Nvidia launched its Max-Q design specifications for thin, light gaming laptops here at Computex this week. We've taken a deeper dive into what it actually entails here, but we also got a little hands-on/demo time with some of the gaming laptops, so we've included some short videos to give you a glimpse.
The first (video below) is the Asus Zephyrus, which will be available later in June with a GTX 1080 GPU (a 1070 version will follow), and a Core i7-7700HQ CPU. It's really quite stunning, and when you open the lid, the hinge lifts the bottom of the chassis to reveal some air intake along the bottom of the laptop. However, much has already been made about the placement of the keyboard -- at the bottom of the main surface, rather than at the top, with the trackpad off to the side. This allows for a larger surface area above the keyboard for air intake (there are tiny holes up there). We'll have to see if this is a bothersome placement of a keyboard, or just something that takes getting used to.
The next one (video below) is the Gigabyte Aorus X5MD. This will likely ship a bit later in the summer, although potentially as early as July. It doesn't exactly stick to the Max-Q design philosophy given that it's 23mm in depth and 5.5lbs. But otherwise, it's still pretty thin for a GTX 1080 gaming laptop. It also sports a 4K panel running at 60Hz. Unlike the Asus Zephyrus, the keyboard is where you'd traditionally see one on a laptop; our host made sure to point out that the keyboard is "where it's supposed to be" in a not-so-subtle dig at Asus. The cooling for this laptop includes some air intake on the bottom, with little kickstands that raise the laptop to allow more air to flow in. The heatpipes and cooling assembly for the CPU and GPU are separate as well, which isn't something we normally see in gaming laptops.
And finally, from MSI comes the GS63VR Stealth Pro. What we've done here in this video is show two similar systems side by side. MSI also announced the GE63VR Raider during the show, and this is still a fairly svelte gaming laptop. However, it includes 7 heat pipes and some new fan technology, and it is a bit thicker than the Stealth Pro. It might be a tad hard to see, but hopefully you can get a little glimpse of the difference.
