Review: Aorus X5

Conclusion

Gaming laptops have a tendency to divide the crowd, and the Aorus X5 is no exception. Designed with performance enthusiasts in mind, the 15.6in machine is one of the world's thinnest and lightest SLI gaming laptops and flaunts cutting-edge technology such as Nvidia G-Sync and a fifth-generation Intel Broadwell CPU.

The quad-core CPU, dual M.2 SSDs, 16GB of DDR3 memory and two dedicated GeForce GTX 965M GPUs all work in unison to deliver a level of gameplay that most desktop gaming rigs would struggle to achieve. Factor G-Sync into the equation and you have a mobile gaming powerhouse that renders tear- and stutter-free visuals that many gamers have yet to experience.

However, the X5 is a case of two steps forward and another step back. As cutting-edge as the laptop may be, there are evident weak spots that include poor battery life, noisy fans and a muddled trackpad. Enthusiast gamers willing to accept the compromises that come with the very latest tech may be inclined to overlook such imperfections, but in 2015, would you be willing to accept sub-three-hour battery life from a £1,899 machine?

Bottom line: the Aorus X5 is in many ways a technical marvel, but it feels like a proof of concept and having demonstrated a new standard in mobile gaming, has us looking forward to a v2 revision touting a perfected trackpad, a single powerful GPU and greater longevity.

Aorus X5

HEXUS.where2buy

The Aorus X5 gaming laptop is available to purchase from Overclockers UK.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

Steve Clark, UK Country Manager at Aorus has issued the following right2reply:

[July 03, 2015]

Firstly we would like to thank HEXUS for a full, comprehensive and balanced review of the new AORUS X5.

As a company we have been very excited about bringing this model to market, and anticipate good uptake from consumers looking for a high performance machine in this form factor. Overall we are very happy with the machine and its quality finish, and with all the new features such as G-Sync, dual GTX965M GPUs and Avermedia streaming card we believe we have produced a machine the gaming community will appreciate and enjoy.

In the review you have highlighted battery life as a negative point, and although this is an area that all manufacturers are improving with each step forward, we believe this isn’t a “critical” factor with a high-end performance machine. In a way it’s similar to stating that you can’t get 60mpg from a high-end performance car whilst driving in local urban traffic – for this you purchase a small efficient vehicle, and in the same way if you need all day mobile computing you are probably going to look at an Ultrabook, not a gaming laptop. Switching off one of the two GPUs on board will improve battery life slightly, but we do believe the majority of our customers will intend to use the machine when plugged into the mains. We do however accept that some users would prefer both power and longevity, and we are always striving to provide the best we can to the market.

When pushing the boundaries of technology and being first to market with innovations, we understand there will always be compromises, it is our goal to reduce these to a minimal level for our customers. Our strategy at AORUS has been to bring something special and unique to the market, we think we have achieved this in many ways over the last 18 months since we launched. We are delivering high-performance machines, focused on gamers' needs and endeavour to keep our chassis within the realms of portability, and certainly with a focus on cutting-edge design and styling.

With regards to your feedback on the trackpad, we have discussed this with our R&D team and appreciate that the finish now being matte, gives a better user experience, but accept that the textured area indicating the left and right mouse buttons, not being touch sensitive, is not a perfect design and this is being looked into. We do however think the addition of part of the AORUS logo being added to the trackpad is a nice design feature, and during the Computex show in Taiwan, customers and media commented on this styling addition as a positive, but we accept that opinions will vary on this subject, and your reviewer found it an unnecessary addition.

The first delivery of this unit has sold-out, but we want to assure customers there is more on the way and we expect to be able to satisfy pre-orders placed with Overclcockers, by the middle of July.

Thanks once again for your review and we trust this addresses a couple of points that were highlighted.