Gigabyte announces new Aero 15

We will only offer 2 Year Warranties on Gigabyte & Aorus products.

Thanks for the heads up on the power cords

 

We ship all that you mention, except Acer, worldwide...including Hong Kong of course
.

 

Thank you everyone for the great information here. Looking forward to reviews by @Eason and @iunlock, but the online reviews seemed positive enough so far to pull the trigger. It's a graduation/college gift, and chosen over the Dell XPS 15, MSI GS63VR and Razer Blade 14. It replaces a Gigabyte P35Wv2, which is no longer capable of playing modern titles, plus it's a little too big and heavy for daily backpack use. Though it's never had a repair issue in almost 3 years, the mostly plastic chassis has slightly warped from heavy use. Hopefully the Aero 15's metal build will be more resistant to this.

I just placed a pre-order at GenTechPC. Thanks to Ken @GenTechPC for the excellent customer service. I'm a very long-time Newegg customer, but their customer service has been on the decline in recent years, and now it can sometimes take a few days to get a response that may or may not answer the question. Happy to do business with a reputable retailer that has quick and knowledgeable pre-sales support. Plus, GentechPC has a few freebies on their configurator, as you can see from my build below-

https://www.gentechpc.com/product-p/aero-15w-bk4.htm
Item Name: GIGABYTE Aero 15W-BK4 nVidia GTX 1060, 7th Gen Intel Core i7
Item Price: $2,074.04
Options:
Availability re-order, We do not charge credit card for pre-orders unless it's ready to ship/build
Free Gaming Bundle:For Honor or Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
Spring Sale 1:Free IC Diamond on CPU/GPU ($35 value, this promotion overrides standard options) +$.01
Spring Sale 2:Free 30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty ($35 value, this promotion overrides standard options) +$.01
Spring Sale 4:Free GenTech PC Gaming T-Shirt - Medium +$.01
Screen:15.6" 1920x1080 LG IPS LED Matte-Type @60Hz (Anti-Glare)
Graphics Controller:nVidia GeForce Pascal GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 DX12
CPU Kaby Lake:7th Gen Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7700HQ, 2.8~3.8GHz, 14nm, 6MB 45W
RAM:32GB DDR4 2400MHz/PC4 19200 Dual-Channel (16G X 2) +$85
PCIe SSD Slot 1:512GB M.2 SSD SATA III 6Gb/s
PCIe SSD Slot 2:Free 128GB M.2 SSD SATA III +$.01
Ethernet Controller:Gigabit Ethernet Controller RJ45
WiFi / Bluetooth:Intel Wireless-AC 8260 802.11 2.4Ghz/5.0Ghz Dual-Band 300/867 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.1 / WiDi
USB Ports:3 USB 3.0 Ports + 1 USB 3.1 Type-C Thunderbolt 3 enabled
AC Adapter:Add One Spare 150W AC Adapter +$75
Power Cord:US Power Cord
Webcam:Built-in 2MP Webcam with Microphone
Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 bit Factory Pre-installed, no installation media
OS Clean Installation Option:Keep factory OS installation
Windows Recovery USB:Help me created an factory system restore bootable USB flash drive +$15
Warranty:GIGABYTE 2 Year Limited Warranty
Support and Service:Gigabyte 1-626-854-9338
Packaging:Shipping with Doubled Box

ETA is around the end of the month.

 

Haven't logged into this site in a while but I do pop in and look around. This laptop literally and physically has checked all my required box's, and am looking forward to getting one in the coming months pending further reviews. I'v been using an ASUS U36SD for the better part of 5-6 years and even do some light video encoding and photo editing on it.
I also wanted to give a shout out to the vendors and to those who write detailed reviews, you guys and gals(if any) have always been a great help!

 

Let the games begin....



::iunlock::

 

Looking forward to your review, iunlock. I've narrowed things down to either the Aero 15, the X5 V7, or waiting to see what Coffee Lake/Volta laptops look like. Hopefully, AMD will shake up the laptop market a little if I wait, too, but I don't have high hopes for that. I had been considering the Zbook 15 or Studio, but the more I read about eGPUs, the less enthusiastic I became about that option. If I wait, hopefully those options will become better. I'd love for an eGPU to serve as a good dock, too, so when I sit at my desk, I just plug into my eGPU, and it's replacing my power cable, ethernet, and other peripheral stuff I'd otherwise plug directly into my laptop.

 

We will all know in a few moments....

Hang time... It's in my hands now.

::iunlock::

 

Hmmm....

 

Build and finish compared to aero?

 

Ok so... what's up with the screen being claimed as this and that?

Strange...

I'm going to ping @Mobius 1 to chime in on panels to give his expert opinion on this as this is his forte'...

Hmmmm....



::iunlock::

 

http://www.panelook.com/N156HCA-EA1_Innolux_15.6_LCM_parameter_28005.html

http://www.szdengyi.com/upload/web/lcdspec/N156HCA-EA1-flat-panel-lcd-display-ips.pdf

Not impressed, 72% NTSC and only 6 bit color?


Pantone certified is only a marketing stunt. And I don't believe they're individually calibrated either.

 

Hey guys...

Testing in progress....

If you want to follow the progress LIVE, you can do so here.

 

I would love to know if the PCH or anything gets too hot or is touching something that shouldn't get too hot and would benefit from cooling modification.

 

iunlock any thoughts so far? Sorry I'm anxious...

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

could you check how many lanes for that tb3 port? x2 or x4?

 

There's supposed to be 4

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

yep 4 mine arrives today.

 

do you know if it is compatible with egpu?

 

Yes.

Looking good so far. I'll be on live again later in the channel if you'd like to join on in.

It runs pretty cool for what it is, but definitely needs a proper repaste to get it to its full potential. More extensive tests to follow..

4x

::iunlock::

 

Thanks!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

What hard drive did you get? Some sources indicated a Lite-on PCIE NVMe, but others indicated it was a SATA III SSD.

 

LITE-OFF

::iunlock::

 

Thanks again iunlock, Also I just now found my old account, its IcerJo, trying to see if I can merge my accounts as I forgot I had this one but no longer use this handle/nickname..

 

Is the SSD pcie/nvme or sata3?

 

The specs on a German page say PCI-E, but notebookcheck.net (which tested a US version presumably) reported SATA IIRC.

 

::iunlock::

 

Hi new member here, have been lurking as I've bought the Aero 15 as well (should get it next tuesday here in the UK). Interesting SSD results it's contradictory to what notebookcheck got (they are German based) their crystalmark is well over 1000MBs for seq. Which leads me to believe European machines might come with NVMe and US ones just with SATA III? I've noticed discrepancies between specs on the sites. US also comes with Windows 10 Home instead of Windows 10 Pro over here. Might explain why we're paying $2400 USD equivalent over here

 

Yeah those crystaldiskmark scores from iunlock could be a fast SATAIII drive or a slower pcie/nvme drive... Honestly decent enough performance, since I doubt anyone expected Gigabyte to slap a 960 EVO in there;-) But still significantly lower than some competitors like the GS63VR and XPS15.

The notebookcheck review indicated the same Lite-on CX2-NVMe pcie drive as in the Dell XPS15 in the test section. But earlier in the review seemed to indicate that it may also ship with SATA3, which may be what iunlock received. The notebookcheck read/write squential results were about double what iunlock showed, which was close to the SATA3 limit.

 

They tested the German version as they thanked Gigabyte.DE for supplying the machine.

 

Pretty sure it's the same story as the Aero 14. Mine (us model) came with a sata drive and I remember reading about UK getting NVME. They possibly got a slightly different RAM config though (2x8 vs 1x16 or something)

 

is there a noticeable speed difference between 2x8 vs 1x16? I know 2x8 gets dual channel but is it worth it to spend another $100 on rams i don't really need

 

I think the US variant got screwed as the panel is different from what it on the Euro models...

A few pages back are the details of the panel on my unit as I've posted a screen shot showing the panel.

It's nice and has good color but..... not a top tier FHD. Some report LG, some report the Sharp and now I find a lower tier panel from the LG and Sharp ones that are on units in different regions....hmmm

So from the m.2 to the panel....it's our turn (US) to get screwed lol...

 

From what I can see though you have the same panel as what they've reviewed at notebookcheck. Haven't seen any other mentioned panels?

 

If you look a few pages back a member from Europe has listed a LG panel.

 

Up on case which model you select, as far I´m aware of they will sell (once it´s available)

- SATA III Models for the entry / cheaper models
- NVME(PCIE) Models for a few bugs more

To the m2 slots, website claims you can use NVME drives or SATA III or mixed, models which i find nice. Btw in real life scenario usually I won´t feel any difference between a fast SATA3 SSD and NVME.

The discussion about the display may become interesting, i hope the review models won´t get shipped with better ones so almost of the current reviewers claim the display is nice, i guess the 4k IGZO panels will be nicer but the current Aero 15 ones are only FHD displays ... but color calibrated and what you can see in video (example compared to Dell XPS 15 and AW 15R3) for me it looks more like the XPS15 IGZO one (which is not a big thing cause the AW FHD one is .. ahm little different?.. but yeah it has GSYNC)

... to the point "what they put in such a nice small box" in focus of RGB individual keys, awesome small form factor, two m2 sots, two memory slots, TB3 4 lane support, fat battery ... is awesome, i love my XPS13 and as i saw first time informations about the Gigabyte Aero 15 I tought a dream becomes true ;o) for a system which has little lower pricetag than Aorus or Razer.

Planning to replace/merge my "ultrabook" and my "gamer (which already was sent back)" with this Gigabyte, but not yet sure if i should preffer an more bulky, lower stylish and lower "battery life" with 1070 one (alike Clevo) over this awesome Aero 15 and the "only" 1060 (for the bugs). Naaaah

Regards, aVa

 

And Newegg's video review clearly says it's the same IGZO from the Dell XPS 15. Very misleading, especially if you ordered from Newegg after watching it...

Right- still a nice chassis with great features. The second m.2 slot lets you easily offset the OEM SATA3 drive if you really need better performance. The screen is what it is. Disappointing that it's not the Sharp IGZO FHD from the base model XPS15, but looks like it's still around the same quality as what comes with the Razer Blade 14 or MSI GS63VR.

 

Repasting in progress...

You can follow me LIVE here.

 

So you see any issues adding a 960evo to this computer ad just using the SATA drive as bulk storage?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Update:

Repaste/LM Finished...

About to power on now....

Drum roll.....

 

I am considering this as well.

 

Newegg is sold out

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Already? It's only been a few days.

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk

 

Yep I literally had it in my cart and going through the checkout process as I got to the very end and it told me they sold out

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Oh, too bad...
Maybe it's a sign for you to wait for the 4k IGZO version, haha.

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk

 

So just sat in on iunlocks session for 3hrs very good discussions but also very promising results from his repaste. Will let him share the news but everything he's said from build quality, temps and fan sound has made me not doubt buying the Aero 15

 

I Can confirm up until the post repaste as I had to leave xD

 

Holy crap if this is true.
People are saying its expensive but imo 1899 for a system with 512gb SSD is in line with most slim 1060 laptops.
edit: removed incorrect facts
@iunlock as I am on a boat and cannot sit in on the discord i am eagerly awaiting your results!

 

Er, actually, Aero 15W is over $200 more with the same configuration as your EVOC 16S-1060 (MSI GS63VR).
.

 

Grabbing some dinner and I'll be back in the office to work on posting up the results.



::iunlock::

 

You are right donald, I did just do a quick check without clicking in all the configs! (power cord, clean windows install etc)