Picking the right laptop can be a demanding task. There are so many on the market in various sizes and each of those in a plethora of hardware configurations. Of course, you’ve also got to contend with your budget. When you’re trying to balance performance, ergonomics, weight, design, and more, the prices can be all over the place.
If you want a super slim ultra light laptop, there’s plenty out there. However, for something that still delivers high-end performance you can expect the price to be nauseating, £2500+ is not uncommon. If you want something that has no compromise on performance and size doesn’t matter, you can pay several thousand for the privilege there too. So what about the Aero 14?
We deliberated over what we wanted from a notebook, laptop, ultrabook, etc and it was quite a demanding list to balance out. When we travel to events like Computex, CES, CeBIT, and more, we need a laptop that is suitable to take in our carry-on luggage for long-haul flights. That gives us the first requirement, it needed to be no more than 15″ or it wouldn’t fit in our favourite bag. We use 4K displays for editing and productivity in the office, so 1080p just isn’t going to cut it. This means we need a screen that’s at least 1440p. Obviously, we don’t want it to be too heavy either, but we also wanted something with high-end performance, so it needs to be a balance between the two.
When it comes to image and video editing, a blazingly fast CPU is a huge benefit. The Core i7-6700HQ is more than up to the task there. Pair that with 16GB of DDR4 2600Mhz RAM and an M.2 NVMe SSD, and you’ve got a great combo for editing performance. Of course, being gamers, the addition of the GTX 1060 is a huge benefit there; not forgetting that a decent GPU can help some rendering applications and general system performance too.
At just 19.9mm slim, it’s certainly compact for a system with this level of hardware. There are slimmer devices on the market but expect to pay a premium for them, and maybe sacrifice some performance too. It’s fairly lightweight at 1.89, not so much that I would carry it around all day, but that’s not a requirement for me either. I need a laptop I can take to another country in my bag, and leave in the hotel room where I get my work done. The Aero 14 more than fits the bill there.
A 2560 x 1440p QHD IPS display is another significant benefit. Not only is that great for productivity and editing, but it’s also an excellent resolution to game at, and the GTX 1060 is more than up to that task.
View the in-depth specifications here.
Overall, I’m delighted with my choice of laptop. It’s what I would call “slim enough” and “light enough” to remain practical for business trips. However, it still has a larger battery than most, a powerful CPU and GPU combination, meaning it’s no slouch when it comes to work or gaming. Any other change to make it slimmer, lighter, bigger display, would have an enormous impact on the price; it’s a perfect blend of the right stuff for the right price.
The Gigabyte Aero 14 with the same spec as we purchased is currently around £1800 on Amazon. That’s not cheap, but it’s comparable to similar specification notebooks. Some competitor options may be slimmer, or even lighter, but they’ll have lower resolution display, smaller GPU, or some other compromise for the same price, to name but a few variables. I honestly think the Aero 14 is perfectly balanced in that respect.
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