GIGABYTE - AORUS 16X 16" 165Hz Gaming Laptop IPS - Intel i7-14650HX with 32GB RAM - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 - 1TB SSD - Black

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  A Powerhouse Gaming Laptop

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  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.

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  Posted 1 year ago by Ian L

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  A Great Laptop that will Perform

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  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.

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  Posted 1 year ago by Bakut3n

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  I Very Much Enjoyed It!

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  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.

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  Posted 1 year ago by Nice