[ENG] The Brand New GIGABYTE AORUS 15G equipped with Slim Mechanical Keyboards

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In recent 2 years, GIGABYTE more focused on the high-end laptop market.
They got two product lines, AORUS for Pro Gaming series, and AERO series is designed for the creators.
And AORUS series is separated by 15-inch and 17-inch produts.
This article will reveal the latest AORUS 15G KB which has been redesigned the appearance, make it more fit to the gaming style.


AORUS 15G product intro video：
The biggest features on AORUS 15G and 17G are the brand new appearance designed for pro gaming.
The color of A cover made of matted Iron gray metal, and the surface is less obvious fingerprints design.
In the past, I have used many black ones, metal matte or hairline surface laptop, the fingerprint is more obvious.
The chassis made by aluminum CNC cutting process, which enhances the solid build quality.
Dimension of laptop is 356(W) x 250(D) x 25(H)mm (14.0 x 9.84 x 0.98 inch), weight 2.2g (4.85 lb), measured is 2275g (5.01lb)


The Eagle shape of logo will light up slightly white when boot up. It is decent and not too flashing.
In many high-end laptops, there is an extension part in the rear side of the laptop, but AORUS 15G does not have that extra size.
It can effectively shrink the size of chassis, which makes AORUS 15G very different from other brands.
Both sides of C cover simulated the supercar side skirt, that gives AORUS 15G with very special unibody like appearance.


The B cover is very similar to the GIGABYTE creator laptop of AERO series.
The three-way 3mm ultra-thin bezel design is the thinnest bezel in the high-end level model.
There is full range of anti-impact stripe rubber protection, to avoid panel damage by C side when cover is closed.


AORUS 15G equipped with a 15.6-inch IGZO anti-glare panel on this model.
With FHD resolution, 4ms response time, 240Hz high refresh rate, the AORUS 15G guaranteed that games can get an immersive gameplay experience.
Over 72%NTSC wide color gamut, and every panel is calibrated and passed the X-rite Pantone certified before ship out.
Delta E <1 is very close to original color display, achieve the most accurate color presents even in the games.


C cover keyboards and touchpad is black color, rest of the chassis parts is Iron-Gray.
The unibody designed touchpad is highly accurate with fine smooth operation.
Moreover, it supports Windows Precision Touchpad tech, offering multi-touch operate works.
The touchpad offered a fingerprint sensor on the upper left,
and the concave design at below makes the panel easier to be lifted and it’s also a cooling hole design.


The HD webcam and microphone on the top of C side.
The face might not be taken too close to the chin or nose cam with the webcam because the surface is angled upward.
To enhance the personal privacy safety, AORUS 15G equipped a cover on the webcam, which is very rare design on laptops.
The Keyboard backlit support AORUS RGB Fusion 2.0, which can customized the color and Marco function in every single key.


The world’s first laptop equipped with OMRON mechanical switches is the AORUS 17 in end of last year.
The exclusive design also equipped on the slimmer AORUS 15G, the thickness of chassis has reduced from 38mm drop to 25mm.
The Omron switches are made in Japan, featured ultra-durable 15M of keystroke lifespan, and the optimum key travel 2.5mm.
The 1.6mm trigger point is much better than other high-end laptops were using a classic membrane keyboard.
GIGABYTE AORUS claim that the typing feeling is similar to the Cherry Blue Switch,
compared to my personal Brown Switch keyboard; there is not any big difference.
Make a mechanical keyboard fit in a 25mm (0.98inch) chassis is a very awesome design in the mid-high-end level laptop.


The left side I/O ports, from left to right：
2 X USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A) / Thunderbolt 3 (Type-C) /
UHS-II SD Card Reader / DC-in Jack / Shaped Vents.
Build-in high-speed card reader, up to 312 MB/s
The rear side of hinge with the c side decorated with special racing design, which enriches the design detail of appearance.


The left side I/O ports, from left to right：
Shaped Vents. / HDMI 2.0 / mini DP 1.4 / USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A) /
3.5 Audio combo jack / RJ-45(Killer Ethernet E2600).
This is my first time saw the hinge and near area that designed as special racing style in my many reviews of high-end level laptops.
The design lines of the detail on AORUS 15G is even richer than DELL Alienware.

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The D side design implements large and unique theme of vents.
The temperature varies during the burn-in test we will shared latter.


AORUS 15G Laptop comes with a small bulk of 230W adapter that weighs 735g.
The maximum opening angle of the display is about 140 degrees, the expression of these 2 parts are good.


AORUS Control Center of exclusive software:
The mainpage, Smart Dashboard can offer system monitoring, model name, and hardware status.


Keyboard lighting page built-in more than 10 kinds of lighting effect mode for the user to adjust.
Supports RGB Fusion 2.0 tech., full color of per-key RGB mechanical keyboard


Fan speed control with silent, normal, gaming mode, also with deep control mode.
User could depends on personal preferences to set fan speeds under any temperature.
The users can use the AI software icon on the upper right of the screen to operate the Ai. Through Microsoft Azure cloud computing and learning,
the CPU and GPU power consumption could be dynamically adjust according to the user's behavior of the program to get better performance.
The hardware performance can be optimized by AI to achieve higher efficiency,
testing a variety of software to turn on AI can get up to 10% higher performance than turning off AI.


Nahimic 3D sound software：
The interface and function already updated many versions, comes with more features.
Mainly apply 4 sound stages, with 3 types to make it richer sound effects.


Below is AORUS 15G speaker sound experience, this part is subjective.
High frequency – Not too sharp, very rich detail and high quality of overall present.
Middle frequency – Overall clear and brilliant, human vocal is rich and nice.
Low frequency – Low frequency sound present pretty clean and not too turbid. But woofer of drum sound is slightly weak.
The AORUS series positioned on gaming series, the surround sound was a little the weak for the effects.
Turn the volume to 100%, the volume is fine and no too loud.
The overall performance of the speaker is clear and quality has reached a high-end laptop level.

AORUS 15G depends on CPU and GPU combinations difference.
KB model aims for the middle level, equipped with 10th gen i7-10875H.
The base clock speed is 2.3 GHz, single core Boost up to 5.1 GHz, 14nm process.
This is the first laptop equipped 8 cores and 16 threads of Core i7, TDP is 45W.
The following is the part of CPU performance testing, turn on AI function with all default settings.

CPUZ 1.92.0：
Single CPU =>534.7, 8C16T multi CPU => 5064.8,
Fritz Chess Benchmark =>54.25 / 26039.


CINEBENCH R15
CPU => 1672 cb,CPU(Single Core) => 200 cb.


CINEBENCH R20.0：
CPU => 3472 cb,CPU(Single Core) => 483 cb.


Geekbench 5：
Single-Core Score => 1280,Multi-Core Score => 7643.

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PCMARK10 => 6004.


Intel launched two 10th gen 8C 16T CPUs for the laptop market.
Includes Core i7-10875H in this article and i9-10980HK,
Make i7 series has the 8 cores processor, and make it at friendly price level.
However many brands only used 10875H with higher-level GPU models.
If there is less price difference between Core i7-10750H and 10875H,
suggest users to buy Core i7-10875H which can get better multi task performance and gaming.

There are many choices on GPU for AORUS 15G, at least GTX 1660Ti
Also has GeForce RTX 2060,2070 Max-Q,2070 Super Max-Q, and 2080 Super Max-Q.
The KB version equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6G, it is good at the middle-range price segment.
According to different GPU level, it can make a huge price difference, the same situation happens on many different brands of gaming laptops.
The following is the part of GPU performance testing, compared to the GTX 1660 Ti scores in the back parentheses.

3DMARK Time Spy => 6172 (5670).


Unplug the adapter and turn on the AI performance mode:
3DMARK Time Spy => 4260, using the battery mode still got 69% performance.


VRMARK=> 8285(7195).


UNIGINE 2
1080P MEDIUM => 11495 (10853).


FINAL FANTASY XIV ： Shadowbringers,
1920 X 1080 HIGH=> 15442(10518).


RTX series compared to GTX series got more features, such as Ray Tracing and DLSS technology.
Support the latest tech. games are not too many, so 2060 and 1660 Ti still have some advantage in 3D games.
If frequently played games that did not support the ray tracing and DLSS, then the 1660Ti is an option that takes both performance and budget.
If you want to try some new features, the RTX 2060 is the entry-level that you could experience the latest ray tracing and DLSS tech.

Then disassemble the D cover of the laptop, as you can see the main layout inside of the laptop,
there are 12 hexagon star screws, two of them have fragile stickers.
Suggesting you looking for a professional to help, disassemble by yourself might affect the warranty.
It is a good design for easily disassembled, as long as you have the right scroll driver.
As you can see there are to 2W speakers at both sides of the laptop, and the 94.24Wh battery.
The bottom left placed an NVMe/SATA M.2 slot for additional SSD, in case the user wants updated hardware in the future.


In the central area, you can see an additional black thermal pad on the chipset.
Offering 2 SO-DIMM DDR4 slots, this one equipped with Crucial Micron DDR4 3200 DDR4 8Gx 2, but intel 10th gen CPU only supports up to 2933MHz.
The second M.2 slot only supports NVMe SSD, and this one is A-DATA ASX8200PNP-512GT.


WINDFORCE Infinity thermal tech.
The wind force infinity thermal module combined the 2x 12V of 71 blade fans and heatsinks, three of them are dedicated to CPU & GPU.
The C side left, right and back with 4 vents, keyboard side and bottom side got intake airflow design.
In such thin and light chassis even can achieve the 30% thermal efficiency increasing.


Burn-in test:
The ambient temperature at 29˚C, proceeded Intel Core i7-10875H burn-in test.
Fan speed set to gaming mode, launch the LinX. 0.7.1, it can make CPU run in full speed.
During running the LinX 0.7.1 at full speed, -77~80 C, maximum up to 91 in a glance.


In the standby mode, the fans are around 2300-2400rpm, under this condition you barely hear the fan noise.
CPU uses two kind of clock alternatively under full speed when LinX Burn-in.
When the 1st stage of clock reaches 3.8-4G, the fans reach 4000-4100 rpm.
The second stage with 2.7-2.9G the fan runs 3400-3500 rpm, with noise but not loud.
The LinX is critical burn-in software for Intel CPU, and it could put enough pressure on the 8C16T CPU. The cooling is good to handle this.

[windwithme]

FurMark mainly for GPU RTX 2060 6G burn in test.
The GPU at 1080MHz / MEM 5500MHz, in full load mode reach around 4100-4300 rpm fan speed.
Running FurMark got idle of 50˚C and full speed 84˚C.


When running the Furmark, the temperature reaches 30~36 ˚C at the keyboard and 32~40 ˚C above the keyboard side.
Left & right side vents 33~45˚C. rear side around 40~63 ˚C, D cover vent is around 39~59 ˚C
The fan noise was a little bit increase during GPU full speed mode, although the noise close to mid-high frequency but the overall is not too loud.
In terms of high-loading environment, it was acceptable and not to make people felt uncomfortable.
You won’t hear much noise when both the loading environment and fan speed is low. In situations like web surfing, video and music.
Due to the weather, room temperature recently rises a lot, at the same time it will affect the laptop temperature.

On the battery life:
Microsoft Azure AI set to “Battery Saving Mode”.
The official claim that adjusts the display brightness to 20%, playback 1080P video, and turn off the Wi-FI & BT, the battery life up to 8 hours.
In the test, connecting the internet on WiFi and playback YouTube video at 1080P with 20% of brightness, 50% of Volume,
After 1 hour with 84% left, after 2 hours with 71% left, after 3 hours with 58% left,
after 6 hours with 11% left, after 6 hours 22 minutes, it’s 5% left and laptop turn off automatically.
Microsoft Azure AI set to “Performance Mode”.
after 1 hour with 66% left, after 2 hours with 41% left, after 3 hours with 18% left, after 3 hours 40 minutes 5% left, and turn off automatically.
The "performance mode" supports most software, that CPU can keep 83~86% performance, and GPU is 65%~76% of the performance.
The Azure AI in the AORUS 15G successfully achieved a brilliant balance between battery and performance under an unplug adapter condition.


Summarized on GIGABYTE AORUS 15G:
Key features and Pros:
1. Solid & decent chassis design and good build quality, it significantly matches the gaming laptop positioning.
2. The unique OMRON mechanical keyboard features extremely high durability and excellent keystroke sensation.
3. The SHARP 240Hz panel with the thinnest three side 3mm bezel and X-rite Pantone calibration.
4. Equipped up to RTX 2070 SUPER or 2080 SUPER that can get a higher 3D performance.
5. AORUS Control center has many of useful functions and ahimic 3D sound effect software.
6. Support Microsoft Azure AI that could dynamically adjust the performance setting, and after optimizing the performance increase by 10%.
7. The Windforce Infinity thermal module consisted of the dual-fans with 71 blades and 5 heatpipes, increasing over 30% thermal efficiency.
8. The optional 10th gen CPU achieved the highest laptop performance, it includes i7-10875H vs i9-10980HK.
9. Equipped Killer AX1650 wireless module which supports 802.11AX (WIFI 6) tech.
10. The webcam cover is heart touching, and the battery life above the standard by high-end hardware.

The points for future improvement:
1. The sound quality of the speaker in the woofer effect and sound field could be better.
2. WebCam got lower resolution and quality, hope it could be improved.
3. At ambient temperature above 30˚C, the temperature of in burn-in testing GPU is a bit high, need to turn up the fan speed higher to drop the temperature under 80 ˚C.


Performance Rating ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100
Material Rating ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100
Specification Rating ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 88/100
ID design Rating ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100
Cost Performance Rating ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100

Unlike desktop can depend on SPEC. and price to make a quick decision, buying a laptop needs to do more research in detail.
The desktop has the advantage of huge space and highly upgradability, but the laptop combined plenty of components into a thinner chassis.
The first step in choosing a high-end laptop is the ID design, material and stronger chassis. Those features are hardly measured.
Then is the panel, keyboard feedback, thermal, speakers, and I/O ports, they are really matter too.
Although CPU & GPU are mostly factors that affect the price, but there are the SPEC and benchmark users can reference,
and every laptop’s brand equipped with similar CPU and GPU, that make users can easily filter what they want.
Besides for many consumers, the brand image and warranty policy are both important factors for choice a laptop.

windwithme believe that Alienware gaming series laptop gets the most special design on the high-end gaming laptop.
In many brands, the high-end level gaming laptop used to make brushed aluminum on the black metal, and slightly add some lines and signal lights on the chassis.
Those laptops design are too popularization and ordinary, there are less differences between others.
Therefore, how that laptop's design matches the theme “Gaming laptop” is a matter of debate.
The latest AORUS 15G’s design is quite unique, through the sharp CNC cutting tech. makes the curve on laptop with richer lines.
Achieved the world’s thinnest gaming laptop with mechanical keyboard and combined the above points that indeed make AORUS 15G own a non-alternative advantage.
Actually, you would aware of GIGABYTE that is a huge ambition on the high-end level laptop in the recent two years, we still list done 3 points to improve.
Since GIGABYTE launched the AORUS and AERO series laptop on the high-end market, the product quality significantly improved on both aspect, and still keep progress.
Due to GIGABYTE got into the high-end segment later than others, AORUS brand image and awareness still need to take some time to build-up.
AORUS 15G is the G2 Esports CS: GO Team certified laptop, that’s very helpful on promoted the product by the well-known team.

There are many new desktop product need to be reviewed, the next article will regard MSI Z490 motherboard equipped with RTX 2070 super’ performance review.
After that, it will be the latest AMD B550 motherboard, and I recently started to film the unboxing video,
besides I hope the testing article can stay in the schedule to publish.
This article was based on my personal experience to analyze the AORUS 15G,
hope it could offer the viewers who are interesting in the AORUS 15G a few viewpoints.

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