Computer

Gigabyte G5 KE 2023 Review

Gigabyte is a brand that is well-known in the PC marketspace, although they aren’t as popular in India. The company is looking to change this with its line up of gaming laptops in India. In the “Under 1 lakh” segment, they have the G5 series of laptops, with the highest model being the G5 KE. We reviewed the laptop, tested its performance to see if it’s worth the price. Read on to find out if the laptop is worth buying.

Design and Build Quality

The Gigabyte G5 KE utilizes the design of a Clevo laptop, which is an ODM company. There is nothing really that stands out about the laptop’s exterior, except for a few graphics. There is one such graphic with the text “Gaming series” on the front lid, and there is another “Mecha pattern” graphic printed on the trackpad. The laptop measures about 2.39 cm at its thickest point, and it weighs 1.99Kgs, which is reasonable.

The hinge tightness is perfect for opening the lid with one finger, and the amount of lid flex is acceptable. The bezels are reasonably thin on three edges of the display, while the bottom bezel is thicker. There are four sets of vent holes on three sides, and there are indicator lights on the front edge of the laptop. The laptop is built quite well in my opinion, with good quality plastics all around. The keyboard deck in particular flexes very little under pressure, which I’m happy with.

Display and Sound

Coming to the display, it features a 15.6-inch FHD IPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1920×1080, which is standard for gaming laptops these days. It can reach a peak brightness of 300 nits too, which is plenty bright for indoor use and for gaming.

I had no complaints when gaming on this display. The panel feels fast and responsive, both for slower RPG games and fast-paced FPS games. The aspect ratio is 16:9, which is still fine for gaming. I do expect future laptops to move to 16:10 displays, as that seems to be the trend now.

The speakers on the G5 KE are alright, and nothing special in my opinion. They can get loud, but I wouldn’t use them for gaming. Gigabyte does include DTS:X Ultra audio technology with the laptop, so you can use it on compatible headsets and external speakers.

Performance and Thermals

The most impressive aspect of the Gigabyte G5 KE is its performance. Powering the laptop is Intel’s 12th Gen Core i5-12500H processor paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. Along with this, the laptop is equipped with 16GB of DDR4 3200 MT/s memory and a 500GB M.2 PCIe SSD.

The Core i5-12500H is a 12 core processor, of which 4 are high-performance cores and the rest 8 are high-efficiency cores. It has a base frequency of 2.5GHz and boost frequency of 4.5GHz. The processor is based on Intel’s Alder Lake architecture and is built on the Intel 7 process node. In my opinion, the Core i5 processor is a great choice for a gaming laptop, offering plenty of performance without costing too much money. The 4 high-performance cores can easily handle most gaming loads with ease, while the 8 efficiency-cores are great for handling background tasks.

The RTX 3060 GPU is no slouch at gaming either. Gigabyte has configured the GPU with a maximum of 115W which is decent for this GPU, and it can reach a boost frequency of 1425MHz. The performance is plenty good for 1080p gaming, both in single-player titles and e-sports titles. Together, I think this CPU and GPU combination is ideal for a laptop in this price range.

Thermals were a bit of a mixed bag with the G5 KE. On the one hand, the thermal performance is good, with acceptable temperatures on both the CPU and GPU when gaming. On the other hand, the fans get loud to the point where it is hard to game without proper headphones. Out of the box, the curve is aggressive, and the fans are very audible. Thankfully, there is an option to tweak the fan curve in their pre-installed Control Centre software.

Here are some benchmarks:

Keyboard and Trackpad

The keyboard on the G5 KE is decent. It is a full size keyboard with a number pad and I had no problems with the layout. The keys didn’t exactly feel very click-y, rather a little mushy. However, they were fine for gaming. It did take me a while to become accurate with my typing, but I soon got the hang of it. There is also single-zone RGB lighting, which can be customized in software.

The trackpad has a decent size and a smooth surface. The tracking was good and accurate.

Ports and Connectivity

The laptop has a good layout of its ports, a couple of which are rear facing. On the left side there are audio jacks, a USB 2.0 Type-A and a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port. On the right side there is a microSD card slot, a USB Type-C port, and an RJ45 port. Facing the rear, there is an USB3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a HDMI 2.1 port, a Mini DisplayPort 1.4 port and the power plug port.

For connectivity, the laptop is equipped with support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and Gigabit LAN. I faced no issues with Wi-Fi connectivity, with no drops and good speeds.

Battery

The battery inside is a 54Wh Lithium-ion cell. It performed just as well as I expected for a gaming laptop with an Intel CPU and an NVIDIA GPU. It would last anywhere between 2–4 hours depending on the intensity of tasks performed and when gaming it would last for much less time. Gigabyte includes a 180W charging brick in the box that can deliver more than enough power for the system under full load.

Conclusion

The Gigabyte G5 KE is what I would call a safe choice for a gaming laptop. It looks and feels like a regular gaming laptop from a couple of years ago, but makes up for it with impressive performance. The 12th Gen Intel chips offer great performance, and the RTX 30-series GPUs are fast.

The competition in this price bracket is fierce, with great options from Lenovo, ASUS, Acer and HP. These brands are more well-established, and they also have a better service centre network in India, which Gigabyte is only building up now. If all you are looking for is good gaming performance in a laptop that is adequate in every other measure, then I would certainly recommend looking at the Gigabyte G5 KE.