In the market for a slim, lightweight laptop that still has the power to run today’s biggest games? Look no further than the Gigabyte Aero 15 gaming laptop. This sleek unit manages to pack in the specs of a high-end gaming PC into a compact frame perfect for home and travel.
Slim and portable
As a gamer, I’ve relied on laptops for my most recent gaming PC purchases. Technology has reached the point where higher-end gaming components can finally be incorporated into portable designs. It’s hard to resist a gaming PC that you can fold up and slip into your backpack.
That said, I’m still pleasantly surprised at just how compact the Gigabyte Aero 15 Gaming Laptop truly is. Measuring just 2 cm thick and weighing a meager 2 kg, this is the thinnest and lightest gaming laptop I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. It’s hard to believe that this model packs the power it does into such a tiny shell.
I have a special backpack I use specifically when carrying around my own gaming laptops. It’s made to account for that extra bit of space that is usually required for a portable gaming PC. With the Gigabyte Aero 15 however, I found my travel solution completely unnecessary.
This machine slips into the laptop compartment of my normal messenger-style bag with ease and room to spare. I am able to make my normal commute with the Gigabyte Aero 15 in tow and barely remember that I have it at all.
A lot of power under the hood
My initial thought when unboxing the Gigabyte Aero 15 was that such a spatially reserved laptop must compromise on specifications. Remarkably, this is not the case. This machine has an incredible amount of gaming power.
Its processor is an 8th generation Intel i7-8750, Intel’s first 6-core mobile processor. On top of that its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 dedicated graphics card pushes the boundaries of what is capable inside a chassis this thin. Top it off with a full 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and this laptop should offer more than enough speed and power to satisfy a PC gamer.
To test just how capable the Gigabyte Aero 15is, I tested a number of games from my PC library. This laptop took everything I threw at it and out out a great experience on high settings. Notably, I launched World of Warcraft and had no issues turning up the graphics to the maximum settings.
A laptop that stays cool under pressure
With so much power packed into such a sleek design, I felt certain I knew where the Gigabyte Aero 15 was going to falter. One thing gamers know for certain is that graphical processing equals heat. So certainly this laptop was going to warm up like a hot coal—right? Wrong again.
My longest play session with the Aero 15 lasted over 3.5 hours. During this time I was playing a graphically intense game on high settings, and yet the laptop never even approached a state of being overly warm. Normally when playing on a gaming laptop, I can feel a significant spot of heat originating from the location of the GPU. This was not present in my experience with the Gigabyte laptop.
What’s probably even more impressive is that the laptop stayed cool, and didn’t need to overly exert its cooling system to do so. Often fans will approach jet engine-like levels of noise while trying to keep a laptop with a strong GPU cool, but the Aero 15 remained almost entirely quiet throughout my marathon session. I was genuinely surprised by its ability to keep cool, and to do so without needing excessive help from overdriven cooling fans.
Gigabyte Aero 15 Key Specs (as tested)
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Long battery life
As previously mentioned, my longest single gaming session with the Gigabyte Aero 15 was approximately 3.5 hours. I played this session with the laptop unplugged and on battery power, and that is how long I was able to play before my battery ran out.
I’m pretty impressed with this performance—3.5 hours is a healthy battery life for constant in-game action. When outside of gaming and performing normal day-to-day tasks such as surfing the internet, the battery life is closer to seven or eight hours. Again this is certainly a decent amount of time for a single battery charge.
On a side note, I’m also happy to report that the power adapter itself has a USB port built in. This is a great bonus as the extra port can be used for tasks such as charging your mobile device without taking up one of the valuable ports on the laptop itself.
A few more welcome aesthetics and features
The Gigabyte Aero 15’s size and weight aren’t the only pleasing aspects of its design. It also features a razor-thin 5mm bezel. This gives the panel an ultra-sleek look, and is a big part of the reason why the dimensions of its chassis are able to remain so small. And speaking of the panel, the laptop offers a full HD IPS panel with 144Hz refresh rate.
Of course if you’re like me and you prefer to plug your gaming laptop into a monitor display when at home, the Aero 15 has you covered here too. It can support up to 3 external 4K displays via its HDMI 2.0, mini DP 1.4, and Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The laptop also features a full keyboard with per-key backlit LED lighting. RGB fusion software allows for complete customization of more that 16.7 million colours. By default it comes out of the box sporting a fun and colourful pattern of rotating lights and colours for each key.
A great choice in gaming laptop
I’m a laptop gamer, and I’ve been very loyal to the brand I’ve used for the past 8 years. That said, I was seriously impressed during my time with the Gigabyte Aero 15. I can definitely see myself considering a Gigabyte product when my next upgrade comes due.
With its impressive power, a then lightweight design, and an uncanny ability to stay cool during marathon gaming sessions, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Gigabyte Aero 15 to any PC gamer.
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