When we last looked at the Gigabyte Aero 15,
we concluded that it was the perfect thin gaming laptop
because, well, at the time,
it was pretty much the only thin gaming laptop
that didn't make a bunch of other stupid compromises
in the name of just raw performance.
But since then, the field has opened up a fair bit
with Razer refreshing the Blade,
Alienware bringing out the M15,
and ASUS continually refining their Zephyrus lineup.
So then, Gigabyte's response to all this mounting pressure?
AI.
AI?
AI laptop?
What even is AI laptop?
Just keep reading, it's down there.
Just go.
Oh, we get to that later?
Yeah.
No, okay.
So then, AI laptop.
Can a feature that we called the worst demo at CES 2019
possibly make
the Aero 15 X9 stand out from the crowd?
And failing that, is the overall design still solid at least?
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Looking at the Aero 15,
the overall design is reminiscent of the gaming laptops
of several years ago, which I guess makes sense
since it hasn't gotten a chassis update for about two years.
So, let's take a look at the Aero 15.
With that said, I can't really complain about the ID
from an objective standpoint.
The screen bezels are super narrow,
the chassis is nice and rigid,
and the design is reasonably understated,
so it won't give away how much raw gaming performance
is inside if you worry about that sort of thing
in your board meetings.
Sticking with a more traditional design
also means more traditional IO.
Quite literally, more of it.
Along the sides, we find loads of USB type A's,
an HDMI port, and even a full-sized SD card reader
so you can go dongle-free if you want.
Then, they also threw in Thunderbolt 3
if you're more of a dongle-embracer.
So, that's all pretty normal so far.
But where the Aero 15 is exceptional is under the hood.
Ours comes equipped with an Intel Core i9-8950HK,
yes, that's the overclockable one,
and an NVIDIA RTX 2070 Max-Q,
meaning that it packs, consistently,
considerably more punch than I would expect,
and even, in most cases, recommend,
in a chassis this slim.
Like, we have seen much thicker laptops than this
fail to cool this CPU adequately.
And as for how Gigabyte fares, ugh.
Although the Aero does have a better showing
than the MacBook Pro,
it only narrowly edges out the Core i7s
in its competition in most tasks,
and occasionally even gets straight-up beaten,
all while hitting the thermal limits of the chip.
So, what this basically means
is you should buy the i7 model
to get similar performance for less monies.
It might not sound as sexy and exciting,
but it will still be incredibly competent
at video editing, gaming,
and really whatever you wanna throw at it.
As for the RTX 2070 Max-Q,
well, since this is our first laptop with one of these,
we can't say exactly how it'll compare
to other RTX 2070 Max-Qs,
but we can say that this is the best laptop we've ever had.
So, let's take a look.
So, what we can say is that it performs pretty darn well.
Expect to be getting lots of frames in your games
with anything but the heaviest AAA titles with RTX enabled,
being capable of hitting the 144 hertz refresh rate
of the built-in display,
many of them even on ultra settings.
Perhaps more impressively is the fact
that our Aero 15 X9 managed to do this
while maintaining a sort of high,
but still very reasonable noise level.
Okay, then.
What about the apparent star of the show?
AI.
Can that make the Core i9 cool
through machine learning sorcery?
Or give our mere RTX 2070
the graphical performance of a Titan?
No.
Actually, everything we've shown you guys so far
has been with AI enabled.
And unfortunately, contrary to the claims
that Gigabyte was making back at CES,
it does not give you any extra performance.
But that doesn't mean that it's pure BS either.
See, the AI will optimize the system
based on what tasks you're currently performing.
So if it sees that you're playing a game,
it will optimize for GPU performance and up the fans.
During a render, it will optimize for CPU.
And then when you're just working on a Word document,
it will optimize for low acoustics, and so on and so forth.
Now, all of these modes are available
on basically every gaming or professional laptop.
It's not like there's a laptop on the market.
But according to Gigabyte anyway,
80% of users never bother changing the modes,
which basically means that having AI enabled
is not gonna be giving you 120% performance.
It just also means that you'll be getting
your 100%-ish performance at a lower power level
and or noise envelope without ever having to think
about optimizing any settings.
So then, now that our expectations have been adjusted,
and there really were some outlandish claims
they were making at the show,
it is much more clear to me how this technology
can deliver a very real benefit to the average user.
And the good news kind of keeps rolling here.
Gigabyte really hit the nail on the head with the display.
Its 144-hertz refresh rate makes it excellent for gaming,
and its Pantone color calibration makes it even suitable
for prosumer-level photo or video work.
The only other thing
that I might want, I guess,
is G-Sync for the hardcore gamers,
but for the eagle-eyed among you
who are bothered by the pedestrian 1080p resolution,
you can simply go for the 4K 60-hertz panel if you prefer.
It, too, comes Pantone certified.
Where Gigabyte misses the nail, however,
and goes straight for the thumb is the webcam.
Thanks to its spectacular placement below the screen,
you're enjoying just a tremendous view of my nose hairs,
and making matters worse, I lied.
There's nothing spectacular about any of it.
The image quality is unexceptional at best,
and it doesn't support Windows Hello.
It's just not spectacular at all.
And I know I'm harping on this a bit here,
but holy crap, stop doing this.
There are plenty of other solutions.
The trackpad is all right, though.
It's glass-topped, doesn't flex over much,
it's a decent size, and it uses the Windows Precision drivers,
which checks all the boxes for me,
putting it, shockingly, in, like, what, second place
for gaming laptop trackpads that we've looked at recently?
Not bad, just don't screw it up, and it's all good.
What isn't quite as good, though, is the keyboard.
It's only fine.
The force required to press the keys is a little high,
despite the switches having no real tactile bump.
The key stabilization could be better,
and the smaller right shift key
is a little bit awkward to hit.
Honestly, though, it was fine.
It was probably A-minus material a couple years ago,
but nowadays, it's just a B+,
since this is another area
where the competition has really stepped up their game.
Another area the competition has caught up
is in the battery life department.
With Alienware and Razer now boasting
large-capacity batteries,
the 94-watt-hour unit in the Aero 15 X9
isn't quite as impressive anymore,
but given that 94 watt-hours is getting very close,
to the limit to what you can carry onto a plane,
there really wasn't a ton of room
for upward mobility for Gigabyte here,
and the around six hours that you get
is still darn impressive.
Honestly, it only gets beaten by laptops
that have sacrificed performance,
making this a very potent machine
for people that need both power and potency on the go.
As for upgradability, opening up the Aero 15,
we get easy access to both RAM and storage,
along with that massive battery, and, of course, the battery.
Which is pretty much all we can really hope for
in a laptop like this, so full marks there.
And all that means, the Aero 15
is sitting in pretty good shape here,
standing up to basically every test
we could think to throw at it,
even if it didn't blow me away at any point.
Which leads us perfectly into the conclusion.
If money was no object, honestly,
I would take either the Razer Blade 15
or Alienware M15 over this.
But, unfortunately for all of us,
we're gonna have to wait and see.
Plus, money is a thing.
And this is where the Aero 15 X9 really flexes.
With our recommended config coming in
at $150 less than the Alienware M15,
and $250 less than the Razer Blade,
with double the storage to boot,
it's really hard not to get behind
the awesome versatility of this unit from Gigabyte.
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