Face Off: Aorus X3 Plus vs. Gigabyte P34W vs. Razer Blade 14

Nobody wants a janky $2000 piece of technology. In terms of chassis quality, the Razer Blade 14 takes the cake by far. The more unibody all-aluminum design is sleeker and smoother than both the Aorus and Gigabyte and is more consistent in its rigidity from top to bottom. The Razer even manages to come out a few millimeters thinner, but is slightly wider than the other two. Its overall design was clearly inspired by the minimalistic tone of MacBooks.

The next notebook down in quality is the Gigabyte P34W. It is perhaps the most blandly designed of the three with its use of both matte polycarbonate and aluminum, but is rigid nonetheless with no noticeably weak areas. It stands in between the Blade 14 and X3 Plus in terms of thickness while weighing about the same as the latter.

The Aorus X3 Plus finishes it off at the bottom of the list. Its sharp and slanted appearance stand opposite to the design philosophy of the Blade 14 and fortunately retains an all-aluminum form factor. While the base is strong, its hinges and lid are far more susceptible to twisting and damage than both displays of the Razer and Gigabyte. Quality is comparatively weak in these particular areas with noticeable creaking when attempting to adjust the display.

The better-built notebook here is from Razer by at least a couple of steps ahead and users won't even need to sacrifice size or thickness along the way.

Winner: Razer Blade 14

Connections and expansions are typically more limited on smaller and thinner laptops. Nonetheless, both the Aorus and Gigabyte offer multiple USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and Gigabit Ethernet with Mini DisplayPort on the former and legacy VGA on the latter. Meanwhile, storage options include 1x mSATA and 1x 2.5-inch SATA III on the P34W and 3x mSATA on the Aorus with RAID 0. Users on a tighter budget may prefer the P34W for its compatibility with inexpensive HDDs while enthusiasts may want to double down on multiple mSATA slots at the expense of a 2.5-inch SATA bay. Thus, it's a tie between the Aorus and Gigabyte with equal pros and cons for both.

The clear loser in this category is the Blade 14 by far. This notebook lacks RJ-45, has only one video-out port, and doesn't even include a built-in card reader. This is the high price users must pay for its thin and minimalistic looks. Furthermore, it only has a single M.2 storage slot with no secondary options. Upgrading the SSD will be very costly and almost necessary as the user's gaming library grows over time.

Winner: Tie -- Aorus X3 Plus v3 and Gigabyte P34W

From a purely visual standpoint, the 3200 x 1800 resolution displays of the Aorus X3 Plus and Razer Blade 14 trounce the 1080p display of the Gigabyte. The Razer still comes out on top as its glossy glass panel and touchscreen option provide better rigidity, higher apparent contrast, and modes of usability. Of course, users can argue against the touchscreen novelty and glare disadvantages from such a display for gaming. Color accuracy and gamut between these two models are very good and nearly alike as both use identical display panels from Sharp that can also be found on the Fujitsu LifeBook U904.

The P34W loses this round, though not because it carries a poor display panel. Its AU Optronics display is indeed of high quality in terms of color accuracy, gamut, and brightness that rival its two competitors. Instead, the P34W is at the bottom for offering lower contrast and a 64 percent decrease in pixel count than the dense displays of the Blade 14 and X3 Plus. With no QHD+ options from Gigabyte, the display of the P34W is simply not as sharp.

Winner: Razer Blade 14

Graphics performance is the deal breaker for any gaming notebook. The three competitors share nearly identical scores in both synthetic and in-game benchmarks. The exception is the Blade 14, which curiously returns unreasonably low 3DMark and CineBench scores despite our attempts at re-running the benchmarks. Thankfully, its gaming performance is not at all affected. It's a three-way tie based on these hard numbers.

Gaming on native 3200 x 1800 resolution is very possible on both the Aorus and Razer Blade models. In almost every tested case, the Aorus comes out just slightly ahead of the Razer. This is in part due to the additional 3 GB VRAM on the Aorus as memory overhead plays a more significant role on higher resolutions. In either case, most games will need to have other graphical effects turned down to obtain more playable frame rates as demonstrated by our Ultra results below.

System Noise & Temperature

There is no doubt that all three systems will be loud under stress. But, which is the least loudest?

All models in question are capable of running almost completely silently when idling or on Power Saver. The Aorus and Gigabyte in particular have better fan controls than the Razer as users have the option between Stealth, Max, and two Auto modes. Under gaming conditions, however, the Razer is by far the loudest at the 55 to 60 dB(A) range. The Aorus lies in the center at the 45 to 55 dB(A) range, but it pulsates much more frequently than the other two. Lastly, the Gigabyte is the quietest at the 44 to 49 dB(A) range.

Note that the Aorus and Gigabyte can reach 60 dB(A) when the Max Fan mode is active. Otherwise, fan noise is limited to the low to mid 50s range for both.

The temperature profiles are not dissimilar between the three models due to the similar cooling solutions underneath. The Razer runs warmest overall on both sides of the notebook with the warmest palm rests followed by the Aorus and finally the Gigabyte.

Winner: Gigabyte P34W

While the Aorus and Razer have similar Li-Ion battery capacities, the Gigabyte uses a smaller module in order to make room for its 2.5-inch SATA bay. Nonetheless, runtimes when gaming are not significantly different between the three models with no outright winner. Perhaps more notably, the Blade 14 falls a bit flat at about 30 minutes less than the Aorus when under similar testing conditions. We'll give the small edge to the P34W for its longer idling time for potentially longer battery life when running low intensity tasks like word processing.

Winner: Gigabyte P34W