With the look of a extra premium gaming laptop computer, Gigabyte’s Aorus 15 BMF slides in at a cheaper price than you would possibly anticipate. It begins at $999.99 (as examined), and Gigabyte places up fairly a beautiful supply for the cash. This finances mannequin’s 1080p, 15.6-inch show will not win any awards, after all, however its internals don’t disappoint, popping out forward of a few of its equally reasonably priced rivals. Whereas it typically outpaces the brand new MSI Cyborg 15 on the identical value (and a few forthcoming low cost gaming laptops that we’re within the technique of testing), some laptops with final 12 months’s most-comparable parts refuse to provide in. Nonetheless, for bringing such a premium expertise and the most recent PC gaming tech to budget-strapped avid gamers, we give this 12 months’s Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF our present Editors’ Selection award for finances gaming laptops.
A Slick Aorus Design on a Funds
Gigabyte’s Aorus 15 BMF is successfully a sub-configuration throughout the Aorus 15 line. Whereas it shares a lot of the identical chassis and {hardware} design, it will get its personal set of element choices and is constructed solely round an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics processor.
The mannequin despatched for testing is Gigabyte’s base configuration, beginning at $999.99, which incorporates an Intel Core i5-13500H processor, 8GB of reminiscence, 512GB of storage, and a 15.6-inch 1080p show working at a 144Hz refresh price. You possibly can go for a greater CPU (an Intel Core i7-13700H) in higher-end fashions, and the show is available in three different flavors: two extra 1080p choices (with 240Hz or 360Hz refresh charges) and a 1440p choice with a 165Hz refresh price. These three various screens are additionally rated to cowl a considerably larger coloration gamut than the bottom mannequin’s show. No matter configuration, the panel measures 15.6 inches on the diagonal and has a 16:9 side ratio.
Whereas the internals are subdued on this BMF variant, the Aorus 15 BMF advantages from its Gigabyte DNA, offering a considerably higher construct than you’d often discover on a $999 gaming laptop computer. The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF has a metallic show lid and base, although the keyboard deck is plastic. The show panel flexes fairly a bit regardless of its development, however the base feels about as sturdy as they arrive. You will discover some minor melancholy beneath stress close to the spacebar, however that’s about it.
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF measures in at simply 0.82 inch closed, so it’s nonetheless on the skinny facet for a gaming laptop computer. It’s no light-weight, nevertheless it’s not fairly painfully weighty at 5.25 kilos. The 14.2 inches of width and 10.7 inches of depth—a symptom of the show bezels and protruding rear finish—do, nevertheless, make it a little bit unwieldy for slipping right into a backpack that may in any other case accommodate a 15-inch laptop computer.
Gigabyte’s Aorus emblem seems in blackout matte, and diagonal accent strains dominate the design, some for type and a few for the exhaust grilles throughout the bottom. It makes the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF one thing of a gaming laptop computer incognito, with subdued branding. The mirror-finished Aorus emblem on the again cowl is a little bit of a inform for these within the know, as is the three-zone RGB lighting for the keyboard, nevertheless it may simply as simply have been a basic (if a little bit glossy) desktop substitute to the surface observer. Maybe the most important inform is the RGB gentle bar that strains the underside fringe of the lid.
This laptop computer’s keyboard isn’t good, nevertheless it leans on the facet of being quite nice to make use of. With pretty secure keycaps, the keys have 1.7mm of journey that makes them really feel snappy for typing. Regardless of being a 15.6-inch laptop computer, you will discover no quantity pad right here. Gigabyte features a nifty column on the proper facet with Residence, Finish, Web page Up, and Web page Down keys, which could be helpful for navigation and textual content modifying.
The place Gigabyte goes flawed is in its arrow keys. A full-size set is included, however quite than shifting them down like Lenovo does on its Legion laptops (sensible transfer), Gigabyte shrinks the appropriate shift key. On nearly each laptop computer I’ve used that does this, it leads to frequent errors that see me transfer up a line whereas typing as an alternative of capitalizing a phrase.
The touchpad gives a large floor that’s glassy and easy. It additionally has some extra of the diagonal line work chopping throughout it for a flashy accent.
A 1080p webcam gives a bit of additional element and readability in contrast with the 720p webcams discovered on most laptops, save people who make the additional effort to incorporate the improve. The efficiency isn’t unbelievable, with even pretty brilliant settings trying a bit dim, nevertheless it’s nonetheless leagues higher than the bog-standard webcams on the market. It additionally helps Home windows Hey facial recognition, which works merely and promptly.
As for audio, you will discover a pair of 2-watt (W) audio system residing on the underside of the laptop computer close to the entrance corners. That is an attention-grabbing, questionable design selection, particularly when the laptop computer has a lot naked area on the keyboard deck that had the potential to accommodate up-firing audio system.
Regardless, borrowing design cues from dearer siblings continues to learn the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF, this time with port choice. It’s loaded up with USB, containing three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (two Sort-A, one Sort-C) on the appropriate facet, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port on the left facet, and a Thunderbolt 4 port with Energy Supply alongside the rear edge.
That rear edge additionally features a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, a mini DisplayPort 1.4 connection, an Ethernet jack, and a DC energy enter. The system additionally features a 3.5mm headset jack on the left facet. The one factor it appears to lack is an SD card slot, which is a miss on Gigabyte’s half for a laptop computer that has some prosumer pretensions with a “Creator Mode” in its settings. In the meantime, the wi-fi connectivity accessible is the most recent accessible: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
Utilizing the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF: How It Feels
Gigabyte’s Aorus 15 keyboard strikes a wierd stability. On the one hand, it feels first rate and makes for fast typing. I used to be in a position to hit as much as 114 phrases per minute in Monkeytype with 97% accuracy, which felt comfy to attain. Nonetheless, the additional journey and resistance of the keycaps have me generally fail to press a key down if I’m being a little bit bit gentle with my touches in an try to be additional quick. Total it’s nonetheless a quite nice typing expertise, if not really glorious.
The keys really feel virtually completely flat, which I don’t love. Additionally the LEDs beneath the keyboard present uneven protection of the keycap legends, and really shine out from across the edges of fairly a couple of keys, which lends a considerably unpolished look to the system once they’re turned on. And also you’ll need them on typically, because the black keycaps are paired with an virtually darkish grey legend that’s considerably laborious to see in something however the brightest situations. So, you will discover some design quirks, however they will simply be ignored, because of the largely optimistic really feel of the keyboard.
Sadly, the touchpad isn’t fairly as pleasing to make use of. The floor is delightfully easy and feels a reduce above, however the clicking mechanism is tremendous stiff and inconsistent throughout the floor of the pad. Some areas, I discover, I fail to click on due to the resistance it places up. If you happen to’re used to simply tapping to click on as an alternative of really miserable the touchpad, you’ll be nice. However in any other case it is a making an attempt expertise.
Unsurprisingly, the show on the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF is a weak level. Although the panel has area to go taller, Gigabyte opted for a 16:9 display screen. Its 15.6-inch dimension matched with a 1080p decision additionally doesn’t make it overly sharp. Pair that with a low coloration gamut, and it appears to be like the budget-screen half.
The anti-glare coating helps preserve the display screen seen in numerous conditions, however some consumers will not wish to settle only for “seen” when many laptops go for “lovely.” Regardless that it may well run at 144Hz, if how your video games look issues greater than the uncooked gameplay, you would possibly wish to contemplate a extra premium machine.
Regardless of their sub-optimal placement, the audio system on the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF muster passable sound. They’re definitely weak on the subject of bass, nevertheless it doesn’t really feel completely absent from the combo just like the audio system on so many laptops. They will push up in quantity, too, holding up moderately effectively in a 100-square-foot room. The laptop computer comes with particular DTS software program for sound processing, however I discover it truly considerably degrades the sound popping out of the on-board audio system and should serve greatest for headphones and exterior audio system.
Past that DTS software program, Gigabyte doesn’t overload the system with extraneous apps. It has a particular program for managing system efficiency profiles, keyboard coloration schemes and macros, and the like, however you will discover little else of word past the standard pre-installed apps and video games discovered on most Home windows 11 laptops.
Testing the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF: A Purring Pair of Processors
The $1,000 value on the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF places it in an attention-grabbing spot, as you will discover nonetheless few laptops coming with the newer, lower-power RTX 40 Sequence GPUs. It’s additionally sitting firmly within the budget-gaming-laptop section.
This sees it run in opposition to 2023 finances choices, just like the MSI Cyborg 15 A13VE ($999) and MSI Katana 15 ($1,599 as examined), in addition to final 12 months’s Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 7 ($1,549.99 as examined). Then, for an concept of what a bit extra money will get you, we have now the latest Lenovo Legion Professional 5 Gen 8 ($1,839 as examined).
Whereas the matchup with the MSI Cyborg 15 is one-to-one, Gigabyte contends with upgraded configurations in MSI’s Katana and the most recent Legion Professional laptop computer. However, with lower-power {hardware} from 2023, the Aorus can have an attention-grabbing matchup in opposition to the 2022 Legion 5i Gen 7, which was pricier final 12 months with higher-tier {hardware} however nonetheless competes on efficiency and worth.
Productiveness Checks
We use PCMark 10’s fundamental benchmark to simulate quite a lot of real-world productiveness and content-creation workflows to measure total efficiency for office-centric duties corresponding to phrase processing, spreadsheeting, internet searching, and videoconferencing. We observe that up with PCMark 10’s Full System Drive check to measure the load time and throughput of a laptop computer’s storage.
To additional consider processors, we run three extra benchmarks particularly targeted on the CPU, utilizing all accessible cores and threads, to price a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 makes use of that firm’s Cinema 4D engine to render a posh scene, whereas Geekbench 5.4 Professional by Primate Labs simulates in style apps starting from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine studying. Lastly, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to transform a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p decision. (Sadly, a recurring error frequent amongst latest Intel CPUs prevented our PugetBench Photoshop check from working correctly on the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF and each MSI methods.)
At PCMag, any rating above 5,000 factors in PCMark 10’s productiveness benchmark is seen as a mark of excellence and means that the machine will simply deal with on a regular basis workplace work. The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF made an honest displaying in these exams, effectively above that threshold. It lagged behind the dearer fashions, as you’d anticipate, however not by massive gaps. The Aorus proved particularly potent within the storage check, which is an space through which Gigabyte may have extra simply skimped with out it displaying up too plainly within the specs. (Storage was an space that held again the MSI Cyborg 15, as an example.) The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF additionally managed to make use of its 12 cores (4 Efficiency, eight Environment friendly) higher in Cinebench and HandBrake than the Cyborg 15 used its 10 cores (six Efficiency, 4 Environment friendly).
Although the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF wasn’t the front-runner on this part, it saved up moderately effectively, whereas working on half as a lot reminiscence. This can be a testomony to Gigabyte’s cooling system, which appears ample for a 45W CPU and GeForce RTX 4050.
Graphics and Gaming Checks
To see how every system handles graphical workloads and duties, we run two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark. The Night time Raid simulation is extra modest, appropriate for laptops with built-in graphics, whereas Time Spy is extra demanding, appropriate for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs.
We additionally run the GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses each low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like picture rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Automobile Chase exams, that are rendered offscreen to accommodate totally different show resolutions, train graphics and compute shaders utilizing the OpenGL programming interface and {hardware} tessellation respectively. The extra frames per second (fps), the higher.
Lastly, we spherical out the benchmarks with exams run in actual video games—particularly, the built-in 1080p benchmarks from a AAA title (Murderer’s Creed Valhalla), a fast-paced esports shooter (Rainbow Six Siege), and a sports activities racing sim (F1 2021). We run every benchmark twice, utilizing totally different picture high quality presets for Valhalla and Rainbow and making an attempt F1 with and with out Nvidia’s DLSS anti-aliasing expertise (or AMD’s equal).
Predictably, the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF fell behind the MSI Katana 15 and Lenovo Legion Professional 5 Gen 8 in graphical efficiency on account of their way more highly effective GPUs. Its matchup in opposition to the MSI Cyborg 15 was a knockout, although: Regardless of the 2 working related {hardware} and having equal pricing, the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF led the MSI Cyborg 15 by appreciable margins.
Sadly, it did not achieve this impressively in opposition to the RTX 3060 contained in the Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 7, which narrowly gained out in 3DMark’s Time Spy and Night time Raid, although barely misplaced in GFXBench. That shut matchup is harmful for Gigabyte, because the age of the Lenovo laptop computer may see reductions that make it extra engaging—I’ve seen with this related AMD-powered RTX 3070 Legion fashions.
The actual-world gaming exams proceed to point out Gigabyte’s domination of the MSI Cyborg 15. Throughout all of those benchmarks, it established a transparent efficiency benefit. Whereas it was not a staggering lead, it felt shut sufficient to the distinction of a single GPU tier to make for a pointed win. Given the superior design of Gigabyte’s machine, it’s that a lot simpler to suggest on the $1,000 value. Nonetheless, since this laptop computer makes use of SO-DIMM modules for its reminiscence, I’d advise including additional RAM after the very fact; this mannequin can settle for as much as 64GB.
Naturally, the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF doesn’t sustain with the MSI Katana 15 or Lenovo Legion Professional 5 Gen 8 and their RTX 4070 GPUs. However once more, it’s not thus far behind that the $500-plus saved on the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF doesn’t really feel well worth the trade-off in efficiency. Regardless, the rivalry with final 12 months’s Legion 5i Gen 7 and its RTX 3060 stayed sizzling right here, with the older Lenovo displaying a reasonably constant benefit, even working Murderer’s Creed Odyssey at 1440p Extremely sooner than the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF ran it at 1080p Extremely.
This places the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF in a deadly place in opposition to final 12 months’s gaming laptops. Nonetheless, keep in mind that solely the RTX 40 Sequence GPUs have entry to DLSS 3 body technology quite than DLSS 2 with the RTX 30 Sequence. As extra video games launch supporting the brand new tech, this may widen the enchantment hole between RTX 40 and 30 Sequence GPUs.
Battery and Show Checks
To see how a lot life every laptop computer can get out of its battery, we play a regionally saved 720p video file (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with the show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We be certain that the battery is absolutely charged earlier than the check, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
We additionally analyze the standard of the show with a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software program to measure a laptop computer display screen’s coloration saturation—what share of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 coloration gamuts or palettes the show can present—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per sq. meter).
Battery life wasn’t terrible for the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF. It managed 7 hours and 10 minutes in our battery check, which is on the lengthy facet for some gaming laptops. It’s additionally a greater outcome than two of its rivals right here. Regardless that the Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 7 outlasted it by a hair, the Legion is so dim at its 50% brightness setting that it is not likely an apples-to-apples comparability.
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF actually reveals its finances nature within the show check. Although Gigabyte has a variety of configuration choices, the bottom show included is just not a looker, although not a lot worse than the opposite finances gaming-laptop screens right here. Not solely is 1080p stretched throughout a 16:9, 15.6-inch panel not all that distinctive in 2023, however the coloration and brightness are missing. The show managed solely 64% protection of the sRGB coloration area and could not even obtain half of the AdobeRGB or DCI-P3 coloration areas. It managed to attain a bit decrease than even MSI’s two laptops, which additionally had distinctly disappointing shows. Whereas it was a little bit brighter than these two, this display screen’s 287-nit peak isn’t as much as a degree that may do any HDR content material justice, neither is it appropriate for out of doors use.
Neither Lenovo laptop computer had a killer show panel both, however each are downright regal subsequent to this competitors. For the value, each produce considerably higher coloration, larger brightness, sharper 2,560-by-1,600-pixel photographs, and a speedy 165Hz refresh price. If a premium show panel is excessive in your listing of needs, these larger costs begin to really feel extra justified.
Verdict: A Worthy $1,000 Gaming Machine
In relation to retail value, the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF is a formidable little bundle that advantages significantly from the hand-me-down Aorus design. With us coming recent off testing a few finances MSI laptops, the Aorus 15 BMF feels prefer it’s in one other league, regardless of sitting squarely at just below $1,000. This laptop computer’s efficiency for the value is first rate, and it options niceties—like a 1080p webcam, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and upgradable reminiscence—not discovered on some gaming notebooks twice its value.
Whereas the show and the usage of chassis area might disappoint, the system holds up in most different regards. In fact, Lenovo pricing fluctuates typically (and generally drastically), and the important thing issues that the Aorus 15 BMF lacks are precisely what these pricier gaming laptops present. Nonetheless, the Gigabyte Aorus 15 BMF brings budget-tight avid gamers sufficient of that premium expertise to earn our Editors’ Selection award amongst low-cost gaming laptops.
