10th Gen Gigabyte Aero 17 Review - Different From Last Gen

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGigabyte have refreshed their Aero 17 laptopwith Intel 10th gen processor, faster memoryand Nvidia Super graphics, let’s find outhow this new configuration performs and seewhat other changes they’ve made over theolder model in this detailed review.I’ve got the HDR XB model, so there’san 8 core Intel i7-10875H CPU, 90 watt NvidiaRTX 2070 Super Max-Q graphics, 16gb of memoryin dual channel, a 17.3” HDR 4K 60Hz IPSscreen, and a 512gb M.2 NVMe SSD in one ofthe two available slots.For network connectivity it’s got gigabitethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.There are a few different configurations available,the HDR version that I’ve got has the 4KHDR screen, while the non HDR model has a1080p 144Hz option, you can find updated pricesfor different models linked in the description.On the matte black metal lid we’ve got theAero logo, with a subtle brushed finish towardsthe bottom.The interior is similar to most of the lid,all matte black metal but with a plastic outertrim, and overall it felt well built withno sharp edges or corners.Gigabyte list the weight as around 2.5kg or5.5lb, and mine was just over 2.6kg.Once we add the 230 watt power brick and cablesthe total rises up to 3.5kg.The dimensions are about what you’d expectfrom a modern 17” machine, however the heightis just 2.1cm thick, we’ll see how thisaffects thermals and performance later.I’ve measured the screen bezels at 8.5mmon the sides, and Gigabyte say this givesit an 89% screen to body ratio.The 17.3” 4K 60Hz IPS screen has a mattefinish, comes Pantone calibrated out of thebox and looks excellent, noticeably bettercompared to most 1080p panels I regularlytest with.I’ve measured the colour gamut using theSpyder 5 Pro and got 99% of sRGB, 92% of NTSC,96% of AdobeRGB, and 86% of DCI-P3.At 100% brightness I measured the panel at530 nits in the center with a 1290:1 contrastratio, so overall quite a nice display.Backlight bleed looked fine, only some extremelyminor glow spots that I never noticed whenviewing darker content, but this will varybetween laptop and panel.It’s also DisplayHDR 400 certified, andwhile nothing amazing when compared to otherHDR monitors I’ve tested, it’s still astep up over nothing, though I haven’t testedmany HDR laptops yet as selection is stillminimal.Screen flex was on the lower side, the metallid felt quite solid.The hinges are found out towards the cornersand felt equally solid, however I think theexterior is plastic.One finger opening was only just possible,it’s a little heavier at the back, howeverit felt fine sitting on my lap.Like other Aero laptops, the screen bezelis too thin so the 720p camera is found downthe bottom, no Windows hello support, butit’s got a physically sliding privacy cover.This is what the camera and microphone lookand sound like.As the camera is right down the bottom evenif I move the screen back and forward it’snot going to adjust it, so this is kind ofthe angle you’re stuck with.Here’s what typing on the keyboard soundslike, and this is what it sounds like if weset the fan to max speed.It is pretty loud for me and it’s not verygood at isolating my voice.The keyboard worked well and I had no issuestyping with it.It’s got individual key RGB backlightingwith quite a few effects built in, howeverunfortunately the secondary key functionsstill don’t get lit up, as was the caselast gen too, it would have been good to havethat improved with the new model.Here’s how typing sounds to give you anidea of what to expect.There was only minor keyboard flex while pushingdown hard, overall the metal body was quitesturdy, absolutely no issues at all duringnormal use.The precision touchpad was extremely smoothto the touch and worked very well.It presses down anywhere to click, supportsthe usual gestures, and has a fingerprintscanner in the top left corner, which meansthat the top corner has no touchpad functionality.I was never limited by this and liked thefingerprint scanner, which I found fast forunlocking the machine.Fingerprints show up easily but are kind ofmasked by the matte finish, and they weren’ttoo hard to clean with a microfiber cloth.On the left from the back there’s an airexhaust vent, gigabit ethernet port whichis facing the prefered way, no lifting themachine to get the cable out, full size UHS-IISD card slot, thank you for always keepingthis in the Aero series, USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-Aport, 3.5mm mic and headphone jacks, and secondUSB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port.On the right from the front there’s a thirdUSB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, a Type-C port whichhas both Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort support,mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs,power input and another air exhaust vent.This side has changed slightly from last genwhich had two Type-C ports here.The mini DisplayPort and HDMI ports connectdirectly to the Nvidia GPU, however the Type-Cport goes via the Intel iGPU first.On the back there are air exhausts towardsthe corners, and the Aero logo in the center.Meanwhile the front is just plastic with agroove for your finger to open the lid.The Aero logo on the lid lights up white fromthe backlight of the screen, so it cannotbe adjusted.Underneath there’s heaps of air ventilationtowards the back half of the machine.The bottom panel can be easily removed bytaking out 14 TR6 screws.Once inside from left to right we’ve gotan M.2 slot for NVMe or SATA storage, thebattery down the bottom, WiFi 6 card and twomemory slots above this, followed by the secondM.2 slot on the right which is NVMe only.The two speakers are found towards the frontleft and right corners, they sound alright,clear at higher volumes with a little basspresent.Here’s what we’re looking at while playingmusic at maximum volume, and the Latencymonresults weren’t too bad.The Aero 17 is powered by a large 94 watthour battery which the Aero series is wellknown for.I’ve tested it with the screen brightnessat 50%, background apps disabled, and allRGB lighting off.While just watching YouTube videos it lastedfor 6 hours and 20 minutes, and it was usingIntel integrated graphics due to Nvidia Optimus,and it’s a little behind last year’s model.While playing the Witcher 3 with medium settingsand Nvidia’s battery boost set to 30 FPSthe battery lasted for 1 hour and 22 minutesbefore dropping to 6 FPS, then in total itlasted for an hour and 46 minutes if you includethe period where it wasn’t playable.This puts battery life around average forgaming in terms of the period where the gamewas actually playable, while the battery lifeoutside of gaming is excellent given the specswe’re dealing with.The 230 watt power brick that Gigabyte includeswith the Aero 17 appears to be adequate forthese specs, I was seeing some drain duringmy testing but it would stop at around the95% mark which is pretty standard behaviour,it never dropped further.We’ll just quickly recap thermal testinghere, as I’ve covered it in depth in a dedicatedvideo, so check the card in the top rightor link in the description for the details.Air is pulled in through the large mesh areaunderneath and also from the vents above thekeyboard.It then gets exhausted out the back, and fromthe left and right sides towards the back.There are shared heatpipes inside, and Gigabyteuse thermal grizzly hydronaut thermal pastehere.The Gigabyte control center software allowsus to set the CPU between 5 different levelsof power, and the GPU between two levels,as defined here.We also get a few different default fan curves,but have the option of customizing it foroptimal performance.In different workloads the Aero would thermalthrottle on the CPU at 90 degrees, but honestlyI think this is preferable compared to ithaving say a 100 degree celsius limit likethe G5.By boosting the fan speed and using a coolingpad it was possible to improve the temps.These are the average clock speeds for thosesame tests.Even in the worst case combined CPU and GPUstress tests with higher fan speed and thecooling pad it was possible to hit 4.2GHzover all 8 cores, not bad at all given thelaptop is just 2.1cm thick.These are the power levels being hit, theGPU had no issues running at the 90 watt limitonce we boost it to level 1, otherwise theCPU being able to go above 60 watts with thecooling pad was quite impressive when youconsider most other laptops will hard capthe CPU at 45 watts in combined CPU and GPUloads.Here’s how CPU only performance was lookingin Cinebench, again by manually boosting thepower limit it was possible to improve thescore quite nicely.Here’s how the 10th gen 8 core processorcompares against others I’ve tested in thepast, it’s slightly behind the 9980HK inthe last gen Aero 17, however it’s worthmentioning that was undervolted while undervoltingis locked on this newer 10th gen Aero, soI couldn’t do it.Boosting the power limit and overclockingthe graphics was able to give us a fair performanceboost in games though, even without beingable to undervolt.Playing games in quiet mode was alright inGPU heavier titles, but as we saw earlierthe CPU gets capped more harshly, so CPU heavygames may lag in that mode.Here’s how the fans sound during the differenttests.The fans were completely silent at idle, howeverthere was some coil whine present in my unit.Quiet mode does what it says even under heavyload.The normal profile wasn’t too loud whenunder stress test, and the gaming profilewas still quieter when compared to many otherless powerful gaming laptops I’ve tested.Max fan speed is quite loud, but personallyI think this is an advantage.Rather than being locked to a lower fan speedand being forced to run hotter, the user atleast has the choice, and given you can customizethe fan curve greatly, you have the optionof finding a good mixture of noise and thermals.As for the external temperatures where you’llactually be putting your hands, at idle itwas in the mid 30s, so a little warmer thanmany other laptops I’ve tested but no issue.With the stress tests running the middle getsa little warm, while the WASD keys and wristrest area was still cool.With the fans at max speed it’s cooler,but as we just heard also quite loud.As a laptop primarily designed with contentcreation in mind, here’s how it performedin Adobe Premiere.The Aero 17 was offering one of the best resultsin this test out of all laptops tested, thoughto be fair, it was not too far behind otherlower specced machines.With Quicksync in use there seems to be diminishingreturns once you have an i7 and 1660 Ti.I’ve also tested out SPECviewperf, whichis a benchmark for professional 3D workloads.I’ve compared the 2070 Super Max-Q in thisnew 10th gen Aero 17 with the 2070 Max-Q nonsuper from the previous Aero 17 I reviewedlast year, and we can see that in some teststhe Super graphics were able to offer a niceimprovement.I’ll cover the differences between 2070Super Max-Q and 2070 Max-Q in another video,so make sure you’re subscribed for thatone.Next let’s take a look at some gaming benchmarks.I’ve tested these with the CPU set to level4 and GPU set to level 1, so the highest powerlimits available with the Gigabyte software,though this does not apply any overclocksor undervolting.While the Aero 17 came with Nvidia Studiodrivers, for the game tests I installed gameready drivers for best performance.In Battlefield 5 I’ve got this Aero 17 highlightedin red near similarly specced machines.The results were fair in this game, the averageFPS of the 2070 Super Max-Q is keeping upwith many of the other 2080 Max-Q laptopsthat I’ve previously tested, however theresults were more interesting in the othertitles.These are the results from Far Cry 5 withultra settings in the built in benchmark.This test tends to favour CPU power, and the8 core 10th gen processor can actually hitsome nice speeds in this chassis as we sawearlier in the thermal tests.Anyway the results in this game are some ofthe best out of all laptops tested, likelyonly behind the Triton 500 at the top as thatlets you disable the integrated graphics whichboosts performance.These are the results from Shadow of the Tombraider with the built in benchmark at highestsettings.Again the Aero 17 with this new hardware wasproducing one of the best results out of thisselection of laptops.I found it interesting that it was ahead ofthe GX502GW, given that it has the 115w 2070with the iGPU disabled.The FPS from the new Aero is almost 19% fasterthan the last gen Aero I’ve got on the graphtoo, with 9th gen 8 core i9 and 2070 Max-Q.If you want to see more games benchmarkedon the Aero 17, check the card in the topright, or link in the description where I’vetested 21 games at all setting levels.Based on these results, it looks like thecombination of the 10th gen processor withfaster memory and new Super graphics is actuallyholding up quite well compared to the last9th gen and non Super graphics options.I was pretty surprised when I found the 90watt 2070 Super Max-Q outperforming the 115watt 2070 laptops, now I’m really interestedto see how the new 115w 2070 Super laptopsstack up.Now for the benchmarking tools, I’ve testedHeaven, Valley, and Superposition from Unigine,as well as Firestrike, Timespy and Port Royalfrom 3DMark, just pause the video if you wanta detailed look at these results.I’ve used Crystal Disk Mark to test thestorage, and the 512gb NVMe M.2 SSD was performingquite well.The UHS-II SD card slot was doing great forthe reads, however writes were noticeablyslower, but given most people probably usethis to offload stuff from a camera, readswould be more important.The SD card sticks out by this much when insertedinto the machine.For updated pricing check the links in thedescription, as prices will change over time.At the time of recording in the US the GigabyteAero 17 with these same specs is going for$2900 USD, however there are also much cheaperversions available with lower tier CPU orGPU.Compared to the Aero 17 I covered last year,it’s $300 less, so that seems pretty decentgiven CPU performance wasn’t all that differentand the GPU was better.With all of that in mind, let’s concludeby covering the good and bad aspects of thenew Gigabyte Aero 17 laptop.Overall the Aero 17 is a nice laptop for contentcreators and gamers alike that are after thelarger 17 inch screen.There’s the 4K HDR screen for creators or1080p 144Hz option for gamers, and as we saw,both creator workloads like video exportingor games were performing very well.The build quality is great, battery life isnice for specs and I didn’t have any majorissues to report aside from some subtle coilwhine while idle, though that would come andgo depending on the workload and would getmasked by low fan noise.The performance is quite good all things considered,it’s a thinner 2.1cm machine with good specsinside.As a result under worst case loads it doesthermal throttle, however the performancewas actually quite good, especially if you’rewilling to boost the fan speed and use a coolingpad.Unfortunately undervolting was locked in the10th gen model, I’m not sure if Gigabytedid this or if Intel have just blocked it10th gen wide, as 4 laptops from both Gigabyteand MSI so far have had it locked.It was good to see that we’re able to customizethe fans so much as well as the power limits,however I feel Gigabyte may be leaving performanceon the table by maxing the CPU out at 62 wattsby their software when I could manually boostthis in Intel XTU to achieve even higher performance.Regardless, it’s still good that it’snot just hard capped to a lower value likeother machines.In the end though, there’s not really muchchange compared to the last gen Aero 17.It seems like Gigabyte have just dropped inan Intel 10th gen processor with faster memoryand Nvidia Super graphics and called it aday.It would have been great to see some moreincremental improvements at this price point,such as 2.5 gigabit ethernet, or even justhaving the keyboard backlighting light upall functions.In terms of those hardware differences though,10th gen doesn’t seem to offer too muchimprovement over 9th gen, while the Supergraphics seemed to offer a bit more comparedto non super variants.Let me know what you thought about the GigabyteAero 17 laptop down in the comments, I knowquite a few of you are sad that there’sno Ryzen 4000 version, as I’ve shown inanother video the 4900HS in smaller machinesis far more power efficient for comparableperformance.Gigabyte usually read the comments on thevideo so if you want to see that in futuredefinitely let them know, I know I’d bekeen to see a Ryzen based laptop for contentcreators.Anyway thanks for watching, and if you’renew to the channel get subscribed for futurelaptop reviews and tech videos like this one.\n"