Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XC
This Intel-powered Nvidia Studio laptop packs a sublime 4K screen, but the price pushes it into a niche
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PRICE £2,249 (£2,699 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk
The Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XC has much in common with its brother opposite. Aimed at creative professionals, Gigabyte sticks with the same one-two punch of Core i7-10870H processor and Nvidia’s Ge Force RTX 3070 graphics – although a mere £1,500 extra upgrades you to a Core i9-10980HK, Ge Force RTX 3080, 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.
Before committing £4,199, we’d hold out for an 11thgeneration version of the Core i9. Based on the Tiger Lake architecture, these chips should give even more single-core performance than their tenth-gen equivalents: the Aero’s 1,185 in Cinebench R23, 1,278 in Geekbench 5 and 179 in our photo-editing test are all fine results, but Ryzen 5800H machines are roughly 10% faster.
To test the GPU, I loaded up SPECviewperf 13 and 20. I’ll focus on 13 as it’s the more established version, and as expected the Aero proved strongest in 3D modelling tests: it returned 187 in the 3ds Max viewset compared to 197 for the Acer
Concept D 700 ( see p63), while the Showcase test saw a score of 113 versus 99. It’s a respectable performer in Maya too, returning 217 against 266. Where it stutters is in CAD tasks, being half as fast in Solidworks and scoring a miserly 19 in Siemens NX.
This laptop’s not-so-secret weapon is Nvidia’s Studio scheme: Nvidia has worked with the likes of Adobe, DaVinci and V-Ray to ensure that their software is optimised for Studio-certified laptops and drivers. You can switch back to Nvidia’s Game Ready drivers, but even without these we saw excellent results at 1080p: 84fps in Metro Exodus, 87fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 141fps in Wolfenstein: Youngblood with RTX and DLSS on. You’ll need to sacrifice settings for frame rates at its native 4K resolution. For instance, Metro Exodus dropped to 41fps and Hitman 2 plummeted from 54fps to 15fps.
That high-resolution panel is one of its big advantages over the 1080p ROG Strix G17 ( see p46).
The Aero 17 uses IPS technology rather than the OLED of its 15in brother opposite, but dial it up to its maximum brightness of 516cd/m2 and you’ll soon forget about such things: this is a gorgeous screen. The panel has been Pantone certified, and it covers 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut with an average Delta E of 0.27. There’s nothing to dislike.
The keyboard is less exceptional, with the keys lacking the joyful crisp finish of the best. It’s also surprising, given how this laptop measures 396mm across,
“The Aero 17 HDR XC’s screen covers 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut with an average Delta E of 0.27. There’s nothing to dislike”
that Gigabyte doesn’t find a way to include larger keys; I measured them at 14mm wide to the 15.5mm of those on the Asus Strix, and this does make a difference. Asus also pays more attention to small details, such as grouping function keys, and there’s no excuse for the size of the touchpad; it’s too small for a screen this wide. Gigabyte steals 8 x 10mm for a ti ny but effective fingerprint reader, while sneaking a 720p webcam into the bar above the power button. The best thing I can say about this chin-gazer is that it has a privacy shield.
You’ll find all the ports you could ever want on the laptop’s sides. On the left: 2.5Gb Ethernet, a fast UHS-II SD card reader, two 3.5mm jacks and two USB-A 3.1 ports. On the right, the DC input, a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, another USB-A port, a full-size HDMI and, curiously, a mini-DisplayPort. This means you can output to three 4K displays simultaneously.
Don’t expect a full day’s battery life on your travels. The Aero 17 lasted 6hrs 19mins in our video-rundown test, and that’s a best-case scenario. You’ll need to find a place for the 875g (I repeat, 875g) power supply in your bag, which will already be bulging with this beast of a laptop.
That said, at 2.5kg and 21.4mm it’s slimmer and lighter than the Asus Strix G17, and its clean black lines make it a better choice for professionals. Naturally, there’s per-key RGB backlighting when the time is right.
If and when the Aero 17 HDR XC is updated to 11th-generation Core processors then it will be pushing for a Recommended award; for now, despite its many merits, the asking price is too high. 8-core 2.2GHz (5GHz boost) Intel Core i7-10870H processor Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM 17.3in non-touch IPS display, 60Hz, 3,840 x 2,160 resolution 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C 3 x USB-A 3.1 HDMI 2.1 mini-DisplayPort
1.4 2.5Gb Ethernet UHS-II SD card reader
3.5mm mic in 3.5mm headphone out 99Wh battery Windows 10 Pro 396 x 270 x 21.4mm (WDH) 2.5kg 1yr C&R warranty part code: XC-8UK4450SP