1 month ago
10
Thanks to a powerful performance package that includes the Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU, and a gorgeous 2K display, Gigabyte’s Aorus 16X ASG 2024 gaming laptop absolutely crushes other similarly priced gaming laptops read more
 "For pure bang-for-the-buck gaming")
Image Credit: Firstpost | Mehul Reuben Das
Pros:
- Exceptional CPU performance
- Gorgeous display with 165Hz refresh rate
- Understated, sleek design
- Solid collection of ports
- AI performance tuning that works well
- Dependable gaming performance
- Stays cool even during sustained high loads
- Great battery life for a gaming laptop
Cons:
- USB-C charging is dicey
- Fans can get obnoxiously loud
Price: Rs 1,89,999/-
Rating: 4.5/5
The Gigabyte Aorus 16X is a powerful, sleek 16-inch gaming laptop that promises a top-notch gaming experience. The model we reviewed came with impressive hardware, a high refresh rate display, and other desirable features.
The Gigabyte Aorus 16X boasts all the qualities you’d want in a budget gaming laptop. It offers excellent performance, robust build quality, and a price that won’t break the bank. This makes it an appealing choice for any serious gamer looking for a reliable daily driver.
The specifications are particularly impressive, especially in terms of the CPU and memory. It features Intel’s top-tier i9-14900HX processor with eight P-cores and sixteen E-cores, along with 32GB of high-speed RAM. The inclusion of a WiFi 7 module, and a strong I/O selection adds to its appeal.
Then, there is the way the Aorus 16X looks. The laptop’s design also stands out, especially with how Gigabyte has integrated the RGB elements. It strikes a perfect balance between a hardcore gaming laptop and something that can seamlessly fit into a serious, no-nonsense boardroom meeting. The Aorus 16X has a subtle and refined aesthetic that many gaming laptops try to emulate but rarely achieve.
All in all, Gigabyte has worked hard to provide a premium laptop experience, and overall, they’ve done a commendable job. However, there are a couple of chinks in Gigabyte’s armour.
We put the laptop through a gauntlet of tests to see that if you’re in the market for a gaming laptop, is the Gigabyte Aorus 16X a strong contender worth considering.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Design and Build
The Gigabyte Aorus 16X is a well-built laptop with a “sports car-inspired design,” as Gigabyte puts it. The lid is aluminium, while the rest of the chassis is plastic. Even though the entire laptop is plastic with a dark onyx grey finish, it feels great to the touch. Plus, the smooth design without any sharp edges makes it comfortable to use.
On the back, there’s a light bar that fits the sports car theme, looking like a rear spoiler. This light bar cycles through different colours and is visible through the hinge area between the display and the keyboard.
The design feels solid overall. There’s no creaky plastic, the hinge moves smoothly, and the lid is sturdy enough. At just over 2.3 kilograms, it’s a reasonable weight for a gaming laptop of this size and hardware.
While the bottom half of the laptop is built very sturdily and doesn’t flex much, the screen is a different story. The hinge is solid, but it can’t completely eliminate screen wobble. Additionally, the lid has a bit of flex, which is common with 16:10 displays because they’re harder to reinforce.
Gigabyte uses high-quality plastic that doesn’t attract fingerprints easily. Any smudges that do appear are easy to clean off. It’s also nice that the design isn’t overly flashy.
As for ports, the Aorus 16X has a good selection. On the right side, there’s a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen2), a USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen2 and DisplayPort 1.4), a microSD card reader, and a combo audio jack.
On the left side, you’ll find the DC power input, an RJ-45 (Ethernet) jack, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen2), and a Thunderbolt 4 / USB Type-C port (with USB4, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB Power Delivery 3.0).
The power connector is located on the left side, unlike many gaming laptops where it is on the back. The power adapter has a cable that sticks straight out rather than an L-shaped connector, which might look odd to some people. There are no ports on the back of the laptop—just the fan exhaust vents and the light bar.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: The keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard on the Aorus 16X is designed with a traditional chiclet-style, providing a pleasant and efficient typing experience. The keys are noticeably responsive and not at all mushy, a common issue with many other gaming laptops. This makes typing on the Aorus 16X not only comfortable but also satisfying. Throughout our extensive testing, the keyboard maintained its positive performance, never once feeling lacking or inadequate.
A notable feature of the Aorus 16X’s keyboard is its three zones of LED lighting. This lighting is vibrant and visually appealing, adding a touch of customization to your typing experience.
The W,A,S,D Q, E, and R keys are transparent, allowing the LED lighting to shine through more prominently. This not only enhances the aesthetic appeal but also helps gamers easily locate these frequently used keys during gameplay.
The trackpad on the Aorus 16X is another feature worth highlighting. It is generously sized, providing ample space for smooth and precise movements. The trackpad’s excellent tracking and sensitivity make it a joy to use, offering a seamless experience whether you are navigating the desktop or engaging in detailed tasks.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Webcam and speakers
The Aorus 16X comes with an FHD-integrated webcam that outshines what most laptops in its category offer. The 1080p camera provides clear and sharp video, making it ideal for video calls and meetings.
The quality is decent enough, but if you’re planning to stream, you might want to consider using an external camera. The dual microphones do a good job of capturing audio, ensuring that your voice comes through clearly during calls and recordings.
One of the convenient features of the Aorus 16X is Windows Hello, which allows you to log in using facial recognition. This biometric login method is both quick and secure.
However, a significant drawback is the lack of a physical privacy shutter on the webcam. This could be a concern for users who are worried about their privacy, as it means there’s no easy way to physically block the camera when it’s not in use.
Moving on to the speakers, the Aorus 16X is equipped with two 2-watt speakers that support Dolby Atmos. These speakers can get quite loud, providing a good audio experience for most uses.
However, they do lack the deep bass that you might find in higher-end laptops. When the volume is turned up high, the sound can become a bit muffled, but for everyday use, the audio quality is more than adequate.
Considering the laptop’s price range, the speakers perform better than many others, so it’s a trade-off that might be acceptable for most users.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Display
The Aorus 16X we tested featured a 2560×1600 resolution 16:10 IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate and HDR support. The display has a matte finish, reducing glare and reflections, which is great for both gaming and working in various lighting conditions.
While it may not have the punchy colours and deep blacks of an OLED panel, it still offers an impressive visual experience. The Pantone-validated display ensures accurate colour reproduction, which is essential for creative professionals who need precise colours.
One of the standout features of the display is its very thin bezels, which make for an immersive viewing experience. Whether you’re gaming or watching videos, the near-borderless design draws you into the action. The display also supports Dolby Vision and G-Sync, enhancing the visual quality and providing smooth, tear-free gaming.
Gigabyte claims that the display can reach up to 400 nits of brightness, but according to Windows, it can go up to 500 nits with HDR enabled. This level of brightness makes the screen vibrant and easy to see even in brighter environments.
The display’s colours, contrast, and responsiveness are excellent, making it a joy to play games on. The display covers about 96.7 per cent of the sRGB colour space, ensuring that colours are both vibrant and accurate. This level of colour accuracy is particularly useful for tasks like photo editing and graphic design.
The 16:10 aspect ratio provides more vertical screen space, which is beneficial for productivity tasks. Whether you’re working on documents, spreadsheets, or video editing in Premiere Pro, the taller screen makes it easier to see more content without scrolling. This aspect ratio also enhances the experience of browsing the web and multitasking with multiple windows open side by side.
Overall, the display’s capabilities make it an excellent choice for gaming, content consumption, and professional work. The vibrant colours, high brightness, and accurate colour reproduction mean that you can confidently use the Aorus 16X for tasks like colour-grading videos and working on high-resolution photos, even though it’s not an OLED panel. The combination of these features ensures that the Aorus 16X offers a top-notch visual experience for a variety of uses.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Performance
We tested the top-tier ASG variant of the Gigabyte Aorus 16X, equipped with a 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GPU. Gigabyte also offers versions with the Intel Core i7-14650HX, and the previous generation Intel Core i7-13650HX, along with an alternate GPU option of the RTX 4060 8GB.
The Core i9-14900HX CPU boasts up to 5.8 GHz speeds, featuring 8 Performance cores and 16 Efficiency cores, totaling 24 cores with a 36M Cache. Paired with 32GB of DDR5 memory clocked at 5200 MTs, this setup ensures robust performance.
The RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, with its 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a TGP of 140Hz, handles demanding video tasks efficiently.
The Aorus 16X performs impressively across various benchmarks, especially in single-threaded tasks, showcasing its prowess. Gigabyte markets this as an “AI gaming laptop,” primarily due to its powerful Nvidia RTX GPU.
While it lacks a dedicated NPU, it still excels in AI tasks thanks to the GPU’s capabilities. Gigabyte includes a tool for setting up Stable Diffusion, providing a user-friendly interface for AI-generated images, which is a standout feature.
Benchmarking in its default mode with the “AI Power Gear” set to “Performance” mode, the Aorus 16X bypasses the Intel GPU via a Mux switch, boosting performance. However, switching to the integrated GPU for power-saving requires a reboot.
In Cinebench R23, it achieved a score of 27,688 in the multicore test and 2022 in the single-core test. Geekbench yielded a score of 15,880 in multicore, and 2,680 in single-core tasks. In PCMark 10, we had an overall score of 8,273, which again, is very impressive.
Although the benchmark scores are impressive, they don’t really indicate what real-life performance would be. In a rather pleasant surprise, the gaming experience is solid, though not mind-blowing, but exceptional for its price range.
Testing games at both 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 resolutions with RTX and DLSS turned off yielded strong results.
In 1920x1200 resolution, we observed an average of 134 fps in Shadow of The Tomb Raider, about 97 fps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, 76 fps in Cyberpunk 2077, and 195 fps in F1 2022.
At 2560x1600 resolution, we achieved 97 fps in Shadow of The Tomb Raider, 65 fps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, 47 fps in Cyberpunk 2077, and 147 fps in F1 2022.
These numbers highlight the Aorus 16X’s capability. Tweaking settings like lowering from ultra to high or turning off antialiasing can significantly boost frame rates.
The Windforce cooling system on the Aorus 16X effectively manages heat, but it is quite noisy at full capacity. Even at lower loads, it tends to be louder than expected if left on higher performance modes. This is mainly due to the software preemptively maximizing cooling rather than actual high heat loads.
Overall, the Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivers powerful performance with its high-end hardware, efficient cooling, and impressive gaming capabilities, making it a solid choice for gamers and power users alike.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Battery life
The Aorus 16X is equipped with a hefty 99Wh battery, which is about the maximum allowed for air travel. Despite being a gaming laptop, the Aorus 16X boasts impressive battery life, largely due to its efficient power management. It smartly switches between the integrated and dedicated GPUs, reserving the power-hungry Nvidia chip for when it’s needed most.
This, combined with the large battery capacity, allows the laptop to achieve nearly seven hours of usage in activities like web browsing, video streaming, and office tasks. However, this duration will decrease when running more demanding applications.
During our battery life test, we set the laptop to Balanced mode using the Gigabyte Control Center to simulate typical usage. We were pleasantly surprised by the results.
The Aorus 16X managed about 8 hours of basic office tasks and web browsing, which is quite rare for a gaming laptop with such powerful hardware. When it comes to gaming on battery power, the Aorus 16X lasted for approximately two hours.
While performance does take a hit when running on battery, most games remain playable, especially at 1080P resolution. This is impressive for a gaming laptop, as many high-performance machines struggle to deliver such endurance without being plugged in.
Gigabyte Aorus 16X Review: Conclusion
The Gigabyte Aorus 16X offers solid hardware at a reasonable price, targeting a more “premium” laptop experience rather than being a bargain like the less-expensive Gigabyte G6X. With an RTX 4070 GPU, it is competitively priced among laptops in its range.
The Aorus 16X delivers class-leading results in many key areas, optimized well for gaming at ideal settings for the hardware. The powerful i9-14900HX CPU, combined with Gigabyte’s Windforce cooling system, provides some of the best CPU performance observed.
The battery life stands out, achieving eight hours of everyday use and almost two hours of actual gaming unplugged, which is excellent for a gaming laptop. The design is compact yet feature-rich, with premium elements like a large battery, advanced cooling system, high-quality LCD screen, and extensive port selection.
While the Aorus 16X only offers RTX 4070 or 4060 GPU options, which might be limiting for those wanting the higher-end 4080 or 4090, this decision makes sense given the constraints of a 16-inch laptop.
Despite minor drawbacks such as noise levels at maximum load and limited performance when using USB-C charging, the Aorus 16X excels in overall performance, software functionality, and thermal management.
All in all, the Aorus 16X is a solid package, especially when you consider its pricing and the discounts that you can get on it from time to time. It is a properly compelling option for both gamers and creators looking for a powerful and versatile laptop.
){kind=tracking}
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
English (US) ·