Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR Review: New Laptop with Powerful Graphics and 4K HDR Screen

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Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XA specifications

Design and appearance

Display and multimedia

Keyboard and touchpad

Connectors, webcam and communications

Component performance

Cooling system and noise

Autonomy Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR

Total

Should I buy?

The Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR laptop is made to please everyone. There is a powerful processor for work tasks, and a good video card for game lovers. I tested the new version of the Aero 17 HDR XA.

From the description, the Aero 17 HDR is really good.Is the first laptop to feature a 10th Gen Intel processor, Nvidia RTX 2070 Super graphics and a large 4K HDR display. But, the price of the model is also rather big - Aero will cost you about 210 thousand rubles.

Read also: ASUS TUF Gaming A17 review: a powerful laptop with AMD Ryzen 7

Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XA specifications

CPU

9th Generation Intel® Core ™ i9-9980HK (2.4GHz ~ 5.0GHz)

9th Gen Intel® Core ™ i7-9750H (2.6 GHz - 4.5 GHz)

RAM (out of the box)

Samsung 8/16/32 GB DDR4 2666 MHz, 2 slots (max. 64 GB)

Internal memory type

2 M.2 SSD slots (2280, supports 1 × NVMe PCIe and SATA / 1 × NVMe PCIe)

Drive capacity (out of the box)

512 GB

Display

17.3-inch AUO UHD HDR Adobe RGB 100% 3840 × 2160 IPS anti-glare LCD

Graphics processor

Intel UHD 630 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q GDDR6 8 GB, NVIDIA Optimus

Keyboard

GIGABYTE Fusion RGB Backlit

Audio and sound

2 x 2W speakers, microphone and Nahimic 3 software

Ports and connectors

3 × USB 3.1 Gen1 (Type-A)

1 × Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C)

1 × HDMI 2.0

1 × DP 1.4 and USB3.1 (USB Type-C)

1 × Headphone out

1 × For microphone

1 × UHS-II Card Reader

1 × DC connector

1 × RJ-45

Connection

Killer Ethernet E2600

Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (Intel based)

Bluetooth V5.0 + LE

Operating system

Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home

Battery

Li-Pol 94.24 W / h, 230 W

Dimensions and weight

396 x 270 x 21.4 mm, 2.5 kg

Design and appearance

There are three versions of the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR YA, XA and SA,which differ in price and mainly in dedicated video cards (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q, RTX 2070 Max-Q and GTX 1660 Ti, respectively). The bodies of all variants are identical and are made of dark brushed aluminum. Above the keyboard is a triangular-textured grill and miniature fans to exhaust air on the sides. Everything looks strict and professional, and each key of the keyboard has a colored LED-backlight.

However, despite the solid appearance and highcost, build quality here is far from ideal. Where the wrists are, the case is noticeably squeezed, and when you press the back cover of the screen, a slight distortion of the panel colors occurs. Aero 17 HDR - the laptop is not fragile, but the protective case will definitely not hurt it during transportation.

In addition, the sides and corners are quitesharp, and the connections between different parts of the body are visible to the naked eye. It could have looked better, although everything is in order with the dimensions: with a screen diagonal of 17.3 inches, the thickness of the device is 21.4 mm, and the weight is 2.5 kg.

Display and multimedia

17.The 3-inch 4K display of the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR is perfect for working tasks, be it editing detailed images, video or using multiple applications at the same time. The screen is calibrated and certified by X-Rite Pantone. The average Delta-E of 1.47 is amazing. Coverage is 99% for sRGB, 99% and 86% for DCI-P3.

High numbers mean the Aero is capable of veryhigh fidelity to reproduce sRGB and Adobe RGB colors, and DCI-P3 has a lower indicator, but it is still good for work. The color temperature of 6117K is a bit high, but not too noticeable. The maximum brightness level is a respectable 541 nits, while the minimum brightness for blacks is 0.39 nits.

The final contrast is great - 1387:1, which gives very high saturation and clarity of colors. Nevertheless, I would like to count on deeper blacks and slightly higher contrast. The uniformity of the picture across the entire display area is also impressive, with a maximum brightness deviation of 7%, which is twice that of most competitive notebooks.

For work, this screen is fine, although forother tasks it is quite average. The display complies with the DisplayHDR 400 standard and is quite bright, but the black levels and contrast are not enough for the HDR effect when watching content. However, for now, the problem is present on all HDR-capable laptops, and the Aero 17 is the best in this regard.

For gamers, the display is only good fora limited range of games - in most situations, a refresh rate of 60 Hz and lack of synchronization will not be a problem, although esports disciplines or just games with an abundance of action require more.

The Aero 17 HDR speakers produce a fairly loud and clear sound, but the frequencies here are dominated mainly by the upper ones, and the lower frequencies are clearly not enough. Cope with their work, but nothing more.

Keyboard and touchpad

One of the main advantages of the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR is the keyboard. The keys are large, there is a full-fledged number pad and a lot of possibilities for function buttons.

The workmanship is also high - the keys are quiet,pressed easily and comfortably, the stroke is large. On this keyboard, you can comfortably type for hours and not get tired. Although here everything is still subjective - many would probably prefer not so soft clicks with a little more tactile feedback.

The Aero 17 HDR touchpad works reliably and accurately.It is a smooth surface with a built-in fingerprint reader. The buttons here are easy to press and serve as a great alternative to a computer mouse.

Connectors, webcam and communications

There are a lot of connectors in the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR - there are three USB 3.2, one Thunderbolt / USB Type-C, one HDMI and one mini-DisplayPort, a microphone and headphone jack, and a memory card slot.

The webcam is not bad here, but the location under the screen is not the most convenient - if you do not constantly tilt your head during a video call, the person on the other end will look under your nose.

In Gigabyte Aero we get Wi-Fi 6 and GigabitEthernet, both adapters are made by the Killer gaming brand. Of course, there is not enough IR illumination for the camera and Ethernet at 2.5 Gbps, as well as another Thunderbolt. The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition has roughly the same set, but no Wi-Fi 6, and the MacBook Pro 16 has enough Thunderbolt ports, but almost nothing else. However, these two models are better in other respects: they are smaller, thinner, lighter and nicer in appearance.

Component performance

The Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XA I tested hadinstalled Intel Core i7-10875H processor, which uses the new Comet Lake architecture. This chipset replaces the i7-9750H - which was the heart of most work or gaming laptops from the past year, including the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition and MacBook Pro 16.

The i7-10875H chip consists of eight cores, whichsupport 16 threads, and their regular and accelerated clock speeds up to 2.3 and 5.1 GHz, respectively. These are powerful numbers - as the six-core i7-9750H overclocked to 2.6 GHz and 4.5 GHz. These specs are comparable to the new AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS - a processor that has the same eight cores but clocks up to 2.9 GHz and 4.2 GHz.

The new chipset works well, as well as on paper.In the Geekbench 5 test, it scores 1,300 points in single-core mode and 7100 in multi-core, significantly outperforming the 9th Gen Intel Core. In PCMark 10, the reviewed Aero 17 scores about 5400 points - slightly behind the competitor AMD, but 1000 points better than the past Intel.

Next to a new and fast chip, we get an SSD fromSamsung's ability to write and read data at 3513MB / s and 2987MB / s respectively is incredible performance. Complementing the set is an impressive 16 GB of RAM out of the box, which can be expanded.

The processor in the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR easily handleswith any work task - from writing text with dozens of open tabs in a browser to working with large databases. The new chipset is much better than its predecessor and is approximately equal to its AMD counterpart in terms of power.

Nvidia RTX 2070 Super Max-Q graphics card with 2560streaming processors and 8 GB of memory, one of the best graphics for laptops at the moment. It scores 17,500 in 3DMark: Fire Strike, beating the Quadro 5000 and RTX 2080 Max-Q GPUs found in the Razer Blade Pro models.

Graphics will instantly cope with all tasks,any game can be run in 1080p at maximum settings, and the frame rate will always be around 100 fps. Most games will run smoothly in full 4K, although it is not recommended to set maximum settings for the most demanding new products.

However, do not think that at this priceThe Aero 17 HDR XA segment is the best laptop for gaming. For the same price or a little more, you can find devices with an RTX 2080 Super, even take the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR YA version.

Cooling system and noise

In terms of heating, the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDRshows conflicting results. The temperature of the iron is all right: the performance of the processor and video card does not exceed 88º C and 73º C, respectively. The speed of the cooling system is also at a high level - even during heavy benchmarking tests, the processor worked at 4.9 GHz, which almost reaches the maximum possible.

However, during the tests, the area above the keyboardheated up, like the rest of the case. If you play casual games or do basic work tasks, you are likely to be seated at a table, so heating is unlikely to be a problem for you.

The Aero 17 HDR does not work too loudly - the noise of the coolers is always homogeneous, not louder than that of most competitors, and it is almost never heard in headphones.

Autonomy Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR

As for the battery, it is in all Aero 17 models.HDR is pretty average. If you set the 4K display to maximum brightness, the laptop will work for about four hours. With the brightness value of the tap by 50%, this time will increase to 7 hours, in this mode you can comfortably work on almost any task.

If you run programs that requiremaximum performance, autonomy will decrease by about an hour with any brightness. That's awful performance, better than most flagship-grade gaming laptops, and the Aero 17's battery should be good enough for a day at work. But, more than once, the Razer and MacBook mentioned above are better in this regard.

Total

New 10th Gen Intel processorThe Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR is incredibly fast and far outperforms its predecessor, and also performs similarly to the recently released AMD chipset. The graphics card here too can handle anything, and all the other specs of the Aero 17 HDR line are very impressive.

In addition, we get a great display,which is great for both watching videos and working. The case is very ergonomic and has a large number of connectors; in terms of weight and dimensions, the laptop can be considered compact.

Nevertheless, there are also disadvantages - it cannot be saidthat the battery runs out quickly, but the competitors' autonomy is noticeably better. That being said, the latest Razer and MacBook models are thinner, smaller and prettier. The 60Hz screen is not well suited for gaming or HDR content. If you are looking for the highest possible graphics performance, I advise you to look at models with even better graphics cards.

Should I buy?

Yes.While Gigabyte hasn't managed to please everyone and the price is high, the Aero 17 HDR line of notebooks is incredibly powerful and comfortable to complete any task. If you need a laptop with a large screen and very high speed, these models are for you.

Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR Laptop - video [Product] AERO 17 HDR - The Best 17 ″ Creator Laptop Alexander Shamanalmost two decades. Initially, he collected technology news for the local media. His love of science fiction has sparked an immense thirst for knowledge. Trying to understand how it works and whether it can work better, he gets so carried away, as if he is immersed in a trance. For this, among his colleagues at TehnObzor, he received the nickname - Shaman. Monster laptop with 4K HDR screen Design and ergonomics 94/100 Display and multimedia 97/100 Keyboard and input devices 95/100 Connectors and ports 98/100 Performance 98/100 Communication and connections 97/100 Autonomy 93/100 Total 96Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR, works incredibly fast, the video card can cope with anything here too, and all the other characteristics of the Aero 17 series laptops are very impressive. Advantages and disadvantages Incredible processor power Very fast graphics core Good ergonomics and communication Clear and bright 4K screen Very expensive Not the most stylish Screen not the best for games