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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. This is the newly updated Gigabyte Aero 15X.
00:08So it's running the 6-core 8750H combined with a 1070 Max-Q from NVIDIA,
00:13and it's a very powerful, thin and light gaming laptop that's also really good for creative work.
00:18So the design of this thing hasn't changed at all from the 15X from last year or even the regular Aero 15.
00:25It's got this very industrial look, like the lines are sharper and more angular than some of the more modern looking laptops.
00:31But yeah, I like the design. The build quality in this thing has always been above average.
00:35It's not like an XPS 15 or a MacBook, but compared to a lot of other aluminum paneled laptops, this one feels good.
00:42It's mostly aluminum.
00:43There are some plastic components like the trim around the edge, which makes it look and feel a little bit less premium,
00:48but the overall build quality is good. The screen flex is minimal and same with the body paneling.
00:52It's just a very rigid feeling laptop. It has the same width and length as the previous generation,
00:58but it's actually a little bit thinner.
00:59It's now an 18.9 millimeter thick laptop, and they've done it by actually reducing the thickness of the screen.
01:05They're using a new panel. It's thinner, it's lighter, and it's 144 hertz. It's a really excellent display.
01:12It's bright, it's color accurate. It's just a really good screen.
01:14Now one of the issues I had with the Aero 15X from a few months ago
01:18was that they were pairing a GTX 1070 Max-Q with a 60 hertz screen.
01:22It just, it didn't make sense to me.
01:23It was like you're wasting the potential of that card because you're capped at 60 frames per second.
01:28144 hertz on these new panels, it makes a world of a difference. Gameplay is very fluid,
01:33but even if you're not a gamer, having your Windows desktop at a higher frame rate looks awesome.
01:37Just seeing your mouse cursor move around really smooth at 144 hertz looks so much better than 60.
01:42Now this panel does not have G-Sync, and I've said this before in previous videos,
01:45but I don't think it's that important. Like G-Sync is really useful at lower frame rates at like 40 to 60 frames per second,
01:52but once you go above that, I just, for me personally, I don't think it's that important.
01:55Um, I will say this. If you're a MacBook user, or like a MacBook Pro user,
02:00and you're interested in converting over to this laptop because it is like something that's geared towards creatives,
02:06this screen is not as bright as the MacBook Pro screens.
02:08It's more color accurate, and I think it's a better screen overall, but MacBook Pro screens get incredibly bright.
02:14This one is like, it's bright for a Windows laptop screen, but it's not as bright as a MacBook Pro screen.
02:19Okay, let's take a look at the ports.
02:20It's got DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, a bunch of USB, and it's got Thunderbolt 3 and an Ethernet port,
02:27but the most unique port on this thing is the inclusion of an SD card slot that supports UHS-II speeds.
02:33So if you're a content creator and you use SD cards, you can offload UHS-II cards super fast, like 250 or 300 megabytes per second.
02:40It's crazy fast for an SD card slot.
02:42The inside is really easy to get into, just a bunch of screws, back panel removes right off,
02:47and inside you get access to two RAM slots, two NVMe drives, and the Wi-Fi card.
02:52The RAM that they include is actually super fast, and it's 16 gigs on one stick.
02:56So if you want to upgrade this thing up to 32 gigs of RAM,
02:58it's more economical, like a lot of companies will stick two sticks of eight,
03:02and then you have to basically toss both of them if you want to upgrade it up to 32.
03:05So this has one stick of 16 gigs. The bad thing is that you're now running single channel memory,
03:10and I don't think that's a big deal outside of like memory benchmarks, but that's up to you.
03:14The battery down here is big. The Aero 15x always has a big battery.
03:18This is 94 watt hours, really close to that legal limit for flights,
03:21and we're getting around seven and a half hours of battery life with a screen at 250 nits.
03:25Now performance on this laptop is going to be very good. Six core CPU, it's a beast.
03:30Now I'll link a video down in the description if you want to see more details,
03:32but the 8750H is a really impressive chip. For multi-core stuff, it's just so much faster than the previous generation.
03:39There's a bit of an improvement in gaming performance because of the CPU, but the GPU does most of the work.
03:44It's a GTX 1070 Max-Q,
03:46really strong performer, and most AAA titles run extremely smooth on this laptop, and that 144 hertz screen looks awesome.
03:53The thermal performance is great. There's no throttling in games, and even in benchmarks,
03:56we're getting slightly better temperatures than some of its competitors, and because the temperatures are good while running strong hardware,
04:02this is an excellent device for content creation. The last three videos I've published on YouTube were done on this laptop.
04:07It's just a really nice device for it. Powerful, really color accurate screen, and I was using the 1080p screen.
04:12Like I didn't really need 4k. There is an option for it, but
04:15you know, color accuracy is more important than resolution for what I do. Now the fan noise on this laptop is okay.
04:21So on load, it's very acceptable.
04:23It's not super loud or anything, but I don't like the fact that when it's on idle, like if you're not doing anything,
04:28there's still a little bit of fan noise. It's not loud,
04:30it's actually barely audible, but there are competitor products that have the same kind of performance that just have completely silent fans
04:37when it's idling, and this one doesn't, so
04:40it kind of bugs me. Like if I was doing this video and this thing was on,
04:43this microphone would pick up the fan noise. Like very subtly, but it would be there.
04:48Alright, so I've focused on a bunch of stuff that I like about this laptop,
04:51and now I'm going to talk about some things that I don't like. One of the weaker things about this thing are its speakers.
04:56It's
04:57located on the bottom like a lot of the thin and light gaming laptops are,
05:01but I just don't feel like it's as loud as it could or should be.
05:05Another thing I don't love is the keyboard, and this is not a huge complaint.
05:08It's pretty minor, but I'm just going to put it out there. The layout is fine.
05:11There's nothing I dislike about the layout,
05:13but there's something about the keys that are just somehow squished together.
05:15It actually took me quite a while to get used to typing on this thing.
05:18So I've had this device for almost three weeks at this point,
05:20and it was only like week two that I actually got comfortable typing on it.
05:24And it might be the keystroke itself,
05:26it just takes a little bit more pressure than regular to activate the switch. The trackpad is also not my favorite.
05:31It's running Elan drivers, and it's not the drivers, like the gestures are okay,
05:35but the tracking feels a little off to me, and I'm getting this occasional bug where the cursor stops moving for a split second.
05:40I'm sure they can fix it with software, and I'm sure they will fix it with software,
05:44but it's just something that kind of annoyed me during this review process.
05:47The webcam is also located at the bottom of the screen, and this is something that you get with really thin bezel screens like this.
05:52It's a beautiful looking screen, but that camera angle is just
05:56not for me. I don't use the webcam that often, so it doesn't bother me,
05:59but I feel like some of you guys are big on web conferencing and just having a good camera angle.
06:04This won't give you that. But yeah, overall, really good laptop. I mean, I feel like I had to nitpick on this device again.
06:10It's one of those like really good devices. What separates this from its main competitor, the MSI GS65?
06:17And I call it the main competitor because it kind of came out at the same time,
06:20and they're just like similarly specced, and well,
06:23I think we need a chart. Do we have a chart? Here's a chart. Okay, the Aero has a better build.
06:29I think that they both are well built, but the Aero feels more sturdy.
06:32It has better thermals, it's easier to access with a bigger battery,
06:36it has better color accuracy despite that smaller color gamut, more ports, and there's an option for a 4k panel.
06:42The MSI has what I would consider to have a slightly easier keyboard to get used to, not that it's like a bad keyboard
06:48on the Aero, but this is an easier keyboard to get used to.
06:51I also like the design of the MSI. It just looks more modern to me.
06:55It also has better speakers, and the webcam position is a little bit better,
06:58but overall, the big difference is seriously the price tag. This is $200 cheaper than the Aero, which is like 10-12% cheaper.
07:06So it depends on what you need or what your budget is, but I feel like both of them are appropriately priced.
07:11Personally, I feel like the Aero is just a better product overall. You're paying a significant amount more,
07:16but it's just like, it's just got more stuff going for it. If you're a content creator,
07:20I would probably go for the Aero. I feel like it's geared towards professionals a bit more, especially with that SD card slot,
07:25but it doesn't matter what you do. If you're a gamer, a streamer, content creator,
07:29this is a kick-ass laptop for any of that stuff. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
07:34See you guys next time.