In this corner, you have the 15.6-inch Aorus X5 ($2,299 staring price), weighing in at 5.5 pounds with a thickness of 0.9 inches. In the other corner, you have the competition: other 15.6-inch gaming laptops. Equipped with dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M GPU in SLI configuration, Aorus boasts that the X5 (shipping in Q2) is the world's most powerful notebook. It's an impressive claim, one I'm inclined to believe.
Design
One thing's for sure -- the X5 is definitely stunning. The lid is made from beautiful matte black anodized aluminum whose slightly textured surface is cool to the touch. A white backlit eagle is a nice accent that draws the eye without overpowering the entire presentation. The majority of the laptop's interior is covered in luxurious black soft touch. At 0.9 inches thick nd 5.5 pounds, the X5 is one of the slimmest, lightest laptops in its class.
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Display
The X5 features two display configurations, non-touch 3K and 4K. Unfortunately, Aorus wasn't very forthcoming on exact resolutions. For the 4K screen, the company is using indium gallium zinc oxide, which Aorus claims uses little power but maintains high performance, producing eye-popping shades while minimizing color shift. From what I saw on the show floor, the glossy panel produced rich, bright hues with crisp detail.
The display was sharp enough to clearly show off the fiberglass accoutrements on super cars tearing down the track in The Crew demo. As nice as the color looked appeared on both iterations of the X5, I'm going to reserve my final judgement until we can properly measure color gamut and accuracy. Generous viewing angles meant that the colors maintained their integrity well beyond 45 degrees.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Similar to other 15-inch gaming laptops, the X5 sports a backlit, Chiclet keyboard. However, unlike many of its competitors, Aorus doesn't offer the option to customize the lighting, leaving you with a reasonably bright white backlit layout. There is a pop of color, courtesy of the row of macro keys on the left side of the keyboard that sports a bright cheery red.
During the demo, the keys delivered reasonably firm feedback, but the key travel felt a little shallow. In my short time with the X5, the touchpad became my favorite visual standout. Similar to the eagle logo on the lid, the shiny glass input device draws the gaze and adds some needed visual contrast.
Navigating using the touchpad was effortless. My fingers skirted across the cool surface and the cursor matched my movements with speed and accuracy. However, I wish the company would have employed discrete mouse buttons, since the bottom corners of the touchpad felt slightly mushy.
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Specs
Besides crowing about its pair of Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M GPUs in SLI configuration, Aorus is keeping most other details about the laptop close to the vest. While it's safe to assume that the laptop will have an Intel Core i7 processor, the remaining specs are anyone's guess. The company claims that its dual GPUs makes the X5 more powerful than a 15-inch laptop configured with a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPU. Ultimately, I'll have to wait until the X5 is in our lab to put that claim to the test.
Outlook
Aorus continues to impress, creating gaming laptops that are surprisingly slim and powerful. At a cursory glance, the X5's 4K panel is gorgeous and I can imagine myself playing hours upon hours of Far Cry 4 going from lush jungles to frigid mountain peaks. However, I'm most excited to check out whether the dual GPUs live up to the hype. The Aorus X5 is a notebook to look out for in 2015.
