Say hello to Aorus' latest head-turner. Gigabyte's gaming-focused subsidiary Aorus has always been big on style, and somehow has always managed to cram an inordinate amount of power into ridiculously slim chassis.
The company has really outdone itself this time with the Aorus X9 gaming laptop. Set to debut sometime this year, the X9 (starting at $3,649, or $3,799 for a Newegg exclusive) is an intriguing exercise in extremes.
Say Hello to Big Sexy
I first saw the X9 back at last year's CES when the laptop was only a concept, but I was enthralled even then. It was sporting a sleek black-matte soft-touch lid with angles that simultaneously conjured visions of hitting a straightaway in a sexy Lamborghini or going on a top-secret mission in a stealth fighter.
While the 17-inch system looked slim, I was still shocked to discover that the laptop measured 16.9 x 12.4 x 0.9~1.2 inches and weighed only 7.9 pounds, especially considering what the laptop has under the chassis (more on that later).
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All RGB Everything
In the past, Aorus hasn't been too big on putting on a kayboard light show, but the company has been embracing the trend as of late and went in full-hog on the X9. Now every single key on the keyboard can be programmed to flash a specific color from the 16.7 million colors in Aorus' backlighting software.
Speaking of the keyboard, the X9 is also the world's thinnest laptop to feature full mechanical brown switches. True, it's not as clicky as say a green or blue switch, but with a reported 2.5 millimeters of key travel, it's a nice, springy typing experience.
Like any good gaming laptop, the X9 received bunches of effects to make the lighting that much more mesmerizing. The front and rear vents have also gotten some lighting and at the top of the deck you'll find a row of lights that act as an equalizer when the Music setting is activated. It's a fun touch, especially when you're listening to something with a lot of bass.
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Powerfully Slim
Despite being less than an inch thick at its slimmest point, the Aorus X9 is hiding not one, but two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPUs (with 8GB of VRAM each) under the hood, making it the world's slimmest notebook to accomplish the feat. With the GPUs in SLI configuration, they can rival or even surpass the performance of an GTX 1080 GPU.
In addition to the GPUs, you also get an overclockable 2.9-GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK processor with 32GB of RAM. As far as storage, the starting configuration gives you a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD and a 1TB hard drive.
However, you can add another SSD and HDD by accessing the laptop's bottom panel. In order to keep things relatively cool, Aorus has outfitted the X9 with four fans, another world's first.
Other noteworthy specs include the 17.3-inch 4K (3840 x 2160), X-Rite Pantone-certified display and a pair of speakers and two subwoofers.
Bottom Line
The Aorus X9 is most definitely a looker, and I'm particularly excited to start programming that keyboard and playing with the lights. But more importantly, I'm eager to start testing the dual GTX 1070s. It's rare to see a SLI configuration in a notebook anymore, so I'm excited to see what gains if any I can achieve.
I'm also curious about the quad-fan setup and just how cool it can keep the laptop when everything's running at high performance. But until the Aorus X9 arrives in our lab, I'm just going to keep drooling over the pictures.
