Gigabyte Aero 15X V8-BK4

Gigabyte’s Coffee Lake Max-Q refresh.

- Bo Moore

 

WHEN WE FIRST TESTED thin-and-light Max-Q gaming laptops last year, we had a clear favorite: Gigabyte’s Aero 15X-BK4. All the Max-Q laptops we’ve tested scored within a few percentage points of each other, benchmarks-wise, but the Aero 15X stood apart thanks to its 5mm bezel, which allowed a 15.6-inch screen to fit in a 14-inch chassis. This made a world of difference when it came to the quality that thin-and-light laptops value most: portability.

This year, Gigabyte has updated and upgraded the Aero 15X, officially called the Aero 15X v8-BK4, with several key features—most notably Intel’s new mobile Coffee Lake CPU, the Core i7-8750H. This new CPU, which will be the backbone of most gaming laptops this year, marks a huge CPU performance increase over the previous generation, mainly due to moving from four to six cores, making it one of the best gaming laptops you can buy.