TWO IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN ONE
Aorus X7 Pro
The third iteration of the Aorus X7 carries pretty much the same chassis design as its predecessors (the X7 and X7 V2); all three models arriving in quick succession within the same year and it shows how manufacturers are chasing specs to maintain up their claims as the top gaming notebook around.
The X7 Pro is one of the few notebooks refreshed with the higher end Intel processors, in this case the i7-4870HQ. This is Intel’s second fastest chip after the i7-4980HQ (which is found in the MSI GT72 2QE). It’s also unique in that it’s running two GeForce 970Ms in SLI mode, which means there’s a boatload of power under the hood. Couple that with a 512GB SSD storage and 1TB in conventional HDD and you not only have speed, but capacity as well.
As the design is pretty much the same as before, so we’ll not focus too much on it. The aluminum chassis looks good and feels very durable, but smudges way too easily. Still, it continues to be one of the more impressive designs around considering the hardware Aorus packs into the slim body.
The keyboard uses chiclet-style keys with a row of customizable macro keys to the left. Only the macro keys use special scissor switches for faster response though. If you’re a hardcore gamer, you probably won’t like the keyboard anyway as its slim design means very shallow keys that do not provide satisfactory feedback, unlike the ones on the Aftershock Titan V2.1 or the ASUS G751.
Similarly, the track pad isn’t much to shout about either. While it looks nice and shiny, the entire thing is flushed into the chassis and it becomes annoying over time how we have to constantly look down just to make sure our fingers are still on the pad. Of course, Aorus is probably counting on gamers to use external keyboards and mice when it comes to gaming, so they went with form over function here.
So, it all comes down to performance. The Aorus X7 Pro is a very impressing gaming laptop, no doubt about it. The SLI’ed 970Ms inside make it a force to be reckoned with. The X7 Pro pretty much blew away all the other notebooks in nearly every benchmark we tried. It even broke the 100 FPS barrier for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor on High, a feat even the monstrous MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro couldn’t achieve.