Aero 14 vs 15

I'm thinking about upgrading my Dell XPS 9560 to a gigabyte Aero 14 or 15 and am stuck deciding between the two. Anyone here have any hands on experience with the two that can comment?

I really like the looks of the 15 and find that it's about the perfect screen size for me. The 14 however has a better screen and better battery life.

Some questions:
1. Can either be charged via USB-C?
2. Does anyone have pictures comparing the two and their respective ac adapter?
3. I know the 15 runs very cool, how does the 14 run in comparison?
4. I've read some reports of the 14 having weird fan profiles, can anyone comment on this?

Sorry for the random questions, I just haven't found the answers searching this forum.

 

I can only answer 1 / 3 / 4, so here goes:
1 - no, and will most likely not happen any time soon for gaming devices (i.e. GTX-grade graphics and 45 Watt CPUs)
3 - my Aero 14 (1060 GTX + 7700HQ) runs up to 83°C on the CPU and 80°C on the GPU after several hours of gaming
4 - my fan profile seems to be fine. The Aero 14 will ramp up the fans gradually

 

Thanks for the input on your 14. Do you find the screen to be a decent size? I'm worried it'll be too small for daily use. Also which SSD did you get?

 

Zbook studio can be charged over usb-c at 150w and the zbook 17 at 200w, so it's possible, but not likely for any other manufacturer. I think it's proprietary?

 

Yeah I dunno, I can charge my XPS with the USB-C port, it's just nice because the charger is much smaller (using a google chromebook charger).

 

bump, anyone have any experiences with both notebooks? I'm leaning toward the 15 still because of the bigger screen size.

 

I've had the pleasure to own both, and I prefer the Aero 15 over the 14. Cooling system is much better (though mine has been running into issues under load since I did a re-paste by myself XD and maybe because I bought an open box unit), the form factor is basically the same but with a larger screen. The camera position doesn't bother me too much since I would stare at the camera to avoid any weird angles. The auto brightness on this laptop is much better due to the better placement of the ambient light sensor. Battery life is about the same on both devices (~10 hours with battery saver on with power saving profile enabled, at 20-40% brightness with low to medium load, i.e web browsing, watching high res videos, etc). There's more chance for expand-ability since there are two M.2 slots available. RGB keyboard is a bonus.

Hope this helps

 

Appreciate the input. Do you feel the 1080p screen on the 15 is decent? I've heard that the QHD screen on the 14 is really nice.

 

I prefer the 1080p screen on the 15. It makes it so that I don't have scaling issues with my 1080p external monitor.
The QHD screen is indeed very nice, but I have no use for the higher resolution.

 

Awesome, thanks. I don't have any real use for a QHD screen on a 14" laptop either, I just figured it would look really crisp.

 

I honestly did not notice that many differences between the two since I used the same scaling on both screens. The only thing is the sharpness on text, but that's a given due to the larger screen and lower resolution.

 

I haven't owned the Aero 14, but FWIW, some users in the owners lounge and some video reviews showed that the fan has more of a tinny pitch to it when it runs high. The noise profile was basically unattractive.

That would drive me nuts and was one of the reasons why I opted not to get the 14 when it was first released.

I own an Aero 15 and the noise when the fans are going is just the whoosh of air which is a fine and neutral sounding "white noise" to me since I live in a hot country and always have a desk fan pointed at me anyway.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info. I couldn't deal with any high pitched fan noise (it's why I returned my GS63VR).

 

When I compared the dimensions on the notebookcheck reviews of either, thanks to the narrow bezels on the 15, the difference in size is rather marginal; the 15 is only 2 cm wider and 200 grams heavier; the depth and thickness are basically the same (the 15 is slightly thinner even).

I presume you're considering the newer X variants with TB3? The 14X has a downgraded GPU (1050Ti instead of the 1060 on the 14), while the 15X has an upgraded GPU (1070 Max-Q instead of the 1060) so the main difference between them is the price plus the QHD resolution of the 14 if you can use it on a 14" screen.

Personally, I'd prefer the bigger screen size on a given size form so I'd definitely go for the 15 between them; the stronger GPU is important to me and the Full HD would be enough as it's already small on the 15 and I'd be using the external monitor most of the time anyway.

 

Yeah looking at dimensions they are really similar. I like that the 15 is only slightly bigger than my XPS 9560. I was curious how big the ac adapters were because the one from the GS63VR is a brick.

I was not considering the X variant due to cost sadly. I thought that the 15 and 15x had thunderbolt? I wasn't considering the 14x due to the 1050ti. In all reality I probably won't be gaming a ton on it, it's mostly just because I like to play with new toys. My desktop serves me well when I have time to game.

I think you're right about the FHD being small enough on a 15" laptop.

 

Yes, you're right, sorry. The regular 15 had the TB3 already, but it also had some lingering keyboard issues (some combos didn't work, not sure if it was all corrected now in firmware - if so, then I guess regular Aero 15 would be good enough as they charge the full 1070 price on the 15X, but you only get half the performance increase between the 1060 and 1070 since it's Max-Q).

The Aero 15X seems like the perfect choice for me (if the price drops or I find a slightly used one on sale), but my only concern is regarding external GPU expandability as I game a lot. From what I can gather, it seems that TB3 solutions have huge losses on the high-bandwidth cards (e.g. 1080Ti) and that the custom Alienware solution handles that much better. In that case, Alienware 13 would be an option, but the screen to laptop ratio is abysmal there. The laptop is so deep that they'd need some custom 4:3 screen to make the most of it.