Gigabyte Aorus 17X (2024) review

Gigabyte's Aorus line holds a long history of chunky, funky gaming laptops with zero chill. These aren't the kind of gaming laptops you whip out for a quick Stardew Valley session. Gigabyte Aorus machines are brutes with frame rates to match. But, as with anything where all the design focus lands on gaming power, there tend to be drawbacks. You either get a teeny-tiny NVMe drive, a sub-par monitor resolution to make up for a monster refresh rate, a camera that looks right up your nose, or a battery life shorter than Donald Trump's list of bad things he's done. 

The Gigabyte Aorus 17X AZG offers oodles of speedy storage, hits the sweet spot for monitor refresh and resolution, doesn't point the camera at my double chin, and still manages to deliver great frame rates. But of course I'm going to find something to complain about.

Out of the box, it wasn't as ugly as I expected. The Aorus track record has seen me pulling out sharp-looking beasts with edgy aesthetics, but I was pleasantly surprised to see only subtle cyberpunky patterning on the back and minimal detailing where the screen meets the main body. Basically, no one's going to know it's a gaming laptop until they come up and inspect it.

The size, however, may be a bit of a giveaway. With a 17.3-inch panel topping it, the Aorus 17X weighs in at 2.9kg / 6.39lb. Meaning you really have to be committed to away gaming if you're going to lug this around and call it portable.

Model: AZG-65US665SH
CPU: Intel Core i9 14900HX
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 (175W)
RAM: 32GB DDR5-5600
SSD: 2x 1TB NVMe Gigabyte AG450E1024-G
Screen: 17.3-inch
Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (16:9)
Refresh rate: 240Hz
OS: Windows 11
Weight: 2.9kg | 6.39lb
Dimensions: 39.6 x 29.3 x 2.18cm | 15.6 x 11.5 x 0.86in
Price: £3,600 | $3,700 

There's no mechanical keyboard weighing it down, and while I'm a little sad I'm not getting that tasty Omron feedback that the 2021 Aorus 17X YD had, the button presses on this thing have a vaguely satisfying bump… if a little squishy. I'm