Skimping on cooling? Why Gigabyte's Gaming A18 Pro doesn't perform better

With the Gaming A18 Pro, Gigabyte is trying to make a splash in the market for powerful 18-inch laptops. As our recent review showed, the system does have its strengths. The input devices, the IPS display's color gamut with full DCI-P3 coverage, and the open M.2 slot are all positives. Thanks to the relatively efficient Core 7 240H, power consumption is also fairly moderate.

However, there is still room for improvement when it comes to the balance between noise levels and performance. If the Balanced mode is used, the cooling system does stay below 50 dB(A), but the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in our review unit then falls well short of its full potential.

Game mode is not ideal either. Although 3D performance increases noticeably, some competitors such as the MSI Vector A18 are faster while also producing less noise, as the tables show. In Cyberpunk 2077, for example, the MSI system reaches about 50 dB(A), while the Gigabyte system hits an annoyingly loud 57 dB(A), which is hard to tolerate without a headset. The very thin chassis is likely the main reason, measuring just 1.0 instead of 1.3 inches thick compared to the Vector 18.