Gigabyte Aorus 17X (2024) gaming laptop computer overview

Gigabyte’s Aorus line holds a protracted historical past of chunky, funky gaming laptops with zero chill. These aren’t the form of gaming laptops you whip out for a fast Stardew Valley session. Gigabyte Aorus machines are brutes with body charges to match. However, as with something the place all of the design focus lands on gaming energy, there are typically drawbacks. You both get a teeny-tiny NVMe drive, a sub-par monitor decision to make up for a monster refresh price, a digicam that appears proper up your nostril, or a battery life shorter than Donald Trump’s checklist of dangerous issues he is achieved. 

The Gigabyte Aorus 17X AZG presents oodles of speedy storage, hits the candy spot for monitor refresh and backbone, would not level the digicam at my double chin, and nonetheless manages to ship nice body charges. However after all I will discover one thing to complain about.

Out of the field, it wasn’t as ugly as I anticipated. The Aorus monitor file has seen me pulling out sharp-looking beasts with edgy aesthetics, however I used to be pleasantly stunned to see solely refined cyberpunky patterning on the again and minimal detailing the place the display screen meets the principle physique. Principally, nobody’s going to know it is a gaming laptop computer till they arrive up and examine it.

The scale, nevertheless, could also be a little bit of a giveaway. With a 17.3-inch panel topping it, the Aorus 17X weighs in at 2.9kg / 6.39lb. That means you actually should be dedicated to away gaming if you are going to lug this round and name it moveable.

There is no mechanical keyboard weighing it down, and whereas I am just a little unhappy I am not getting that tasty Omron suggestions that the 2021 Aorus 17X YD had, the button presses on this factor have a vaguely satisfying bump… if just a little squishy. I am not enamored with the keyboard ergonomics, although. I can not depend the variety of instances I’ve by chance hit Num Lock as an alternative of backspace or typed 1111 after I meant to press the up key. It feels unnecessarily compact contemplating there’s an inch both aspect for Gigabyte to have separated that full dimension keyboard out just a little.

In any other case, the design and port placement is not too dangerous. There is a Thunderbolt USB Kind-C port sitting on the suitable aspect with as much as 100W Energy Supply, which doubles as a 1.4 DisplayPort. Sadly it is the one Kind-C port right here, however there are three UBS Kind-A 3.2 ports dotted alongside the edges with 20 Gbps knowledge transfers. It is a step down from the variety of ports the outdated fashions had, however greater than sufficient for on a regular basis use.

Benchmark-wise, there’s hardly a factor to complain about. We’re speaking rip roaring rendering efficiency, with beautiful single core numbers in Cinebench R23; nice load instances on these NVMe drives; and wonderful low max GPU temps because it smashes by our gaming ringer. And it does all this with out piercing your eardrums with high-pitched cooling. However how does it get up in opposition to gaming laptops of an analogous calibre?

For across the similar amount of money within the US—extra for the UK, once more (so unfair)—you can nab the Asus ROG G16 Zephyrus. Positive, the 16 core, 22 thread Intel Core Extremely 9 185H, and tremendous slim chassis give it the benefit for on a regular basis use, however the 115W RTX 4090 holds the Asus pocket book again as gaming benchmarks go. So after all as hardcore avid gamers we will lean towards the Aorus. Go just a little bigger with the Strix Scar 17 (additionally cheaper than the Aorus within the US) and when you could also be preventing in opposition to noisy cooling, sub-par battery life and a foul trackpad, it completely wastes the Aorus 17X in gaming benchmarks. Nonetheless, I would take the Aorus’ quiet wins over the Strix Scar’s unnecessarily power-hungry efficiency.

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Alternatively, you’ve got received the New Razer Blade 16 packing a same-wattage RTX 4090, however backed up with a earlier era CPU. It is a beautiful machine with a elaborate 1440p OLED panel, nevertheless it runs quite a bit hotter and manages far fewer frames than the Aorus 17X, particularly in video games that rely closely on the CPU. With Razer asking for $600 greater than Gigabyte, it is actually price contemplating the 17X in a straight toss-up right here. 

However the actual competitors amongst moveable gaming heavyweights is skinny (pun very a lot meant). It is the smaller, slimmer Lenovo Legion 9i that actually provides the Aorus 17X a run for its cash. With its wonderful 4K mini LED display screen and very good keyboard, it is available in at across the similar worth because the Aorus 17X and pushes previous it in virtually all of our gaming benches. The Legion 9i is a bit more costly for UK peeps, so it is quite a bit simpler to suggest the Aorus 17X to residents of outdated Blightey. However then, when you may push these pixels even at a crisp 4K, the Lenovo begins to look actual tasty.

As a lot as there are a number of points with this Aorus 17X, Gigabyte has managed to ship a gloriously refined machine constructed to be sturdy, each bodily and when it comes to gaming prowess. Positive it is missing a USB Kind-C port or two, and the squishy keyboard is just a little disappointing, however this actually is a conveyable powerhouse. For rather less money than the competitors, an outstanding battery life, and a monitor that hits the decision/refresh price candy spot, I would sacrifice a number of fps.