Gigabyte Aero 14 (7700HQ, GTX 1060) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Breezy marathon runner. The Aero 14 is Gigabyte's first attempt at a mobile gaming laptop. The recipe for this seems quite simple, really. Start with high end hardware, a well-made aluminium case, add a WQHD display and season to taste with a surprisingly capable battery. This much we can tell already: it performs very well but even this jack of all trades doesn't come without compromises.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-Aero-14-7700HQ-GTX-1060-Laptop-Review.211666.0.html

[SimonAB]

Puts the Blade to shame if you ask me.

[Almog]

I think the major problem is lack of thunderbolt 3 connection.
This is the only think razer blade is better

[AC]

No TB3 is a dealbreaker, unfortunately. No USB power delivery and only one type-c port are a shame, too. The Razer Blade does look better (though not sure if that supports USB PD, the blade stealth does anyway) and is still smaller in width and height.

[IB]

Any reason why the Cinebench R15 OpenGL score was omitted? It would be helpful to see the full Cinebench score to determine whether any throttling occurs under load.

[Gary]

Hardly the first venture into lightweight gaming notebooks. I have owned 3 gigabyte p34 models from their first 3 years ago and all were about as powerful as any 14" sub 2kg notebook could be and easily on par with any Razor.. I guess they didnt have neon lights so you dont consider them gaming notebooks..  Infact their power, aesthetics and weight were perfect for 3d modelling and business presentations on the road..

The Aero almost follows that theme but quite frankly I would be happy to sacrifice the large battery for the additional SSD space or reduced weight I had in the P34 range..

I am rarely more than 2 hours from a power outlet and happy to reduce weight for the hours I might be in transit.

On a side note why don't notebook manafacturers allow us to plugin in external batteries so common on our smart phones?

[dthrp]

Excellent. It almost looks like a fresh start for portable power laptops.
I assume the next update for NBC's top "Lightweight Gaming" list will place the Aero 14 within the top 3.
Not to say there isn't any room for improvement.
Instead of USB type-C gen 1, HDMI 2.0 and miniDP 1.2, they could've put two full-lane TB3 and the latest miniDP 1.4 standard.
Modular designs, such as a removable battery and extra ram and ssd slots are always welcome.
I'm mostly disappointed there isn't an option for a Full HD display with better contrast, brightness and color gamut. A lot of people, like me, will definitely sacrifice some things solely for battery longevity.

[toddf]

Personally I'm looking for something with a quad core CPU and outstanding battery life, and there just aren't that many choices, only XPS15, Macbook Pro 15, then this. BTW, there's an older and cheaper i7-6700HQ+GTX965M model, with two m.2 SSD slots and the other stuff mainly unchanged; I think this model deserves better rating if we put it into the Multimedia category.

[Sam Medley]

This is definitely the laptop for road warriors that like to game. Design is nice and unassuming (if you get the black model), performance is great, keyboard is good, and the battery life is insane. I can't remember the last time I saw a laptop with a capable GPU and hit over 5 hours on the WiFi test, let alone over 8 like this one.

Definitely a strong contender for my next notebook. I'm glad Gigabyte is taking this direction, and I hope other manufacturers will follow suit.

[Zack]

Great review. I was worried about the build quality and the longevity of the laptop but not anymore. A Spanish reseller is offering the Aero 14 with the i7 6700HQ, GTX 965M 2GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SATA3 SSD, 1080p IPS panel and Windows 10 Home for 1350 Euros. A perfect pick for me since it's extremely light, and fan noise shouldn't be an issue since I use bluetooth headsets while casually sitting in loud cafés. 8)

[flaming_motion]

I think your Razer Blade scores are off. Here's mine: 11575 in Fire Strike, you're getting like 800 lower.

[dthrp]

Looking forward to reviews of the upcoming Aero 15 and the Asus Zenbook Pro :)

[Earl]

Looks like a great notebook.  Not having TB3 support I think was a mistake (fixed on the Aero 15), but considering there aren't that many affordable TB3 solutions, I'm okay with it.  However, considering the price, I would have like to have seen the SSD as an NVMe, not the slower SATA speeds.  Definitely a better price point than the Aero 15, so hopefully it'll drop some during the next few months.

[That tech guy]

I want to compare aero 15 and aero 14. Does anybody have display response time of these laptops besides notebookchexk results? What about battery life of aero 14 and 15. Notebookcheck messed up I think. I dont think that there is a 2 hour difference in websuring test and 5 hours in idle plus the aero 14 has x1440 that just do not any sense.

[Alex Aus]

Old post now I know, but I just had my Aero 14 refunded here in Australia due to a series of issues. A few negatives that impacted me:

• Mediocre touchpad is a bit of a chore to use
• My battery life never exceeded 7 hours useable, despite efforts to improve it
• Keyboard is great, but twice I had a semi-responsive key that required repairs.
• The Gigabyte software is a mess, and unless you want fans running all the time you need to have it installed. I personally don't like a big glossy popup to say volume up, when windows already tells me...

It's a great laptop, but I'll be steering clear of the exciting-looking 15X purely based off my experiences with the inconsistent build quality.