Aero 15
XA OLED APC
OLED is the new black, but is this screen tech a
good fit for ultraportable gaming laptops?
G
igabyte’s Aero 15
XA is the first
laptop we’ve seen
to utilise an
AMOLED screen and while
our expectations were
high, the 15.6-inch 4K
display is somehow even
better than we could have
imagined. Whether you’re
in the depths of a Metro:
Exodus tunnel or floating
above the Total War:
Warhammer 2 campaign
table it’s hard not to be
impressed by the distinct
vibrancy of this Xrite
Pantone-certified colour
calibrated AMOLED screen.
One of the coolest things
about OLED for gaming is
the extremely low (sub 1ms)
latency. Unfortunately, the
Aero 15 XA OLED display
only runs at 60Hz, so anyone
needing an ultrafast
competitive screen will
have to look elsewhere.
While it would have been
nice to see a faster panel,
even if you get the Aero 15
YA with an RTX 2080 GPU,
improvements on general
working tasks against its
predecessor. The Aero 15 XA
OLED with a RTX 2070 GPU
managed to get between 49
and 75 fps on Ghost Recon:
Wildlands and Middle
Earth: Shadow of War
respectively, using 1080p
Ultra settings. If you
increase the resolution to
4K you generally see frame
rates between 20 and 30 fps,
allowing you to just play
new titles if you tweak a few
things. Fortunately the
OLED display still looks
excellent at FullHD
resolution, so the lower
specced models still get
great colour benefits from
the new display.
We’ve spoken a lot about
other features, but the
actual design of the Aero 15
has been entirely reworked
too, featuring a new metal
top-shell, reengineered
keyboard surround and
tweaked vent design. The
keyboard keys feel nice and
responsive, the trackpad isyou’d struggle to get more
than 60fps on UHD Ultra
settings, so there’s no real
need for high refresh 4K
OLED on a laptop just yet.
The Aero 15 OLED we
tested came with an Intel
Core i7-9750H CPU (which
can be upgraded to a Core
i9-9980HK), 16GB of R AM
and a Nvidia RTX 2070 GPU,
for a total cost of around
$3,799. Adding the i9
processor will set you back
an additional $600, or
alternatively you can keep
the i7, double the R AM to
32GB and bump the GPU to
an RTX 2080 for $4,799
total. This definitely puts
the Aero 15 at the pricey end
of the spectrum, but if
you’re happy to pair back
the gaming performance
you can actually nab it for as
little as $2,999 when
configured with a GTX
1660Ti.
Performance was as
expected, with the updated
9th generation CPU offering
minor performancesmooth and there’s a number
pad, fingerprint reader and
physical webcam shutter to
appease the privacy
conscious. Battery life was
impressive managing four
hours and 20 minutes in the
demanding PCMark 8 battery
benchmark, which means you
should get close to a full
working day from it.
The Aero series is just cm
thick and weighs just 2kg, so
it fits neatly within the
ultraportable gaming laptop
category. You can get gaming
laptops with similar specs for
up to $700 less, but you’ll have
to sacrifice a little on
portabilityandbattery life, or
settleforan8thgeneration
CPU. Joel BurgessVerdic t
A competitively priced offering with a
uniquely vibrant screen, powerful
components and a solid battery life.(SCORE)
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GIGABYTE AERO 15
XA OLED 2548.3
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XA OLED 04:20
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GIGABYTE AERO 15
XA OLED 1515.1
GIGABYTE AERO 15
X9 (I7) 1519.8
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