running around in Call of Duty. Gigabyte wisely included 2 SO-DIMM slots to allow for upgrading your RAM. They included 2 16GB sticks of DDR5 running at 5600Mhz which isn't the fastest, but is a good spot and will have an impact on your games. 32GB is a nice amount to have as well. With more and more games using more RAM, 16GB is quickly becoming the bare minimum to have in a system. 32GB will be great for most anything you throw at it. If it isn’t you can stick up to 64GB in here which will be plenty. Gigabyte also includes a 1TB Gen 4 m.2 SSD. There isn't a game on the market that can saturate a Gen 4’s bandwidth so there won’t be long load times or stuttering while loading game content. 1TB is plenty for the majority of gamers right now. Unless you have to have All the Things, or only play AAA titles, you shouldn’t have to delete and download games often. They also include another 2280 m.2 slot for plenty of storage expansion so you shouldn’t run out of storage anytime soon. When it comes to a clean Windows install, Gigabyte deserves some credit here. Other than standard Microsoft programs, the only things installed were Gigabyte Control Center and Network Dragon, and NVIDIA Control Center. Network Dragon can be uninstalled, as you don’t need anything monitoring your internet while you play a game, as you really shouldn’t be doing any major background tasks while gaming in the first place. Control Center is decent. You go there to adjust the computers mode from gaming to battery saver to anything in between, adjust fan curves and RGB settings, etc. Its light and the settings are not buried in dozens of sub menus like one of my other laptops. The one of two thing that annoys me is that even though I can turn the track pad off to keep from bumping it while using a mouse, I cant disable the Windows key without installing a third party program or editing the Windows registry. I use the left Alt key to ping items in-game, and I kept hitting the Windows key instead and pulling me out of the game! Super simple thing they could fix in a future Control Center update. My only real knock against this laptop is Gigabyte decided to move the I/O ports to the side of the laptop to make room for a gimmicky RGB projector that lights up the AORUS logo on your desk. It’s tiny, blurry, and dim. Its not eye catching, more forgetful. And if you are a South Paw or just like not having your mouse cable, charging cable and HDMI cables in the way of your mouse and desk space, it just a dumb design. Previous AORUS laptops had the ports on the back, leaving the sides of your desk clutter free and usable. Not anymore. In conclusion, for the money you get a very well rounded gaming laptop that can handle all your games and some light creativity software with some room for upgrades and with a great Sync display that just so happens to be a little taller and a bit better to do work on, it can do more than most will ask of it. If the side I/O ports don’t bother you then it’ll be a great laptop.

Every year it never ceases to amaze me how much technology manufacturers somehow squeeze into a smaller product and still be able to perform at impressive levels. That sense of amazement still reigns true with GIGABYTE’s latest model, the 2024 AORUS 16” gaming laptop which comes packed with some of the latest high-end gaming hardware which they somehow shoved into a smaller, lighter rig compared to the gaming laptop I used for the past year. One of the things I like about the GIGABYTE brand is it’s not as flashy and loaded with bloatware compared to other manufacturers. The main consumer benefit for this lack of flashy-ness and added, unnecessary software also cuts down on cost allowing you to get more bang for your buck. You can see this cost cutting right away starting with the simple, uncolored cardboard box the high-end laptop ships in. Once out of the box, you may also notice the AORUS looks and feels like any run-of-the-mill, non-gaming, laptop; it looks more like a work notebook in my opinion with its smooth matte black shell until you turn it on and the RGB lighting kicks in to subtly whisper otherwise. However, don’t let that fool you once you delve into the specs of this silent, yet powerful, beast. As I previously mentioned, the RGB lighting that kicks on when you fire it up is when you can finally tell it’s not your grandma’s laptop. All the keys light up highlighted by the gamers’ favorite “QWERASD” keys that are clear and fully light up for quick visual reference. RGB lighting also shines across the rear along with the “AORUS” logo that projects on any surface you set it on which is pretty cool. There are fan exhaust ports on the rear and both sides to help pump the heat out when in performance gaming mode. While on the topic of the fans, even when they are at full speed, they are pretty quiet considering the heat the laptop’s internal hardware can produce. There are only ports on both sides, none on the rear, which consist of the power port, an ethernet input, HDMI out, USB-A and USB-C on the left side and another USB-A, USB-C, micro-SD slot and audio output on the right side. Unfortunately, there is no display port but you can always plug in an external dock if you need one or if you want to add additional monitors. The 16” IPS WQXGA 2560x1600 165Hz screen with Dolby Vision Atmos is stunning and the colors and contrast displayed during gaming look amazing. Looking under the hood, you’re able to see the intricate technical design allowing room for the hardware crammed into this beast. The fans, exhaust vents and 99.20Wh Li-Ion battery take up most of the space you can see on the bottom which isn’t a bad thing as they prevent overheating and giving you more unplugged time. Somehow, the designers still allowed room to add another SSD on top of the 1TB Gen4 M.2 SSD included, which is a must for me, and comes with fast 32GB (16x2) of DDR5 5600 RAM which can also upgrade if you wish to. The latest 14th generation Intel Core i7-14650HX processor can run up to 5.2 GHz which can give any multitasker piece of mind for ultra-productivity. Needless to say, I was excited to finally put this thing through a few rigorous tests to see how all this tech came together and compared to the competition. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, the benchmark software I use for the testing had no other exact matches to compare to but at least I was able to see where it landed with rigs closest to this one. One of the things I was most excited to try out was the compatibility with the latest Wi-Fi 7 router I have been using at my home for almost a year and haven’t had any tech that used Wi-Fi 7 as it is relatively new. That being said, I’ll just say my internet connection and speeds were fast but nothing I could really notice as Wi-Fi 6 is fast as well; the internet speed tests I ran were virtually the same so it was a bit of a letdown but nothing against the laptop. After downloading and installing the plethora of Windows 11 updates and driver updates, I was finally ready to give the benchmark tests a whirl. Long story, short, I was impressed the results came back higher than most other gaming laptops, 69% better than most with similar hardware, considering the size and weight of this one. That is clearly due to the latest Intel Core i7 processor that can run at a whopping 5.2 GHz and the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 graphics card built for laptops. The sound is pretty decent for a laptop and has Dolby Atmos Audio Technology with a built-in microphone but I usually just like to plug in headphones for the best sound while gaming. There’s enough storage to get most gamers started and, as I previously mentioned, there’s still room to upgrade or expand in the future. I have gamed on this laptop for hours and didn’t experience many slow downs, glitches or other issues while gaming. It’s definitely doesn’t perform as well as a full sized PC however it is a great gaming laptop for on the go and the battery lasts surprisingly long. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this laptops performance considering the size and weight and believe it is priced just right with high-end gaming hardware.

This was my first Gigabyte Laptop and I was very pleased—the simple no thrill of unboxing with the laptop and 240W charging brick. The charging brick was not gigantic but was a decent size for me. The outside of the laptop looks sleek but it does have gaming vibes to it. When you open the computer up you see the beauty of it. The trackpad, keyboard, and bright screen. The glass trackpad feels amazing. Scrolling and browsing the web was buttery smooth. The best trackpad I have used on any laptop. It just felt smooth, crisp, and a gliding sensation. My thumbs were in fluidity all the time with the trackpad. The keyboard has RGB if you care. The key presses are on the shallow side. Which I'm a huge fan of. They don't make much noise. So typing also was a blast. The Q, W, E, R, A, S, and D keys are of different shades. The screen is not OLED or Mini-LED but it does get bright. The colors are good and accurate. The best screen I've seen on a laptop or gaming devices with similar specs. Watching movies or slaying FPS there is no problem with the 165 Hz display. You will be able to play most games maxed out with DLSS and even at 2K. The CPU will be overkill for gaming. You get plenty of cores to do what you need. Even for the content creator, this is a good device. The CPU cores are excellent at video editing and rendering video. You get Intel Quick sync and AV1 Encoding which can be used for livestreaming. So this is more than just a capable gaming device. You get plenty of connection ports. One Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, USB-C 3.2, (2) USB-A 3.2, and an ethernet port. I do wish some of the larger ports were positioned on the back end. Sadly, they are not. You can upgrade the RAM and it has an extra SSD M.2 slot. So you can max this baby out. I think this is an amazing content creation and gaming device. The weight is manageable if you did have to carry this around all day. The charging cable does not stick in all the way. So I'm not sure why that is. Overall, there are not many negatives with this laptop. The fans were silent under the right settings. The Gigabyte Control center you can do your basic settings. Pick user profiles, turn out discrete GPU, limit the fans, and limit the battery to 80% if you keep it plugged in. But all the AI branding crap needs to stop. This is a good laptop that will hold it's own. Great speakers and the battery was lasting roughly 5 hours on video playback. Not all day but that is not bad for a gaming laptop. So Yes, this thing is a winner. The 4070 will fare you well.

This Gigabyte Aorus 16 a great mid-tier gaming laptop that I use at home, while at the same time doing some basic Ai generated creation tools. I was stunned at the way this laptop is physically. It feels very sturdy and durable, looks really beefy device compared to today's standard or gaming laptops. Despite that, it is not too heavy to hold and place in your bag. You are met with so many RGB lighting, notably the QWERASD keys. But you can also change the way the keyboard lights up through the Gigabyte Center. There is also a very cool "AORUS" RGB projected to the surface from the back of the laptop about an inch away, gives this a nice little flare. There are two vents on the side to distribute the heat. For this size, I was thankful that this computer did not get too hot while using it. Due to the overall size of this computer, they are able to distribute that heat well. The keyboard is ok in my opinion, I found myself liking the tactile feeling of the keys, but the layout was somewhat frustrating as I kept pressing the wrong keys on the right side of the keyboard, maybe because I am used to different OS or smaller laptops. The glass trackpad is decent as I noticed that some areas at the top were not clicking at all. The screen is a 165 hz IPS, 2560x1600 screen. Colors and images are very vibrant, and playing on this has been a joy to use. It's really bright at about 560 nits brightness. Performance has been really good on this, way better than what I was expecting. Playing FPS and racing games both on the apps and online has been great with no drop screens or throttling. The sound that this gives off is very nice, good bass as they are Dolby Atmos Audio System which brings a very good gaming sound experience. What was somewhat disappointing was after booting this up for the first time, there was a lot of software upgrades that made the computer very laggy and confusing. The Gigagbyte Control Center is very helpful for adjusting settings and performance for your own liking. You have good IO on this, a HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4 port, and a USB-C 3.2 gen 2 port, and two USB-A, and a Microsd card slot. The 240 watt charger is a little confusing for me too, because I noticed that it doesn't go all the way in the slot which is by design. This also has Windows Hello which makes signing in really fast and simple. The 1080p webcam is good to have for conference calls, almost expected on all laptops these days, but nice to have for a gaming laptop. The internals are expandable. Opening it up, you see the thermal plating to help with that heat when it is sitting on your lap. The RAM is upgradable as there is an extra slot there. This unit came with 32Gb of RAM so that is plenty enough for my gaming needs, but it is nice to know that it can be upgraded for future-proofing. The 99.20 watt battery provided me around 7 hours of solid mix usage. Overall, again a very decent mid-range gaming laptop with really good features and performance.

I've really been enjoying this computer. Setup was a little finicky because I setup the Xbox app to get games downloaded, and then the computer did a BIOS update, and GamePass wouldn't launch any games. There were a few suggested fixes I found on google, but the most surefire way was to reset the computer and start from scratch. Since I had barely done much setup I went that route. Took a little longer to get back into using the computer, but it resolved the issue. So, my advice is to make sure the BIOS updates before installing any gaming apps, as it may change your Hardware Identifier and trip anti-cheat or anti-piracy mechanisms. So, that hiccup aside, my first impressions are: love the keyboard, love the touchpad, and the screen is oh-so-sexy. It is a 16:10 aspect ratio at 2560x1600, which I found that some games don't have an option for. The closest is 2560x1440, meaning you'll get black bars on the top and bottom of the screen (if it doesn't stretch). Having the black bars ended up not bothering be, because it ended up being a good place to put CPU/FPS/Temp overlays. The screen is also 165hz, which is sounds overkill, but makes for such smooth motion. The display also supports HDR (according to windows), but when I fired up Resident Evil 2, it did not recognize the HDR support. I went through the HDR calibration wizard in Windows, and there really wasn't much to adjust. The only slider that seemed to do anything was the darkness slider. But the screen does get quite bright. The included Gigabyte control center is... good enough. Nothing special. It lets you control the keyboard lighting, and adjust custom fan profiles, or switch between the preset ones. It has some "AI" settings, none particularly well-explained (particularly AI Boost). Though, spoiler alert: none if it is "AI". For some reason, they also included an AI Image Generator interface (Stable Diffusion), which is fun to play with, I guess, but does nothing for improving the gaming experience. Maybe make some weird user avatar icons. The SSD performance I haven't found to be especially noteworthy. It may be one area worth upgrading sooner rather than later. Fortunately, this laptop includes plenty of upgradeability and expandability. It has a 2nd M.2 slot, and 2 none-soldered RAM slots (though both are occupied by 16gb sticks out of the box). It also has a rather beefy cooling system which I love to see. A lot of laptops cheap out in this department to save weight and size, but you pay for it in performance. This laptop does not make that sacrifice, and prioritizes performance. The fans are also somewhat substantial, but that does mean under load, they can spin up to a pretty high speed, and that means noise. Depending on your tolerance for fan noise you may not like this. But it means the computer doesn't have the throttle. They've also given the fans ample ventilation to move that air, so they are able to make the most of the air they do move. So, is there anything not to like? Well, it's strongly separated the discreet and integrated graphics, meaning when it switches, almost like a physical disconnect (Windows even plays the hardware inserted chime). The screen can also momentarily freeze during this switch. It's a minor annoyance, and I think it's to ensure maximum energy savings by completely disconnecting the nVidia GPU when it's not in use. While on battery, I found performance to be a bit janky, and I think it is because it is aggressively throttling to get as much energy savings as possible. You may be able to adjust this a bit in the Gigabyte control center. I ran 3D Mark CPU test while on battery and the results were absolutely abysmal. But, while basic downloading up updates and games, while light web browsing I was able to get ~4 hrs of battery life. So, you can use it on battery, but I wouldn't do any gaming like that. It comes with a 240w power adapter, which gets quite hot while gaming, so make sure it has plenty of room to breath. Game performance was great, Most games recommended the highest or nearly highest graphics settings and the laptop handled it all like a champ (I tested with RE2, Horizon 5, and VR Chat with Odyssey headset). 3D Mark TimeSpy benchmark hit around 12700. The built-in speakers also sound quite nice, and get quite loud, so if you find yourself without headphones, you'll be just fine. I am very happy with this laptop.

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X 16" 165Hz Gaming Laptop is a powerhouse designed for serious gamers and demanding users. With its Intel i7-14650HX processor, 32GB of RAM, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, it delivers top-tier performance for gaming, content creation, and multitasking. The laptop boasts a sleek and modern design with a sturdy build quality. The 16-inch IPS display is vibrant and offers excellent color accuracy, making it perfect for gaming and media consumption. It also offers HDR and Dolby Vision support. The slim bezels add to the immersive experience, and the overall design feels premium and durable. The 165Hz refresh rate on the IPS panel is a standout feature, providing smooth and responsive gameplay. 165Hz is more than enough for modern FPS games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (aka COD MW3), which is the game I play the most. I am able to get consistent 140 frames per second at the highest settings with Nvidia DLSS3 frame generation enabled, thanks to the beefy RTX 4070 GPU in this laptop. However, I wish that it had more than 8 GB of VRAM. COD MW3 recommends 10 GB of VRAM for 4K/Highest Resolution game settings. Even with only 8 GB of VRAM, I did not notice any bottlenecks while playing large multiplayer COD sessions. The high refresh rate, combined with a fast response time, minimizes motion blur and screen tearing, ensuring an enjoyable gaming experience. The display's color reproduction and brightness levels are impressive, making it suitable for both gaming and creative work. In summary, this is how modern AAA games are meant to be played! Equipped with the Intel i7-14650HX processor and 32GB of RAM, this laptop handles multitasking and demanding applications with ease. Whether you're gaming, streaming, or working on resource-intensive tasks like video editing, the laptop performs exceptionally well. I did not notice any lags or delays while gaming or editing simple Youtube videos. This laptop feels “future proof” whereby I feel confident I can use it at least for the next 4 years without wishing I had more performance. The keyboard is comfortable for long gaming sessions, with responsive keys and customizable RGB backlighting. The keys feels soft and comfortable while typing. The layout is user-friendly, and the keys have a satisfying travel distance. The trackpad is precise and smooth, although most gamers will likely use a gamepad like a Dualsense or Xbox controller. The trackpad feels very high end with a smooth glassy finish and not cheap like a lot of PC trackpads feel. Battery life is average for a gaming laptop, lasting around 3-4 hours with mixed usage. During intense gaming sessions, expect it to drop significantly. This is typical for high-performance gaming laptops, and using it while plugged in is recommended for extended gaming periods. I noticed the frame rate dropped considerably when playing COD MW3 on battery, so keep it plugged in for maximum gaming performance. The laptop offers a good selection of ports, including USB-C 3.2, Thunderbolt 4, USB-A 3.2, HDMI 2.1, and an Ethernet port. This ensures you have plenty of options for connecting peripherals and external displays. The WiFi 7 support provides fast and reliable wireless connectivity, which is essential for online gaming and also ensures that this laptop won’t be obsolete anytime soon in terms of WiFi connectivity as WiFi 7 has just been introduced recently. The cooling system is very effective, keeping the laptop at reasonable temperatures during extended gaming sessions. The fans can get loud under heavy load, but they do a great job of preventing thermal throttling and maintaining performance. Gigabyte went the extra mile for cooling design as the fans are hefty and kick in quickly. The Gigabyte 16" 165Hz Gaming Laptop with the Intel i7-14650HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is an excellent choice for gamers and power users. It combines impressive performance, a high-quality display, and a sleek design into a well-rounded package. While the battery life could be better, the overall experience is top-notch, making it a great investment for anyone looking for a high-performance gaming laptop.

This Aorus 16X is packing with the RTX 4070 hands down the best looking gaming laptop i’ve ever tried. it has it all great memory, speed , resolution plus it’s compact that you can enjoy wherever you go. Design first impressions of the design was striking the color was like a grey with blueish toned finished with to it, I love the simplicity Aorus branding at front with from center logo that shine through light and the little name badge in the corner. the laptop offers 1 thunderbolt 4 another Type C, an HDMI 2.1, 2 USB A 3.2 Gen2, an internet port , audio jack and micro SD card slot. built quality good weight is not that heavy, I didn’t have a scale to test but it’s appropriate enough. the screen can be easily open using one hand, overall a great experience on the front side. opening the laptop you get more awesome design another Aorus badge on the right side and I love the gaming keys that are transparent. the keyboard felt great not much flex but all laptop have flex this is not bad at all. when you turn in on you also also notice an RGB light that illuminates from the back. you get 2560 x 1600 with 165hz. me personally I think the resolution is weird not the first 2560 x 1600 i’ve tried just not a fan of it specifically the look it while gaming. overall the lighting effects is great that blends well. another section that i’ve notice that has a bit more flex would be the bottom of this laptops. the bottom covers feels so lite and thin. hope this can be improved in the future. Gaming Aorus packing Core i7 and RTX 4070 overall gaming experience have no problem at all, I tested the newly released Bodycam game on early access I was able to get around 55 and 60fps on standard preset setting, so i’m guess once the game is fully optimized this laptop will run it with no issues. God of War I got about 80 fps again standard preset without changing a thing. satisfied with the experience, ofcourse it’s a gaming laptop and you always want to run Counter Strike 2 overall you can maxed out your Hz on this laptop with CS2 without any issues. I thought the speaker quality was also decent , believe it’s way clearer than my previous gaming laptop with 3070. Conclusion One thing that really stand out and bothered me about this laptop was the charge port when plugging the laptop it did not go all the way. and first time turning it on the laptop was also not charging I had to replug the power cord and that pretty much fixed that issue. but that put a negative thing for me to notice right away. the other was the bottom back plate I honestly thought it’s a little bit too much flexing than what i’m used to so I was not a fan of that. , I thought Gigabyte application was great the laptop automatically download Nvidia Geforce now overall It automatically download all Nvidia apps, wish it gave me an option before installing because I could careless about nvidia’s studio app. overall this laptop is great, it looks beautiful, great RGB, the picture quality with 2560 x 1600 is a great looking screen.

This gaming laptop embodies the latest and greatest hardware and specs for this level of gaming performance. There's a lot to love in this Gigabyte Aorus 16X, but a few aspects could use improvement. Performance: The 3070 8GB GPU in this machine handled everything I threw at it. I started by spending a few hours in Apex Legends. On the highest settings, I was able to consistently achieve 150+ FPS during my matches. The fans would ramp up to moderate levels, but the Aorus 16X never felt like the pedal was pinned to the floor. I was incredibly happy with how well it managed the thermals of the GPU and CPU. Do keep in mind that this performance is only achievable while plugged in. If you are running off battery, even on performance settings, the GPU will cap the FPS at 60. It still allows for a great gaming experience off battery alone, but you will need to plug it in to unleash the beast. Screen: The screen was a minor disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong, this laptop has great color with 100% sRGB coverage, impressive contrast, and a 91% screen-to-body ratio. I was hoping that at this price point, we would be seeing an OLED option. IPS panels have come such a long way, but they will always be hindered by their viewing angles. Build Quality: It's the best I've seen in a long time, to be completely transparent. This laptop deserves every star in my rating. The keys feel like butter with a distinct tactile feel, there's almost no flex in the keyboard, and the trackpad is oversized and beautifully accurate. I mean, the list goes on. Every inch of this gaming laptop feels premium. Ports: This is more of a personal preference, but I would prefer having most of the ports on the back—especially the charger. Committing the charging port to one side feels outdated and requires extra thought when setting up. Again, there's nothing wrong with where the I/O is located, but personally, I think this could be improved. One odd discovery I made was that the barrel charger doesn't fully seat into the port visually. It does provide a confident click to let you know it's connected, but you can still see some of the barrel, which makes it look like it's not plugged in. This doesn't actually affect anything, but I found it to be a bit strange. AI: Not much to cover with regard to AI. Gigabyte does include some AI functions on the software side for managing performance, but these proved to be fairly basic, and I didn't really notice many benefits. Wishlist: There are a few things I wish could have been included or changed. I wish the Aorus 16X shipped with 2TB of storage. This is a minor complaint because it's easy to upgrade the SSD, but not having to tinker with a new machine out of the box would have been nice. The barrel side of the charging cable could be a bit longer. I use this laptop on the go, and I've found that I have to set the power brick on the table with the laptop most of the time. Personally, I'd like to keep the brick on the floor to free up space. Here's a quick summary of Pros and Cons I found: Pros: - Solid performance for the price. You can't go wrong with this Gigabyte gaming laptop. - Handles thermals incredibly well under stress. - Not loaded down with bloatware. - Thinner and lighter than expected. As portable as any non-gaming laptop. - Awesome build quality. - Beautiful IPS display. - Handles AAA titles and creative tasks with ease. - Super fast Wi-Fi. - Near-perfect experience in every way. Cons: - Transparent keys can be hard to see. - Speakers are lackluster. - 1TB of storage out of the box. - Lid is aluminum and scratches easily. - What AI? Would I recommend this Gigabyte Aorus 16X to a friend? You better believe it. Every aspect of this machine screams premium gaming laptop. It's powerful and ultra-portable; what more could you want?

This machine is a beast. Why do I say that? Let's take a quick look at the hardware specs first: *Processor - Intel Core i7-14650HX Processor 5.2 GHz *Memory - DDR5 5600, 2 slots @ 16 GB each, 32 GB total *Storage - 1TB Storage SSD for fast access and response *GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop Graphic Processing Unit @ 8GB (Excellent for gaming) *Display - 16" @ 2560×1600, refresh rate 165Hz, full HD *WiFi - Wi-Fi 7 certified *Bluetooth - Version 5.4 for fast, reliable peripheral connectivity *Display - 2560×1600 165HzFull *Sound - Dolby Atmos sound to provide a spatial audio experience, especially when using Atmos headphones Based on these specs alone, this is an impressive gaming machine. That said, what sets this apart? This machine was designed, built and manufactured with AI in mind to enhance the gaming experience. What does this AI do? *AI Power management *AI management of the GPU, CPU and fan output *AI assisted processing to assist AI generative software In the short time I have had with this machine, the combination of hardware and AI software is impressive. Between my 22-year-old gaming monster son and I, we have put this machine through its paces. We have both played some of the most demanding games and this laptop has eaten them up like a pro. Be warned, this machine is a laptop but it's nots petite. That is not a bad thing. To support its lofty hardware specs require a solid frame. And most times when you are traveling for non-gaming needs, you probably have an alternative laptop for your more basic needs. At the end of the day, this is an impressive brute for gaming. It's not a budget beater, but it is a Battlefield beater, all day, every day. I have and would recommend to a friend.

For the past week, I've been testing the GIGABYTE AORUS 16X. This laptop features a 14th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, an RTX 4070 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7, and a 165Hz display. These are impressive specifications for a gaming laptop. Overall, it's an excellent, high performing gaming rig with a few minor annoyances that driver updates might fix. The 165Hz display is vivid and reproduces colors fantastically. It gets bright enough to work outdoors, and the matte screen minimizes glare effectively. The bezels are some of the thinnest I've seen on a gaming laptop. Light bleed is minimal even during dark scenes. The port selection is good and well-placed. There are USB-A and USB-C ports on both sides of the laptop, along with an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a microSD reader, an aux port, and a barrel connector for charging. The fans and cooling system are the best I've experienced in a gaming laptop. The body never gets hot while playing games; at worst, it gets slightly warm. However, the fans can be quite audible. This is normal for gaming laptops, but where the Aorus excels is that the fans don't produce any annoying or high-pitched sounds. The large trackpad feels great to the touch and is very responsive. However, it occasionally wouldn't register right clicks. Since it's a brand-new laptop, it might just need to be broken in or might need a driver update. The backlit keyboard is very comfortable to type on. It feels solid and doesn't flex. However, occasionally key presses weren't being registered. The RGB backlighting is bright and customizable in the GIGABYTE Control Center. The only thing I disliked was the clear QWERASD keys; they are too bright and can be distracting while gaming. In normal everyday use, the battery lasted about 5 hours, which is decent for a gaming laptop, and it took about 2 hours to charge back up to 100%. While unplugged and gaming, the Aorus only lasted about an hour, and performance was significantly degraded. The Wi-Fi 7 performance was fantastic. The laptop maintained a strong signal strength, connected to my network immediately, and never slowed down or hiccupped in any way. The speakers are good. They can get very loud and sound decent, but they lack some bass. With all that said, If you're looking for a top-tier gaming laptop that prioritizes performance and cooling, and can look past a few minor annoyances, the AORUS 16X is definitely worth considering.

In the past few months I’ve had more experience with PC gaming laptops then I care to admit. I bounced from one to another trying to find the right fit. While many laptops have similar features, there is a lot to be said for the hardware build and branded software components as differentiators between brands. This is my first experience with a Gigabyte computer and for the most part, it has been a very positive one. Here are some of my main takeaways. The fan kicks on frequently. I noticed this when I first setup the laptop, and then again every time I restarted the computer. While that is fairly normal, I also noticed it when the laptop was sitting idle and then again when I had closed the lid to put it into standby mode. The power adapter is a barrel-style plug. It does not sit flush against the side of the laptop. I’m not a big fan of this because it can easily become detached or even broken. The laptop case is hefty, but I really like the feel because it doesn’t seem as though it will get knocked around easily. The screen looks amazing — even just with system tools running. I was even more impressed when I tried out a game and some videos on it. The speakers sounded great — much better than the average laptop speakers. When I started the laptop for the first time, there was a dialog box that read, “The computer goes to windows update, driver install and optimization settings; please be patient to wait the reboot after settings completing.” I assume this was part of the system software, but I’ve never seen something like this pop-up upon setup. The Gigabyte Control Center is a basic operation dashboard, but it works really well. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles — just the functions you need. The keyboard is very nice to type on but the right-shift key is shorter than I’m used to and so I mistyped quite a bit while I was working. One of the other observations I had was that even though I declined the OneDrive and Microsoft 365 free trials, those software packages were still installed on the computer — in multiple languages. Aside from that, I was impressed that there were only 70 background tasks running once the computer was up and running. Because it’s a ‘gaming’ laptop, I did some real-world play tests with Warzone. The game ran smoothly and I didn’t experience any lag. In addition to the gameplay test, I ran two benchmarking tests — Geekbench and Novabench. The scores were 2609 Single Core / 15625 Multi-Core (Geekbench) and 4246 Overall / 2456 CPU / 1161 GPU (Novabench). For casual gamers, this laptop will do just fine. It’s got enough CPU / GPU power to manage most gaming tasks as well as standard work/school tasks. The nicest feature about this laptop is it price as it is highly competitive and much more budget-friendly than other gaming laptops.

I love everything about this gaming laptop. I have had 3 gaming laptops before this one, and this is by far my favorite. I absolutely love the layout of the laptop, including the power button placement, and RGB light up keyboard. It has two USB ports, two USB type C ports, and HDMI port, and ethernet port. Most newer laptops exclude the ethernet port, which I don't agree with. I love connecting my laptop to my TV's HDMI along with an ethernet connection. The laptop is a little heavier than I am used to, but it feels very hefty and of high quality. The display is brilliant on this unit. I have browsed the internet and run some games. I love how clear and crips the display is. I was actually taken back by it and truly enjoy it. The performance is superb. I installed the Steam store and immediately downloaded a few games. I ran WWE 2K on it and it ran extremely smooth. There were no hiccups or issues whatsoever. Everything runs super fast on this machine. The only minor issue that I found on this laptop is the power cord. It sticks out slightly from the power port and is slightly unappealing. It also sticks straight out, it does not have a 90 degree angle, so it adds a lot of space on the side. There is also a chance of stressing the port if the plug gets pushed or bent. I have been using this laptop for about a week now and I am thoroughly impressed. The processor is super fast, the memory is robust, and the graphics and display are beautiful. I highly recommend this laptop for anyone who wants a modern, powerful gaming machine.

PROS: • price • Bright IPS screen • no lightbleed • can play most modern games on Ultra settings with no hiccups • fans aren't obnoxious • all-around smooth experience • lightweight • minimal design CONS: • software • A.I. programs are bare bones Let's face it, none of us love spending money, so what we spend on we want to be comfortable with years afterward. No regrets! Regarding gaming laptops in 2024, it's tough to siphon through the millions of offerings for the best bang for your buck. Luckily, the gap between what can be considered top-tier gaming laptops has narrowed quite a bit. Sure, you can spend 3K+ on a machine, but you can also spend much less and get most of the experience you would get on a much more expensive laptop. That's where Gigabyte comes in. Gigabyte is a Taiwanese company that entered the gaming laptop market with one goal: to offer value. Founded in 1968, it began developing motherboards and made a name for itself in that sector before branching out to computers and accessories. While its name isn't as well known as others in the gaming laptop market, it's easy to see that it knows what it's doing when it releases new products. This 16" GIGABYTE 165Hz Gaming Laptop has IPS, an Intel i7-14650HX with 32GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 on board with a 1TB SSD. With these specs, you'd think the price range would be $2,000+, but you'd be wrong! It's available at Best Buy right now for $1,800. That's a huge hint of the value you'll be getting if you choose this device for your mobile gaming needs. 16" is the perfect size for mobility. I also have an 18" Predator gaming laptop, a heavy tank that I don't like moving from room to room, but this one weighs a lot less and is easy to move and travel with. While unboxing, I noticed the quality right away. The casing is sleek and minimalistic while not trying to do too much to make it look like a futuristic machine. Some may like the "gaming style" many laptops attempt, but I prefer a more tapered approach. Don't get me wrong, this machine does offer some cool features when it comes to looks, however. RGB lights on the keys and the unit's backside cast an AUROS log onto the laptop's surface. It's not overwhelming but adds a personality touch to the machine. I'm used to OLED screens (on my TV and desktop monitor), so I am always a bit nervous about light and black on IPS screens. My fears disappeared when I turned the 2560×1600 screen on for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised by the brightness. The blacks aren't OLED, but much better than many IPS screens. There is very, very minimal lightbleed that you have to be picky to point out. To say it simply, I'm impressed with the screen. It's very smooth, too, at 165Hz. Performance is excellent. I have a backlog of games I'm trying to get through on Steam, so when I get a new machine, I'll immediately download it and continue the progress I left from my Steam Deck. In this case, I first played Horizon: Zero Dawn. It's not the newest game, but it shows a machine's power well. I put everything on Ultra and ran with it. There was not a single hiccup! This thing handled it perfectly. I also played The Calisto Protocol, which also performed perfectly on Ultra settings. The RTX 4070 is a workhorse. You'll want to keep the machine plugged into power, though. Although the battery is great for tasks, you'll want it plugged in when you're gaming on it due to the power consumption. The fans work hard but aren't overwhelmingly loud. I use headphones anyway, but for those who don't, the fans don't scream like other machines I've had in the past. The only CON I see with this machine is the software. There is "A.I." on board to adapt to what games you play and how you play them, but it all seems unbaked now. There are minimal options you'll get using AORAS software. There are three choices of power consumption, but I didn't use them much. When the game was being played, the fans worked, and there were no stutters. That's all I care about in the end. If you're looking for a lightweight, capable gaming machine and don't want to spend top dollar, this is a perfect value choice. It packs a punch, that's for sure. It does not feel cheap at all. Although I have the 18" Predator, this one has been my daily for the last week, and I think it'll stay that way. I love this laptop.

This is an outstanding laptop and honestly better than I thought it was going to be. Cosmetically it’s a bit generic with a matte black resin case adorned with a few reflective bits for style. No problem there as it’ll probably get covered with stickers anyway. Pop open the clamshell and you’ll be greeted with a thin framed 16” Dolby Vision HDR IPS screen capable of 165hz and 2560x1600 native resolution. It’s not quite 4k, but it’s outstandingly sharp and bright. It took a tiny bit of tuning, but the Dolby Vision HDR is gorgeous and the matte screen does well preventing glare. The keyboard feels about the same as my 15” MacBook Pro, which is a very good thing. My hands don’t feel cramped typing and the adjustable RGB backlights help keep them clearly visible. In terms of gaming, I was able to smoothly run Diablo IV, Forza Motorsport, and Jedi Survivor at 2560x1600 resolution with HDR and high graphic settings for all 3 games. Ray tracing performance varies per game, but I’ll get into that later. The Nvidia RTX4070 is a very capable GPU and this laptop allows you to switch between the 4070 or the Intel GPU. The Nvidia is better for gaming and high end graphics, but for day to day tasks the Intel GPU doesn’t slouch and helps extend battery life when needed. Speaking of which, I’m having trouble pinning down the battery life. It can vary widely with what you’re running and how, but I’m finding 3.5-4 hours for day to day non-gaming tasks. Maybe even 4+ if only typing or web browsing. There’s an emphasis on AI features that help extend battery life and performance and even a feature called AI Boost, though I’m not sure what they do. I’m sure it helps with battery life, processing speeds, and cooling. Which leads me to what’s most impressive about this gaming laptop. The fans are remarkably quiet. At full speed they’re still audible but not like the jet engine loudness that I’m accustomed to. It sounds more like a desktop computer fan on high if that makes sense. But that’s at full speed which only seems to happen when gaming. For doing everything else that’s not gaming this thing is dead quiet. I don’t even think the fans activate, which says a lot about cooling. The body also doesn’t get scorching hot so I can actually use it on my lap like a conventional laptop. And that might actually be the most remarkable thing about this computer. The Gigabyte 16” AORUS defies the oversized and bulky gaming stations that I expect in this market. The body is slimmer than average which makes the Gigabyte 16” AORUS a high end gaming laptop that’s actually practical enough to carry around for daily use. I’m just at home typing out this review on a park bench as I am slaying through the Helltides in Diablo IV at home. And the audio is fantastic. It’s a laptop so don’t expect any bass, but from vocals on up, outstanding! It plays clear, loud, and with a surprisingly good soundstage. Coupled with the low fan noise, I was surprised that I could hear the game clearly without a headset. And if you want to attach one there’s thankfully plenty of ports ranging from HDMI 2.1, USB-A 3.2, USB-C, RJ45, headphone, and even a Mini SD. The only thing that I don’t like is how the charging port is in the middle of the side instead of at the back end. I feel like the cable is more out of the way in the rear, but it’s not a killer. Overall, this is a high end gaming laptop that’s practical enough to use as a daily laptop. It’s Superman masquerading as Clark Kent and I love it. Highly recommended! DAILY TASKS Runs Windows 11 effortlessly. Haven’t had any compatibility issues so far and migrating my setup to match my other Windows computers was easy. Webcam is sharp enough and picks up light well. It’s a solid computer for online streaming and video conferences which seem like basically necessities nowadays. It handles regular office applications quickly and is WiFi 7 capable for fast data streams. Powered by the latest I7 chip with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB m.2 storage, this thing zips. The 16” screen is a great size as well. It’s just compact enough to carry around, while big enough to comfortably edit photos, movies, and play games. If I had to have one laptop to do it all, this one is a serious contender. GAMING Did an excellent job playing Diablo IV, Forza Motorsport, and Jedi: Survivor at 2560x1600@165hz on high graphic settings. I usually let games auto optimize if possible, but I brought the Ray tracing down to low vs the high setting. I noticed that the game runs slower at some moments, but that’s also after the new update so it could just be the game and servers acting up. It’s been a joy fighting my way through the Helltides from the deck and backyard. Forza Motorsport runs effortlessly on optimized settings, but I had a little trouble with Jedi: Survivor. I have to recheck what frame rate it was running at, but I noticed it wasn’t moving as silky smooth as I prefer. It’s almost there, so I’m pretty sure either dropping the graphic settings to medium or dropping the resolution to 1080p would definitely fix it. What’s most impressive to me is how quiet the fans are for a gaming laptop. I have a couple other higher end gaming laptops and while they perform well, the fans are like jet engines at full speed. That’s not the case here and I can even game on it without needing a headset. It’s incredible how audibly different they are and I’ll mention again, they are dead quiet when streaming movies or doing daily tasks. Outstanding job on the cooling Gigabyte! PROS - Slim for a gaming laptop - Nvidia RTX4070 GPU excels - Onboard Intel GPU surprisingly capable - Responsive trackpad - Bright anti-glare 16” IPS screen - 2560x1600 @165hz resolution - Speakers are loud and clear within their range (Vocals/Highs) - Sound is excellent for movies, vocals, and video conferences - Dolby Access does good job for audio tuning - Dolby Vision HDR looks fantastic - Fans are silent for day to day tasks - Full speed fan is audible, but doesn’t sound like a jet engine - Plays Diablo IV in HDR with High graphics settings and low level ray tracing smoothly - Plays Forza Motorsport very well and smoothly - Playing Star Wars Survivor on the go is a treat - 32GB DDR5 RAM - Gigabyte Control Center AI nexus has potential - Includes NVIDIA AI art generator - Can easily switch to discrete 4070 GPU only mode - Completely silent when doing day to day tasks outside of gaming - Good webcam - Full size illuminated keyboard - Good availability of ports CONS - Charging port in middle on side of body - Plastic/resin case flexes slightly - Sound lacks bass - Gigabyte Control Center app GPU switching hiccups - Battery only lifespan about 4 hours or less - Generic laptop styling - No fingerprint reader - Not sure what Ai Boost does

I've owned Gigabyte products in the past. They were a go to motherboard manufacturer for me in my early computer building days. I've built multiple custom PCs on Gigabyte boards. I've never experienced any negative issues aside from the occasional firmware upgrade issues I would run into. I was excited to try out their line of Aorus gaming laptops. Specs Up Front: Display: 16-inch 16:10 WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 400 nits peak brightness, and 100% sRGB color gamut Processor: 14th Gen Intel Core i7-14650HX Processor 5.2 GHz. Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 Memory: 32GB - 2x DDR5 Slots (DDR5-5600MHz, Up to 64GB) Storage: 1TB - 2x M.2 SSD slots (Supports 2x PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe™ M.2 SSD, Up to 4TB) Operating System: Windows 11 Home Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth v5.4 IO: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (PD), 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-A), 1x RJ45, 1x Audio Combo Jack Audio: Dolby Atmos Audio Technology, 2x 2W Speakers, Built-in Microphone Dimensions (W x D x H): 14.02" x 10.00" x 0.79"-1.06" Weight: 5.07 lbs Build Quality: The build quality is pretty decent. Standard hard plastic shell with unique design elements including on the bottom which serves as additional airflow. The screen hinge feels nice and sturdy and stays put in place when adjusted. The screen bezels are not the thinnest I've seen but they aren't intrusive either. The screen feels quality and glare is minimal. I do feel like the touch pad is a bit too large which results in the keyboard placement being awkward. If you use the WASD keys to game, which most people do, your left wrist rests on the edge of the bottom of the laptop and the edges aren't round or tapered. They are sharp, so it tends to be quite uncomfortable. If the keyboard wasn't so far up, due to the large touchpad, it would be placed more in the center and your wrist would rest better on the laptop. This is actually quite a big deal as I find it very uncomfortable to play for any decent amount of time because it hurts my wrists. Setup: Setup is your standard Windows account setup after turning it on. There is nothing special about the setup of this laptop aside from any other Windows machine. I do update Windows and any included vendor software immediately after setting up before installing or doing anything else on the system. This was pretty straightforward as far as vendor software goes. Features: As mentioned above in the specs, this laptop comes with many great features and has some of the latest and greatest hardware specs. I really like that this is future proof for several years given all the included features. Performance is great with some slight caveats which I will highlight in the next section. I feel like Gigabyte did a great job on the IO port inclusions on this laptop without having to make it too big and bulky. Software: I struggled to get this laptop running correctly. The switching from the basic video card to the NVIDIA video card was not working correctly. This was a result of the included “AI” software. I made sure everything was properly updated and troubleshot extensively. I switched to “Performance” mode and every time the computer would go to sleep and wake back up the screen would be distorted to the point where I had to power off and power back on the machine. I switched to the “Auto” mode and continued to experience issues with the correct video card not engaging when loading a game which resulted in not being able to play the games at all. I ended up removing the Gigabyte control center and all of these issues went away. I've currently used this for several days without the software installed and have experienced no issues. My experience with the software was quite poor and resulted in me removing it from the system to be able to use the system as intended. Performance: I would say performance is decent. I play pretty demanding games such as Battlefield 2042 and the system performs ok. I'm comparing it to my desktop gaming system which isn't really a fair comparison because one is small and mobile and built completely different from my gaming system which sports an NVIDIA 4070 Super and has very adequate cooling. I don't get 165 FPS on Battlefield. I'm lucky to get 90 with the graphic settings on medium/low. That being said, I don't have any cooling issues with this laptop at all. The fans are engaged 100% of the time when gaming and the noise can be somewhat obnoxious but fan noise is expected from a gaming laptop and it doesn't bother me. Boot times are fast and programs are snappy to open and close. Photoshop and Lightroom perform great on this system which is likely what I will mostly be using it for. I also tested Fortnite which is less demanding of a game than Battlefield and had excellent frame rates and was buttery smooth as well. Fans also engaged at 100% but no cooling issues at all. I learned that there is a performance setting on the NVIDIA laptop video cards that kills the performance of the card to like 30FPS when the laptop is on battery and not plugged in. You can change this in the NVIDIA control panel to perform the same on battery as when plugged in. Overall I think the performance from this machine is sound and the value is worth it. Overall Impressions: If you don't want to read everything above, I'll summarize it here: Pros: -Large 16” display is very nice with great anti glare and a good amount of brightness. -Hardware specs are a good value for the price of the laptop -Aesthetically pleasing with good selection of IO ports -Sturdy build with quality materials. -Excellent cooling when gaming for long periods of time. -Battery life is decent although I keep it plugged in most of the time. Cons: -Keyboard placement is horrible and causes wrist fatigue with the sharp edges of the laptop. -Included software causes so many issues for me, I had to remove it for the laptop to perform in a normal manner. Overall I would recommend this laptop to others as I feel the hardware is a great value for the money and the additional M2 slot and memory capacity leave room for future upgrades. The laptop has a great amount of features that make this a definite contender in the gaming laptop market.

Amazing Laptop speed and graphics no problems. If you do a fresh install you will want to download the Driver for the SSD and install it from flash during windows installation that ,s the only thing but easy to take care of Just impressive

Wonderful machine and perfect for those on a budget. I was very happily surprised with the quality of this laptop. The one program it struggled to run was the 3D editing software Blender, which I admit was very disappointing. Also has a few issues regarding using the ALT + TAB function as it results in severe screen tearing if you're running high RAM programs such as games in another tab. Finally, the charger port does NOT allow the full piece of metal on the end of the charger to fit firmly into the laptop. Gives me a lot of anxiety!