General Analysis Continued

Taking into account the Gigabyte AORUS X5 V7-KL3K3D notebook's strengths and weaknesses, I would say the unit as configured is of decent value. At $2399, it is expensive, but considering the performance and its size, it packs a punch and is fairly light, making it easy to carry around. The only downside to its small size is that the unit's frame and keyboard do get quite warm. Both get hot to the touch fairly quickly when doing serious gaming. While it certainly won't burn you, it's far from comfortable as well with a recorded temp of 40°C. Limiting the frame rate, however, does help keep temperatures lower, which somewhat mitigates the issue. Still, the keyboard will get hot, and seeing as how exhaust temperatures hit 60°C under load with a power draw of 240 watts at the wall, it was inevitable that the unit would get warm to the touch.

G-Sync is much the same here as it was with the Eurocom laptop I tested previously; it can limit performance to an extent, depending on the title and situation. I found that Battlefield 1 felt better with G-Sync off, while Grand Theft Auto 5 was much smoother with it on. Unlike the Eurocom Sky X9E3, the AORUS X5 V7-KL3K3D and its GTX 1070 are perfect for 1080p gaming at a locked 60 FPS with many titles still staying close to 60 FPS at 2880x1620, the display's native resolution. This means that the AORUS offering proved capable of maxing out just about everything at 1080p gaming. Meanwhile, at 2880x1620, it could once again max out just about everything; however, G-Sync made for a smoother experience at this resolution. Overall, G-sync was a nice inclusion as it fits in well with the system's specification and capabilities.

Storage performance is exceptional because of the NVMe Samsung SM961 NVMe SSD. With read speeds hitting 3000+ MB/s, everything feels silky smooth with applications loading very quickly. While it doesn't feel like a huge improvement over a regular SSD, there are still some gains, and it's nice knowing that even when it comes to storage, performance is up to par with the CPU and GPU. USB 3.0 storage performance is also quite good. I would like to also point out that the unit offers Thunderbolt 3.0 and USB 3.1 Type C, which is nice as well.

Meanwhile, battery life is a bit depressing considering the battery is rated at 94.24 Wh. In the 30 and 60 FPS Unigine Valley tests, battery life was fairly similar to other units we have tested. However, the PCMark 8 test results were downright abysmal at just 98 minutes. While it's not the last place, I definitely expected better here. Meanwhile, the DVD test only lasted 119 minutes, which resulted in last place. Now, if you enable every possible battery-saving feature available, battery life will improve quite dramatically, but as I myself prefer having maximum performance and required the display to be bright enough to see everything well enough on sunny days, I was not going to get great battery life to begin with. In an indoor environment with some power-saving features on, I expect battery life to improve. That said, all units are tested the same way, and the AORUS X5 V7-KL3K3D still offered disappointing battery life. Regardless, it is likely anyone buying this laptop or one that is similar will have it plugged in for maximum performance when gaming anyway.

Overall, the unit performs well, and although I have a few bones to pick with it, those don't mean it's not a good buy. I myself did enjoy my time with the AORUS X5 V7-KL3K3D, but a few changes would be nice. A larger cooling system, even if that makes it a bit more expensive, would get rid of heat quicker, which would make the unit more comfortable to use; that's my biggest gripe, other than its lackluster battery life. With those two aspects improved, the unit would be a top choice for a gaming notebook.