Today nosotros're taking a closer look at the Gigabyte Aero 15X (2018 model), which was launched aslope Intel's new H-series Coffee Lake processors a couple of weeks ago. Bringing upwardly to half-dozen cores and 12 threads to the laptop form gene, we've covered the new CPUs in depth already, then at present our focus is on Gigabyte's latest premium laptop.

We looked at the original Aero fifteen last year and were pretty impressed with most aspects. The Aero 15X is not a massive difference from what nosotros had earlier, but we at that place are hardware improvements and other changes that help refine the laptop. And Gigabyte is key to stress this isn't just a gaming laptop, but a machine designed for productivity, and that shows with features like an 10-Rite certified display.

Central to this 2022 refresh is the Intel Core i7-8750H, which brings half dozen cores to laptops for the beginning time and presents a decent upgrade over the older quad-core Core i7-7700HQ, specially for productivity. The GPU options stay the same: a GeForce GTX 1060 in the base of operations model and a GTX 1070 Max-Q in the Aero 15X version nosotros're looking at today. The SSD is all the same 512GB and we get a single 16GB stick of DDR4.

Another primal improvement is the new 15.6-inch 1080p brandish. This new panel volition no dubiety be used across a wide range of laptops, every bit it provides a 144 Hz refresh rate for the get-go time at this size. Previously we were limited to 120Hz on most laptops, and so the 24Hz increase is nice for those who like gaming at the upper end of frame rates.

Y'all don't get M-Sync with this laptop, which I thought was a little strange though it's likely to keep costs down. Grand-Sync would have improved the smoothness of games, particularly when running below 60 FPS, but provided you are pushing into the 80+ FPS range, not having adaptive sync isn't a massive issue.

In fact, allow's talk a chip more virtually this display, considering it'due south ane of the more interesting aspects of this laptop.

The Aero 15X has super slim bezels effectually three of the sides, which makes the overall size of this laptop smaller and maximizes the screen you arrive the available space. I really dearest this sort of blueprint and wish more companies would opt for this blazon of bezel setup.

It does have a few drawbacks, most notably the webcam position below the brandish that gives a rather unpleasant angle to your video calls. I don't personally use the webcam very frequently, then it's not a large bargain for me, but anyone that is a frequent user should be aware of this merchandise-off.

Gamers get to enjoy the 144Hz refresh charge per unit of this panel, only professionals don't miss out at all. The Aero 15X, similar its predecessor, is 10-Rite Pantone certified, meaning the display is manufacturing plant calibrated to the sRGB standard. This is of import for professionals that need color accurate displays, and while the calibration is provided through a software profile, it'south better than the complete lack of calibration you get with most laptop displays.

Brightness has increased compared to terminal twelvemonth'southward model to around 320 nits, upward from 280 nits, and that brings a small increment in contrast. Viewing angles are still quite good, too.

Thanks to calibration, average temperature and gamma are almost spot on, with relatively even performance across the greyscale range. My Aero 15X unit is less authentic than the original Aero 15, at an average greyscale deltaE of i.62 as opposed to 0.52, but both results are under two.0 which is pretty good. It'south also probable that just one display profile was created for all Aero 15X laptops, so there will be some natural variance between units.

Saturation and ColorChecker results sit down at a dE of 2.34 and 2.59 respectively, and so once more around 1.0 higher than with the original Aero 15. Not as rock solid accurate equally I'd like to see, and as we got with the original model, but it's still a pretty respectable result and certainly a lot better than most laptops. Gaming laptops in particular are often adequately inaccurate, just the Aero 15X is good in this regard and provides that extra refresh rate.

The design and construction hasn't changed significantly compared to the original Aero 15. The trunk is a mix of metal and plastic, with several seams around the place that doesn't give information technology quite the same premium feel equally the best metal-body laptops. The edges in particular are a footling strange, though I do similar the color options for the chapeau.

The practiced news is the torso is extremely solid, with basically no flex in any expanse, even if yous're mashing the keyboard. Speaking of the keyboard, once again you go an individually RGB LED backlit keyboard with a solid tactile feel and a handy numpad. I really like how this keyboard feels to blazon on, so information technology'south perfect for whacking together a Discussion document, and naturally it's good for gaming, too. The ELAN trackpad is okay, though I'd still prefer a college-end trackpad with better, more precise tracking.

If you lot like ports, the Aero 15X has got plenty of them. Three USB 3.0 type-A ports, a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, a single three.5mm audio jack, and a fast UHS-II SD card reader.

The Aero 15X's chassis is very portable, at eighteen.9mm thick and approximately 4.four pounds (2.0 kg) heavy not including the necessary ability brick. It's not the slimmest or lightest laptop I've seen with these specs, simply it's more than compact, extremely solid, and far more portable than cheaper, thicker gaming laptops. After all, yous're paying for the portability, and Gigabyte has delivered.

Amazingly, these sorts of dimensions accept been achieved without skimping on the battery, which remains at a huge 94 Wh.

Want to know what'southward inside the Aero 15X? With a T6 screwdriver and a spudger, information technology'southward straightforward to remove the bottom panel, exposing a standard layout. The bombardment sits at the bottom, while in that location's a dual-fan cooler with two heatpipes at the top, sending estrus away from the cardinal GPU and CPU to the remarkably tiny heatsinks. In the front right corner y'all'll spot a spare Chiliad.2 slot compatible with NVMe and SATA drives, while there's also a free DIMM slot. Yes, the Aero 15X comes configured with unmarried-channel memory.

Considering the extra performance you lot can get with dual-channel memory, which I'll get through in simply a moment, I'd highly recommend grabbing an extra 16GB stick of DDR4-2666 and slotting it direct in. Unfortunately with current memory prices, this could cost you as much as $200, and while it's nice Gigabyte leaves a free DIMM slot for y'all to upgrade to 32GB, out of the box performance is reduced.