You need to be careful when buying a gaming laptop. While it’s easy to choose a machine with all of the latest and greatest components inside it, if they’re not put together properly, you could end up with a laptop that overheats and underperforms.
Furthermore, unless money is no object, it’s important to remember that the type of games you play affect the type of gaming laptop that you should purchase. If you want to play the latest, cinematic adventures at their best, most-realistic settings, then you’ll need top-shelf graphics hardware to ensure things run smoothly.
However, if you’re a competitive gamer that primarily plays popular, stalwart shooters you can save a lot of money (and still maintain maximum framerates) just by making a few sensible choices when it comes to the components used. Whatever your requirements, however, the brand new AORUS 15 gaming laptops from Gigabyte have you covered.
Striking and clean looks, plus plenty of power
The AORUS 15 laptops are built using the latest technologies from Nvidia, Intel and Microsoft – and yet the body of these high-performance machines is less-than one-inch thick! The AORUS 15 employs a striking angular design that gives it a look that’s clean and instantly appealing. In Australia, this refined gaming laptop is available in two models. The AORUS 15-XA is the higher-end option, equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 graphics and a luxuriously-fast 240Hz screen, with an RRP of AU$3,299. If you don’t need all that power but still want the (portable) potential to play competitive shooters like Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch or CS:GO without limitations, the AORUS 15-SA is the more wallet-friendly – but still astonishingly capable – alternative, priced at just AU$2,399. It sports Nvidia’s GTX 1660 Ti graphics chip and a fast, ghost-free 144Hz screen.
Both GPUs are based upon Nvidia’s latest Turing architecture, which adds AI smarts to the mix. Performance on Turing is up to six times better than previous generations, while features like DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) will adapt and continue to improve antialiasing performance as time goes on. Of particular on the RTX 2070 note is real-time ray tracing, which makes live, rendered graphics within supported games more realistic than ever before.
Inside both laptops also resides the brand-new Intel 9th-generation Core i7-9750H processor, with six-cores and twelve-threads of beefy processing power. This CPU intelligently runs from 2.6GHz to a speedy 4.5GHz depending on what’s required and yet still delivers more performance per watt than its predecessors. There’s space for up to two super-fast PCIe solid-state drives, plus a mechanical drive which can provide an astonishing 6TB of storage space. That means you’ll have plenty of room to install the latest, massive game files on a fast SSD while simultaneously recording plenty of high-definition game footage to share on Twitch or YouTube.
Always cool – even under pressure
Of course, even the latest powerful components can generate a great deal of heat, and if that’s not managed correctly you can end up with a laptop that can slow right down due to thermal issues – something which can even result in hardware problems in the long run. Adding an army of tiny, whining fans is neither effective nor pleasant on one’s ears – and nobody wants to lug a bulky, breezy box around.
So how do you manage heat in a powerful laptop that’s only 2.4cm thick? The AORUS 15 uses brand-new Windforce technology that encompasses six heatpipes, nine inlet and exhaust vents plus two, extra-large 12V fans to shift as much cool air into the system – and hot air out – as possible. If that’s not enough, business-grade AI technology from Microsoft Azure is used for power management to ensure that only the important system elements are working when needed. It will even learn to operate more efficiently based on your usage patterns – so the more you use it, the better it gets.
Class-leading design
A great deal of thought has gone into the AORUS 15 laptops’ whole design. All of the ports and technologies that gamers need are catered for, including Ethernet and full-sized HDMI. This ensures that the AORUS 15 can be taken to any kind of LAN event and connect with minimal difficulty while ensuring maximum performance. It can even be used for virtual reality. Killer Networking further fights lag, while Nahimic audio helps you locate shots and footsteps on the battlefield. A full complement of keys means you won’t run out of macros and shortcuts, while the RGB lighting can be customised to help with performance… and also just make your set-up look awesome! If you’re into streaming, a high-definition webcam is provided, as is an array-based digital microphone for better voice capture.
Naturally, having all these features in a laptop suggests that serious design compromises are being made. Traditionally, high-performance gaming laptops like these have come stuffed into a huge, heavy, desktop-replacement chassis: it’s refreshing, then, to see that both the AORUS 15-XA and 15-SA are comparatively both small and portable. Not only is the chassis less than one-inch thick and only 2.4kg in weight, its discrete styling means it’s perfect for use in any environment, from the most conservative office to your local LAN gathering.
No compromises
Whatever your requirements, the new AORUS 15-XA and 15-SA gaming laptops represent best-in-class choices for gamers. They hit the perfect trifecta of being portable and affordable while also offering outstanding gaming performance. They’re more than the sum of their parts and, by being backed by Gigabyte’s heritage of robust-and-reliable, high-performance PC hardware – plus a two-year international warranty – you’ve got the assurance that they won’t let you down.
Where to buy
The AORUS 15-XA and AORUS 15-SA are available to purchase at leading Australian computing retailers, including:
For more information on either of these remarkable gaming laptops, please visit the official AORUS 15 website.
