NEW Aero 14 w/ GTX1060

I actually have the UX303, but the non Nvidia version so the same keyboard. I wish I could give you a detailed review but honestly I'm not much of keyboard guy and I haven't used either for any significant writing or typing. I would say I like both equally but the Aero does feel like a more "quality" keyboard. The Aero has obviously deeper key travel but it's still an Ultrabook so it's not hugely deep. I would say the Aero has a good quality feel when typing and it's responsive. People tend to not like keyboards with short key travel but I kind of liked that the ZenBook had a clicky, short key travel

So, all in all, I like them equally :/

 

I got my v6 in orange, and I'm trying to set up a dual boot between Windows and ArchLinux. Unfortunately I'm having difficulty getting the installer to boot in UEFI mode. I've tried both arch and ubuntu ISOs, both cannot find the rootfs on the USB drive. I used the ubuntu installer in CSM mode to make the partitions using GParted beore installing, but nothing works in UEFI mode. I've done the "Restore Windows 7 defaults" option in the BIOS and disabled the Nvidia GPU, yet I can't get it to boot.

Anyone else had this issue?

EDIT: Using rufus.akeo.ie to burn the ISO (also tried to use dd on my X220 with same results) to a SanDisk 64GB USB.

EDIT 2: Got it to work simply by switching out the flash drive. USE USB 2.0! That's what fixed it.

USB 3.0 flash drives WILL NOT WORK.

 

Arrived today! Here are a couple quick cellphone pictures. It looks a good bit larger than the Blade in person, and the difference in cooling capacity is also very apparent:

 

I received my brand spanking new Aero 14 with Kabylake on Wednesday 11th Jan (already!)... and I'm now in the process of returning it for RMA.
The spacebar registers the moment I exert any force on it. That means I' m typing sentences lik e this , even when resting my fingers on it.

At the same time, I received my Alienware 15 from a December 26th (boxing day) sale, and while it's ginormous and the battery life is under 6 hours, the software drivers and utilities is much better.
Here are some things I found about the Aero:

1. The Elan touchpad drivers support multitouch, but they don't offer any customizability. Four finger swipe up to open Explorer? That's silly. The AW by default opens up Windows task view. Other gestures that should be linked to Windows 10 features, aren't, and you can't even change it. I can't seem to find good software to replace the gestures. Meanwhile, the AW uses synaptics. Therefore...
2. The trackpad is not very good. I expect to use the Aero on the go because of the battery life and form factor, but I feel I would have to bring a mouse every time. Cursor is jumpy and finger registration is hit and miss. Mind you, I'm coming from a MacBook Pro, and Surface 4 Pro (which BTW has 'Windows precision touchpad' drivers). Even the AW is pretty good.
3. Questionable keyboard quality - I'm worried my next Aero will have keys fail on me, but I hope it's a once-off occurrence. Yay for two year warranty, I suppose.
4. (not necessarily the Aero itself) The Gigabyte 'hardware management' software yields its own on-screen displays whenever you're adjusting the volume and brightness. Therefore, you see two OSD - one from Windows, and the other from Gigabyte. Not sure how to disable either one, but if anyone can enlighten me, that would be great.
5. When under high load, the fan spins at a higher frequency sound. You definitely would have to game with headphones or put the laptop in a closet and route KVM wires from it.
6. When I used Windows' Factory Settings feature instead of Gigabytes, it removed all their drivers and crap.
7. Gaming macro keys software is not intuitive.
8. While it's good that they have a drivers update utility, it can only handle one download and install at a time, which means multiple resets.
9. A 1060 in such a slim form factor, is an amazing feat of engineering. And the 94W battery - thank you Gigabyte for making a gaming PC that you can also bring into a board room meeting without stares.

TL: DR
Hardware and form factor for Aero is incredible, marred by poor software.

I'll probably just have to live with Aero's quirks as I have a few day's time to return the AW to Dell free of charge.

 

@spike109u

Could you clarify what you mean by the difference in cooling capacity? I'm assuming you mean the Aero is cooler than the Blade, given the Blade's temperature-infamy?

I'm actually kind of surprised by how much bigger the Aero looks in those photographs.

@Amfomy

Thanks a ton for the writeup

 

Is the trackpad that bad? Also if I get a reseller to repasted does that affect an RMA or warranty claim?

 

must be personal preference I found the oposite with my aero, i hated the AW15&17 track pads and much preferred the aero one.

all that extra weight of the AW15 and what does it really achieve in terms of cooling performance ? = not a lot.

and the shocking battery life, the only things alienwares have going for them at the moment i think (just an opinion);

The 13 oled (wow factor 9)
The returns process is easy (good job as so many have to return
The extra Nvme slots

 

I was wondering the same thing about that cooling capacity comment.

Those photos have a bit (actually more than a bit) of fish-eye effect going on.. the Aero looks like a trapezoid lol...
Aero dimensions: 13.19" (w) x 9.84" (d) x 0.78" (h)
Blade dimensions: 13.60" (w) x 9.30" (d) x 0.70" (h)

.

 

I've had a chance to test and can now say the Aero runs much cooler than the Blade, but that was a comment about the physical appearance of the two laptops. Although both have the exhaust in the same place, the vents are larger and less obstructed on the Aero. Also, the Aero appears to have larger heatsinks in general, and has more ventilation underneath as well. About a third of the bottom of the Aero is vents, while the Blade only has openings where the fan inlets are. So my initial side-by-side impression was that the Aero looked to be designed much better in terms of cooling.

The Aero isn't quite rectangular, the top of the display and front edge of the laptop have slight angles going towards the corners. The Blade on the other hand is all straight lines, with the rounded corners. I admit the pictures could be better though, took those with my cellphone immediately after unboxing.

 

Thanks for clarifying Spike109u, much appreciated.

Still hovering between choosing between the Gigabyte Aero 14WV7 or the MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro-069.

 

I sent my Aero back to the store today, for them to send it back to Gigabyte for RMA processing. I should receive it within 2 weeks, which is frustrating because it wasn't even a week old.
While I had the laptop, I did some further tests and tried to fix my woes, and with great success:

• I was able to customise gestures to my heart's content via software called MultiSwipe (trialware). I was also able to bump up the sensitivity which was what was causing the misshaps initially.
• I could also hide Windows' OSD (volume and brightness visuals) using software developed by someone also annoyed by this: http://wordpress.venturi.de/?p=1#more-1 Yay.
• Overwatch yielded 45-60fps on native resolution, ultra high settings and 100% scaling. I didn't notice the fan noise too much, because I was amazed at this feat.
• Heaven benchmark:

• I'll happily accept my Aero when it's returned, and replace the default drive with an also newly acquired Samsung NVME 1TB 960 Evo drive, which was destined to this laptop before I had to send it back for a keyboard repair.

 

Aero 14 all day long. Battery and just an overall better laptop. Plus the screen too.


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On the fence about ordering this laptop (Kaby lake w/ 1060). I have a feeling I will make the plunge sooner than later. Can anyone tell me how much the AC Adapter weighs?

 

Hey guys,

Just a couple of questions:

1. Could someone please tell me the max CPU temperature after running P95 for 15 minutes with stock paste?
2. Could someone please tell me the max GPU temperature after looping Fire Strike for 15 minutes with stock paste?
3. How many hours of actual battery life will I get from it if I use it for web browsing?
4. Does it have the trademark stuttering/lag most Optimus laptops have? If yes, what is the work-around?

Thanks in advance!

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3, I get around 6-7 hours from it of normal office use. For me that is a lot of SSH/RDP/web (chrome)

4, gigabyte runs a file called emptyproject11 in the background that keeps the nvidia GPU active so windows doesn't stutter like it does on other Optimus systems. I've heard of other people using an nvidia tool to do this and work around that stutter on other systems.

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Thanks for the info! What temps do you get?

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I haven't really tested like you've asked but overwatch will show 75 for the GPU (I think) when played for hours and I've clocked my skylake at around 85 while gaming or doing video transcoding. That is with the fans set to gaming mode.

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Thanks for the help!

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Got my Aero 14 (skylake/1060) last week. Upgraded from a Sager 7338 (Clevo w230ss) that I bought based on advice from this forum. I bought the lowest spec model from Xotic with the 256gb SSD and 8gb of RAM. I added a 500gb Samsung 960evo nvme drive and basic crucial 8gb/2400mhz stick. In the end I think I paid about $1750 but it seems worth it to me to have a solid NVME drive and to get 16gb of memory in a dual channel configuration. I was worried about the process of upgrading the harddrive as there is only 1 slot for any kind of storage but the included Gigabyte USB smartbackup program worked like a charm. The machine hums along nicely now and I’ve put it through its paces.

Running a torture test off prime95 and furmark together yielded great results. Thermals on this machine are on point. After running the test for 20 minutes, the cores were holding steady at 86/81/86/82c with the gpu at 70c. The CPU hit some high temps initially with turboboost but they really settled out at the temps above and I saw a nice steady 29x multiplier which indicates no thermal throttling even with this crazy dual load. Just running Prime alone for 20 minutes came back with temps between 67-74c with clocks holding at 31x. Power draw while running the torture test was 145w at the wall socket so it looks like Gigabyte sized their adapter(150w) just right.


Firestrike scores stock were around 8900 with the gpu once again right around 70c. I overclocked the gpu by 180/300 and got a score of 9389. To me this is rather amazing since I am still happy with my desktop which scores in the same range with an older top of the line msi 290x lightning which consumes 290w all by itself. Crazy that my laptop scores in the same range at less than half the power consumption. Progress!


This machine has incredible battery life. This was one of the biggest selling points for me. I was able to undervolt the CPU by -125mw on the core/cache/igpu without issues. I feel that I could’ve gone further but I don’t really see the point. I did a few other tweaks such as manually shutting down the emptyproject process (consumes 10-15w at the wall socket by itself!) and configuring the power settings for maximum efficiency. I’m seeing a realistic 8-9 hour battery life while writing papers in word and reading PDFs. I haven’t run the battery down yet but after watching 2 hour long shows on one flight, I had 86% battery left with windows showing 9h 39m left which seems ridiculous. I’ve been able to play older RPGs (Pillars of Eternity) for 150 minutes or so which is fantastic. I haven’t attempted to play high end games yet but I imagine if I tweaked it enough, I could get Deux Ex to run for 120 minutes without issue.


Overall, I am very happy with the performance of the machine. I really had a hard time deciding which machine to buy between the Alienware 13r3, Aorus x3v6, Razer Blade, and XPS 15 9550/9560 but I think I picked the best possible machine. The build quality is quite good. Everything feels quite solid. The quality of the moniter is nice but doesn’t compare the the OLED in the Alienware. I feel that it is as nice as the Aorus/Razer/XPS. I don’t do video editing so I’m not very picky, the OLED was the standout though. Overall quality on the Aero is not as nice as any of the others mentioned but the machine certainly feels high end. It’s very sturdy and there isn’t much wobble that I read about in the 970m model Aero. Getting into the technicals, the thermals are dead nuts spot on (looking at you Alienware/Razer/XPS) and the battery life is absolutely amazing. Those aspects really put the Aero over the top for me. I hope to get several good years from this machine.

 

Thanks for the great review! Those temperatures are especially encouraging given what some of the 1060 machines with poorer cooling produce. What was your battery life with emptyproject running, since people say that it prevents Optimus lag?

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Only one available right now is the one with a SATA SSD. anyone know what the make of the ssd is? I plan on getting an nvme 960 pro to go with it.

 

It's a lite on brand drive. We posted the models toward the middle of the thread

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Sooo envious of that battery. I'd say your laptop is scoring quite low even if it is in an aero. I think new drivers if you hadn't already done so would of increased it. And it should be about at least what you overclocked it too from what I seen in the pictures.
Did I mention that battery? 2 hours use and STILL 86%
So jealous.


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Yeah the score is a bit low. The drivers are current, I just had the GeForce Experience 3.0 running which kinda kills the score. Ran it again with that uninstalled and got better results. I'm pretty sure I could get another couple hundred or so with some not-for-daily-use tweaks but tbh, I'm really happy with how this thing runs my games.

 

Bloody hell. Was that with overclock or just normal with updated drivers?


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Nice review!

how is the noise during gaming?
lets say if you run a game on 1080 resolution locked at 60fps?
what are the temps?
can you compare it to other gaming laptops if you had any before aero?

Thanks)

 

What do you use to undervolt/overclock your Aero?
Those battery specs are mighty impressive, considering it's from a Skylake. I can't wait to get my Kabylake Aero out of repair (it may take a while, apparently because it's Gigabyte), and when it's in my hands, I'll be doing battery tests for those interested in how much of an improvement Kabylake is.
Not sure whether emptyproject11 is worth the sacrifice of battery life, either.

 

For undervolting your CPU, use either Throttlestop (if you're a more advanced user) or Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. For overclocking your GPU, use EVGA Precision XOC.

 

Running overclocked by 160/270. The bump in score was from disabling geforce experience and actually pushing the clocks down from where I had them. I had it a little higher but my card starts getting unstable and the scores start going down.

It can get a little noisy during gaming. It really depends on the game. The most demanding game on my computer is Deux Ex and I didn't find the noise all that objectionable. According to my iphone dB meter it registers around 42-45dB during heavy gaming with the fans set to "gaming". My previous laptop (sager 7338) was quite a bit louder (48-50dB) and the fans on that thing would ramp up all the time for no reason. The aero by comparison is silent. The Alienware 13r3 is quieter but if you run it at stock settings, it has heat problems. You have to turn the fans up on that one too and it gets as loud as the aero. Using the fan utility tool included with the laptop, the fans at 100% registered 52dB on my phone. They are very loud at 100% but they didn't get to that level even 20 minutes into my torture test.

I used throttlestop for undervolting. My airplane (to get power consumption under 90w) setting is disabled turbo and -125mw on core/cache/igpu. My battery setting lowers the max multiplier to 20x with the same undervolt. I'd get more aggressive on the battery setting but realistically, all I need is 6-7 hours of productivity and I'm getting that easily.

 

The 9960 FS score was

With cords attached, it's 1lb 4.8oz. My travel adapter (newer version of iGo compact 90w) is 13.6oz. The main brick was tripping aircraft power outlets so I had to figure out a way to game for 8 hours straight on long flights.

 

Current situation: I had to send in my 1 week old aero for RMA as well. Pretty sad.
Problem: The screen started flickering with a high frequency after a short time of use. It felt like one of these old CRT screens running at too less Hz. Very hard to use the screen like this.
It was getting worse with activity on the screen. Especially changing from dark to light backgrounds / windows increased the flickering. I was able to exclude software causes, as the flickering persisted in the BIOS. I of course also tried win reset/drivers/adaptive brightness/energy saving options with no success. Really looks like a faulty screen panel. I hope they'll switch it out for a new one.

Just out of interest, is there any Aero14 vX disassembly video showing how the screen is mounted/connected to the MB?

I feel for you


Concerning Benchmarks,
I got about 9600 in Firestrike with the newest drivers.
CPU Temps were in the mid 80s, with some undervolting they were in the higher 70s with just 2-3 degree difference at most between each core.

 

Okay, so I was able to try out the aero 14 v6 after coming back from my trip. ( I thought this would run out of stock very quickly and did not expect kabylake refresh a week after my purchase T_T) I am envious of that 4k on chip encoding and display with battery....


Regardless, I was amazed by the battery performance! I got around 10 hours on battery saver, silent fan and 40% watching a two hour movie and nonstop usage reading pdf and word for studying.
I am coming from a tablet pc of 11.1 inch samsung ativ 700t pro so the keyboard takes some time and I sometimes press the macro keys, a little bit annoying but the feeling of the keys are overall very smooth and clear.
The mousepad does not detect very very fine movements but I can scroll up and down and drag things over smoothly from any starting position. Overall, for a student, this is perfect.

The laptop runs cool and the screen is very clean without any blacklight bleed/flickering/dead pixels. I had my laptop from GentechPC when they had repaste and screen warranty for free. I think they did an amazing job! They did ship somewhat late though and return policy is strict with customized pc.

I got 677 from my first run in cinebench r15 multi core.

I did not do 1080p unigine benchmark (I am new to high end laptops so never did benchmarks b4 till now
but this is what I got. I ran the program for around 15minutes before clicking the benchmark button which I did not know I had to press manually to start the benchmark. The GPU was around 73~75 ish.
I don't play high end games most of the time and I saw the GPU around 63~65 for starcraft 2 and heroes of the storm or csgo with normal fan setting.

If there is anything I want from future versions of aero would be in addition to continuous additions of better laptop stuff like gpu/cpu/speakers/storage etc, much smaller bezel on the display. I really don't like this tall bezel below the screen. I really like the infinity edge display from dell xps.

Anyways, I am enjoying this laptop and I plan to use it for several years!

 

Interesting. I hadn't thought about the power draw being a problem on aircraft. If you weren't gaming, I assume the draw from the stock adapter wouldn't be enough to cause a trip?

 

If the battery was depleted at all when plugged in at first it would try to draw full power no matter what you're doing and could trip a breaker. If you're doing low power stuff starting from a full charge it might be OK. I bet the seat inverters are around 75w max.

 

much appreciated. some more questions)

what distance to the laptop you keep iphone to measure it and how it was directed?
in completely quite room, how many dB you see on the dB-meter?

thanks!

 

Same. I find the track pad to be very precise. Much better than I was even expecting (though I figured it would be fine) cause it's not glass. It's just really smooth even on such a high DPI screen

 

Ehhhhh, I don't feel like running those tests... Out of the box though, I get 5 to 6 hours of web browsing. Maybe a little better, I haven't exactly used it for an entire day of browsing. It kinda has lag but I think putting it on high performance mode eliminates it. It's not bad enough that I'd trade it for the battery. I can't say I've had huge noticable problem with lag overall but it's there on some level

 

For the guy with insane battery longevity out there, is undervolting what really extended it? Or is it some other power management stuff you did?

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It's pretty loud but I don't think it's much louder than my ps4 though. That's with the laptop propped up on a kickstand for better cooling. On a useful note, I found that setting the power mode to power saver will make it run quieter and slower (I was getting crappy frames on Wolfenstein and found out I left it on power saver). So if you're out or something and want to game quietly at a cost, you can. I've been using to play fallout 4 in my living room on my lap unplugged. It's about 40-30 or so fps in 2k on ultra but it's worth it for not burning my self and listening to the fans

 

Thanks for the info!

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Not that guy, but undervolting only helps a little with battery life for normal usage. It's more about cooling.

I found the power management settings are what make a huge difference in longevity. Disable EmptyProject11.exe so you can use the Intel graphics, adjust the power plan (ex. passive cooling), enable the Windows battery saver to start at 100%, and use the silent or a custom fan curve. Disabling EmptyProject alone will make a big difference (note that Gigabyte's SmartManager software will try to run it automatically). I "only" got about 6 hours of battery life out of the box. After making the above changes, I get around 10.

 

I don't know what Gigabyte is thinking with eschewing TB3 from both the X3 v7 anv Aero 14 ://///////////////////

 

They're thinking that they can hit a more competitive price point without it, and most people don't see it as a deal breaker.

Personally I'm happy to save the $ and not have it.

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Every laptop in the X3+v7's price range ($2000+) has TB3. It's competing against the Razer Blade 14, GS63, and (to some extent) the XPS 15.

 

I should have highlighted that I was specifically referencing the case of the Aero 14.

 

Honestly, what do you need TB3 for? The Aero has an already powerful GPU with the 1060, no need to plug in another external one. For external storage, USB 3.1 has you covered.

 

Any desktop-replacement should be compatible with my eGPU. That's why I have it. The 1060 also isn't that powerful. It can run most of today's games at 1080p, but will not be future proof. I also do not want to subject my laptops to the combined heat of high CPU + GPU loads, as over time the heat kills the battery.

 

I don't think I would put the Aero 14 in that category though, it's definitely more on the portable side than on the desktop replacement one. I bought an Aero because I wanted an everyday laptop with good battery life that also has enough graphics horsepower to play games when I go somewhere. I don't think there's much demand for compatibility with external graphics in this category either. There seems to be much more attraction on either side instead, either for beefy dedicated gaming laptops, or for ultraportables that don't have discrete graphics.

Price and battery life are the two main reasons I went with this laptop over another Blade, so I think Gigabyte has the right idea.

 

Any laptop with an HQ-series CPU would be a desktop replacement for me. That's the only problem with the U-series laptops: the 2 cores 4 threads can't keep up with a proper chip.

 

Agreed. It's quite silly not to have support for TB3 and external GPU's these days.

I might even prefer a stronger CPU (HK series) and a weaker GPU (or no dedicated GPU), but with TB3 and support for external graphics as I don't really need a strong GPU on the go, but battery life and portability.