Aorus X3 Plus V3 review: Great power in a small package

The Aorus X3 Plus V3

You'd be forgiven if you had deja vu just by looking at the picture of the Aorus X3 Plus V3. It looks mighty familiar, doesn't it? Like something you've seen before somewhere but you just don't remember where? Luckily for you, we do. It's extremely similar looking to the Aorus X7 Pro we reviewed last year, right down to the reflective trackpad. That's not that surprising actually since both of the machines come from the same series and manufacturer. Just like the X7 Pro, the X3 Plus V3 comes to town to dominate the competition with its combination of power and portability.

Hardware, Design & Features

The Aorus X3 Plus V3 is Aorus’ chosen representative to dominate the 13-inch gaming notebook landscape. It packs an IGZO 13.9-inch QHD+ (3200 x 1800 pixels) matte LCD display, an Intel Core i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz, 6MB L3 cache) processor with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (6GB VRAM) and 16GB RAM. For storage, the Aorus X3 Plus V3 has two 256GB mSATA SSDs running in a RAID 0 configuration. To top it all off, it’s using Killer hardware for LAN and an Intel dual-band Wireless AC 7260 adapter (2x2 streams) for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. 

While running two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration will no doubt improve storage performance, one thing worth considering at this point is that if either one of the drive fails, all your data will be lost. Hence, the blistering performance that a RAID 0 array provides does have a drawback, especially since the X3 Plus V3 doesn't come with a conventional HDD to store backups on.

We really like that the X3 Plus V3 looks so much like the X7 Pro. We love the aluminum construction, we love how sleek it looks and we love how light it is, for a 13-inch gaming machine that is. The Aorus X3 Pro V3 measures 330 x 263.5 x 22.9mm, and weighs 1.87 kilograms. That's actually a pretty decent size and weight for a gaming notebook.

It's also crazy the amount of hardware Aorus has packed into the X3 Plus V3, while still managing to retain its relatively svelte dimensions (as far as gaming notebooks are concerned). It also has the same 72.26Wh battery found in the bigger Aorus X7 Pro. The keyboard even has macro keys that can be mapped to quickly execute commands on the fly. The high-resolution QHD+ display is just icing on the cake, though gaming on its native resolution at high graphics settings might be a bit too much to ask for from the notebook's single NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M discrete graphics chip.

Unfortunately, while being similar to the Aorus X7 Pro, the Arous X3 Pro V3 also share the same faults found in the former. Faults like the machine getting so easily smudged still haunt the notebook. We found the bigger X7 Pro to be a nightmare to keep clean, and despite the X3 Plus V3 being smaller, it's no less easier to maintain. The keyboard is notoriously difficult to maintain. It smudges easily and is hard to wipe clean, even with a microfiber cloth.

The trackpad also has the same button-less design of the X7 Pro, which we hated then and still hate now but the worst offender is that the glossy nature of the trackpad that makes it uncomfortable to use unless you 'dirty it'. The smudges you'll inevitably get on the trackpad makes sliding your finger across the trackpad smoother, as the glossy nature actually provides a lot of friction. The edges of the trackpad are a bit hard to click too as we found that it doesn't register our clicks at times. If you're not going to the trackpad though, you can ignore these issues.

However, the main concern we had with the X7 Pro returns with an even greater vengeance in the smaller X3. While the X7 Pro ran hot, it never got as hot as the X3 Plus V3. The likely cause of this finding is due to the X3's smaller size, which makes it trickier to provide adequate cooling, but that's not a valid excuse as we have encountered slim notebooks that handle heat well.

Heat and hardware don't mix well, especially now that NVIDIA's GPU Boost technology takes temperature into account when boosting frequencies. The Aorus X3 Plus V3 ran extremely warm and this can be felt on its chassis, which could have a detrimental impact on performance. More on this in our performance results on the next page.

Now that you've seen what we think about the Aorus X3 Plus V3, it's time to finally put it to the test!

Testing Setup

Nothing's changed for our testing setup this time around. We're still using PC Mark 8 for the general benchmarking duties, 3D Mark 2013 for the 3D testing and of course Tomb Raider and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor for our real world gaming tests. And since we haven't tested any 13-inch gaming notebook for some time, we are including results of the excellent Aftershock X13-V2 from last year just for comparison.

To summarize, these are our benchmarks:

• PC Mark 8
• 3D Mark 2013
• Tomb Raider
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

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PC Mark 8

Compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M also present in the ASUS ROG G751JT, the one in the Aorus X3 Plus V3 is clearly under-performing. A look at the specs shows that both it and the ASUS ROG G751JT have similar hardware, with only the size being the difference. Similarly the GIgabyte P35X V3 was also under performing. We don't really have an explanation of on why these two machines are behaving this way. In fact, comparing them with the Aftershock XG-13 shows that the latter has a strong performance showing in the Creative and Work sub-tests. Fortunately, other benchmarks proved that the weird readings from PC Mark 8 aren't representative of the machines' overall performance.

3D Mark 2013

While PC Mark 8 was a bit of a mishmash with results varying all over the place, 3D Mark 2013 showed that the Aorus X3 Plus V3 can actually perform where it matters most, as it posted decent numbers that are actually superior to the similarly endowed ASUS G751JT, both in Cloud Gate and Fire Strike test suites. The Aorus X3 Plus V3's score of 6502 in Fire Strike is a 39% increase from the 4655 score posted by similarly kitted ASUS machine. Despite that, the score was still lower than the 8199 posted by the Gigabyte P35X V3, though that's expected since that machine is packing a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M. As expected, the NVIDIA GeForce 860M present in the Aftershock XG-13 couldn't really keep up with the others.

Tomb Raider

With PC Mark 8 and 3D Mark 2013 benchmarks swinging wildly in favor of one machine or the other, the best way to gauge a machine's performance is to test it on games. In Tomb Raider, the Aorus X3 Plus V3 performed pretty much on a par with the ASUS notebook. Sure, the Aorus machine is a bit behind in the frame rate count, but we can easily chalk that up to the standard acceptable deviations in benchmarks. For all intents and purposes, the in-game performance on both machines are the same. That's not surprising as both machines share many of the same hardware parts, namely the processor and the graphics card.

It really doesn't take much explaining to see that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M in the Gigabyte P35X V3 has the best GPU, with a score that leaves the others in the dust. There's a 31% improvement seen when comparing the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M in the Aorus machine and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M found in the Gigabyte notebook.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Again the two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M machines are neck and neck, with similar performance. The ASUS G751JT has a slight lead on High, with a 13% or 9fps advantage of the Aorus machine but that advantage is basically gone when both machines are played on the Ultra game quality setting.

On the other hand, when compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M found in the Gigabyte P35X V3, the Aorus notebook does trail a bit. With an average frame rate of 54.04fps on Ultra, it was no match for the Gigabyte machines 67.57fps. That's a difference of about 20%, in favor of the Gigabyte machine.

As the Aftershock XG-13 was reviewed before we included  Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor in our benchmarking, it wasn't tested, which explains why it doesn't have a score in the chart.

Temperature

There's not much to say about the temperature results outcome that isn't apparent from looking at the chart. The Aorus X3 Plus V3 (like the X7 Pro) tends to run extremely hot due to it being slim, which doesn't leave much room for cooling. The Aorus X3 Plus V3's higher temperature is also due to the fact that it's smaller than the Aorus X7 Pro, leading to reduced area for heat dissipation.

The Aorus machines have always been plagued with higher than normal operating temperatures, with the Aorus X7 Pro having a GPU temperature of 84 degrees.

Next up, we take a look at the power charts and our conclusion.

Battery Life and Power Consumption

While the Aorus X3 Plus V3 does perform reasonably well in the battery life performance check, it loses out when compared to the Gigabyte P35X V3, which outlasts it by 13 minutes while using a larger screen and a faster GPU. For some reason, the Gigabyte notebook's power consumption is more optimized than the Aorus X3 Plus V3 machine. Of vourse both machines are put to shame by the Aftershock XG-13, which has a battery life of 222 minutes and a much lower power consumption, but that's because its GPU class is squarely mid-range in nature.

The ASUS G751JT, despite having the biggest battery capacity of the lot, is hamstrung by its incredibly high power consumption, which cuts down on its lifespan significantly. Despite the fact that is the biggest notebook compared with a 17.3-inch screen, as we found from its review, the notebook inherently has very bad power management which could be the result of not having NVIDIA Optimus technology to switch between discrete and integrated GPUs depending on the task at hand.

Portability Index

Our Portability Index factors in battery life, weight and volume so you can see which notebook is the most worthwhile to carry around. 

While the Aorus X3 Plus V3 may be the lightest of all the machines (weighing in only at 1.87 kilograms) in the comparison, that's obviously not enough to net the first place, as the Aftershock XG-13 squeaks by it. Despite being bigger than the Aorus machine, at 330 x 227 x 31.9 mm, the Aftershock XG-13 excels in every other category this chart takes into account. It lasts longer and it's relatively lightweight at 2KG. All those factors combine to give the Aftershock machine a small but decisive edge, but that's only if you don't mind the performance discrepancy between both the machines.

Where high performance compact gaming notebooks are concerned, the Aorus X3 Plus V3 stands in good light for its capabilities and size. For more proof, you can check out the portability ranking from even more gaming notebooks in this article.

Conclusion

If you've always lamented that a 17-inch machine like the Aorus X7 Pro might be too bulky and large to lug around to use for work and play, the compact Aorus X3 Plus V3 is the answer to your prayers. It's like a mini version of the Aorus X7 Pro, just without the dual GPU configuration, bigger display, no HDD and a slighly cheaper price tag at S$3,699.

In fact, it's so similar to its bigger brother that nearly everything we loved about that machine can be said for the Aorus X3 Plus V3. The aluminum chassis is great to look at and its finishing really makes the Aorus X3 Plus V3 feel like a premium machine. The image that you're paying for an elite piece of hardware continues when you open it up and look at the 3,200 x 1,800 pixels resolution IGZO display.

Admittedly, Windows 8 does have some quirks of its own when it comes to displaying on high resolution displays, but the incredible 282 pixels per inch display does make most things look sharper and crisper. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU will have trouble maxing out the image quality settings on new games at the notebook's native resolution, but it'll still definitely deliver adequate gaming performance on High or Medium settings at that resolution.

There's also the fact that Aorus X3 Plus V3 notebook weighs only 1.87 kilograms, which is really light considering the amount of hardware that it packs. It may be considerably heavier than most ultrabooks and ultraportables, but you do get a lot more performance out of it. And at just 22.9mm thick, it is significantly thinner than most comparable gaming notebooks. Despite its thinness, it manages to pack in an Ethernet port, which some slim notebooks (like the HP Omen or Spectre) lack, and is something that we are sure some gamers will appreciate.

Of course, being so similar to the Aorus X7 Pro, the Aorus X3 Plus V3 also shares some of its downfalls. The keyboard is as shallow as its older brother's and its keys are so easily smudged that keeping them clean is almost a full time job. It is even more visible on the glossy trackpad which attracts dust and dirt like a magnet. It's magnitudes worse if you use the trackpad as it'll be smudged no matter what you do. If you're not using the trackpad though, these quibbles won't be an issue.

Storage, on the other hand, might. While we enjoy the performance of the RAID 0 array, some people might find a RAID 0 configuration a bit too risky since a single drive failure means losing all of your precious data. On the Aorus X7 Pro, this wasn't such a big deal since it has a built-in 1TB HDD that can be used for regular backups. However, since the Aorus X3 Plus V3 does not have room for a hard disk drive, this means that backups must be made to an external drive, which makes regular backups a bit of an hassle. That said, it is not a deal breaker, but definitely something to take note.

The biggest issue we have with the Aorus X3 Plus V3 though is its GPU temperature. GPU-Z recorded it at a whopping 86 degrees while we were gaming away. Aorus really needs to put more effort on their machine's cooling capacity. although we knew from the get-go that a slim machine would have to contend with this concern. NVIDIA's GPU Boost throttles performance whenever temperatures get past a certain threshold, which means that the Aorus X3 Plus V3 potentially has more to offer but that extra performance may not be realized due to its operating temperatures being too high to begin with. We say potentially since NVIDIA nor Aorus disclose the exact throttling temperature. One thing is for sure however, the lower the operating temperature, the better it is for the notebook. Another point to add is that the fans do get pretty loud when the notebook gets warm.

One last final minor gripe we have about the Aorus X3 Plus V3 is that it's expensive, especially when you consider that its bigger brother, the Aorus X7 Pro costs only $3,999. That's just a few hundred dollars more from the asking price of the X3 Plus V3 and gets you better hardware, though at a significant increase in weight and size. Still, as one of the few high-end 13-inch gaming machine offerings, a premium isn't unheard of. For a similar size comparison, you need to take a look at the Aftershock XG-13 and the Razer Blade.

Aftershock has since phased out the XG-13 V2 notebooks and replaced them with the XG-13 V3 model, with the change of GPU (now a NVIDIA GeForce 960M) being the main change. A comparably equipped XG-13 V3 will net you around $2,319 and that's without the IGZO display and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX970M. We feel that the better graphics engine and display in the Aorus X3 Plus V3 is definitely worth the higher asking price in this case, unless you're on a budget.

On the flipside, a Razer Blade with similar hardware costs $3,999.90. It has a tad bigger 14-inch IGZO touch screen with the same resolution and a marginally better processor in the Intel Core i7-4720HQ (2.6Ghz, 6MB cache) but the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M in it only has 3GB of VRAM. It is also heavier at 2.03KG, with lesser battery capacity. A touch screen and a slightly faster processor is not worth the extra money in our opinion, unless you're planning to use touch controls a lot. Even if you decide they're worth it, the 3GB VRAM in the Razer Blade's NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M is still inferior to that 6GB VRAM version in the Aorus X3 Plus V3. Since high resolutions require more VRAM, the 6GB present in the Aorus machine is more useful since both machines have QHD+ displays.

The Aorus X3 Plus V3 is a unique hybrid. It has the power of a gaming machine but the size and weight of a conventional notebook. It's a delicate balance to juggle both sides effectively, something the Aorus X3 Plus V3 does relatively well. While there are some issues that can spell trouble (overheating, SSD data loss) for users, realistically speaking, those issues can either be prevented entirely (creating external back-ups occasionally) or mitigated (cleaning the vents by using compressed air). Still, it's a bit troublesome, and we acknowledge that but that still doesn't cover up the fact that the Aorus X3 Plus V3 is still one of the best 13-inch gaming machines that money can buy.

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