I finally made my choice. Earlier on I had to choose between the Aero 15 and the ROG G531GU. My old GL502VM has begun to show signs of age and struggle when I edit my videos on youtube and also bottlenecking on simple games like Dota. After weeks of comparing and advice from LYN and Brightstar staff in Lowyat Plaza, I finally chose the Aero 15 Classic WA. But after a final comparison between this Aero and the stronger Aero 15 Classic XA, I decided to go for the RM 7xx more expensive XA because of the better Panel (144hz to 240hz) and better graphics card (2060 to 2070).

So here’s my forum review on the Aero 15 Classic XA




On the side, it’s really thin but packs really solid specs


AERO 15 Classic-WA Key Specifications:
CPU : 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-9750H (2.6GHz-4.5GHz)
Display : Sharp FHD 240Hz 1920x1080 IPS anti-glare display LCD
Memory : 16GB (8x2) DDR4 2666MHz
GPU : NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2070 GDDR6 8GB
Storage : Intel 760P SSD 512GB
Battery : Li Polymer 94 battery pack
UHS-II SD Card Reader (aw yis!)


↑ HUGE Sticker to constantly remind you about the AERO 15 Classic key features:
All Intel inside, Microsoft Azure AI, SAMSUNG DRAM, Nahimic 3(what?), Killer Doubleshot Pro



Microsoft Azure AI
↑ When the AI is turned on, there are three modes to choose from, and the AI will do its thing. In other words, the AI studies user adjustments and configures accordingly:
★ Edge Learning: AI is enabled, but it is not connected to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The AI database used by users comes from this machine.
★ AI Azure Download: Open AI, users connect to Azure cloud, but user's settings will not be uploaded to Azure cloud.
★ AI Azure Download and Upload: Enable AI, users can connect to Azure cloud data, and upload user settings for big data learning.

The above instructions are found online. And I just follow and try.



↑ Next a quick video footage transfer test
The built-in UHS-II SD Card Reader is really fast. Using SDXC (read 285/write 180mb / s)
Transferred a single 8GB file out of my Sony A6300’s camera took about a minute so that’s pretty fast. Don’t need to purposely buy a RM200 card reader with fast transfer speeds (if you haven’t owned one already”


R15 1270


R20 2821
↑ Tested Cinebench, the results were pretty good. Was worried that the i7 would heat things up because of hyperthreading but that didn’t happen. Fans kicked in but wasn’t too audible. Definitely able to edit stuff on Premiere Pro and Filmora on 4K without any kicks.

Battery life:
Gigabyte claims up to 8 hours of battery life on a single charge thanks to a big 94Whr battery pack. I charged it overnight and started my day @ 100% from 9:30am. I purposely didn’t bring my charger out to see. My typical day is writing proposals, reviews and youtubing, and after going through a day of it and checking back home about 10:30pm I managed to still have 12%. I pretty much spent cumulatively about almost 6 hours with the screen on, including times I had to put it to sleep to go somewhere else to work again. Realistically, I’d say you’d get about 5 hours and 45mins on medium usage on a single charge. This was also with some battery saving efforts from Ai adjustments.






Software:
Gigabyte ControlCenter basically manages everything for you. From here you can:
- Update your drives to the latest including BIOS.
- Set RGB Profiles for your keyboard
- Set Fan speeds
- Set overall settings from a dashboard
- Toggle and customize your Pantone Display



Gaming:
Obviously with such a spec sheet the Aero should be able to perform as a gaming device. I mainly picked it for work and how thin and light it is. I own a fairly powerful desktop to game at home but when I’m out and I need to do my daily grind (This month I am all about Wolcen and Modern Warfare), the Aero is able to satiate my gaming needs. Here’s my performance on Wolcen, Online, Champions of Stormfall Mode Expedition (don’t forget to always be on the latest Nvidia Drivers!)



Overall, I was able to get around 90 – 120 FPS on high settings. It looms around 90 during large mob fights. It’s an understandably demanding game, and I play Online so latency can affect overall FPS. Also I’m sure eventually there will be even more graphic optimizations for this game so fingers crossed. Next will be Modern Warfare but I’ll probably share a little more on that during my full review on my website.




Overall :
AERO 15 Classic XA is a well-equipped PC carrying an ambitious All-Intel Inside label, complete from processor and matching SSD manufacturer. It has the recipe to be a great every day laptop, with high quality components such as Samsung RAM and Sharp(brand) IPS panels.

The Pantone Certified Display is helpful for those looking to the utmost color accuracy, and if that’s not your thing, you can always turn it off in Gigabyte ControlCentre and pick whatever Gerent that suits your eyeballs. I do notice the change in colors, with blacks being darker and more natural, and even the FB webpage blue looked different when looking on my PC monitor and on this screen.



On a single charge you’ll get as much longevity as a beefy spec-ed ultrabook, provided you make certain efforts such as turning off the RGB lightning or just keeping it to a dim, static profile. You can squeeze more out of it reducing the refresh rate to 60, but I am too lazy to make that effort. That 94Whr battery sure is something. And it doesn’t feel heavy to carry with one hand (about 2ish KG), kinda cool considering it’s high-end specs which I need to get accustomed to since my previous laptop was a gaming laptop and it was way heavier and bulkier to carry around.

Microsoft Azure AI is cool and all, learning how I do things and adjusting power along the way, but it’s not something I purposely bought it for, since all GB laptops have Azure AI pre-installed anyway.

RGB is gorgeous, and the keyboard is comfortable to type on. The keycaps are in-between glossy and matt, so oily fingers will definitely leave smudges. Just remember to bring a cloth to wipe if you can’t stand it!



Design is simple and minimal, definitely appeals to me, I don’t look for a sharp, intimidating design that most gaming laptops have these days. And I can finally use my lighter backpacks LOL.
Price I bought for: RM 7750
Where I bought : Brightstar Computer Plaza Lowyat
Free stuff I got: A felt Backpack (I really wished there were better designs)
A year of free Microsoft Office 365 (finally I am an adult with ori Office)
A sweaty hug from the sales guy

Worth it?
Invest the money for the longevity and durability. It used to be RM9K this lappie and since 10th gen Pc’s are going to still use RTX cards anyway might as well stay 9th gen. Warranty is 2 years serviced by Highpoint so no complaints there.

dats a pretty good price.. ditch that intel 760p nvme for a adata sx8200 1tb.. you be good to go

why ah? (for me to learn)

512gb where got enough nowadays.

1tb min and current for price/performance adata damn good.

How about Samsung

whats the power limit on the rtx2070?



Samsung 870 Evo is good but expensive. SX8200P is the best in performance to value

This post has been edited by pluginbaby: Mar 1 2020, 09:10 PM

oo ok thanks bro!


How about getting a notebook cooler? the stand up ones...do they actually work because of the heightened airflow ?

very nice review indeed.
Thanks bruh

nvidia power limit is based on temps

so no point even talking about it for a laptop.. it will hit the whatever the limit

if u are talking about the bios tdp limit on the card

he has to use GPUZ|Advanced|Nvidia Bios

but on all seriousness no point looking at it.. since the card will be clocking based on the ASIC binning with temps..
should be between 105-150watt.. afaik this is the max the laptop gpu can take
max-Q ones are all 80s

Thanks mang

yea im curious on the tdp limit. standard 2070 for mobile from what i see is 110. but who knows gigabyte set it to be 130ish or 150watt like what you highlighted (without bios tinkering) then thats a big big plus (if theres thermal headroom avail) compared to other 2070 laptops

yes, the power brick is like 240W. definitely possible up to 150W. Good lor for me lol

Get GPUZ
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/



show a screenshot of this...

TDP ... powerlimit is not how much power your gpu use ya..


This post has been edited by cstkl1: Mar 3 2020, 05:31 PM