Gigabyte G5 KE Review – Some Half-Measures Undo Impressive Gaming Output

The arrival of gaming laptops with Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs now allows gamers to play their favorite titles at 4K resolutions without much difficulty.

While these devices enable the best experience possible in latest AAA titles including high-end visuals and more till now, the entire experience doesn’t come cheap. At the same time, the 2023 hardware lineup has made the previous generation, Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series-powered device more affordable than before.

The Ampere GPUs from Nvidia provide performance in a variety of price ranges. However, if you’re looking at getting the best bang for the buck, then we suggest getting models with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPU.

Recently, I had an opportunity to test out the Gigabyte G5 KE with RTX 3060 and 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor. Over the course of a few days, I put it through the ringer to see if it has what it takes for players looking to game without burning a large hole in their bank accounts. Here are my thoughts on if this Gigabyte gaming laptop is worth your consideration.

Gigabyte G5 KE Specs

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the laptop’s performance and build quality, here’s a basic rundown of the Gigabyte G5 KE’s specifications:

Performance of the Gigabyte G5 KE

Gaming Performance

Unlike the powerful i7 and i9 variants of the 12th Gen Intel Core processors, the Gigabyte G5 KE sports a i5-12500H chip. Along with that, the laptop is powered by the 115W Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU.

When it comes to testing a laptop’s performance, we play some of the most popular AAA games across different genres set to the max graphics settings at FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution. This allows us to compare laptops across a wide range of price points and specifications.

With the Gigabyte G5 KE, the laptop performs quite well, with several games offering over 60 FPS at max settings. While some newer games like Cyberpunk 2077 feels slightly demanding at max settings, players can easily gain great performances by lowering the settings to Medium or High.

Benchmarks

We also tested the laptop by running a variety of benchmarks. Here’s how the Gigabyte G5 KE fares among its competitors.

In conclusion, the laptop offers brilliant performance for players, who aren’t necessarily looking to game at the best settings possible. At FHD resolution, the laptop has enough hardware juice to run current games at High graphics settings at over 60 FPS. Additionally, you can also expect to see play upcoming AAA titles around the 60 FPS mark on Medium graphics settings with the Gigabyte G5 KE.

Thermal Performance

The G5 KE comes with Gigabyte G5 KE’s Windforce cooling technology, which certainly does its job during demanding tasks.

It helps that the G5 KE doesn’t feature a demanding GPU (RTX 3060 Laptop) or CPU (Intel Core i5-12500H). But we still need to acknowledge the respectable job by the laptop as I rarely experienced heating issues with the Gigabyte G5 KE gaming laptop.

During my playthrough testing on some wildly demanding games, the laptop never faced overheating issues. The CPU temperatures stay around the 75-80° C range with the occasional spikes to up to 85° C. Similarly, the GPU also remained on comparatively low temperatures during gaming.

The lowered temperatures stem from the Gigabyte cooling technology, which features 5 heat pipes and 4 exhaust vents. The fans do their task quite well, but they can get a bit loud in certain situations. It is worth noting that nothing about the fan noise was egregiously loud.

Battery backup

Moving on the battery, the Gigabyte G5 KE falters quite heavily despite the lack of power-hungry hardware and display. As part of our battery testing, I ran a video playback on 50% brightness. This saw the battery falling from 100% to 0% in around 3 hours, which is not great to say the least. Here, we are not even talking about the gaming as nobody should really game on battery backup. The laptop also does not feature any fast-charging mechanism to make up for unimpressive battery backup.

Gigabyte G5 KE Design and Build quality

I have my fair share of likes and gripes with the G5 KE in the aesthetics and design departments. When it comes to the former, the aesthetics fit right along my preferences. Gigabyte has added its branding on the back (top), off centered towards the right side along with angular decals on the left bottom corner. The company has also added these decals on the trackpad.

The black colorway with slightly copper accents is a nice touch as well with moderate bezels. However, these bezels are not thin enough to invoke the “wow” factor. In the end, if you’re looking for just a tad bit of gamer aesthetics, this Gigabyte model fits the bill.

Talking about the build quality, I think Gigabyte can improve it to make the product better. With a plastic body, the laptop’s quite lightweight but it isn’t the best in terms of sturdiness. I noticed slight wobble in the display during use. Additionally, I am not a huge fan of the matte finish. At the price point of around Rs. 1,00,000, the competition offers better build and design to gamers.

Display and Audio

Display is one of the biggest downsides for the G5 KE. On paper, it features a FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution screen, with 144 Hz refresh rate. So far, so good for players, who aren’t necessarily looking to game at 1440p or 4K resolutions.

However, the peak brightness of 300 nits significantly impacts other display-related specifications for the laptop. Similarly, you also don’t get the most color-accurate display which makes things worse. In the end, it’s fair to say that you can get much better screens at the price point of the Gigabyte G5 KE.

On the other hand, the audio performance for the laptop is decent. For starters, it’s loud, and unlike other gaming laptops, the G5 KE offers quite a bit of audio range through its 2x 2W speakers. Gigabyte can still improve this segment to take on the competition.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The Gigabyte G5 KE comes with a full-size keyboard, so Num Key enthusiasts might want to look at the model closely. When it comes to the typing experience, the keyboard features a decent key travel distance alongside good tactile feedback. The lettering on keys is quite nice too, and overall, it’s a nice keyboard to work and play on.

If you’re looking for a RGB backlit keyboard, then you might be disappointed with the G5 KE. For starters, there’s no multiple zones of lighting available for buyers. Furthermore, while you can customize the lighting, users only get to choose from 15 color options for the backlight.

The trackpad is average at best too. It’s a bit off centered to the left, and it’s big enough for you to move your fingers across quite well. The buttons like the trackpad surface are nothing special, with good enough tactility for daily use. In the end, I had no complaints while scrolling with the trackpad.

Software and Miscellaneous

The Gigabyte G5 KE comes with Control Center 3.0 software suite to allow control over fan speed, power modes, macro key bindings, and keyboard lighting. Unlike the plethora of features available in laptop software suites from the competition, the Control Center 3.0 lacks in variety.

This includes the lack of extensive customization options for the keyboard backlighting, power mode and more. Additionally, the UI has much to be desired, and there’s certainly a ton of room for improvement for future iterations of Gigabyte’s Control Center.

When it comes to the I/O ports, the Gigabyte G5 KE has everything you might need. Additionally, they’re quite spaced out and positioned on the left, right and backside of the laptop.

Should you buy the Gigabyte G5 KE or not?

The Gigabyte G5 KE has its highs and lows, when it comes to performance, design, and other gamer-centric features.

For the former, the laptop offers decent performance for gamers looking for a portable device to run AAA titles at high graphics settings level on FHD resolution. Along with that, it offers impressive thermal performance during gaming.

However, G5 KE isn’t backed by an equally great battery life. Same is applicable for most other departments about the laptop where buyers get decent features marred with some or the other drawback.

At the Rs. 1,00,000 price point, the market is full of options from the competition offering similar if not better hardware. Many of them even come with 13th Gen Intel processors, which debuted earlier this year.

In the end, I would suggest interested buyers to look for models featuring the 13th Gen Intel CPU or AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs with a similar or better Nvidia GPUs. Following the release of the Nvidia RTX 40 series GPUs, users might even want to hold on purchasing laptops with the RTX 30 series GPUs. However, the prices will take some time to reach the current level of RTX 30 series GPU-powered laptops.

If you’re looking for something right now, I still wouldn’t have the G5 KE as my frontrunner for laptops in the Rs. 90,000 – Rs. 1,00,000 range.