Gigabyte Aero 14

I was leaning towards this then realized blade gets better battery life and has tb3..what advantage does this have?

 

To summarize...here are the advantages to each, at least off the top of my head. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong/missed something.

Advantages to the Gigabyte Aero 14:

• Two M.2 SSD slots instead of one (on the Razer)
• RAM can be upgraded on the Aero 14, whereas on the Razer it's 16GB soldered in
• HDMI 2.0 on the Aero 14. The Razer only has HDMI 1.4, meaning the Aero 14 can output 4K video at 60fps which the Razer can't
• Keyboard on the Aero 14 includes 5 macro keys with 3 settings for each
• Keyboard on the Aero 14 also has full-size arrow keys, and dedicated Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys
• The battery is actually bigger on the Aero 14, so I'd wait to see what actual full-on reviews say about the battery life vs. the Razer
• Aero 14 is significantly cheaper. I live in Canada, and I can get the 512GB SSD model of the Razer for $3,000 before tax. I can get the Aero 14 for $2,150 which is $850 less...not an insignificant amount
• Deeper key travel, though the quality of those clicks still has yet to be seen
• SD card reader (not on the Razer)
• Mini Displayport (not on the Razer)
• No huge snake logo on the lid (call this a personal preference. I'd opt for covering it with a skin if I got the Razer)
• USB charging port built into the power brick, meaning you can charge other devices at the same time as the laptop, which is sort of good I guess
• And the last, and probably one of the biggest advantages....it has a bloody matte screen instead of the Razer's glossy touchscreen. This is a matter of personal preference for a lot of people, and some may see it as a disadvantage, but personally I'd rather have a matte screen and give up the touchscreen capability.

Advantages to the Razer Blade 14 (2016)

• Significantly better build quality, being that it's solid metal
• Thunderbolt 3 is built into the USB-C port
• Ability to connect to the Razer Core
• Touchscreen capability with a slightly higher resolution display
• Front/upward-facing speakers that probably have better sound quality
• The 970M in the Razer has 6GB of DDR4 VRAM as opposed to the Aero's 3GB
• Dedicated mouse buttons, which could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on your preference
• I don't know what kind of wireless card the Aero 14 has, but I know the Razer's Killer Wireless-AC 1535 is a badass
• Nifty keyboard backlighting
• Faster charging (smaller battery and a 165W power brick instead of the Aero 14's 150W)
• It looks really cool?
• Might end up having better cooling, but we'll see when the full reviews come out.

Again, feel free to correct me or add stuff if you guys come up with anything, but this is the list that I'm working with right now to decide between the two. I seriously wish I could get over the glossy screen issue, but for the price I'd be paying, I don't want to have to go out and get some 3rd-party anti-glare screen protector. Trouble is, if the Aero 14 has thermal issues -and- the build quality isn't nearly as good as Gigabyte plays it up to be, then...crap. How does one decide?

 

For comparison's sake, it's also worth checking out the upcoming MSI GS63. The only drawback that I can see with that one is the fact that its predecessor, the GS60 has the worst battery life. Like...really, really bad. If they somehow manage to fit a bigger battery into the GS63 so that it lasts around 3 hours, then it might just be a better choice than either the Razer or the Aero 14. Obviously this is subjective to a degree, but worth taking a look at anyway.

 

The GS63 has a 15.6'' screen so I won't really consider it an alternative.
It uses 3 instead of 2 fans so battery-life will be worse, but cooling may be a lot better due to this an chassis size.

 

:/ Hey at least it's better than the Razer Blade. Repaste, some thermal pads, I bet you can get that pretty good. All else fails, disabling turbo will help a ton I bet.

 

Nope, the razerblade does not acquire better battery life. Aero 14 can stay up to 8 hours under normal use in reality with wifi on.

 

I think right now, I am finding it hard to buy a laptop without a Pascal/Polaris GPU, anyone else?

I hope the wait isn't long.

 

I suspect a long wait before there are any high end Pascal GPU's in the thin and light form factor. (GTX 1060 and above)

Assuming the rumors that Nvidia is dropping the "M" and putting modified desktop cards in Laptops, then only the Clevo, MSI, and Asus large laptops will be quick to pick up Pascal.

Probably a year before we see thin and light Pascal due to needed thermal redesigns.

Not sure about Polaris, but I think besides some Clevos Alienware is the only manufacturer to use High end ATI cards. Doubt Gigabyte will pick them up.

 

This looks like the perfect notebook for my needs. Gotta love the green.

Noting all this conversation about thermals, i would like to ask: do modern laptops allow undervolting of the gpu/cpu?

I always undervolt everything i can: Old core2duo notebook (-100 mV), desktop: i5-4670 (-120 mV), and R9 270x OC (-81 mV). It always does wonders for thermals/noise.

In a notebook like the Aero 14, it seems it should be the first step taken after purchase.

 

You can do the Chip via core/cache and the chip's integrated GPU, but there is no way at the moment to software UV the GPU. The CPU is what creates the most heat this generation anyway.

 

Yes, you can. Use XTU to undervolt your cpu. I'd undervolt my Aero 14 with 100mv and it works just fine.

 

I see, thats unfortunate about the GPU. Can you at least reduce the power target?

 

I received my Aero 14 today, and sadly, it was dead. Screen would freeze during setup over and over.

Sending it back.

 

That really sucks! Such a pain when you get a new laptop and it needs to go straight back.

How did the notebook feel in the hand? Did it feel solid, or was it weird/cheap because it's plastic -and- metal?
Would love to get your impressions on the physical side of it.

How in the world did you get it so early, anyway?

 

Oh dear, my Aero 14 is due for delivery today from scan.co.uk, but it won't be in my hands until I get back from Australia in a week or so. Fingers crossed.

 

Just got my Aero 14 today and really enjoying it.

2 big EH's and one big potential deal breaker

EH's:
1. The screen wobbles like you wouldn't believe. My wife's 7+ year old laptop's screen is more firm than this. You may be able to open it with one hand, but the downside is the screen shakes like crazy.
2. The keys are MUCH better than the old gigabyte's, but it is now a little too stiff. You have to click everything all the way down or else you end up missing strokes. I just bought a Razer and returned...but people were right - that laptop had the best keyboard so far.

On another note for the keypad - the spacing is good and you can type accurately...until you lift your hands up and adjust...then you may end up clicking your macro keys and have a difficult time finding the "center" again.

Potential deal breaker:
1. My fan keeps revving regularly. It's pretty unnoticeable unless it's dead quiet, but it definitely goes RRRrrrrRRRrrrrRRRrrrrRRRrrr. (could someone confirm or deny this is something happening across all aero's or just mine?)

Screen quality: colors look slightly better than the Razer screen surprisingly. I don't have any fancy tech to figure it out...just a decent set of eyes. I like the screen better than Razers

Heat: I'm not sure if my laptop is faulty, but CPU would get as hot as 72C when just downloading some items. Hasn't had that issue since (and post undervolting). I don't play the newest titles, but CS GO and max settings on 2560x1440, CPU reached 93C and GPU 80. Throttling began at 93 I believe. After undervolting, temps are at about 87C CPU and 77 GPU.


Will try to answer any questions. If no one else's fans are revving like mine, I'm going to return my unit and may just wait for Pascal

 

What fan mode were you set to? It sounds like there's a poor thermal conductivity issue if you're hitting 72C just downloading stuff. Most quad-core laptops, even thin ones like the XPS 15, would not even hit 42C doing that after you undervolt.

Can you do a repaste?

Also, do you see any way to tighten the hinge with screws?

I suspect that your fan will stop revving once your temperatures stabilize. suspect once you undervolt and repaste the fan won't be doing that.

 

Fan mode doesn't make a difference. Quiet, normal, gaming, and custom all do the same thing IMO.

The temps sit around 40-50 when I'm doing downloads and what not now after undervolting.

I managed to open the thing up, but it is a PAIN IN THE ASS. The screws are tiny and they don't sit inside their holes, so you have to be careful or else you'll lose a screw inside the case. On top of that, the fans are attached to the copper, which means you have to unscrew about 20 some screws just to get to the gpu and cpu.

The pasting job looks fine. They used a TON and even pasted the vram.

The revving is not super loud, but again, when it's quiet, you'll hear it. I opened it up to observe the fans but all looked ok. I still don't know what the issue is. When the fans are spinning fast, there's no revving.

 

Oh and for some reason, I can barely undervolt this thing. Right now I've got it at -100 but my other laptops with the 6700hq was able to go to 169.9.

 

It felt great! The screen was nice, the laptop is LIGHT, very light. It did not have a plastic feel to it at all. I liked typing on the keyboard and the trackpad felt fine also.

I ordered it on Thursday when ti was released by Newegg with rush processing and overnight shipping. I wanted to have it for a trip I am taking next week. I did receive it on Tuesday and popped it open.

It is very light and ascetically pleasing!

Not sure if I am going to have it replaced or just refunded at this point. It all depends on how Gigabyte handles this issue.

erikranger

 

Thanks for taking the time and effort to look.

Imo a ton of paste is evidence of a bad job, not a fine one. The idea is the paste is just enough to help the copper transfer the heat. Extra means more resistance to quick heat transfer. Did you do a minimal repaste?

And no way to tighten the lid, I guess? It would piss me off to have a screen flailing around from something just like typing.

 

That would upset me also. The one I had was tight. The lid was actually perfect for me.

Erikranger

 

Well, the interesting thing is the keys are so solid, that even if you banged on the keyboard, the screen would never flinch. I'm typing so hard right now and i don't even see the laptop shake.

The screen flails like hell when you bump into the table or shake whatever it's standing on.

 

A friend of mine signed for the box today (I'm at work rn). He sent pictures of the box as it had arrived. To my horror, there's loose tape and crumpled cardboard all over. I do still plan on posting a rough review here later today, but it may be rather limited if the laptop is damaged. Fingers crossed!

 

Aaaah crap! Hoping for the best.
Let us know how it turns out.

 

Hey all,

I figure while I've got an Aero, please feel free to ask any questions about it. I may have to return mine for:
1. revving of fan when it's very quiet, sounds like RRRRrrrrrRRRRRrrrr (subtle but noticeable in a very quiet room). I'm currently talking to Gigabyte about whether or not this is something all Aero's are facing or just mine. This revving does not happen when the fan runs at faster/louder speeds
2. very loose screen hinge (video below and pictures below).

Even Gigabyte USA doesn't have the Aero yet, so it's been tough getting answers. I will update as I hear from Gigabyte.

While I have the Aero, I can answer any questions you have.


I think one of the things that may turn people off is the loose screen hinge. Here is a video of me "flicking" the screen (basically lowering and then letting go all of a sudden) as well as from typing hard and then from bumping the table.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHZlhvS0RheXpsUGM

Also note that when you turn the laptop upside down, the screen "hangs" off. Below are pictures. One is what the laptop ought to look like when closed and the other is if i grab it by the body while the lid "hangs"

Closed: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHQnM1VUFxSlpvYkE
Hanging: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5XJNUfQftxHdTFFWDZnNDNxN0k

 

After a month of waiting, here we are. The Aero's Newegg box arrived in horrible condition, but the laptop looks to be undamaged and functioning properly. Hooray! Anyways, on to my thoughts:

Packaging/Contents: The Aero's packaging is the best I've seen. Then again, I haven't had a high-end laptop before, so take that how you will. The box included the Aero, power brick + cord, USB 3.0 - Ethernet adapter, User Manual, and 2 driver/software disks.

Build Quality: The Aero does have a smooth, mostly Aluminum body with the exception of the plastic frame (?) that surrounds the ports around the sides. The screen/lid and keyboard have virtually no flex. However, the screen does wobble a tad when typing. Nothing worth complaining about, though. The screen can be opened with one hand easily, too. I was very pleased with the build quality overall, especially given the light weight and small form of the laptop.

Performance: This is specifically about the screen, keyboard, touchpad, and fan performance. For power performance, just look up benchmarks for the spec-equivalent Razer Blade 2016.

• The screen is VERY nice. Colors look great, brightness is good, and viewing angles are amazing. All to be expected from an IPS panel, especially a "3k" one of this quality. I would recommend visiting the color settings in the Intel Graphics Control Panel and increasing the saturation a few ticks, but that's my preference.
• The keyboard is generous with travel distance whilst having nearly no flex. Each key is a good size, which is forgiving for those of us with larger hands and fingers. The backlight has 3 settings: Off, Bright, and Brightest. Altogether, this does offer a rewarding typing experience that I enjoy so far.
• The touchpad is a comfortable size for all use, but I am having tracking issues. Small or soft-touch movements are just about ignored. The integrated buttons are not too clicky, and have almost no click at the top of the touchpad. This is my biggest issue with the Aero, and it can thankfully be remedied by a small wireless mouse.
• The fans have yet to kick into high gear for me, and I do not have intermittent spin-ups like Dahn626's experiences. The fan is usually on though, but it's still pretty darn quiet. No problems with fan noise or heat here yet. I'll update this when I try some gaming on it only if the noise or heat becomes a noticeable issue.

I'm loving it so far! I will update this comment soon with battery performance and actual performance once I start gaming on it. In the meantime, feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. It does help that my model appears to have come in good order, so I will be keeping this one around. Good job so far, Gigabyte!

 

Chris, you can adjust mouse pad sensitivity in the elan mousepad settings. See if raising the sensitivity helps make your mousepad responsive. Honestly, I think this is one of the best trackpads. Very responsive yet not overly slick

 

I really, really want to like this laptop all around, but the touchpad experience isn't too good. Maybe I can upload a video later of what happens. I have tinkered around with the mousepad settings in both the Windows and Elan control panels to no avail. Still searching for a solution, here.

 

I just received my black Aero 14 earlier today. I also received a Razer Blade 2016 a few days prior, so that is what my comparisons will be based against (and having used recent model Surface Books, XPS 13/15, Macbooks, etc.).

Size:
The Razer Blade is a touch smaller when it comes to footprint. The Blade is more rectangular and the Aero 14 more square. Both are really close, though.

Weight:
Roughly the same. Both are dense (in a good way). Technically, the Aero 14 is lighter, but you really can't tell the difference.

Construction:
Both are well put together. Screen "wobble" for the Aero 14 was noted on a review I read on another site, but I don't think it is bad. Both screens are solid when typing. The Razer is fully aluminum. The Aero 14 is mostly aluminum with a plastic ring around the base and screen. The Razer Blade is a HUGE fingerprint magnet inside and out. Just normal handling will make it look pretty sloppy, so I would carry wipes for the palm rest and find a skin for the outside. The Aero 14 also collects fingerprints on the inside, but doesn't seem to be so bad on the outside.

Screen:
The Razer has a bright and glossy 3200x1800 touch screen that looks good. As with most glossy screens, reflections can be an issue. The Aero 14 has a bright 2560x1440 matte non-touch screen which also looks good. Personally, I like the Aero 14 screen better because the matte is reflection resistant and I cannot tell much of a difference with the slightly lower resolution that the Aero 14 has.

Keyboard:
Both are good. The Razer has a fairly standard layout and the really cool chroma keyboard with millions of colors. The Aero 14 has a white backlit keyboard (bright or brighter settings) and also has 5 customizable macro keys (with 6 pages, so 30 total customizations). The Aero 14 also has dedicated Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, and full size arrow keys. I love the chroma keyboard, but it has a fatal flaw (for me) in that the backlight does not show secondary characters/functions. The Aero 14 has a fully lit keys so you can actually see which key does what in the dark. Both type about the same for me, but I greatly prefer the Aero 14 keyboard because of the full backlight and the slightly greater key travel. One item that I don't like about the Aero 14 keyboard - there doesn't seem to be a way to set function lock so you don't need to hold the function button to change screen brightness or volume.

Touchpad:
Both are big and work fine. Razer uses Synaptics drivers, Aero 14 uses Elan drivers. My finger glides a bit better on the Razer, which also has dedicated left and right mouse buttons. The Aero 14 does not have dedicated left/right buttons and are built into the touchpad.

Performance:
Both have the same i7 quad-core Skylake processors. No issues (so far) running a variety of apps and games. Neither has given any drivers issues, either, which is great considering I seem to get Intel and Nvidia driver crashes on other machines fairly frequently. The Aero 14 seems to perform slightly better across most tests. The Razer has more GPU memory (6GB) versus the Aero 14 (3GB), but according to Unigine, the memory has a much higher clock speed on the Aero 14 (Razer topped at 1ghz, Aero 14 topped at 2.5ghz).

System Information
GIGABYTE Aero 14
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Model GIGABYTE Aero 14
Processor Intel Core i7-6700HQ @ 2.60 GHz
1 processor, 4 cores, 8 threads
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 94 Stepping 3
Processor Codename
Processor Package
L1 Instruction Cache 32 KB x 4
L1 Data Cache 32 KB x 4
L2 Cache 256 KB x 4
L3 Cache 6144 KB
Motherboard GIGABYTE Aero 14
Northbridge Intel ID1910 07
Southbridge Intel IDA14E 31
BIOS American Megatrends
Memory 16268 MB -1MHz

System Information
Razer Blade
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Model Razer Blade
Processor Intel Core i7-6700HQ @ 2.59 GHz
1 processor, 4 cores, 8 threads
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 94 Stepping 3
Processor Codename
Processor Package
L1 Instruction Cache 32 KB x 4
L1 Data Cache 32 KB x 4
L2 Cache 256 KB x 4
L3 Cache 6144 KB
Motherboard INTEL Corporation SKYBAY
Northbridge Intel ID1910 07
Southbridge Intel IDA14E 31
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. 5.11
Memory 16278 MB -1MHz

Geek Bench Scores:
Single Core
Aero 14 - 3497
Razer - 3401

Multi-core
Aero 14 -12953
Razer - 12723

NovaBench:
Aero 14 - 1196
Razer - 1174

Unigine Heaven Benchmark:
Aero 14 -
FPS: 101.9
Score: 2567
Min FPS: 9.1
Max FPS: 206.4

System
Platform: Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit
CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (2591MHz) x4
GPU model: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 20.19.15.4390/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 10.18.13.6869 (3072MB) x1

Razer -
FPS: 78.1
Score: 1966
Min FPS: 16.4
Max FPS: 165.6

System
Platform: Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit
CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (2591MHz) x4
GPU model: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 20.19.15.4377/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 10.18.13.6869 (4095MB) x1

Settings for both tests (I picked 1600x900 resolution as that is the resolution I run most games at).
Render: Direct3D11
Mode: 1600x900 fullscreen
Preset Custom
Quality High
Tessellation: Disabled

Audio:
Razer has upward facing speaks with Dolby. Aero 14 has downward facing speakers with Dolby. Both sound the same to me.

Heat & Noise:
Both are cool to the touch and mostly silent when doing normal things. The fans on both kick in when gaming (of course). The Razer does get uncomfortably warm in the middle top above the numbers. The Aero 14 feels a bit cooler, but benchmarks say it runs about 5-7 celsius warmer.

Ports:
Both have mostly the same ports. Differences -
Aero 14 has HDMI 2.0, Razer has HDMI 1.4
Razer has 1 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C, Aero 14 has 1 standard USB-C
Aero 14 has an SD card reader, Razer does not
Aero 14 has a mini-display port, Razer does not

Battery:
Aero 14 - 94 mWh - Good for 7-9 hours of real usage (25% brightness, battery saver on, MS office, web browsing, an hour long WebEx conference)
Razer - 74 mWh (note - the Razer seems to be software locked to not charge past 70 mWh) - Good for 4-6 hours (similar use case as the Aero 14)

Power Supply:
Both power supplies are on the smaller side and portable enough. The Razer (165w) is slightly smaller, the Aero 14 (150w) has a built in USB port for charging.

My view:
I love both, but the Razer Blade is going to be returned. The Aero 14 is almost as small, has a much bigger battery, I like the screen and keyboard better, and it costs $700 less than the Razer. I travel 50% of the time to meet with clients and have been using a Macbook 12 inch. That is a nice device, but I wanted something that is still portable, will allow me to play some games on the road in hotel rooms, and still has a strong battery for daily "office" use. The lack of Thunderbolt 3 on the Aero 14 doesn't bother me since I don't have a use for it.

 

Thanks for the detailed review. Do u think the trackpad is similar to the surfacebook? I currently have a surfacebook and the two finger scrolling on that is really nice. And is the hinge really wobble?
Thank you

 

I think the trackpad works just fine. It has been a few months since I used a Surface Book last, but I have not recoiled in terror from the Aero 14. I would say it is at least as good and I have so far not noticed any cursor skips or jumps.

I think the hinge is fine. It doesn't move when typing, but if you pull it back or poke it, it does bounce for a second or two (physics). I compared it against the Razer Blade which also had some bounce so I don't really see a problem.

 

Thanks very much Jefstead for the detailed overview. Have you tried any gaming on it? Curious what resolution would be ideal for games on that screen.

 

I have played the following games on it:
The Division @ mostly high settings @ 1280x720 = solid 60 fps - I did run a benchmark using 2560x1440 resolution with high settings and got 32 fps
World of Warcraft @ middle settings @ 2560x1440 = solid 60 fps
Overwatch @ high settings with automatic render scale at 75% @ 2560x1440 = solid 60 fps
League of Legends @ medium/high settings @ 2560x1440 = solid 60 fps

I haven't really messed around with settings to squeeze out the max visual quality. I generally just tweak the settings to maintain an initial stable 60 fps and I am pleased with the performance so far. What I have not done is an extended gaming session (more than an hour) to see what kind throttling happens. For the hour that I played Overwatch earlier, I didn't notice any issues performance-wise.

 

The max rpm of the fan on gaming mode is about 3xxx rpm, which is 60% of the highest mode 5xxx rpm.
Gigabyte is trying to make Aero 14 as quite as possible.
You should try the max mode on the fan. The temperature drops significantly, although it starts to make a lot of noise.

 

Still no word on the 965M version though? I'm not that prevalent of a gamer, so I'd prefer the lower performance, especially if it means less fan noise / lower temps and maybe a bit of money saved.

 

Does anyone have precise (and confirmed) TDP / TGP for 970M and 965M?
According to laptopmedia the new 1070M has a TDP of 85W.

 

The 970m is 65-80

 

According to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+970M
max TDP is 75W. Now whats correct here? I can't believe there aren't any official sources on specs.

Look like the 1070M will pump out even more heat than a 970M. Lets hope Aero 14 v2 comes with 1060M and bigger but slower fans then.

 

That's good to know. If the trackpad is good, then this is the unicorn I've been waiting for a easy to carry laptop with good performance with decent battery life. Really wish the mobile pascal is out now.

 

Damn...I really can't decide. I've ordered the blade 14, but it won't ship out for another 10 days so I still have time to cancel my order and get the aero 14.

I had a really bad experience when I ordered the Dell XPS 15 a while ago, when I knew there were a bunch of quality control issues and I took the risk to order it anyway. When I got it, so many things were wrong with it that I sent it back and swore I wouldn't get a brand new, untested laptop again.
I really, really don't want to have to go through the same process with the Aero 14. It's significantly cheaper though, and has some features that I really want (like the matte screen).

 

I feel your pain. I had the Blade on back order as well and got lucky with the Aero 14 being available. I normally don't buy from Newegg because I have never tried to return a laptop to them simply because I didn't like it (which is why MicrosoftStore.com gets a ton of my business), but I decided to give it a shot and I am happy I did.

Having used an XPS 15, Razer Blade, and the Aero 14 all in the last month, here is what I think:

• XPS 15 - Amazing screen and the tiny bezels are really nice and make for a slim package. Great all around performer, decent battery life (I got anywhere from 6-8 hours on it), but horribly overpriced compared to the other two for what you get.
• Razer Blade - Amazing build quality and the chroma keyboard is almost perfect (not backlighting secondary functions on keys is a huge minus for me). Battery life was really average for me and 5 hours seemed to consistently be the point I would have to plug in. It is overpriced, but I felt like I could live with it knowing the build quality was top notch.
• Aero 14 - For me, the best all around device between these three. Close enough to the other two on screen quality despite the lower resolution, I am not seeing any issues with build quality, significantly better battery life than the other two (Razer has a smaller battery, XPS 15 has to drive a touch screen with much higher resolution), and the price is $500-700 less when compared against the XPS 15 and Razer Blade with similar 16gb/512gb configuration.

If I had to rank them based on what I wanted (size, battery, video card, build quality) it would be:

1. Aero 14
2. Razer Blade
3. XPS 15 (I would custom order the lower res matte screen in favor of battery life. I did this earlier this year and I had build quality problems like a misaligned trackpad and sticky keys so I ended up returning it to Dell).

Just my two cents.

 

XPS 15 refurb on ebay is how I always buy them (I've had 3 lol) and they're always fine. The worldwide warranty is really an excellent thing to have.

I would cancel the RB 2016 order and go with the Aero 14. My experience with razer has a company has been really disgusting, and I would not patronize them whenever it is possible.

 

Newegg has the green Aero 14 in stock as of this posting.

 

This laptop looks really interesting to me. A some questions for owners:

1. What sort of temps are you recording while web browsing, streaming video and gaming? Also, is it overheating while playing non-demanding games (CoD MW3 for example)? (I know in this thread someone said 72C while downloading files, I just want to know if that is the exception or the norm)

2. How loud is it while web browsing and streaming videos?

3. At what point does it begin to lag outside gaming (for example some ultrabooks lag after 10-12 tabs with one streaming video and one OpenOffice doc) [16GB RAM Version of the Aero 14] (Number of chrome or firefox or opera tabs/videos/image editing/video editing/anything else)

4. If used for fairly light gaming (CoD, FIFA, BF, NFS, etc.) at 1080p, image editing (gimp/photoshop) and word/ppt/excel, how many years will it last me? (for the image editing it does not need to be lighting quick, just reasonably fast)

5. How is the speaker quality?

6. Subjectively, compared to a Clevo W355SS, how heavy will it feel?

Thanks.

 

I've had this laptop in my hands now for a couple of days. First impressions, positives and negatives below.

Cons:
1. Substantially larger than my outgoing, 4-year old SVZ13 Vaio Z (but still fits in my "man-bag" so mobility is not an issue). My first impression was that they could have fitted a 15.6" screen in there (like the Dell XPS 15). I'll get to see how well it works on flights over the coming days. On the plus side the laptop can unfold to be completely flat so it can be propped up vertically in an aeroplane seat for gaming (but not typing!), even when the person in front puts their seat back. Again if we compare to the Dell XPS 15, we have a 970M vs 960M inside, which is rather a big bump up in performance for the same price (in the UK).
2. As reported earlier in this thread, on some fan states the fan actually alternates between two fan speeds every couple of seconds at fan speeds between 30% minimum and 60% inclusive. If the fan speed was constant this would not be annoying, as your brain tunes out constant white noise, but it is really noticeable when the speed fluctuates constantly. This should be fixable in software, and I have contacted Gigabyte support to try and make such an update happen. The fans are very quiet under normal working load (for me using Word, or browsing the web). I've not tried streaming videos for any period of time because that's not something I do very often.
3. The touchpad feels nice and works OK for me, but I am still looking for a good hack to enable the glide/momentum feature, since this option is not available in the standard touchpad software. An aesthetic issue is that the touchpad does have some weird lined patterns on it when picking up moisture and finger grease. I don't think the smooth look will last very long after wear and tear.
4. Scaling issues in Windows. Scaling is still not properly implemented in Windows 10 and various programs, so some pop-ups and programs have that crap blurry-text appearance. I am still looking for decent solution to this, but this is more of a Windows and software dev issue; they need to properly embrace the >1080p world.
5. Macro keys. Yuck. They shift the keyboard off to the right and it makes it hard to find the control key etc. Macros would have been better out of the way at the top of the keyboard or removed entirely, unless you are an MMO nerd (I am not). It will take me sometime to adjust to the layout, but I think I will always have issues since desktop keyboards also do not normally have this extra row of buttons to the left.

Pros:
1. Screen. The matte screen is the best I have seen, truly beautiful. I suspect the colour reproduction may not be up to scratch for graphics designers, but for my purposes, Office, web and gaming on the go this is lovely.
2. Build quality and appearance is *almost* as good as my Vaio SVZ (once I removed all the naff stickers). The bezels are rather large, which detracts from the look, but you know that already from looking at the pictures. If the bezels were smaller, the footprint of the laptop could be smaller, but then so would the battery. I'd probably lean towards a less deep laptop/screen to reduce the 25 cm depth to something nearer 22cm, and ~8 hours of battery life rather than 10. Indeed, the cooling design of the hinge/blowing onto the screen probably adds on a couple more centimetres as well. Compromises, compromises.
3. Undervolting potential. So far I have undervolted the CPU core and Cache using Throttlestop software to -180 mV (it crashed on me in Forza Apex at -185 mV). I've also undervolted the Iris graphics by -120 mV so far. My definition of a stable undervolt is something that does not crash under my normal, most demanding usage, e.g. playing games. I don't see the point in doing stress tests when this does not reflect my day-to-day use, while also potentially damaging the hardware (something for nerds, methinks). Although I have not quantitatively compared before and after temps, I estimate that when playing Assassin's Creed IV and Forza Apex the left-hand side of the laptop is now ~10-15 C cooler than the GPU on the right (which gets quite toasty, particularly underneath). Remember that I might just have got lucky with silicon with regards to undervolt capacity.
4. Gaming. Well, wow. I am honestly blown away by the performance, coupled with the lovely screen. This is going to be great for entertaining me on long flights and train journeys after a hard day's work.
5. Fan capacity. The fans go really fast and loud if needed to maximise performance (probably still not possible to hear it over engine roar on a flight!). The underside of the laptop does get hot to the touch (particularly under the GPU, but less so under the CPU now that it is undervolted).
6. The speakers are the best I have heard on a laptop, particularly one of this size, but then I'll almost never be using them (headphones!) except maybe for Skype.
7. Battery life, not had chance to test this properly yet, but Windows was reporting 9+hrs for me on ~30% screen brightness. The good-quality matte screen diffuses reflections so well that you can get away with lower screen brightness than you would need on a yucky, glossy screen.

Overall, I am happy, but this is still not quite the perfect laptop (hoping for the fan revving software / bios fix (HOPEFULLY SOMEONE FROM GIGABYTE IS READING THIS, HINT, HINT). I always consider laptops as being about compromise, and in this case the Aero 14 gets a lot of things right.

 

I've got the same issue, manually setting fans in the fan control software seems to indicate that the voltage supplied to the fans is not constant, but instead pulses. I am pushing Gigabyte support for a software update to fix this problem.

 

Pause for genius idea to myself.... I can set G1, G2, G3, G4 and G5 to be esc, tab, caps, shift and ctrl, respectively; no more looking at the keyboard!

Edit: this macro trick works, provided that each key macro is assigned in "fire" mode in the Macro hub software ("loop" and "once" modes don't work when the key is held down). I also deleted the "release key" part of the macro after recording the key press.

 

Hi, I'm following this thread as this is in my radar since a while. I want to know from the owners if the screen does wobble so much in all cases, hence it's an instrinsic characteristic of this line, or that was related to that specificic model, as for my taste it is a tad too much (and in my experience also a problem as in the long run the hinges will fail due to being constantly stressed). The problem is that for my budget I can't find a single laptop similar to this (or even less powerful) which combines a bit of power and good mobility.Thanks

 

Mine wobbles if typing with the laptop on my lap, but is fine if you work on a solid surface such as a desk. The propensity for screen wobble on soft surfaces comes from the fact that the screen is so deep, which give more leverage on the hinge.