Review: Aorus X7 Pro

Introduction and design

Upate: The Aorus X7 Pro is now available as a refreshed version with G-Sync. Check out Page 3 of this review for more on the Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC.

Thin gaming laptops, like the Origin EVO15-S and Digital Storm Triton, have made us rethink our expectations of high-performance machines. Thanks to more efficient parts, including Intel's Haswell (and soon Broadwell-U) processors as well as Nvidia's Maxwell GPUs, manufacturers don't need to put rip-roaring components into a bulky notebook chassis.

No device proves this point more than Gigabyte's Aorus X7 Pro. It's a 17.3-inch gaming laptop equipped with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics cards working together in SLI, plus a beefy Intel Core i7 processor. And yet, the machine is less than an inch thick. On paper, the X7 Pro sits on equal footing with the Alienware 18 and MSI GT72 Dominator, but has Aorus managed to squeeze the same amount of gaming performance into a smaller package?

Design

The Aorus X7 Pro is an unfathomably thin gaming laptop, considering the two GPUs and high-end chips it comes packing. With the lid down, the laptop closes down to an astonishingly thin 0.9-inch silhouette. Compared to most other gaming 17-inch gaming laptops - with the exception of the even thinner Razer Blade Pro - you could almost mistake Aorus' offering for an oversized Ultrabook.

The majority of the machine features a metal frame that makes up the screen lid, palm rest and surrounding keyboard deck as well as the laptop's underside. The only bits of the plastic include the bezel around the 17.3-inch screen as well as the sides of the laptop. You'll never really notice the difference between the two different materials, as Aorus has given the plastic bits a bespeckled paint job which closely resembles the anodized finish of the metal.

The Aorus X7 Pro's design is a mix between a stealth bomber and a hyper car, which is made even cooler by a purely black and white color scheme. The laptop top lid features three sharp lines, including a prominent front beak. The extra detail adds a bird-like motif to the unit on top of Aorus' logo of an eagle, but it makes me worry that the paint will rub off faster because of this sharp edge.

The front end of the machine also comes to a distinct point following the beak. Meanwhile, the laptop's inside panel features a sharp, angular vent grill that looks both futuristic and serves as an intake for the components inside.

This laptop's hot, hot, hot

Aorus made doubly sure to make sure it's thin gaming machine stays well ventilated. The rear of the machine rises slightly to a rear vent bump, similar to the Asus ROG G750, which flares out with sculpted lines, similar to the rear exhaust of a hyper car. Along with the heat coming out the back, there are four vents cleverly built into the laptops sides.

At the front, you'll also find intake vents that even wrap around the corners of the laptop. Each of the vents features little chevrons the help add support for the opening and add an extra bit of flair at the same time. What's more, there are even more slits for intake spread across the machine's underside.

Despite all these measures to ensure maximum airflow, plus the passive heating though the laptop's metal bottom, the Aorus still regularly reaches skin-scorching temperatures during gaming sessions. The fans crank up to a distracting level and then only get even louder after that. On a full load, you can hear the fans spin up to a room-filling resonance from the turbulence inside the machine.

The Aorus X7 Pro pushes out plenty of heat - there's no doubt about that - but the fan noise becomes so obnoxious you'll need to almost always wear a headphones during play sessions. This is also a notebook you'll strictly want to avoid putting on your lap, even if you're doing something as simple as watching a YouTube video.

Specifications

The Aorus X7 Pro is so much lighter and thinner than other 17-inch and up gaming machines we've tested, that it almost seems like it was fashioned out of a futuristic lightweight alloy. Weighing in at 6.6 pounds, the X7 Pro is substantially easier to tote around than the 8-pound MSI GT72 Dominator and the immense, 12.07-pound Alienware 18.

Aorus' machine is also easier to slip into a bag, thanks to its smaller 16.85 x 12 x 0.9-inch (W x D x H) dimensions. For the GT72 Dominator and Alienware 18, you'll need to purchase a new oversized bag as each notebook measures 19.6 x 11.5 x 1.9 inches and 17.97 x 12.90 x 2.26 inches, respectively.

Here is the Aorus X7 Pro configuration given to TechRadar for this review:

Spec Sheet

• CPU: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4870HQ (quad-core, 6MB cache, up to 3.7GHz with Turbo Boost)
• Graphics: 2 x Nvidia GTX 970M SLI GDDR5 (6GB GDDR5 VRAM); Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
• RAM: 8GB DDR3L (1866MHz)
• Screen: 17.3-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 Wide Viewing Angle LCD
• Storage: 512GB mSATA SSD
• Ports: 3 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, HDMI, mini-Display port, Surround port, D-sub, RJ45, SD card reader, microphone jack, headphone jack
• Connectivity: Wireless LAN: 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0
• Camera: 1MP HD camera
• Weight: 6.6 pounds
• Size: 16.85 x 12 x 0.9 inches (W x D x H)

The Aorus X7 Pro only comes in one configuration for $2,599 or £2099 (about AU$3,320), but it offers plenty of power for that price. Every unit includes what you see above, except the configuration normally has 16GB of RAM and an additional 1TB hard drive for storage. However, for our review, Gigabyte sent us a slightly different configuration, with only 8GB of memory and storage that lacks a 1TB HDD.

For nearly the same price, you could pick up a MSI GT72 Dominator Pro, rocking an Intel Core i7 4710HQ processor and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980M for $2,549 (£1,836, AU$3,299). Although the MSI machine only has one GPU, this rig has more memory both for the system and GPU at its disposal, but half the amount of SSD storage.

The Alienware 18 is the priciest machine at $2,649 (about £1,739, AU$2,348), but it stands as the X7 Pro's direct SLI rival. The 18.4-inch laptop comes running two AMD Radeon R9 M290X GPUs, which makes it an even more direct competitor to the Aorus's Nvidia graphics. Unfortunately, the Alienware 18 comes a little light on memory, with only 8GB onboard and a 1TB hard disk drive by default. Users who want the extra speed of an SSD will have to fork over an additional $300.

Performance

Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC

Aorus has lifted the lid on a new version of the X7 Pro which features Nvidia's frame-syncing G-Sync tech. Called the Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC, it once again features dual GTX 970M GPUs and a display that tops out at 1080p. Only the processor was different to the one in the Aorus X7 Pro we originally reviewed, taking the form of Intel's more recent Core i7-5850HQ.

• Further reading: Nvidia G-Sync vs AMD FreeSync

The big difference between the newer and model and its predecessor lies underneath its hood. Unlike the X7 Pro, which is limited to plain old V-Sync, the Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC features an embedded hardware chip that lets the GPU control the refresh rate of the laptop display. By doing this, the monitor and GPU are always in sync which eliminates tearing or stuttering during games when the frame rate exceeds the display's refresh rate.

Activating G-Sync is as easy as diving into the Nvidia control panel and ticketing a box. From there on, turning on V-Sync in any game will automatically use the internal G-Sync hardware instead - and it works very well. In Assetto Corsa, the frame-rate fluctuated between around 40fps and 80fps with the graphical detail dialled up to Ultra and G-Sync turned off. With G-Sync turned on, the action smoothed and the Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC achieved a near enough constant 63fps.

Back to the original review...

If there were two words to ever describe the Aorus X7 Pro, they would be "excessively powerful." This dual-970M monster easily chomped its way through every test I threw at it. Despite being thin, there's no doubt that the X7 Pro is a beast.

Here's how the Aorus X7 Pro fared in our benchmark tests:

Benchmarks

• 3DMark: Cloud Gate: 21,032; Sky Diver: 25,402; Fire Strike: 10,451
• Cinebench CPU: 639 points; Graphics: 142 fps,
• PCMark 8 (Home Test): 4,093 points
• PCMark 8 Battery Life: 1 hours and 53 minutes
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (1080p, Ultra): 85.28 fps; (1080p, Low): 164.72 fps
• Metro: Last Light (1080p, Ultra): 43.67 fps; (1080p, Low): 108.67 fps

The Aorus X7 Pro broke benchmark records left and right in our usual gauntlet of tests. Thanks to the laptop's dual GPU set up and speedy processor, we've finally recorded a Fire Strike that's over 9,000. While the Alienware 18 equipped with two Nvidia 880M in SLI was only able to rack up 8,323 points in Fire Strike, the Aorus X7 Pro has risen to the top with 10,451 points. By comparison, the MSI GT72 Dominator completed the same benchmark with 8,323 points using a single Nvidia 980M graphics card.

This dual-970 machine is also a smooth performer when playing games. We use Metro: Last Light as benchmark test, because it's a resource intensive game that brings most mobile gaming rigs to their knees, and yet Aorus thin gaming machine was able to play the game with every setting on Ultra at 43.67 frames per second. Comparatively, the Alienware 18 was not able to break past 30 fps and only ran the game at 26.67 fps. The MSI GT72 Dominator was able to achieve 37 fps in Metro: Last Light.

With modern games such as FarCry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Aorus laptop had no problem keeping up a steady 60 fps with all the graphical settings turned up to the max. I was even able to play heist rounds of the Battlefied Hardline beta without a single hitch. By turning off v-sync, gamers can expect to get even more ludicrously high frames per second gaming in titles such as Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which the X7 Pro was able to play at 85.28 fps, though at the expense of some bad screen tearing and intermittent frame rate drops

Display made for gaming

The Aorus X7 Pro ships with a decent Twisted Nematic (TN) screen ready for gaming. The color depth and blacks don't look as pristine as an IPS screen, but the Aorus' display looks better in both regards, compared to most gaming laptops we've tested.

As a TN panel, it also has a high refresh rate and low response time - absolutely necessary qualities for twitch shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. The Aorus X7 Pro's screen also has an impeccable matte finish to it, which knocks away glare even in the worst of lighting situations.

Tinny, nigh-invisible speakers

Unfortunately the audio setup on the Aorus X7 Pro leaves much more to be desired. For starters you'll be hard pressed to actually locate any actual speaker grills but it is outfitted with two speakers at the front and two additional subwoofers located on the laptop's underside.

Despite all the tweeters, playing music on this machine sounds tinny and begins to distort even when just turning the system volume up to 20. Worse yet, you can barely hear the speakers over the blaring fans, which makes a headset a necessity.

Incredibly unexceptional battery life

Gaming machines have never been lauded for their long battery life, and going with a thin chassis has cut the run time of the X7 Pro even shorter. The slim gaming rig only lasted a short 1 hour 53 minutes while running our PCMark 8 battery life benchmark tests. With regular use; browsing between seven tabs in Chrome, writing in Microsoft Word, chatting in Skype and Hipchat, all while streaming tunes on Google Music, the Aorus X7 Pro only ran for 2 hours and 5 minutes.

The MSI GT72 Dominator did marginally better lasting just 2 hours and 18 minutes. Even the Alienware 18 held on by just a few more minutes for a total of 1 hour and 57 minutes of run time while unplugged.

Bundled software

The Aorus X7 Pro comes with plenty of little system management tools, giving users easy access to laptop settings and firmware updates. Each is useful in its own right but here's a short list of applications you'll want to keep running.

• Command and Control: A quick panel of system level controls for turning up fan speeds, turning on and off wireless radios and activating a system gauge.
• Killer Network: For a bit more analysis on your wireless network performance, this app provides access to data usage counters, network performance and more.
• System back up: The name of this application is fairly self-explanatory
• Drivers Update: perhaps the single most useful application out of this lot. You can check all the drivers you have installed at a glance. You can also initiate downloads and install updates with a single click on this simple app.

Verdict

Aorus has successfully put a hardcore gaming laptop into a chassis less than an inch thick, proving that you can indeed enjoy a high-performance machine that isn't a brick. That said, the X7 Pro has made more than a few concessions to achieve this slim form factor, including heat and battery life.

We liked

Aorus has done a great job building a machine that matches function with fashion. The exterior feature thin vents on almost all it sides to help pull in fresh air and exhaust heat while making the machine look just a bit cooler at the same time.

The Aorus X7 Pro has also proved to be one of the best performing machines we've ever tested. It absolutely crushed it in our suite of benchmark tests, setting all sorts of new records. In real world gaming, it easily plays modern titles at 1080p with all the graphical flourishes set to ultra.

We disliked

While this machine is easily one of the most capable gaming laptops we've ever reviewed, it's also one of the hottest and loudest. We've had a few machines with loud fans such as the Origin EVO15-S. The X7 Pro, however, is on a whole other level, as the machine sounds like a leaf blower on full load. The system also gets uncomfortably hot, even when simply web browsing and streaming video.

Between the heat making this laptop absolutely uncomfortable to put on your lap and the short two hour battery life, this is a machine you'll rarely be on the move with. The real shame of it is this laptop was designed to be lighter and thinner than most gaming laptops, making it easier to take out, but all its faults will make you reconsider this decision.

Final verdict

The Aorus X7 Pro easily stands out of the crowd of oversized gaming laptops as a much thinner and lighter machine. These rigs are often called desktop replacements not only for their size but also the amount of performance they can deliver. Recently, though, laptops have been getting thinner from Ultrabooks to workstations to gaming laptops - now, a 17.3-inch laptop has joined the trend.

For the most part, the X7 Pro succeeds but stumbles hard while doing so. Thanks to the Nvidia dual 970M setup, this machine easily outpaces Alienware 18 I reviewed last July, a massive gaming laptop that costs nearly double the amount and is also twice as thick compared to Aorus' thin mobile gaming offering. Even the similarly priced MSI GT72 Dominator falls well short of the X7 Pro even with a Nvidia 980, the best mobile GPU on the market currently.

If you can look - and hear - past Aorus X7 Pro's flaws, it's an amazing piece of mobile PC gaming hardware for seriously premium price.

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1FFQ6eZ