Gigabyte Aorus X7 review

When you see the claims about the Aorus X7's power and put them up against its size, you'd think there has to be a catch. Performance that's worse than claimed, or overheating issues, or a sacrifice in build quality. But no – Aorus said it could make an inch-thick laptop with power equal to Nvidia's highest-end single mobile GPU, and it has.

Well, there is one catch of sorts, which is that it definitely isn't cheap. As we said, it really isn't over-priced either, considering that you'll pay roughly the same for a similarly-specced 780M machine, which will likely be chunkier.

Still, at over £1600, you have to really be sure you want it – you could get a hell of a gaming desktop for that price, after all.

We liked

Two GPUs, astonishing performance for a fairly thin laptop. Aorus' cooling magic makes for a really impressive machine, and it doesn't skimp in other areas for power, either.

The design isn't bad, as gaming machines go, and we were really impressed by its overall usability – the keyboard is one of the best we've seen on a laptop. We also liked the subtle extra software included by Aorus.

And yes, it's thin, and it's mostly nicely made. It's also fairly upgradeable – many of the components aren't hard to get at if you're handy with a screwdriver.

We disliked

The battery life is poor, but that's often the case with gaming machines. The screen isn't quite as nice as it could be – it's fine, but it's only as good as those you get on laptops half the price.

There are few other niggles, like the way the trackpad can become awkward to use, and the screen bezel coming away slightly on our review unit – though the latter didn't affect performance.

There are some concerns over using SLI instead of a single GPU, though – you might not always get the performance you expect. We're not saying not to go for it, but do be aware of this.

The loudness is a shame, but it comes hand in hand with the power – really, it's actually not bad for fan noise in relative terms, but ultimately it is loud.

Final verdict

The Aorus X7 is a truly impressive gaming machine, with a truly impressive design. It's got some small issues, but if you really want high-end portable gaming in a chassis that's minimal and slim, Aorus has done the impossible and made it happen.