Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XD review: powerful, expensive and defective

Gigabyte has released a minor update to the Aero 15 OLED, its flagship laptop targeting gamers and creative professionals. Like last year’s model, this Aero 15 has a 4K OLED display and a decent selection of ports with Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. Like last year’s model, it also has a somewhat clunky aluminum design, a flashy RGB keyboard, a fingerprint sensor in the trackpad, and a poorly placed webcam below the display. The big change is that the Aero 15 now includes the latest 11th gen Intel processors and Nvidia’s RTX 3070 graphics card.

The performance I saw here wasn’t a massive upgrade from the previous Aero 15, but it’s still some of the best gaming and productivity performance you’ll find among laptops this size. . The 60Hz screen means you won’t be able to see the impressive frame rates that the new hardware is capable of, so many gamers can get a better experience with a device with a higher refresh rate screen. But if you’ve got your eye on an OLED display, either because you’re working on color on the side, or just want your games and movies to look great, this device should do the job (although in a loud and warm noise).

The Aero model I have cost $ 2,099 and includes Intel’s Core i7-11800H, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, in addition to the RTX 3070 and the 15.6in 4K OLED display. You can upgrade the RAM up to 64 GB afterwards and there are two M.2 storage slots. Gigabyte doesn’t sell this model yet, but it does sell an identical model with 16GB of RAM for $ 1,999.

Let’s go straight to the game: Red Dead Redemption 2 averaging 80 fps on the ultra preset at 1080p, dropping to 37 fps at 4K. With all the sliders maxed out manually, I had to switch to the medium preset in order to get a playable 4K frame rate of 46 fps. Shadow of the Tomb Raider operated at 104 fps at 1080p with ray tracing off and 81 fps with ray tracing on, dropping to 48 fps and 29 fps, respectively, in 4K. (With DLSS enabled, 52fps and 38fps). So you can play both of these titles in 4K if you want, but you’ll have to ditch the settings to hit the sweet spot of 60fps.

A more recent version, Cyberpunk 2077, operated at 71 fps with ray tracing off and 30 fps with ray tracing at maximum, dropping to 42 fps and 19 fps, respectively, in 4K (with DLSS on the Quality setting). Note that because the Aero only has a 60Hz display, you won’t be able to see the benefit of frame rates above 60fps.

The cooling system, which includes two 71-blade fans and five heat pipes, kept the Core i7 at reasonable temperatures. During gaming, the processor typically hovered below the mid-80s (Celsius) with occasional spikes through to the 80s or 90s. The chassis itself, however, was often quite hot on the keyboard and too hot on the keyboard. the bottom to sit comfortably in my lap, even when I was just working in Chrome. Fans are also very, very loud on Gigabyte’s Turbo Mode – someone passing by while I was performing a video export asked if the laptop was going to take off.

Nvidia’s mobile GPUs can be a bit confusing as the same chip can deliver very variable frame rates depending on its power. The Aero’s RTX 3070 achieves an output of 105W, just like the Aorus 15G’s 3070. But the Asus Zephyrus G15 tops out at 100W with a dynamic boost, and Razer’s Blade 15 base includes a 3070 with a peak output of 95W. Gaming performance will vary by title, but overall, l ‘Aero shoots frame rates comparable to what we’ve seen produced by both the Blade and Zephyrus at 1440p. They’re even a little better than the gaming-focused Aorus (which still has a 10th Gen Intel processor). On the other hand, the Aorus equipped with the RTX 3070 with a 240Hz 1080p display only costs $ 1,799, which underlines the price you pay for the Aero’s OLED display.

Outside of the gaming world, the Aero was more of a mixed bag. The laptop comes preloaded with a new, proprietary Control Center app, which is powered by Microsoft’s Azure AI. In theory, this feature allows the computer to automatically switch between color, power and performance profiles (designer mode, game mode, meeting mode, etc.) depending on the application you are using. It was a good idea, but the fact that my screen brightness changes and a notification pops up every time I jump into Chrome or Steam is more of a nuisance than a help, so I ended up deactivate it.

On the productivity side, the Aero has overcome my usual workload, which includes a dozen Chrome, Slack, Spotify tabs, and a few occasional photo jobs. It oddly didn’t do as well as its predecessor in our Premiere Pro test, which involves exporting a five-minute and 33-second 4K video; This year’s Aero took four minutes and five seconds to complete the task, where its predecessor (the Aero 15 OLED XB) took just over two and a half years – Gigabyte says it could be due to the pilots from Nvidia. It’s still one of the fastest times we’ve ever seen from a laptop; The Aorus 15G and Blade 15 Base, with that same GPU, both took over six minutes, while the Dell XPS 15 with a GTX 1650 Ti took 4:23.

Premiere Pro exports aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison, of course, as different versions can produce different results. On the Puget Systems benchmark for Premiere Pro, which tests both live playback and export performance with media at 4K and 8K resolutions, the Aero got an 824. That’s one of the scores the highest I’ve ever seen on a test unit, and it blows away the competition, solidly beating the Zephyrus G15, Blade 15, and Aorus 15G, as well as the Aero XB with an RTX 2070 Super Max -Q. That’s more than double the score we saw with the Dell XPS 15.

This is a pretty impressive result, but you will have to make some compromises for this potency. First of all, the battery life is a serious disappointment. Gigabyte claimed up to eight hours, but even on the Power Saver profile, the first Aero 15 unit sent to me only gave me about two. On a second unit, I had an average of three hours and four minutes of continuous work. It’s fine if you plan on never taking this thing anywhere (the 230W power brick is also quite heavy) but for someone like me who often works on the go, that lifespan is not. awesome— mostly around the $ 2,000 mark. We got five hours and 45 minutes from the XPS 15 and over six hours from the Aorus 15G, so it’s worth considering if you’re a mobile user who likes the look of the Aero.

There are a few other things. The webcam has a handy physical shutter, but it’s also located just above the keyboard, directly below the Aero logo on the lower bezel; it gives everyone you video chat with a breathtaking view of your nostrils. There is a fingerprint sensor in the upper left corner of the touchpad, which is handy, but my finger also bumped into it a few times while I was browsing. Finally, the keyboard is comfortable (it has a numeric keypad and a light click), but the flashy RGB lights are pretty, well, visible, and won’t necessarily be what everyone wants in an office or coffee shop.

Overall, the Aero is a decent option for you if you’re looking for a powerful OLED laptop with a lot of pizzazz. But its downsides – especially battery life and nasal camera – are significant, and it’s worth considering whether you’ll take full advantage of the 4K chips and OLED in return.

For example, none of the popular titles tested here are ideal for running in 4K at its maximum settings. And while the Aero 15 gets better frame rates than the Aorus at 1080p, you’ll still only see 60 frames per second on the Aero, while the higher refresh rate screen on the Aorus will show you more. And there’s also a litany of QHD laptops, the included Zephyrus G15 and Blade 15, that can run games at this resolution just fine – and they can certainly go over 60 on some of the titles here.

This leaves content creators and other professionals who plan to use the Aero as a working driver, like the real audience for this device, and although it is certainly one of the most powerful laptops for this type of load. working, I wonder how many of them people agree with the short battery life and the nosecam. These may be sacrifices that are worthwhile for some people, but they are certainly a lot to ask for.

Photograph by Monica Chin / The Verge