Gigabyte Aero 14 i7-7700HQ and GTX 1050 Ti Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Laptops rarely come cheap, and when you’re looking for something that’s slim, reasonably light, and that still packs a powerful CPU and a decent gaming GPU, the price skyrockets quite quickly. Add to that a QHD display, and you’ll be paying a premium for the Aero 14. However, at around £1500, it’s competitively priced and you can easily spend more than that for a similar specification system.

Overview

The world of laptops is extremely competitive, and there are seemingly endless hardware combinations available to choose from. The Aero 14 gets right down to business though, and packs one of the most popular and powerful CPUs in the laptop market. The Intel Core i7-7700HQ is very well tried and tested, and great for gaming, productivity, multi-tasking and more. It certainly had no issues keeping up with the competition in our benchmarks today.

Gaming

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a great little gaming GPU. It’s perfect for a laptop as it’s not crazy expensive, it doesn’t run particularly hot, and it delivers a great performance boost to your day-to-day work. Of course, it’s got just enough grunt to enjoy some games too, even at 1440P it delivered surprisingly good results. It’s better suited to CS:GO, DOTA II, LoL, and other less demanding games, but if you want to kick back with Battlefield or something similar, it’ll still get the job done.

Home and Office

This is a bit of a sleeper in terms of a work laptop. If you took it into a business meeting, it’s sleek, slim, lightweight, and has more than enough battery life to get you through a days work. It’s small enough to fit into most compact laptop bags too, making it great for travelling. However, when you’re stuck in the hotel and bored, it’ll play some games, let you enjoy some movies and more. The QHD calibrated display is gorgeous too, so if you’re editing photos, or just enjoying your favourite movie, it’s going to look great.

Everything Else

There are certainly a few other perks to the Aero 14. I’m very impressed with the storage performance, and the system boot times and how fast it loads games is certainly a pleasure. Even the USB 3.0 performance was pretty swift. The LED lit keyboard is nice, as is the large and responsive touchpad. Finally, little additions like the macro keys, the webcam, and the surprisingly punchy speakers all add up to a great value for money package.

Pros

• QHD X-Rite Pantone Display
• Powerful i7-7700HQ CPU
• Respectable gaming performance
• Slim and stylish design
• Runs cool and quiet
• Blazing fast storage performance
• Good battery life
• Dedicated macro keys
• Available in multiple colours
• Competitively priced

Cons

• None

Neutral

• Screen size limits keyboard space, so there’s no number pad