Is the Aero 17 HDR screen worth it or should I wait?

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade my laptop at the moment and I really want something with a nice screen as I'm not sure my current one is really cutting it. The Aero 17 HDR seems to get some good reviews so it's been a serious consideration. I like the extra size a 17" laptop gives me over the 15" I had for a few years especially when video editing. I'd like to consider a laptop with an OLED panel but they're only in 15" models at the moment as far as I'm aware. Maybe it's worth making a size sacrifice? I'm not sure. It's not like I'm doing massively colour critical work but I do video editing as a hobby and casually for people where it doesn't have to be like "broadcast standard" but it'd be nice to have a good screen for that and, well, watching films and shows too.

I've been looking into the HDR400 certification and there's a lot of backlash over it so maybe the screen isn't as good as I first thought. On Panelook, it seems quite good on paper, though. I was worried it wouldn't be a 10bit capable screen but it says it is. I saw one review that opened up the display settings in Windows and it said it was 8bit, though, so I'm not sure what I should believe.

Price is a big thing. I don't really need like the RTX graphics or anything and my current laptop has a 1660Ti which is doing me fine. However, the i9 CPU is tempting but, in Australia, you can only get the two together and it's a $2000 jump between the two so not seemingly worth the jump. There was also that issue with the limited upgradability of the older models that I'm not sure are still present. I'd definitely want to be swapping out the 8GB of RAM for two 16GB sticks and putting a large secondary SSD for my multimedia (I'm just using a hard drive for now which is perfectly fine so it's a shame to have to spend at least $350 for a 2TB drive but I think the improved battery life is more worthy of the space). So that does add on an extra $500-600 to the end price.

Is there anything new coming up I should wait for? I saw some stuff about the MSI Creator 17 MiniLED that's supposedly coming at some point which looks really nice. Probably out of my price range but nice to think about. I'm worried about the local dimming thing with it as well. Everyone seems to be on board with it but I've been against the dynamic contrast thing that TVs have been doing for ages which this seems to be better than but any time the computer is automatically adjusting stuff based on what it thinks is best, I get suspicious that it's not going to be as accurate as it could be.

Thanks in advance for any advice you'd be able to give!

 

It's the best laptop display quality I have ever, if you are a professional creator, you should have one.

 

Do you know when is the MSI Creator MiniLed coming out? Is there a 15 inch version?
I am interesed in the AERO OLED, but will also consider MSI if they have nice panel coming out.

 

I don't know when it's coming out, no. I'd like to know some more info on release date and price. Of course things may be slower at the moment. Computex has been pushed back until September so a lot of things are uncertain. It doesn't seem there is a 15" version which is odd but there seems to be plenty of options out there for that size. I like the idea of the OLED but it has issues that kinda rule it out. I'm still seriously looking at the Aero 17 HDR but prices have just gone up a bit at the places I've been looking so that's a bit of a bummer.

 

Everyone I know who got an MSI laptop had trouble with it, my friend talked me out of considering their notebooks because his always over heated and the color was always off. He's does a lot of post production and was ALWAYS having to recalibrate the screen. Plus it overheated. I spent months researching before I got the AERO OLED, and it's so good. I made my friend jealous LOL and now he's ready to upgrade but he's going for the AERO 17 HDR - cause he needs more workspace for what he does as a video editor.

 

Interesting, can you provide more details?

 

Yeah, I keep hearing how nice the OLED screen is but I really prefer having a bit of extra screen real estate for editing (and just in general). Now that newer 17" laptops are roughly the size of old 15" laptops, I wouldn't mind seeing an even bigger screen in the old 17" bodies but that might be going a bit too far and I'm getting off track.

I am starting to go off edge-lit displays a bit as I watched a film last night that opened with a soundscape on black and the sort of glowiness of the screen still being lit bugged me a bit. I'd have to check it on my old laptop and see if it's just a case of this one having some bad bleed or anything. If not, though, that would also be an issue with the Aero 17 HDR, I'd imagine. Shame to hear the bad things about MSI because I was thinking that local dimming idea would be a fair solution to that (blooming perhaps could be a problem, though, I suppose). Somewhere between OLED and traditional panels. And it's kinda why it's hard to trust tech reviewers because you need to hear how things are after you've had it for a while.

Yeah, that's what I want to know. Like, what is it that makes this a good display and why is it better than any of the other 4K 100% sRGB options out there? A lot of reviewers say how nice it is. The colours are vibrant and the blacks are deep but are there any other options out there with these same qualities? I feel like if it really were "all that" then we'd have heard a lot more buzz about it. The Aero 15 OLED has that kind of vibe. Maybe because it's in the less popular 17" size and came out alongside the OLED, it's just not as cool a product that people want to try out.

 

You know, one of the reasons I chose my 15" AERO was I get all 15 inches, and I wanted/needed an OLED for presentations. I think for people who are professionals, like me and need to do presentations and compete creatively, we need the edge. If you're just goofing off and gaming with little creation, maybe you don't need that kind of edge. I mean, we're all work from home now, but I still create print jobs and need the color accuracy that the AERO series has, and omg that true color is pretty spiffy. Anyway, the border on my display is super sturdy but really thin, I think they do that for all their laptops, I'm not sure you'd have to go look. But, seriously if you want big screen, then why not go dual monitor? I seriously love the amount of screen I get on my machine.

 

Mm, it really would be nice to have. I am considering going dual monitor at some point. I'd love to have a laptop+monitor setup. That way I could be doing my work and general bumbling about there but still be able to disconnect to take it into the kitchen or to friends' places (though that might not be happening for a while). I really like the 17" screen for that, though. And with them being in ever-smaller bodies, it's just too nice to have that little bit of extra real estate for when you need it. I love having two monitors, though. Makes things a lot easier. That's kind of why I wouldn't mind not having an OLED display in the laptop as well. I could do all the colour critical work on the second monitor but I'd still like a nice panel on the laptop for doing work on the go and watching films in bed or the like which I do on occasion. I'm still concerned about burn-in, though as there are a lot of static elements on my display. The taskbar which I suppose could be hidden, browser tabs and buttons etc. UI elements for DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop etc. Over time that could be bad.

Also, those new Ryzen 4000 CPUs look nice. I'd love to have one of those in a 17" laptop with a nice display. It's probably asking waaay too much! I did see there was an Asus model with local dimming which is odd I've not heard talked about more. Though I'm wary of Asus because they seem to make it very difficult for you to upgrade your parts.

 

The 17in is a little big for me, but I asked the sales department when I was buying mine if there was a 17 in OLED, cause if I'm going to wow my clients then I want to WOW them, right? They said that no could really mount them that big and keep things stabile design wise. Which makes sense. I haven't had any issues with burn in, and I'm constantly using my laptop. I mean, your smart phone has an OLED? Right? I mean mine does and it's not burning in either. I think it's not as big of a deal as people make of it. You know, I'm just not an AMD fan, I have had a few laptops with AMD processors and they just weren't as stabile, speaking of Asus that's my other favorite brand, I really loved my old ASUS gaming laptop, it was great back in the day (like 5 years ago), but you can't upgrade them. I can upgrade my AERO though, if I need more RAM - baboom order more and get it popped in the slots. So far 16GBs has been plenty, but it's nice to know I can. If only laptops could upgrade all the parts like towers, right? That would be the best.

 

Oh, I am so with you there! I get why they can't be right now but that would be the dream. Even if we were just able to pick CPU and GPU, that would be nice. It'd be cool to Frankenstein a laptop from a bunch of different manufacturers. As for the 17" OLED, I'm not sure what they mean by unable to mount them. I do know the Aero 15 OLED has a notoriously flimsy screen compared to the other models. As far as I'm aware, there just aren't any 17" OLED panels as only Samsung was making them, if I'm correct? And there's only one out there so every 15" OLED laptop has the same panel.

There is also the issue I think I mentioned about colour accuracy tanking once you move away from the brightness level you calibrated your display at. Also maybe I'm being too paranoid about burn-in, though I'm fairly sure my girlfriend's phone has an OLED screen and it has some ghosting issues. She got it from her sister when hers broke a few months back so I don't know how long she'd had it before then but still. I feel like I'd want to take measures to ensure it doesn't burn in and it seems like a bit backwards to have to go out of your way to do. And even if, as is most likely, my suspicions are unfounded, that perception would certainly hit the resale value if I wanted to sell it and upgrade. OLED is a nice selling point but I'd imagine some people would be wary buying a used OLED screen for fear of these burn-in issues. You don't know how careful the previous owner's been with it.

 

LOL - there's nothing flimsy about my AERO OLED display, that's one of the reasons I love it. It looks like it might be flimsy, but seriously stabile and solid. I think Samsung is the only maker, I don't really know, I'd have to Google it. Color accuracy doesn't tank on the OLED when you play with brightness, it's X-rite Pantone Certified. I turned down the brightness and it didn't change the X-rite Pantone settings at all. It's important for me because I do print work, so ya know? It's the only laptop out there I found with this, and it's way better than having to constantly calibrate by hand. That is such a pain. It's super nice to show clients (well not right now, duh) but it was super nice to show clients the design/color and be able to deliver exactly what they saw on the screen. Again, if you're not doing what I'm doing maybe it's not important, but it's such a sweet machine.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

Yeah, I certainly wasn't planning on recalibrating by hand a lot with the Pantone certification. But I have heard that brightness issue from multiple people. Below is a video talking about it. The video's about the Razer Blade but this section (starting at 7:00 if the time data doesn't carry over) is specifically about the panel which is the same one as in the Aero.

 

Yeah, well I didn't go with Razer for a reason. I didn't like their laptops much. Here's a CNET article that goes through all of the different brands, and they rated the AERO 15 OLED top of the brands. You can check it out here: It's a detailed article and they go through all the different brands pretty well, they mention the brightness issue you brought up, but not for the AERO. Dueling links (cue music) lol - But you know, not everyone needs what I do to do their thing. Here's the article https://www.cnet.com/news/oled-laptop-screens-are-worth-it-for-some/

 

With your Aero 15, do you do any work that maxes out the CPU or GPU? Or do any gaming? How does it handle heat?

Considering this laptop for photo editing work but would like to be able to do gaming as well.

 

I run a massive workflow, I tend to keep at least three programs running two of which are heavy graphics, the rest have heavy GUI, plus I do animated presentations which takes quite a lot of processing power. Like right now I pretty much have the entire office suite up, video editing software, 10 tabs open in Edge and another 6 in Chrome, and no slow down, no over heating. I've had gaming laptops almost melt on me working like this LOL. The fans will get noisy, but seriously, it's a laptop, you want your fans to blow to keep things cool. Right? Gaming, I wish, if I only had time, I've played a little WoW, and it's responsive, smooth, and on the OLED really beautiful.