Gigabyte has a pair of new gaming notebooks with AMD's new Ryzen 5000 processors paired with Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics. What's notable is that they go up to the RTX 3070, passing the seeming barrier of the RTX 2060 paired with Ryzen chips last year.
Designed to compete with the best gaming laptops, the new computers are dubbed the Gigabyte A5 and A7, and don't use the Aorus brand that the company typically uses for its high-end gaming notebooks. The A5 will start at $999 while the A7 will start at $1,399.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Gigabyte A5 | Gigabyte A7 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Up to AMD Ryzen 9 5900H | AMD Ryzen 7 5800H |
| GPU | Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Max-P (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Max-P (6GB) |
| RAM | Up to 32GB DDR4 | Up to 32GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 1x 2.5-inch HDD slot, 2x M.2 slots | 1x 2.5-inch HDD slot, 2x M.2 slots |
| Display | 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, IPS, 240 Hz | 17.3-inch, FHD, iPS, 144 Hz |
| Networking | Intel AX2000 Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 | Intel AX2000 Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Battery | 48.96 Wh | 48.96 Wh |
The A5 is a 15.6-inch laptop with two submodels: the A5 X1, with either a Ryzen 9 5900H or Ryzen 7 5800H paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Max-P; and the A5 K1, with either a Ryzen 7 5800H or Ryzen 5 5600H with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Max-P. The display is 1920 x 1080 and runs at 240 Hz.
The A7 is a 17.3-inch with just one option: an Ryzen 7 5800H and an RTX 3060 Max-P. Its 1920 x 1080 display runs at 144 Hz.
Otherwise, they seem largely similar, down to the same battery capacity.
Both are monolithic black rectangles, though the A5 is 1.14 inches thick while the A7 is slightly thicker at 1.25 inches. Ports are similar, including three USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.2 Type-C, an audio jack, microSD card reader. Additionally, both will have RGB keyboards with 15 lighting effects.
These laptops continue a trend we're starting to see of companies adopting AMD for gaming notebooks (though Gigabyte is sticking to Intel for the Aorus brand), and we're curious to get more information about when they will release and how they perform.
