The Gigabyte Aorus 5 offers higher performance in 3D rendering, machine learning, and gaming, benefitting from a powerful Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card. It is slightly heavier and less portable, with a shorter battery life, but features a high refresh rate screen which is great for fast-paced games. The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16, on the other hand, excels in screen quality with a high-resolution OLED display that is touch-enabled, providing vibrant colors and better viewing angles, suitable for design and video editing. It comes with more memory, a larger storage capacity, and a longer battery life, enhancing its productivity credentials for business use, but its AMD RX 6500M GPU is less potent for intensive 3D tasks compared to the Aorus 5. Overall, the ThinkPad Z16 is lighter and more portable, and it tends to be slightly less expensive than the Aorus 5. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Gigabyte Aorus 5
Good for gaming and AI
Advantages of the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16
Very good for general use
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Very good overall build quality
Good portability
Good battery life
Best in class speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.5/10
8.6/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
280.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
393.0 nits
5.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
7.0 Hours
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
6.7/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
7.8/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 is very good for general use, while the Gigabyte Aorus 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Gaming and AI
7.9/10
6.7/10
8.2/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
4.6/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
360Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
Yes
SUPPORTS DLSS
No
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
6.5/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
8.0/10
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 is good for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 is only fair.
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 is equipped with a high-end Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU and an impressive screen refresh rate of 360 Hz, making it optimal for fast-paced gaming and smooth 3D rendering. In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 features an AMD RX 6500M GPU and a maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz, but offers a high-resolution OLED screen, prioritizing visual quality and color accuracy over the Aorus 5's speed and gaming performance.
Content Creation
7.6/10
8.5/10
9.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 is very good for content creation, while the Gigabyte Aorus 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.3/10
8.2/10
9.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 is very good for software development, while the Gigabyte Aorus 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
8.0/10
8.5/10
15.6in
SIZE
16.0in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
360Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
280.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
393.0 nits
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 has a better screen than the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 has a better screen for general use, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
The Gigabyte Aorus 5's display offers enough clarity and brightness for everyday tasks, making it suitable for general use, while its color accuracy supports tasks in engineering and design. However, its lower refresh rate limits the smoothness and responsiveness desired in gaming and 3D work. The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16, with superior color gamut coverage, excels in providing precise color representation crucial for professional design and engineering work, and also offers a high-quality visual experience for general tasks, although it shares the same limitations in refresh rate for gaming and 3D applications.
Battery
5.0 Hours
7.0 Hours
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 has 5 hours of battery life. The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 has 7 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Fair
Good
15.6in
SIZE
16.0in
5.0 lbs
WEIGHT
4.2 lbs
1.0in
THICKNESS
0.6in
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 has good portability, while the Gigabyte Aorus 5 has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.4/10
8.0/10
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 has very good build quality, while the Gigabyte Aorus 5 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$2,359
$1,120
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
$3,500
$4,000
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 has a price of $2,359 and the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 costs $1,120.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 and Gigabyte Aorus 5 are both very good for engineering and design.
The Gigabyte Aorus 5 is equipped with a strong Intel CPU and a powerful Nvidia GPU, making it suitable for demanding engineering and design tasks, but its screen quality is lower compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16, which offers a higher-resolution OLED display for precise color work, alongside a capable AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD GPU, while also having double the RAM for multitasking, although it is less gaming-oriented than the Aorus 5. Despite both being proficient for engineering and design use, the ThinkPad Z16 has a slight edge in portability and screen quality, whereas the Aorus 5 favors gamers with its hardware ray tracing and DLSS capabilities.
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How the Gigabyte Aorus 5 and the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 compare to other laptops
"The Gigabyte Aorus 5 SE4 is a capable mainstream gaming notebook that will run the latest PC games with aplomb. However, it's not your stereotypical flashy gaming PC. Gigabyte has added some interesting tweaks. For example, the webcam placement and its Microsoft Azure AI tool — to automatically switch between power modes — are unusual for this genre. But more importantly, the pricing is fairly competitive and reasonable."
"Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z16 tries has some success in its effort to tweak the ThinkPad formula. The laptop is attractive, yet still tame, and material quality is on par with the best Windows competition. I also like the smooth, responsive haptic touchpad and the wide range of modern connectivity. Yet the Z16 doesn’t fix ThinkPad’s typical weakness: value. Starting around $1,550, and more typically near $1,700, the Z16 finds itself facing alternatives that have better performance or an improved display for the same price, or less."
Get a great deal on the Gigabyte Aorus 5 or the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16
About Gigabyte
Gigabyte is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer. While Gigabyte mainly focuses its business on desktop hardware, Gigabyte is known for its value-oriented G series laptops, thin and light Aero series, and performance-oriented Aorus series. Gigabyte laptops offer a strong value proposition to compete with mainstream alternatives.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest personal computer vendor. They are well known for a variety of technology products, including laptops. Their consumer series include their entry level IdeaPad and LOQ series and mid-to-high-end Yoga and Legion series. On the business-oriented side, their series include their entry-level ThinkBook series and mid-to-high-end ThinkPad series. Lenovo laptops offer strong performance for reasonable prices, and are often on sale.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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