By For the price, the Gigabyte G6X is all about the specifications. A 16-inch gaming laptop from Gigabyte included an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU and an Intel Core i7 HX CPU. Additionally, the business went above and beyond by integrating 1TB of solid-state storage and 32GB of RAM at this pricing point. For a $1,349 laptop, that is a lot.
Following that, Gigabyte began to lower the price by making concessions. However, all of the tradeoffs are well-thought-out; nothing about this is awful. Even while the laptop doesn’t accomplish anything particularly exceptional, everything else about it is functional. This can be the ideal gaming laptop for you if the price meets your needs and you prioritize strong specifications above a gaudy appearance.
I utilized the $1,949 Gigabyte Aorus 16X and the Gigabyte G6X side by side when I first got my hands on them. It was a learning experience: this laptop costs $600 less than the Aorus 16X. I saw that the less-priced laptop had a more elegant form, a less eye-catching display, and fewer desirable features like an infrared camera for Windows Hello facial recognition. Although the G6X here doesn’t feel as high-end as laptops that cost several hundred dollars more, it still performs admirably and provides a satisfactory experience.
Specification
With the Gigabyte G6X, value for money is everything. We looked at a model of Gigabyte G6X 9KG that had an Intel Core i7-13650HX processor. This is a Core HX chip from Intel, an update to the Raptor Lake CPUs from the previous year. These appear to perform marginally better than Intel’s existing Meteor Lake Core Ultra CPUs. However, reports claim that they are missing the neural processing unit (NPU), which would speed up upcoming Windows AI features.
Our evaluation machine had a 1TB solid-state drive, 32GB of RAM, and Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics. At $1349, that is a decent amount of hardware for the laptop. This laptop is also available from Gigabyte with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, albeit Gigabyte notes that regional variations may exist in the notebook’s storage capacity.
Let’s talk about the big issue with AI: This is referred to as an “AI gaming laptop” by Gigabyte. With a potent Nvidia RTX GPU, it is every bit an AI laptop as any other contemporary notebook. Gigabyte is correct; as we’ve previously stated, the fastest AI performance on PCs at this time is provided by robust GPUs. Despite all the buzz about AI, the Aorus 16X at least includes a few little software AI capabilities meant to show things off, but I didn’t see any of those here. That being said, there’s nothing special here beyond a conventional Nvidia RTX GPU.
It might not receive future Windows AI capabilities, though, as they might only be compatible with systems that have an NPU. We’re not sure about that yet! We’re waiting on Microsoft to make their plans public.
- Intel Core i7-13650HX processor
- Memory: DDR5-5600 RAM, 32 GB
- GPU and graphics: Nvidia RTX 4060
- Display: 16:10 IPS 1920×1200 with a refresh rate of 165 Hz
- 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD for storage
- 720p webcam
- Connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo headphone jack, 1x RJ-45 (Ethernet), 1x Kensington lock slot, 1x DC power in, 2x USB Type-A (USB3.2 Gen 2), 1x USB Power Delivery 3.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4.
- Networking: gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.2, and Wi-Fi 6E
- Biometrics: Not used
- Capacity of battery: 73 Watt-hours
- 14.21 x 10.19 x 1.06 inches in dimensions
- 5.64 pounds in weight
- MSRP, as tested, was $1,349
Design and build quality
The Gigabyte G6X’s appearance won’t catch anyone’s attention. Its design lacks svelte contours and is even more “blockier” than that of the Gigabyte Aorus 16X. That’s not a problem at all: this laptop is a true example of a traditional, functional gaming laptop.
With a silver Gigabyte logo on the lid, the name “Gigabyte” beneath the screen, and some subtle “X” graphics on the lid and to the right of the touchpad, this 16-inch laptop is branded with the Gigabyte name.
Apart from that, the design is blocky and made entirely of thick gray plastic. Gigabyte refers to it as “Gunmetal Gray.” It’s fine, but it doesn’t feel or look premium, which is to be expected given that Gigabyte aims to achieve the same effect with its more costly Aorus series of laptops.
Nonetheless, the Gigabyte G6X seems to have a sturdy structure. Despite weighing only five and a half pounds, this plastic brick feels substantial. The hinge feels good when opening and shutting the laptop, and there are no strange squeaky parts or suspicious flexing in the chassis. The fans on the laptop are effective at directing air out the back rather than into your mouse hand when you’re gaming.
GIGABYTE – G6X (2024) Gaming Laptop – 165Hz 1920×1200 WUXGA – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 – Intel i7-13650HX – 1TB SSD
Keyboard and trackpad
Typing on the traditional chiclet keyboard of the Gigabye G6X is OK. The Aorus 16X keyboard feels a little snappier to type on, but the keys are a tiny bit mushy. Examining the specifications, I can see that the Aorus 16X’s keyboard has up to 1.7mm of key travel, whereas the G6X’s keyboard has up to 1.5mm. Although there is a slight difference, the keyboard still feels good.
The keyboard is backlit with LEDs, although it only has one zone and only one color at a time.
The full-size number pad on the right side of the keyboard is one feature that makes it stand out. There are now several gaming laptops without a number pad. This feature is absent from the Aorus 16X, which is of the same size. I think this has a lot of superfluous keys.
While not as smooth as a high-end glass touchpad, the trackpad feels decent. However, the trackpad’s clicking-down action isn’t as responsive as it is on the Aorus 16X; instead, it feels about average.
Display and speakers
You have to give up some things to provide these specifications at a reasonable cost. One of such concessions is the display of this 16-inch laptop. Just like the trackpad and keyboard, the monitor works well. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not very good.
While it’s not the greatest resolution available on a display, the 1920×1200 IPS panel is also not too poor. It’s encouraging to see that the refresh rate is 165 Hz. It barely delivers 300 nits of brightness, therefore we had to increase the brightness for our typical battery benchmark because it’s not that bright. Additionally, this display does not support HDR.
For everyday computer use and gaming, the display functions well, but it’s nothing to brag about. (In the meantime, the more costly Aorus 16X has a more high-end screen with support for HDR, a greater resolution of 2560×1600, and significantly more brightness.)
The speakers also produce clear, powerful music that is more than adequate. Still, there isn’t a lot of bass. It is necessary to have headphones or external speakers to fully enjoy music, games, and streaming videos.
Performance
Given all the powerful hardware in one laptop chassis, the Gigabyte G6X delivers fast performance in day-to-day use. However, we tested this laptop’s performance using our usual benchmarks as usual.
In order to gauge the overall performance of the machine, we first run PCMark 10. Although it is mostly CPU-focused, this benchmark is meant to give us a sense of total system performance. With a PCMark 10 score of 7609, the Gigabyte G6X performed about as well as we would have expected from a laptop with an Intel Core i7 HX.
Performance on this laptop with the updated Raptor Lake CPU is better than that of a laptop equipped with Intel’s Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 technology. This is understandable given that the Meteor Lake-powered PCs prioritize AI performance and power economy thanks to their integrated neural processing units (NPUs). It’s important to remember that, despite Gigabyte’s extensive marketing promoting this laptop as an AI laptop, it lacks an NPU to speed up AI work; instead, the Nvidia GPU must supply the necessary processing power for AI.
We then do Cinebench R20. This benchmark is highly multithreaded and concentrates on CPU performance overall. Since it’s a fast benchmark, cooling during prolonged workloads is irrelevant. Nevertheless, because of its heavy multithreading, CPUs with more cores are far more advantageous.
Gigabyte G6X scored 7278 on the multi-threaded Cinebench R20 benchmark. With its specs, that’s roughly what we would anticipate seeing. Less top-end performance is provided by the Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU than by the Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU found in certain other laptops, such as the more costly Gigabyte Aorus 16X laptop. The Aorus 16X scored 15% higher in this benchmark.
Battery life
The battery life of the Gigabyte G6X laptop is 73 Watt-hours. For this kind of gaming laptop, battery life was mediocre; some laptops have longer battery life than others.
We play a 4K version of Tears of Steel repeatedly in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled in order to measure the battery life until the laptop suspends itself. We calibrated the screen brightness to 250 nits for our battery evaluations. Since local video playback is so effective, this is the best-case situation for any laptop; in actual use, day-to-day battery life will always be lower than this.
In our benchmark, the Gigabyte G6X ran for 306 minutes or slightly more than five hours. In actual use, you won’t get this much battery life, so this isn’t a system you can use all day without using an outlet. That should come as no surprise given that this is a large gaming laptop.
In contrast, the Gigabyte Aorus 16X has a 410-minute battery life, which is almost two hours more than the Gigabyte G6X. The reason the more costly Aorus can offer a longer battery life is because of its larger 99-watt-hour battery.
Conclusion
For the price, the Gigabyte G6X boasts great internals, including an Intel Core i7-13650HX, Nvidia RTX 4060, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Whether this is the appropriate laptop for you truly depends on your budget and your preferences for finer features like an IR camera that allows you to sign in with your face, a fancier design, a keyboard with more key travel, and other extras. It makes some compromises elsewhere on the laptop.
Generally speaking, laptops with Nvidia RTX 4060 GPUs cost more than this. In this price range, laptops typically come with additional concessions. For example, the Asus ROG Strix G16 costs an extra $20 but only offers 16GB of RAM, compared to the Gigabyte G6X’s 32GB. Alternatively, consider the MSI Cyborg 15, which drops to $999 but only has half the RAM, half the storage, and an outdated Core i5 CPU.
Naturally, the cost of laptops will increase with time, thus it’s important to monitor laptop sales.
The good news is that there aren’t any deal breakers if you’re eyeing this laptop at a competitive price. A tiny box contains a lot of excellent hardware. Everything feels good, including the webcam, touchpad, keyboard, and monitor. This laptop feels great in every manner, which is a victory in and of itself.
