Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 Review (2025)

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is the company's latest laptop designed for the precocious crust of gamers-on-the-go. It comes to marketplace with your prime of an RTX 5080 oregon RTX 5090 (an RTX 5070 Ti mentation volition beryllium disposable later), portion prices commencement astatine $3,099 and spell up from there. Paired with its Intel Core 9 Ultra processor, it offers top-tier performance, gamer-friendly looks, and a large display. It’s not the laptop to take for “thin and light,” but if you don’t attraction astir that, it has a batch to offer.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 – Design and Features

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is simply a flashy laptop with plentifulness of RGB and decorations to suit your fancy. Like galore of the 16-inch motorboat models we’ve seen since Nvidia debuted its RTX 50-series laptop GPUs past week, it features a 2,560 x 1,600 OLED show with a boxier 16:10 facet ratio than a mean widescreen laptop, and plentifulness of horsepower nether its hood.

And AI, it has that excessively – and it wastes nary clip letting you cognize it’s there. Within minutes of booting it up for the archetypal time, a notification was popping up from my “GiMate” assistant, letting maine cognize that I should disable the Nvidia graphics paper for amended performance. AI is besides interwoven with its configuration software, but much connected that later.

The laptop is disposable successful 2 configurations for now, separated by your prime of an RTX 5080 oregon RTX 5090 and astir $1,200. Both versions travel with the pursuing specs, isolated from the 5090 mentation which adds a 2nd NVMe SSD for 2TB of full retention (you tin adhd a 2nd thrust to the 5080 variant connected your ain if you’re tech-inclined):

• Display: 2560 x 1600 (16:10), OLED, 500-nits
• Refresh Rate: 240Hz
• Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 (Mobile)
• VRAM: 16GB
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5 – 8000 MT/s
• Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
• Connectivity: WiFi 7, 1G Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.4
• Ports: 2 x Type-A enactment USB3.2 Gen2, 1 x Type-C with Thunderbolt 5 (USB4, DisplayPort 2.1, and PD 3.0), 1 x Type-C with Thunderbolt 4 (USB4, DisplayPort 1.4 and PD 3.0), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD (UHS-II), 1 x Audio Combo Jack
• Audio: 4 x built-in speakers, Dolby Atmos with Smart Amp, built-in microphone
• Webcam: 1080p, Windows Hello Support
• Battery: 99wHr
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 14.05 x 10 x 0.9 x 1.14 inches
• Weight: 5.51 pounds

Both models are expensive, but that goes with the territory erstwhile it comes to flagship gaming laptops close aft a caller launch. The RTX 5080 mentation I received to trial costs $3,099. The RTX 5090 mentation volition acceptable you backmost $4,299. There’s besides a larger Aorus Master 18 mentation of each that swaps the OLED surface for mini-LED and includes 2TB of retention by default. The RTX 5090 mentation determination besides bumps full strategy representation up to 64GB, which truly isn’t atrocious for lone $100 much than the 16-inch mentation ($4,399). The Aorus Master 18 with the RTX 5080 is simply a spot much marked up astatine $3,299, but astatine this benignant of price, an other hundo astir apt isn’t going to beryllium the large decision-maker.

The Aorus Master is surely designed to drawback your oculus and tempt a acquisition successful different ways. It’s an RGB showcase with an illuminated falcon logo connected the lid, a wraparound 3D airy bar, and adjacent a tiny RGB projector that beams Aorus branding down onto your desk. The keyboard is besides RGB, but it’s not per-key, which is disappointing astatine this price. Instead, it is breached into 3 zones and includes 7 translucent keys that see WASD arsenic good arsenic Q, E, and R, with agleam airy passthrough. Even without per-key customization, it’s much than a small showy.

Everything but the lid is made from plastic. Functionally, it doesn’t marque a immense difference, though an aluminum framework would beryllium acold amended matched to its precocious terms (and would assistance dissipate vigor astatine the aforesaid time) and would person made it consciousness a spot much premium. The lid is precise nice, however, and has a ripple signifier creating a question signifier crossed its surface. It’s microtextured with specified good item that you tin lone spot it erstwhile it catches the airy conscionable truthful and feels creaseless to the touch.

In fact, I archetypal realized it wasn’t bead-blasted purely from sound. It reminds maine of the zip you get erstwhile you resistance your nail crossed an old-school holographic Trapper Keeper. This prime makes it impervious to fingerprints successful mean use, which instantly gives it a one-up connected mean metallic lids which thin to look grungy aft a fistful of uses.

The laptop isn’t bladed and it’s not light. Unlike the Razer Blade 16 which checks disconnected some of those boxes portion toting an RTX 5090, the Aorus Master is overmuch much to expectation, measuring 0.9 inches astatine its thinnest and 1.14 inches astatine the thickest. It besides weighs 5.5 pounds. Compare that to the Blade 16’s 0.69-inch beforehand articulator and 4.7 lb weight: it doesn’t look similar overmuch connected paper, but it’s instantly noticeable. Those tiny dimensional changes marque the quality betwixt “wow, this is amazingly bladed and light” and “yup, that’s decidedly a gaming laptop.”

That other abstraction has its benefits, though. The Aorus Master offers some upgradeable representation and storage. There are 2 representation slots, allowing you to summation its capableness up to 64GB oregon swap retired to a acceptable with faster timepiece speeds. There are 2 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, truthful you tin adhd other retention without needing to reinstall Windows and drivers to get moving again. Only the pre-populated slot supports PCI-e 5.0, however, truthful you’ll beryllium constricted to PCI-e Gen 4 for thing you’d similar to adhd without formatting.

It besides allows Gigabyte to spell full-on with its different components. This instrumentality is packing an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU with a full, 175-watt RTX 5080 (or different 50-series GPU). The processor is fast, topping retired astatine 5.4GHz to maximize in-game fps and offers 24 cores (eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores) cores for large multitasking show and workload efficiency. It’s capable to marque you wonderment wherefore Gigabyte lone outfitted the laptop with 5,600 MHz representation erstwhile higher speeds would look similar the amended match. The Razer Blade 16 uses 8,000MHz memory, for example, and higher representation speeds tin straight construe into precocious fps.

To support this hardware cool, Gigabyte has opted for a dual instrumentality solution with densely packed, 158-fin fans. These travel successful caller lodging that's expected to transmission airflow amended and besides trim their wide noise. It's inactive a gaming laptop, however, which means you should program connected proceeding those fans rather prominently erstwhile you're moving games. For web browsing and productivity use, it features a 0dB mode that relies connected passive cooling erstwhile the components aren't generating arsenic overmuch heat. Like the Razer Blade 16, it features a ample vapor enclosure that covers much than 50% of the motherboard for improved show overall.

The keyboard and trackpad are some decent. The keys person a generous magnitude of question astatine 1.7mm and bully tactility to debar typos. I didn't find them to beryllium particularly mushy, but person experienced crisp typing experiences, specified arsenic the 1 connected the Lenovo Legion 9i. Still, it gets the occupation done successful a precise acquainted 75% layout that balances productivity and gaming performance.

The trackpad is besides fine. It measures conscionable implicit 5 inches by 4 inches and has a bully glide erstwhile swiping your digit crossed it. The integrated buttons enactment well, though I did find that near and close clicks could get a small confused the further up the trackpad you tried to marque them. This is thing that you get utilized to implicit clip and is portion of the process of learning a laptop. But taken together, the input acquisition is bully but not peculiarly peculiar successful immoderate way.

If you're readying connected utilizing the laptop for enactment oregon taking online classes, you tin remainder assured that it comes with a built-in 1080p webcam. In due lighting conditions, it tin look decent and offers a crisp, if somewhat over-sharpened image. If you person a agleam model down you oregon are taking meetings successful debased lighting, it struggles to equilibrium lighting and noise/grain successful the image. There is nary privateness shade, truthful you volition person to manually crook it connected and disconnected if that's thing you look for.

Audio prime is beauteous emblematic for a gaming laptop. It uses 4 speakers full and they did a bully occupation of getting large capable to play games on, but their tiny size prevented them from sounding afloat for explosions oregon the bass registry successful music. You tin usage them if you request to, but a bully gaming headset is going to beryllium the amended prime for audio quality.

The Aorus Master 16 sports a 99WHr battery, which is the largest that tin beryllium utilized successful a laptop currently. In our Procyon Office Battery Life test, it was capable to tally for 7 hours and 49 minutes. With Advanced Optimus, Nvidia’s strategy for automatically swapping betwixt the RTX 5080 and the integrated GPU, it meant that the trial ran successful its entirety without the full-powered graphics paper turning on. When really playing games, I averaged astir 2 hours depending connected however demanding the crippled was. RTX 50-series GPUs truly look to beryllium coming into their ain for gaming connected battery.

Finally, for connectivity, it offers a decent array of ports to link antithetic peripherals and accessories. On the near side, it has a gigabit ethernet port, a afloat size HDMI 2.1, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a USB Type-C larboard susceptible of some charging and video, arsenic good arsenic a dedicated charging larboard for its included powerfulness bright. On the close is different USB Type-A and Type-C, an audio combo jack, and a microSD paper reader. Size has its benefits.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 – GiMate Software

In what's definite to beryllium a inclination this year, the Aorus Master 16 features a bundle suite that's integrated with AI. It offers each of the accustomed functionality, including mounting your show modes and instrumentality settings, arsenic good arsenic customizing the laptop's RGB. For meetings, determination are AI clarity enhancements arsenic good arsenic versions of the Windows Studio mounting to blur your inheritance and adhd artificial eye-tracking, arsenic good arsenic a privacy-enhancing diagnostic that tin crook disconnected your surface erstwhile you’ve stepped away.

The astir important diagnostic that it offers is that it tin intelligently power the show of your strategy based connected what you're doing. When you load a game, it's astute capable to cognize to usage the RTX 5080 alternatively of the processor's integrated graphics chip, and past to power that backmost implicit erstwhile you're done to prevention connected artillery life. There’s besides a chatbot that you tin prosecute with to get insights into your system, set settings, and converse with connected troubleshooting, learning much astir what settings bash wrong Windows, and more. It’s fundamentally a section mentation of ChatGPT that knows astir the specifics of your system.

While each of this is cool, it’s each beauteous basal level. Automatic show switching is simply a bully feature, but if you’ve gamed connected a laptop before, you already cognize to power to its precocious show mode. That the AI tin observe a large workload besides isn’t each that impressive, and swapping modes erstwhile it does isn’t thing that requires “AI.” The chatbot tin beryllium fun, but unless you’re bedewed down the ears erstwhile it comes to Windows gaming, it truly feels similar much of a novelty.

But we knew this was going to happen. AI is the inclination of the infinitesimal and I expect astir large laptop brands volition travel suit with systems of their own. Use it if you similar oregon disregard it if you don’t, some are viable options.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 – Performance

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is successful a people wherever show is rightfully king, and whether oregon not it’s going to gain your dollars is going to beryllium a batch connected what you’re coming from, what you’re hoping to achieve, and however overmuch you person to spend.

Before sharing show numbers, it's worthy mentioning again that we've precocious upgraded our investigating methodology to amended measure caller technologies, rendering methods, and the show demands of existent games. Because of this, overmuch of our anterior investigating information doesn’t align and we’ll beryllium gathering up our information acceptable implicit time. For this review, I’ll beryllium comparing it to the Razer Blade 16 successful the show charts, but I was besides capable to bash immoderate investigating with an RTX 4080 laptop connected indebtedness to remark upon successful the text.

All of our tests are conducted astatine maximum settings. Upscaling is often utilized and is acceptable to Quality astatine 1080p and Balanced astatine 1440p (or 1200p and 1600p successful this case). These settings are besides included successful the charts.

Beginning with synthetic tests, we tin spot that the Aorus Master 16 performs rather good compared to the Razer Blade 16, contempt the information that it is moving an RTX 5080 alternatively of an RTX 5090. Between the 2 systems, the Razer Blade is moving an AMD Ryzen CPU, portion the Aorus Master 16 is moving an Intel Core Ultra CPU. This accounts for immoderate of the differences here. However, it's besides worthy remembering that the Razer Blade 16 is powerfulness capped astatine 160 watts and often doesn't scope that limit, whereas the Aorus Master 16 tin dynamically boost to the afloat 175 watt standing of the RTX 5080, pulling successful higher performance.

What I find adjacent much absorbing is that successful anecdotal investigating against my end-of-last-gen Falcon Northwest DRX RTX 4080 system, the results are astir each adjacent capable that you tin chalk it up to borderline of error. It's worthy noting that the DRX strategy has a antithetic processor, truthful the examination isn’t precisely apples to apples. Still, the 40-series impresses. That doesn’t instrumentality distant from the comparative show of the 5080 versus the 5090, however, particularly looking astatine that Night Raid people and its show successful real-world games.

Gaming benchmarks are conscionable arsenic revealing. Here we tin spot that astatine 1200p, the Aorus Master 16 outperforms the Razer Blade 16 with its power-capped RTX 5090. That’s shocking. At the aforesaid time, erstwhile I ran immoderate of these tests against the Falcon Northwest DRX, the 2 went backmost and distant offering precise akin show successful these games and beyond. The Blade 16 inactive pulls retired immoderate wins successful a wider enactment of playtests, averaging 62 fps successful Black Myth: Wukong portion the others hovered person to 50, but there’s a superior worth information here.

Now, an important caveat does need to beryllium fixed regarding the Razer Blade 16. It intentionally trades show for portability, truthful it’s competing with a handicap. If you don’t attraction astir it being arsenic bladed and airy arsenic possible, different RTX 5090 laptop whitethorn precise good beryllium a amended choice. I’ll beryllium investigating precisely that successful the weeks to come.

Another important information is instrumentality noise. A large laptop tin gully unwanted attraction and the Aorus Master 16, unfortunately, falls into that camp. Essentially, anytime you’re gaming, its fans volition beryllium moving afloat throttle, and it’s large capable to disturb a spouse trying to ticker a amusement successful the country with you. I surely wouldn’t play games successful a room with it unless I could determination good distant from different people. Compared to the Blade 16, it’s overmuch louder, which illustrates the competing visions for these products held betwixt Razer and Gigabyte.

Here's the thing: Nvidia hasn't been shy astir tying the 50-series to its AI capabilities versus axenic autochthonal rendering performance. Though the RTX 5080 performs disappointingly adjacent to the RTX 4080, this disappears erstwhile you're playing a crippled that supports multi-frame generation. While "fake frames" person go a spot of a meme, the information is that erstwhile it works, it's beauteous astonishing and dramatically improves performance. This varies crippled to crippled based upon however good it handles latency. Alan Wake 2, for example, tends to consciousness a spot much laggy astatine higher multiplier settings portion Cyberpunk 2077 does not. With this exertion and others, similar neural shaders, coming to aboriginal games, there’s an statement to beryllium made astir buying into these aboriginal technologies. But, you’re buying connected a committedness portion Nvidia and crippled developers enactment to adhd enactment to caller and existing games.

When it comes to surviving with the laptop connected a regular basis, it offered snappy show for conscionable astir thing I threw astatine it, including photograph and video editing. I thin to similar a laptop that's importantly lighter since I transportation the laptop passim my full day; however, if you’re already utilized to carrying a gaming laptop, this won't consciousness precise different. But, I would highly promote anyone considering this to acquisition a abstracted GaN charger for anytime you don't program to play games. Its charging ceramic is large and heavy, and carried with the laptop brings the full value to much than 7 pounds. It was capable to permission maine with a sore enarthrosis astatine the extremity of the day.