GIGABYTE AERO 15 REVIEW: WORKS HARD and PLAYS HARD

Gigabyte Aero 15 is a portable computer aimed at designers and creative professionals. But when I first saw this, I couldn't believe it. It doesn't look like any laptop that comes to mind when I think of "creators" (MacBook Pros are small and light, XPS 15s, Surface Books, and Zenbook world). Aero is a beast. It is 15.6 inches wide and 4.4 pounds. It has a bright LED logo on its door, large vocal cords on the back and bottom, and a colorful RGB keyboard that will turn heads throughout the office. This gaming laptop, I thought about my first day using it. Designers will not want this.

Of course, you can also play games in Aero 15 - after all, it has its own hardware. There is a 10th Gen 8-core processor 7-10875H, 512GB SSD (and one available M.2 slot), 16GB RAM (DDR4), and GeForce RTX 2070 Nvidia's new Super Max-Q GPU. What you do not find in sportsbooks is the screen of this model, which is a 60Hz OLED display with 3840 x 2160 (4K) resolution.

That hardware isn’t cheap, though - the Aero 15 OLED starts at $ 1,699 and the model I tested is $ 2,699. That’s not a ridiculous price for this machine - it only costs $ 100 more expensive than the MSRP Razer Blade 15 with the same GPU and processor. (Blade, however, replaces OLED with a 1080p LCD sports-focused panel.)

But if you are not a content creator, it is worth considering whether you really need to combine an OLED screen with those specs. If you are willing to compromise in one of those areas, you may be happy with any number of less expensive laptops, such as MSI's GS66 Stealth gaming or HP Specter x360 OLED for production work.

Another major advantage is the bulkier Aero that I would like more than the smaller competitors: ports. On the left, we have full-size HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.2 Type-A, audio jack, and Ethernet jack on the left side. On the right, two other USB 3.2 Type-A ports, one USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, a power port, and a full SD card slot - one creator puts a lot of laptops (and non-gaming) laptops. Professionals should be able to connect all kinds of monitors, projectors, drives, and other equipment without the use of dongles.

Aero 15 has what Gigabyte calls “the next gene cooling system.” It comes with two fans consisting of 71 71-centimeter blades each, in addition to five heat pipes. Setup makes the task work, even though it sounds overwhelming. In all my daily work - including the twelve Chrome tabs, Slack, Steam, and Spotify apps opened with background downloads - all Aero components remain completely cool. During playback, the floor was only slightly warmer, the touch pad and wrist were always cold, and the CPU never exceeded 88 degrees Celsius.

In turn, I could hear fans when the laptop did anything remotely (three Chrome tabs would delete it). They were heard from a short distance. The constant crying was a little annoying, but unexpectedly with a power house of this size.

If you can tolerate the noise, you will get a good gaming experience in Aero. It had no problem with Doom Eternal (where it got 180fps rating at 1440p and 58fps in 4K), League of Legends (when it rated at 151fps at least 127fps), or Overwatch in Epic settings in 4K (where it kept 70fps fixed). Do a good job with Red Dead Redemption 2 on Ultra (anti-aliasing off), on average 42fps with 19fps low at 1440p. The 2070 Super Max-Q gets its lashes.

The only function that gave Aero a real challenge was the combination of ray tracking and 4K resolution. Shadow for Tomb Raider is rated at about 30fps when working in 4K, with high ray tracing and DLSS on - playing in those settings was not a bad thing, but there were enough stutters that seemed like a little work. The game was played mostly in 4K by following the ray track (approximately 43fps average) and at 1440p by tracking the top ray (at an average of 47fps). The games looked good, the movement was smooth, and I saw details on Overwatch uniforms that I had never seen before.

With creative-focused activities, the Aero sports generation is very helpful. It took just five minutes and 25 seconds to send the 5:33 4K video to Premiere Pro, faster than any MacBook Pro we tested a few years ago. (The 2019 16-inch mid-size model took 10 minutes to complete the same task). Aero apparently had the cooling capacity of this function, the CPU and GPU sit at about 50 degrees Celsius everywhere. One thing to note is that you will need to keep the Aero connected to the best performance, which is not a concern for the MacBook Pro.

In addition to high resolution, the display is much more colorful than most play panels. I rated 100% sRGB coverage and 96% AdobeRGB coverage. I set the maximum brightness to 425 nits, for a work of art, but not as bright as the MacBook Pro. The Aero screen is also shiny, and even at high light it was difficult to use outside.

But the keyboard is the first thing anyone will see on this device. I don't have any RGB, but I found this cool. Lighting is an individual key, so you can set all sorts of color effects using Gigabyte's Control Center (very fun to play with). Colors can go back and forth across the keyboard or down and down, ripples can roll out every time you press a key, rainbow colors can go up and down each line. You can change the color, speed, and direction, and you can create your own results. These are all common features of high-end gaming laptops at this point, but they are rarely seen on non-gaming devices. I must admit that I once had trouble concentrating on work while a small disco was taking place under my fingers. But if you have a better time, take it.

The keys themselves are soft and a little deeper, but they are certainly faster. Typing was fun and actually exceeded my normal speed. Gigabyte managed to squeeze the numpad on, which you don’t see on 15-inch laptops every day. Strong pressure; One time I hit NumLock when I wanted to hit back. I think most people will get used to that over time, and numpad is a great addition to business users.

The plastic touch pad is smooth, the gestures work properly, and the clicks are easy and quiet. There’s a fingerprint sensor in the upper left corner, but the trackpad is big enough that I never hit it during use. Unfortunately, the tool saves a lot of fingers. After just one day of use, there was a visible cloud of text in the middle; it almost looked great.

The Aero speaker sauce is above the keyboard, and it sounds clear. The sound had more than enough volume to beat the noisy fans, and I could play well without the headphones. There aren’t many bass, while midrange and treble tones are really fun - it’s the same with most laptop speakers, but not at the MacBook Pro level of six speakers. However, it has excellent quality around. I felt like I could hear my music back and forth on my own - it was a little theatrical experience.

You can turn on and off the surround sound in the Nahimic "3D Audio for Gamers" software. You can also change the rating settings, and customize and switch between audio and music profiles, movies, contacts, and play. (Speakers in the first review unit we received have stopped working due to a problem with the Windows update and Nahimic driver.