With Christmas just around the corner and new consoles hitting the market, it looks like a perfect time to upgrade or get a new addition to your gaming arsenal. Sadly for me, there isn’t much I can do as my country is in lockdown again so the PlayStation 5 will have to wait until GAME reopens and pray they still have stock, but it’s not all doom and gloom for me as I was able to bridge the gap and get my hands on an AORUS 7 Gaming Laptop.
Gaming Laptops for me have always been something I have had an interest in just never knew which one to invest my money into. Personally, I have always favoured consoles when it came to gaming just because they have been more affordable however recently I did get my hands on a new Gaming PC but was that the right decision?
First impressions
The laptop comes well packaged and secure which is what every gamer would want, as it would be a nightmare paying a lot of money on something for it to turn up damaged but luckily that wasn’t the case for this laptop. It was well secured inside two boxes between a few polystyrene holders, not only that, it was also inside a neat little laptop bag which I have not seen before. The charging cable was in its own little segment away from the laptop and neatly stored, when I took the laptop out of the bag I was really taken back by the lovely matt black design and also how sleek the overall product was.
I must admit liked the extra care that GIGABYTE has gone into, it gives me piece of mind knowing that if a gamer was to order a laptop like the AORUS 7 they will be happy in the knowledge that it will arrive safe and sound.
After inspecting the outside of the AORUS 7 I was happy to see that the charging port was at the back of the laptop which is very handy when it comes to cable management. There was also the time when I was using the AORUS 7 on my lap, previous laptops I have owned or acquired to review had the power cable on the side of the system, due to this choice the cable end would dig into my knee, and with the AORUS 7, this was no longer an issue.
The laptop comes with an array of different ports that I feel are well placed and further allows you to reduce the amount of clutter coming out of it, you have two USB ports, headphone jack as well as the microphone jack on the left-hand side of the AORUS 7 followed by another USB on the right-hand side. (Full details of USB version are at the bottom of the review)
It also has three exhaust vents that allows for effective cooling and proper airflow which helps when you are gaming as you don’t want the laptop to overheat or burn a hole in to your new trousers, dress, skirt, shorts you get my drift. There is also an ethernet port and HDMI port located on the back of the Laptop near the charging port if you want to hook it up to a monitor or another screen for multiple screen usage.
When I turned the AORUS 7 on for the first time I was welcomed with bright colours and a high-quality screen, after going through the setup process and getting all the games installed that I was going to play on it, it was time to see what this machine had to offer.
Could this be your new gaming companion?
So the games that I tested on the laptop were the ones that I’m currently playing on my gaming PC these are Fortnite (if you haven’t already guessed it), Ark Survival Evolved, Dead Space, Phasmophobia, PUBG, League of Legends and Call of Duty Warzone.
After waiting a few hours to get it all set up it was time to test out the games, straight away I’m going to say that the AORUS 7 handled all the games on max settings without any problems and they ran so smooth that I was so jealous that it handled Fortnite and Ark better than my computer. It ran all the games on Ultra and even allowed for 60+FPS on most of them. I was even able to capture footage of a few of the games and didn’t experience any lag or problems during gameplay.
However, this is where I noticed one of the first problems, it gets HOT quick. The air coming out of it was hot as well as the bottom of the AORUS 7 this wasn’t an issue when I was using it on the desk but when I wanted to sit in bed and play a few games it was a case of having to put a laptop tray between me and the laptop just so that I could save my legs from the heat. At certain points, while playing Fortnite, Ark and COD: Warzone the fans got a bit loud, but they were not as bad as the PlayStation 4 Pro or other devices that we use.
If anything, my other half preferred me playing on the AORUS 7 because it did not sound like a jet taking off and produced half of the light in the room. When I partied up with friends I used a mix between my Alienware headphones that comes with a mic and the built-in microphone and speakers, my friends said that the quality of the mic was really good on the laptop the only problem they had was they could hear the games audio and their voices, this could easily be avoided by enabling push to talk on the games but I found it easier and a lot nicer to use my big beasty headset.
When playing at night I love the backlit keyboard and the fact that it supports up to fifteen colours, it truly is amazing. The display is a perfect size for me and I love the thin bezel that goes around it. The graphics card is more than enough for pretty much all the games currently on the market, I did a quick test through “Will it run?” and pretty much all my results came back meeting the recommended hardware or having the best hardware so that was awesome.
I did also play around with the dual-screen by plugging in an HDMI into my big 32inch curve monitor which was fantastic as I miss using dual monitors when it comes to my PC, sadly my desk isn’t big enough and I lost a monitor in a move I did just over a year ago so having this ability (even if it was only for a short time) was so much fun.
There was another thing that stood out to me and that was the battery life of the laptop when playing games without the charger plugged in, I got a max of around thirty minutes gaming before a warning came up telling me that the battery was low but I imagine that’s normal as gaming laptops are supposed to be plugged in to get the most out of them.
A great thing with the AORUS 7 is that it fits into most laptop bags so taking the laptop around is nice and easy and doesn’t take up a lot of room, I was able to take it from one room to the other with ease too and when you do pick it up it isn’t that heavy so it is highly portable which again is fantastic as you feel like you could game anywhere at any time.
One thing that still confused me with gaming laptops to this day is the trackpad. The minute it hit my desk I plugged in a mouse and when I played selected games I plugged in a controller, the trackpad just feels wasted on a gaming laptop as I feel that it’s only used for leisure purposes like scrolling through Twitter or Facebook but not going to lie that can be done on my phone and not on a gaming Laptop.
Now I did say I have always considered purchasing a gaming laptop one day, and after having a play around and getting to use the AORUS 7 I am impressed, to the point where I questioned, was buying my cheap, upgradeable PC worth it? Yes and No. Yes I can upgrade my cheap gaming PC with new parts, and NO as I love the power the AORUS 7 offers, however, upgrading is a bit trickier or literally not possible with some elements.
I also did a few other tests which you can see in the pictures, Videos and Audio clips below:
First off built in-microphone tests
Now Benchmarking the shiz out of this laptop here are the results.
Now for the games, Will they Run on this Laptop Top 100
Laptop Specifications
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home or Pro
- CPU: 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H (2.6GHz-5GHz)
- Display: 17.3” Thin Bezel FHD 1920×1080 IPS-level Anti-glare Display LCD (144Hz,72% NTSC)
- System Memory: 2x DDR4 2666MHz/DDR4 2933MHz slots (8GB/ 16GB/ 32GB, Max 64GB) *The system memory spec may differ by country and region*
- Chipset: Mobile Intel HM470 Express Chipset
- Video Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GDDR6 6GB Supports NVIDIA Optimus Technology.
- Storage: *Support 3 Storages Systems* 1x 2.5” HDD/SSD (Only supports 7mm or thinner) 2x M.2 SSD slots (Type 2280, supports 1x NVMe PCIe & SATA/ 1x NVMe PCIe) *The storage spec may differ again depending on country and region*
- Keyboard Type: 15 Colours Backlit Keyboard
- Optical Disk Drive: N/A
- I/O Port: 1x USB2.0 Type-A 1x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A 1x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A 1x HDMI 2.0(with HDCP) 1x Mini Display 1.2
- 1x DisplayPort 1.4 Type-C over USB 3.2 Gen2
- 1x Audio combo jack
- 1x Microphone jack
- 1x SD Card Reader
- 1x DC-in Jack
- 1x RJ-45
- Audio: 2x 2 Watt Speaker Dual-Array Microphone NAHIMIC 3
- Communications: LAN: Realtek RTL811B (Chip) Wireless LAN: Intel AX200 Wireless (802.11ax, a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth V5.0
- Webcam: HD Camera
- Security: Firmware-based TPM, supports Intel Platform trust Technology (Intel PTT) Kensington Lock
- Battery: Li Polumer 48.96Wh
- Adapter: 180W *May differ depending on country or region)
- Dimensions: 395 (W) x 260 (D) x 29 (H) mm15.55 (W) x 10.23 (D) x 1.14 (h) inch
- Weight: 2.5kg 5.51lb
- Live Stream: Xsplit Gamecaster Premium membership (3 months) Xsplit Broadcaster Premium membership (3 months)
Conclusion
The AORUS 7 gaming laptop was an absolute dream. The whole experience was brilliant, and I could not really fault the laptop or my time using it. It handled all the games I played and for the majority of the time better than my PC. The only problem I can see with it that could put people off is the asking price. Retailing at £1.599 (but could probably be found cheaper on other sites or when browsing online) could scare some gamers away from this laptop, seeing as the PS5 and Xbox Series X have just come out and are half the price of this laptop. I mean my PC cost me £1,299, so for an extra £300, I could have had a gaming laptop. Though I am happy with my PC it would have been nice to have high powered gaming on the go and wherever I wanted, as moving a PC and 32inch monitor around would be a massive pain.
However, I do get the option with my PC to upgrade it if and when I want. That being said, I would imagine that the AORUS 7 would be able to handle most upcoming titles for the next few years without any problems, so I suppose the asking price is not too bad. As far as gaming laptops go, this one is fairly reasonable for what you get and is Definity worth it.
With Christmas around the corner, it might be worth looking into, especially if you are in the market for a new toy for your gaming needs. It is fast, efficient and a beautiful bit of kit that can handle every game you throw at it. I loved the overall design and of course, the flashy keyboard, the only negatives I had was the heat from the vents and the battery life when you played games with the charger unplugged. I had to part ways with this brilliant laptop, but it will always be one that I will recommend to people, For these reasons, I’m giving the GIGABYTE AORUS 7 Gaming Laptop an outstanding 9 out of 10. To find out more about this fantastic laptop please visit their website on the link provided: https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AORUS-7–Intel-10th-Gen#kf
There are a total of 8 videos below, all sort and all show the FPS of the games running at Max setting on the AORUS 7.
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