Aftershock APEX-15 review: Performance you can afford

Checking the right boxes

Gaming laptops have seldom looked more attractive than they are now. The advent of slim and light Max-Q designs with ultra-thin bezels means that now more than ever, you can enjoy a tantalizing combination of both performance and portability. Many of these laptops are also paired with 144Hz displays, so you can expect a really smooth gaming experience with up to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q GPU in a slim package.

Unfortunately, many of these laptops will cost you well over S$3,000, so you’re paying a hefty premium for what they offer.

That’s something local startup Aftershock is trying to do differently with the APEX-15. The company has typically been known for its value-for-money approach, so this isn’t surprising.

The APEX-15 is Aftershock’s latest ultra-portable, and it combines a svelte, portable design with goodies like a 144Hz display and a mechanical keyboard. The latter is probably the highlight of the laptop, as it’s pretty rare to see a mechanical keyboard on such a thin chassis and at this price point.

Here’s an overview of the laptop’s specifications:

• Intel Core i7-8750H processor (2.2GHz, 9MB L3 cache)
• 16GB single-channel DDR4-2666
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• 256GB PCIe SSD
• 46.74Wh battery
• 359 x 240 x 19.9mm
• 1.95kg

The above will cost you just S$2,576, which is a fairly attractive price, all things considered. To put things in perspective, the Razer Blade with a 144Hz display and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Max-Q costs S$3,299. It does come with a larger 512GB PCIe SSD, but that still doesn’t fully account for the over S$700 price difference between the two. What’s more, the Razer Blade doesn’t even come with a mechanical keyboard.

But are there trade-offs for the price of the APEX-15? Read on to find out.

Slim, light, and functional

Aftershock’s APEX-15 was designed to compete directly with the latest crop of thin-bezel gaming notebooks. That’s no easy task, and the field is stacked with competitors like the Gigabyte Aero 15X, MSI GS65 Stealth Thin, and Razer Blade.

However, for its price, the APEX-15 brings quite a lot to the table without sacrificing too much. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB can handle most games at 1080p resolution, even if it probably won’t be able to maximize the 144Hz screen refresh rate. In fact, the APEX-15 even edges out its rivals in some areas, as evinced by the inclusion of its optical switch mechanical keyboard.

Like the rest of the competition, one of the most attractive things about the APEX-15 is how compact it is for a 15.6-inch notebook. The slim bezels mean it’s closer in size to a 14-inch laptop, so you benefit from the greater screen real estate without having to put up with much more bulk.

The APEX-15 features a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel AHVA (or Advanced Hyper Viewing Angles) 144Hz display. This is an IPS-type panel manufactured by AUO, and has similar performance characteristics as the displays you see referred to as IPS panels. In my experience, colors appeared reasonably vibrant, and I wasn’t bothered by any bias toward the colder or warmer end of the color spectrum. Viewing angles were good as well, although I’d have liked the display to be a little brighter.

There’s also room in the top bezel for the webcam, which I consider to be a good thing. While this means the bezels aren’t quite as razor-thin as those on the Gigabyte Aero 15X, any space-savings resulting from the latter arrangement aren’t enough to justify putting up with the awkward camera angles that would result from shifting the webcam to the bottom bezel.

The other distinctive feature is the optical switch mechanical keyboard. The low-profile switches are of the tactile and clicky variety (60g actuation force, 2.0mm travel distance), and they produce a very distinct click sound when pressed. This means that this probably isn’t a laptop you want to take to the lecture hall or meetings as it can get pretty noisy. At the time of writing, only clicky switches are available, but Aftershock tells us that a non-clicky, tactile switch is coming soon, so that may find a wider audience.

Optical switches are the latest thing in mechanical switch technology, and they use light for actuation instead of metal contacts. This means that optical switches are less susceptible to problems like contact degradation or other issues with wear-and-tear, so they can last longer.

The other benefit of optical switches is that they eliminate the need for any sort of debounce delay. This delay is usually introduced to account for the bouncing, or the generation of multiple signals, that occurs when two metal contacts touch each other. It’s necessary to avoid picking up multiple signals and registering extraneous key presses, but it also adds a small delay (albeit usually indiscernible) delay to each keystroke. In theory, optical switches are faster because they don’t have this delay.

In addition, you get N-key rollover and per-key RGB lighting customizations. A separate LED bar runs along the front of the laptop, and you can tweak the effects on that as well.

The mechanical, clicky switches are a really nice inclusion, and I appreciate Aftershock making the effort to help the APEX-15 stand out. The switches provide good feedback and are definitely more satisfying to use than their non-mechanical counterparts. However, there’s still some key wobble, which marred the experience somewhat, and the shorter travel distance still doesn’t quite come close to a proper standalone mechanical keyboard.

The keyboard also eschews the chiclet design, which doesn’t look the best to my eyes, aesthetically-speaking.

The trackpad isn’t a Windows Precision Touchpad, but it still feels accurate and precise enough. And unlike the Gigabyte Aero 15X, it does support certain three- and four-fingered shortcuts for navigating the desktop.

If there's one area that could use sorely use some improvement, it's the speakers. The bottom-firing units are lacking in volume, and when you finally manage to get them loud enough, there's noticeable distortion and your tunes end up sounding quite muddy.

Elsewhere, the APEX-15 packs a strong selection of ports and networking features. It’s missing a Thunderbolt 3 port, but it does still have a USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-C port, two USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports, and one USB 2.0 connector.

It also supports up to three external monitors with its two Mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs.

On the networking front, the laptop uses an Intel Wireless-AC 9560 2x2 module, which supports faster-than Gigabit Wi-Fi speeds and a maximum throughput of 1.73Gbps. It also comes with a Gigabit Ethernet port, so you won’t need any adapters to connect the laptop directly to your LAN cable.

A dedicated button next to the power button lets you boost the fan speeds for some additional cooling, but this absolutely sends noise levels sky high.

It’s nifty to be able to kick things into high gear when you feel the system getting hot, but the level of noise will probably keep you from using it more often. The laptop itself is cooled by dual fans, which pull in air through large mesh openings at the bottom and expel hot hair through vents at the sides and rear.

The APEX-15 boasts a brushed metal finish on the palm rests and the lid, which helps give it a more premium look. The aluminum alloy chassis is lightweight and solid, so this is quite a well-built laptop. That said, when set beside something like the Razer Blade, or even the Gigabyte Aero 15X, the notebook’s rough edges become a little more apparent.

It’s fine as it is, but it doesn’t feel quite as polished or refined as something like the Blade, which is milled from a single block of aluminum. For instance, if you look closely at the edges, you can see small gaps where the different sheets of aluminum meet each other. But that’s okay. After all, you do get what you pay for, and while these niggling details might help distinguish a far pricier machine, I can’t really complain about the APEX-15 when it’s priced as it is.

Test setup and performance

Here’s a full list of the notebooks we’re looking at:

• Aftershock APEX-15
• Razer Blade (2018)
• Aftershock PRIME-15

The Razer Blade was chosen to show how the APEX-15 and its GeForce GTX 1060 6GB stacks up against the GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q. Similarly, the PRIME-15 was thrown in the mix to see how it compares against a notebook with a 7th-generation Intel CPU.

[hwzcompare]

[products=644143,642009,614728]

[width=200]

[caption=Test notebooks compared]

[showprices=1]

[/hwzcompare]

The notebooks were put through the following benchmarks:

• PCMark 10
• 3DMark
• VRMark
• Ashes of the Singularity
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Tom Clancy’s The Division

PCMark 10 Extended

PCMark 10 Extended assesses the performance of systems in a variety of workloads, including basic computing tasks, productivity applications, digital content creation, and gaming. Compared to PCMark 8, it also adds in new test metrics, such as app startup times, which quantifies how long it takes to launch a variety of real-world apps, and a rendering and visualization workload to simulate professional graphics and engineering applications. In addition, existing workloads have been updated to reflect modern usage.

The Aftershock APEX-15 held up quite well against the two notebooks equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q. Overall, it was approximately 8 per cent behind the Razer Blade.

A look at the score breakdown shows that much of that difference can be accounted for by the APEX-15’s comparatively weaker gaming performance. The notebooks ended up trading blows in the other benchmarks, with the APEX-15 even coming ahead in the Essentials benchmark, which comprises tasks such as web browsing, video conferencing, and measurements of app start-up times.

All else being equal, the difference in graphics cards probably isn’t going to matter that much in non-gaming related tasks.

3DMark

3DMark is a more relevant assessment of gaming performance, and it puts the system through a range of graphics and computational performance tests at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K.

The performance difference was more obvious here, and the APEX-15 was around 29 per cent slower than the Razer Blade in the Fire Strike test. However, for a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB equipped notebook, it fares reasonably as expected, as can be seen in this older gaming notebook shootout where we've more GeForce GTX 1060 GPU based laptops tested.

VRMark

Futuremark’s VRMark benchmark is designed to assess a PC’s ability to handle high-performance headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. If a PC passes the Orange Room test, it is ready for the latter two systems. The benchmark also has a target frame rate of 109FPS, and I've included the average FPS each notebook managed to provide a clearer measure of their respective performance.

The APEX-15 passed the Orange Room test with little trouble, but it was still 10 percent behind the Razer Blade’s GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q. That said, both notebooks with the Intel 8th-generation processor still fell behind the Aftershock PRIME-15 and its Intel Core i7-7700HQ chip.

The way things look, VRMark still places a greater emphasis on higher single-core clock speeds and isn't quite able to fully utilize hexa-core Core i7-8750H. The latter has a 2.2GHz base clock and maximum turbo frequency of 4.1GHz, compared to the 2.8GHz base clock and 3.8GHz boost clock of the Core i7-7700HQ.

While the 8th-generation Coffee Lake processor has a higher turbo boost frequency, it seems like that couldn't make up for the considerably lower base clock.

Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity is a demanding real-time strategy game that puts thousands of units on screen, and it’s capable of pushing even the most powerful GPUs.

The APEX-15 didn’t come that far behind the Razer Blade, trailing it by roughly 7 percent at High settings, where the CPU is the limiting factor. However, the gap widened when the GPU became the limiting factor at Crazy settings, where the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB lagged by around 22 percent. Thankfully, the performance numbers are still reasonably adequate to run the game at those settings.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Mankind Divided is one of the most demanding titles to run today, but the good news is that the APEX-15 still managed to deliver a relatively playable experience at High settings.

That said, the GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q in the Razer Blade was still a good 31 percent faster than the APEX-15. It maintained that lead at Ultra settings, coming away with a 34 percent advantage.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

The Division isn’t as demanding to run as Ashes of the Singularity or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but its Snowdrop engine can still stress cards with the use of dynamic lighting and the like.

At High settings, the Razer Blade was around 32 percent faster than the APEX-15. Still, it’s worth noting that the APEX-15’s 65.9FPS is still a very respectable showing and is a playable result. All told, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB will run most games at 1080p resolution comfortably, provided you turn some of the eye candy down.

Temperature, battery life, & portability

Temperature

I measured the external temperatures of the four quadrants of the notebook after 40 loops of 3DMark's Fire Strike Extreme stress test. This amount of time is more than enough to get an idea of your average maximum running temperature for this workload and heavy gaming in general.

The APEX-15 actually did quite well compared to the competition when it came to thermal performance - which we kind of expected based on the configuration difference. The peak CPU and GPU temperatures under load were quite a bit lower than the Razer Blade, and the surface temperatures on the palm rests were chillier as well. Some of that can be attributed to the less powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB outputting less heat, but the large-sized vents on the APEX-15 clearly aren’t for show either.

Battery life and power consumption

I used the built-in battery life benchmark in PCMark 8 Home to assess the battery life on the laptops.

Unfortunately, the APEX-15 isn’t quite able to capitalize on its slim and light design due to its poor battery life. The 46.74Wh unit on the laptop just isn’t big enough to sustain it away from a power socket, and this is one of the biggest weaknesses of the laptop. That’s a pity, since the power consumption numbers show that it could actually have lasted pretty long (the APEX-15 with the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB still drew less power than the Razer Blade with the GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q), if only it had a larger battery.

Portability

The portability index is an objective measure of how portable a notebook is, taking into account factors like size, weight, and battery life.

The APEX-15 still managed to inch ahead of the PRIME-15 here, but it still couldn’t compete with the Razer Blade because of the latter’s large 80Wh battery and excellent battery life. So while you can probably carry the APEX-15 around with few issues, you’ll need to make sure there’s a ready power outlet for you to use when you’re away from your desk.

Great bang for your buck

Aftershock has created quite an attractive proposition with the APEX-15. It is equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, so it isn’t the fastest in terms of performance, but that isn’t what the company is aiming for here.

The laptop is fully capable of running the latest games at 1080p resolution, provided you don’t run them at maximum settings. And that’s good enough for most people. After all, not everyone needs, or can afford, bleeding-edge performance, and for the vast majority of gamers, the APEX-15 is sufficient.

I don’t mean to make that sound like you’re settling. While you won’t get blistering frame rates or the best battery life, you do still get a bunch of features usually found on more expensive notebooks. I’m looking at the mechanical keyboard with optical switches, per-key RGB lighting, and the slim bezels, light weight, and relatively small space footprint.

In addition, you get a good selection of USB ports, display outputs, and an SD card reader, so the laptop is hardly lacking in that area either. The aluminum alloy chassis is also a nice feature. It feels tough and rigid, even if it can’t really compare to something like the Razer Blade.

What you’re sacrificing is really a more refined design and battery life (and maybe the audio quality isn't great), which aren’t exactly deal breakers when you consider how much the APEX-15 costs. At S$2,576, you’re getting pretty good value for your money. Sure, a GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q will net you up to 30 per cent more performance, but that means coughing up over a thousand dollars more.

That said, I should point out that Aftershock will also be offering the APEX-15 with the GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q in the near future, should you really want the additional performance. That will set the APEX-15 on the same footing as the competition, and I fully expect it to still be cheaper.

Either way, if you’re on the lookout for a capable gaming laptop that won’t require you to sell a kidney for it, you should definitely give the APEX-15 a look. It's certainly a fair bit more powerful and feature-packed than budget gaming notebooks.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.