Gigabyte has completely redesigned their Aero series laptops this year, and while some changes
are of course nice and welcome, other changes aren’t so great and you need to know about
them, and I’ll also cover the new Aorus gaming laptops to find out what’s new this
year.
The new model that I’m personally most interested in is the new Aero 16.
Gigabyte has offered the Aero 15 and Aero 17 at 15 and 17 inches respectively for years
now, but now they’re getting on board the 16” train with the Aero 16.
This new laptop uses a 16:10 display compared to the 16:9 panels in the Aero 15 and 17,
so more content vertically which is ideal for creators.
There are two resolution options with either UHD+ AMOLED or QHD+ 165Hz MiniLED which may
also be good for gaming on the side.
The Aero 16 uses Intel 12th gen processors with DDR5 memory and up to Nvidia RTX 3080
Ti graphics, though there are of course lower specced options with i7 or 3070 or 3060 graphics
too.
Something else that’s interesting is the camera is now above the screen rather than
the nose cam below the screen that previous Aero models have had, a welcome improvement,
plus it’s got IR for Windows Hello face unlock, something the Aero series didn’t
have before.
The screen bezels are apparently smaller than ever, so the camera section kind of sticks
out a bit above the display, which should also give you something to grab hold of when
opening the lid.
Now the port selection is where things start to fall apart for me.
The left just has air exhaust vents, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port and 3.5mm audio combo
jack, while the right has two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, one of which can be used to charge
the laptop with 100 watts, more air exhausts, followed by the power input at the back, and
that’s it as the back is also just air exhausts, no extra ports here.
If you want more I/O, Gigabyte includes the Aero Hub with the laptop.
This includes an ethernet port, USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, mini DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0
support with a Type-C adapter.
I’m really not a fan of this personally, it just feels like a bit of an Apple move,
but even Apple have recently gone back to adding ports including the SD card slot.
I guess at least at the very minimum the hub is actually included with the laptop, but
I feel like it’s still just another thing that you’re going to have to remember to
carry with you and have bag space for - assuming of course you do actually need the additional
functionality of those ports.
Interestingly the Aero 16 doesn’t appear to have a numpad like the older Aero 15, but
to be fair this new 16” chassis actually ends up being smaller than last year’s Aero
15 in all dimensions, and the new 16” model has front facing speakers on either side of
the keyboard, so that seems to be the tradeoff.
Personally I’d be ok with slightly larger if we had the I/O back, but hey maybe I’m
the minority, let me know.
The Aero 16 still has the large 99Wh battery like others in the Aero series, two memory
slots and two PCIe Gen 4 storage slots inside for user upgrades.
Now the larger Aero 17 appears to be redesigned as it looks very similar to the Aero 16 that
we just went through.
It’s all silver with the same port options, the camera is still above the display unlike
last gen, it also gets front facing speakers, but due to the extra space there’s room
for a numpad on this one, and the touchpad is 25% larger compared to last gen.
The 4K 16:9 panel has been upgraded to miniLED with a 120Hz refresh rate and more than 1000
nits bright with more interesting specs that look great for creators, and perhaps even
decent for some gaming on the side.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the older Aero 17 last year just had a regular 4K 60Hz
IPS panel, granted it was fairly bright with great color gamut, but this move to higher
refresh miniLED may be a nice improvement.
The Aero 17 is available with similar CPU and GPU options as the 16, and thankfully
Gigabyte has actually published the GPU power limits rather than hide them.
Unfortunately the 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti run at lower 80 watt power limit, but this isn’t
too surprising as the older 11th gen Aero models were the same.
It’s a thinner chassis, it is what it is, but at least there’s up to 15 watts of dynamic
boost power available if the CPU isn’t being smashed.
Again port selection is where things take a turn for this promising creator focused
laptop.
Like the Aero 16, we’ve basically just got 3 Type-C ports and the included Aero hub.
Last generation the Aero 17 already had all of the ports on offer from the hub built straight
into it.
Not to mention that the Aero series has had an SD card slot for ages, which is one of
the reasons that I personally like using it.
Now it’s just completely gone and it’s not even available with the hub, so for me
that would definitely be kind of annoying if I was traveling to an event like CES and
I needed to dump the footage off my camera to the laptop.
The Aero 15 seems to have been rebranded to the Aero 5, the chassis looks quite similar
though there are differences, such as in the air exhaust vents, oh and based on the provided
renders, the keys appear to have all keys and secondary functions illuminated by the
backlighting, so I hope that’s the case, as the Aero series hasn’t had that for a
while now.
The new Aero 5 is also thicker, but this allows the GPU power limits to be on the higher side
compared to what we saw with the thinner and older Aero 15 design.
The biggest crime of all this generation seems to be that the RGB keyboard lighting is gone
and replaced with just white lighting, so there’s going to be less performance…
The Aero 5 doesn’t spec as high as the higher tier 16 and 17 models, so Gigabyte have clearly
moved the Aero 15 into this 5 model to keep it as a lower tier option.
It’s still available with an i7-12700H, so a 14 core 20 thread processor, but no i9
option like the others.
The GPU also goes up to 3070 Ti rather than 3080 Ti like the others, and it uses DDR4
memory instead of the newer DDR5 like the others, maybe this is just cheaper for them
or something.
As far as the port situation goes though, I prefer this much more compared to the newer
Aero 16 and 17, no need for dongles plus you’ve still got the SD card slot.
The chassis of the Aero 5 actually looks extremely similar to the new Aorus 5, so it wouldn’t
surprise me if they’re basically the same just with different screens and other small
changes.
The Aorus has higher refresh 1080p screen options compared to the 4K 60Hz OLED in the
Aero 5, which makes sense as the Aorus lineup is Gigabyte’s gaming range.
Although the Aorus 5 has been updated to Intel’s new 12th gen processors, it still uses older
DDR4 memory like the Aero 5, and the Aorus 5 also isn’t using any of Nvidia’s newer
3070 or 3080 Ti GPUs.
The GPUs it does use are full wattage though, so I’d expect gaming performance to do well,
however Gigabyte haven’t specified whether or not the Aorus 5 has a MUX switch to disable
optimus.
Oh and the Aorus also still has an RGB keyboard, which I guess makes more sense compared to
the Aero, gamers need the extra FPS from RGB lighting more.
Stepping up from the Aorus 5, we’ve got the Aorus 15, though interestingly this actually
has less I/O compared to the Aorus 5, but hey still more than the Aero 16 and 17.
Fortunately like the newer Aero machines though, this generation the Aorus 15 moves the camera
above the screen, no nose cam here!
The Aorus 15 is available with 15.6” 1440p 165Hz or 1080p 360Hz display, 12th gen i7
processor, DDR5 or DDR4 memory options and Nvidia RTX 3060, 3070 Ti or 3080 Ti graphics,
so higher specs in most regards compared to the lower tier Aorus 5, though again Gigabyte
haven’t made it clear whether or not this model has a MUX switch.
It’s interesting if the Aorus 15 is going to be available with both DDR4 and DDR5 options.
This’ll be the first laptop I’ve seen where that’s the case.
Now DDR4 and DDR5 sticks are physically incompatible, so it’s not going to be a case of one laptop
being able to run either DDR4 or DDR5.
I think it would mean that there would be two versions of the Aorus 15, one which supports
DDR4 and another which supports DDR5.
Either way, still pretty interesting and it might be a good way if I can get my hands
on both of them to compare DDR4 against DDR5, so we’ll see about that.
All of the usual components are upgradeable with the Aorus 15, including the two M.2 slots,
two memory slots and Wi-Fi 6e card.
Next up, the Aorus 17 is Gigabyte’s top end gaming model from this CES launch.
This model has a larger 17.3” screen, but according to the spec sheet there’s only
1080p 360Hz listed, but I’d be very surprised if there’s no 1440p options too as that
just makes more sense at the larger screen size in my opinion.
Otherwise GPU choice is the same as the smaller Aorus 15, though interestingly power limits
aren’t any higher for the higher tier GPUs despite the bigger chassis.
Inside again we’ve got a 99Wh battery, two PCIe Gen 4 storage slots, two DDR5-4800 memory
slots and Wi-Fi 6e, so quite a bit of upgradeability.
For the most part, these changes from Gigabyte are welcome and are great to see.
The new Aero laptops actually look pretty good, I just really wish that they kept the
original ports instead of using that hub design, but I suppose we’ll find out what that’s
actually like to use once I get the laptops in for review, so make sure you’re subscribed
for all of my upcoming laptop reviews.
Based on what Gigabyte just announced it sounds like I’ve got at least 6 models to cover.
For now you can check out the rest of the new laptops announced at CES 2022 in my coverage
over here, so I’ll see you in one of those videos next.