Gigabyte Aorus 17 (Intel 12th-gen) review: Not bleeding edge, but more than enough oomph

Price When Reviewed

$3,299.98

At first look, the expensive, highly effective new Gigabyte Aorus 17 is a little bit of an odd chook. Boasting neither essentially the most highly effective Nvidia RTX graphics nor the highest-end Intel Core i9 processor, this looks as if it is likely to be a shoo-in for video modifying and design work. With a 90% screen-to-body ratio, the footprint of this gadget would have been within the 15-inch class just a few years in the past, making it TARDIS-like in its bigger-on-the-inside feeling.

The styling leans in direction of gamer stylish, from its sharp angles to its RGB programmable keyboard to its ports. And then there’s the display—Gigabyte put in a gloriously quick 1080p 360Hz IPS panel. You received’t be modifying native 4K video on this display, however for those who’re a gamer who calls for excessive excessive refresh charges on the go, the Aorus 17 is a aggressive entry.

Specs and options

Our evaluate unit has an Intel Core i7-12700H processor and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU. This mixture makes it fairly a succesful gaming machine. It’s packing 32GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD as effectively. The show is a 17.3-inch HD decision display with a excessive 360Hz refresh price. For additional particulars, check out the spec listing beneath.

• CPU: Intel 12th Generation Core i7-12700H (6P, 8E cores)
• RAM: 32GB DDR5-4800 in dual-channel mode
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti @ 130W GDP
• Screen: 17.3-inch, 16:9, HD decision show with 360Hz refresh
• Storage: 1 TB Gigabyte AG470 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E with Intel AX211, 2.5G ethernet
• Size and weight: 15.7(W) x 10(D) x 0.94 x 1.1(H) inch, 5.95 lbs plus 1.4 lbs for energy brick
• Battery measurement: 99Wh
• Ports: Two USB-A 3.1, one Thunderbolt 4, mini DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, analog headset jack, DC-in
• Price: $3,299.95

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard on this massive 17-inch Gigabyte is surprisingly good and never only for gaming, both. With full-sized keys on the numpad and pure key spacing, I really feel like this might be used to energy by means of spreadsheets and time period papers in addition to something. This keyboard makes the Aorus 17 an important choose for anybody who has to juggle numbers ceaselessly. If I have been to choose any nit, it’d be the marginally shrunken proper shift key, which was a little bit of an annoyance, however one I tailored to with apply.

The per-key RGB on the Aorus 17 is fairly beautiful with some spectacular built-in results and tremendous clean transitions. Of course, it’s a fast key combo (fn + house) to flick it on or off because the circumstances require.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

The trackpad, alternatively, is a bit fiddly. It’s an enormous, MacBook-sized quantity with the Windows Precision driver. Sensitivity is nice and gestures work effectively. But, for my use patterns, I discovered it was far too giant and I brushed it with my palms very often, dislodging the cursor after I wasn’t typing. I had a a lot simpler time after tuning sensitivity and turning off options like tap-to-click.

Audio subsystem

Despite its compact-for-a-17-inch billing, the Aorus 17 nonetheless makes room for some decent-sounding audio system. The DTS:X powered audio system can ably play podcasts or music. Bass is audible and the mids and highs come by means of robust however you’re going to listen to some distortion when you enterprise previous the 75% quantity mark. Obviously, for those who’re hoping to crank in-game audio, the audio system should compete with the loud followers. Unfortunately, the followers will win out. You’ll need to get some headphones!

Webcam

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

It used to imply that having a bezel-free display meant placing up with a digital camera at a clumsy angle. Gigabyte retained skinny bezels by placing the Aorus’s digital camera gear up in a protruding lip—a nega-notch, if you’ll. This lets the HD digital camera be a bit greater, pack within the requisite sensors for Windows Hello log-in, and even the microphones.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

The digital camera does a suitable job of placing your mug on the world vast internet for all to see. It makes me look far more pasty than I really am. Additionally, even in vibrant mild, this 720p unit annihilates element in a manner that makes me consider a skin-smoothing magnificence mode. It’s higher than nothing (ahem, MSI), but it surely’s a far cry from what’s obtainable as an exterior attachment.
 

Build high quality and acoustics

Like many computer systems within the gaming class, the selection to stay with a matte black plastic does loads for a laptop computer. Sure, it doesn’t really feel as premium as aluminum or magnesium, but it surely’s sturdy, doesn’t get sizzling to the contact, and tends to age effectively. The solely main draw back is that like on most black devices, you’re more likely to see fingerprints construct up, on this case most noticeably on the Aorus 17’s keycaps and trackpad.

The Aorus feels solidly constructed, though its mix of thinness and massive deck measurement undoubtedly feels much less inflexible than one thing with a smaller footprint. Thankfully, the plastic chassis retains the keyboard in verify. Even when typing vigorously, I by no means observed keyboard deck flex–you’ll should press mighty laborious to note any sort of deformation of the highest case.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Ports are positioned on both aspect of the pc, with nothing alongside the rear edge. It’s good to see a fully-featured Thunderbolt 4 port right here, particularly one that may use USB-C PD for charging. Unfortunately, your different charging possibility is a chunky right-angle DC barrel plug, which protrudes fairly a bit on the appropriate hand aspect. While southpaws will seemingly by no means discover, the vast majority of players is likely to be irritated. I actually was, because it ate into useful mousing space on a smaller desktop.

Part of the Aorus’s near-6 pound weight is because of its huge cooling system. Six copper heatpipes be certain warmth is dissipated rapidly and big vents guarantee airflow is rarely a difficulty. In one among its customary modes, you’ll undoubtedly hear the followers whirring away because of a light high-pitched whine that’s noticeable at any time when there’s air on the transfer. Thankfully, for those who activate the quiet/battery saver efficiency mode within the Gigabyte App, the Aorus 17 turns into as mild-mannered, well-behaved, and chill as an ultrabook.

Display

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

The headline function right here is Aorus’ 17.3-inch, 360Hz display. While it’s solely a 1080p panel, it’s IPS and has a claimed 72% NTSC colour gamut. Viewing angles are stable with little to no colour shift discovered off-axis.

I discovered that in more moderen AAA video games—like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5—you’ll get nowhere close to the highest framerate out of this display. If these are the sorts of video games you play, it’d make sense to go for one thing with a decrease refresh price, say 120Hz. But, for those who’re into esports titles, you’re in for an actual deal with right here. 360Hz in Rocket League was an eyeball-tickling expertise on the Aorus 17!

If there’s any space the place this display is a letdown, it’s the brightness. We measured solely 250 nits peak brightness, making it manner dimmer than different laptops on this class. If you largely use your computer systems indoors below managed lighting, which may not matter. But for those who’re hoping to get pleasure from this matte 17-inch display outdoor or close to home windows, you’ll rapidly discover that there’s not fairly sufficient brightness to chop by means of the glare.

Upgrades

Like many 12th gen Intel-based gaming laptops, the Aorus 17 has a little bit of room to develop. Although it has a capacious 1 TB NVMe SSD as customary on this configuration, you’ll discover one other unpopulated M.2 slot ready for extra storage. The inventory configuration has socketed ram as effectively, that includes 32 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM on two 16 GB DIMMs. I feel that many individuals won’t ever want rather more RAM than that, but it surely may put you comfy realizing this machine can accommodate as much as 64 gigs sooner or later.

Performance

You’re not solely right here to examine M.2 slots and DDR5…you in all probability need to know the way this massive laptop computer performs!

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

Let’s begin with Maxon’s Cinebench R20, which makes use of the corporate’s Cinema4D engine to push the CPU to its limits. This take a look at favors extra highly effective CPU cores. With 14 cores and 20 threads, the Gigabyte’s i7-12700H processor has loads of oomph to deal with multithreaded duties. Although different laptops on this value class function a barely sooner Core i9, the Aorus exhibits isn’t any slouch.

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

So, you’ve acquired loads of cores to push round. How about single-core efficiency? Thankfully, the R20 benchmark measures that as effectively. This benchmark offer you an concept as to how the Aorus 17 will carry out when utilizing customary basic computing apps like internet browsers or Microsoft Office. As you may see within the graph above, the Gigabyte scores about the identical as different laptops with Core i7 12th-gen processors. The MSI GE76 Raider has somewhat extra energy on account of its Core i9 12th-gen processor.

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

Thanks to all its cores and ample cooling, the Aorus 17 chews by means of video encoding like a child devouring celery and peanut butter at snack time. For our customary video encode take a look at, we use Handbrake to crunch down a 1080p Blu-ray rip to be used on an Android pill. In the graph above, a shorter bar is a greater end result. The Aorus encoded a video in simply 16 minutes, which is nothing wanting spectacular. These 12th gen machines are nice for video encoding, making it excellent for those who maintain a Plex library as a interest.

3D gaming efficiency

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

Let’s check out 3D gaming efficiency, lets? To begin, we ran the 3DMark Time Spy 1.2 benchmark. Thanks to its Nvidia RTX3080 GPU, the Aorus saved tempo. However, it was marginally slower than related fashions, seemingly due to its lower-than-average 130W TGP energy envelope. The solely latest machine to outperform the Aorus 17 was the MSI GE76 Raider, which has a faster-clocked Nvidia chip and an i9 processor as well.

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

In our older Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark, the Aorus 17 was greater than as much as the duty. It scored 149 FPS within the 1080p/Very High take a look at, which was solely a bit decrease than the opposite RTX3080 Ti-equipped machines.

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

In our intensive Metro Exodus benchmark, the Aorus got here in a bit behind the pack, however not by a lot, exhibiting that the marginally weaker GPU nonetheless can nonetheless put up a combat. We discovered that it didn’t rack up greater numbers when operating in a devoted gaming energy mode—that’s as a result of the pc’s default AI Boost moderately deftly switches modes with out person intervention. This is superior as a result of it’s one much less factor customers have to fiddle with. You’ll see nice efficiency for those who merely maintain the pc’s default setting.

Battery life

Unfortunately, regardless of its massive 99Whr battery, the highly effective elements and massive show are a drain on the Aorus 17. During our customary battery rundown take a look at, by which we run a 4K video on loop, the Aorus 17 barely made it to 6 hours of runtime. While you’ll in all probability get extra time figuring out of the battery for those who’re cautious, don’t depend on watching motion pictures on a long-haul flight with out your charger. Anecdotally, below a light-weight workload, I misplaced round 10% each hour. That’s with a bunch of Edge tabs open, OneNote operating, and a YouTube video taking part in within the background.

Conclusion

The newest Gigabyte Aorus is way from a disappointment. Although on paper it won’t appear as spectacular as its friends with its lower-wattage Nvidia GPU and i7 as an alternative of an i9. In actuality, this bundle nonetheless packs a wallop. Its massive display is a bit dim and the port structure’s a little bit of a multitude, however on the entire the Aorus 17 is a aggressive laptop computer that shines in relation to gaming. You’re getting an enormous display, excessive refresh price expertise on the go.