This is not a full review, but a kind of feedback, where I perform as an ordinary user. There are no FPS measurements in popular games today, the results of benchmarks or measurements of the color coverage of the display: The entire laptop specified for this has already been performed by others and is easily searched on the network.
Topical shopping
Back in 2014, I gathered myself a PC in the configuration G1.Sniper Z87 / I7-4770 / 16 / GTX770 4 GB and a little later added SSD SAMSUNG 850 PRO and it remained the main machine for working on the site, video for the canal and other Tasks until recently (and continues to work regularly).
In the future, it was decided to replace the PC on the laptop, but not immediately, and when the laptops exceed it in terms of performance. It happened a couple of years ago, but the acquisition was postponed: for my performance tasks, it was enough and so, the way out of something more interesting and quickly was supposed, for which it was possible and waited.
2021 came, and the situation in the computer equipment market is such that further posting of the purchase can lead to the fact that, if not hurry, for the old PC will have to see a few more years.
Criteria, Choice Flour, Other options
I will start with the criteria that were important to me when choosing a specific laptop from more important to less:- Productivity and capabilities of upgrade memory and drives. I do not play on a computer, but stock for virtual machines, 4K / 60FPS video in Premiere and I need a similar one.
- High-quality screen. Under quality, I mean color reproduction, contrast and brightness. The update frequency is not critical, moreover, the screens encountered in laptops with a high-frequency update as a rule cannot be called outstanding on previously mentioned characteristics.
- The ability to achieve completely silent work if necessary.
- Decent build quality.
- Cost within 200,000 American money.
- Comfortable keyboard: You have to pick up a text.
- A sufficient number of ports not limited to several Thunderbolt, and, at the same time, the presence of the latter.
- The possibility of autonomous work for at least a few hours.
- Relative mobility.
- Ideally - pre-installed Windows 10 Pro, as it is required that this system is required, free licenses for transfer from other devices is not left, and it does not suit me to buy OEM keys.
Options for laptops that I consider attractive, I have already described in the article shown in the first paragraph of this review. When it was about choosing a specific model, taking into account the requirements listed above, the glance has engaged in the following options:
- The new HP OMEN 15 on Ryzen 5800H and RTX is possible, the best option in the claimed budget, if only power is required. Requirements for the screen, silent work, have questions about assembling and mobility.
- MSI Creator 15 with RTX 30th series. Very attractive, in version with 4K, the display responds, perhaps, all my requirements. But the configuration that, at the same time, was placed in the budget, I could not find.
- There are attractive laptop models with NVIDIA video cards of the 20th series and Quadro RTX Turing, but it was decided not to take them, but to stay on the newest devices.
As a result, after a week of thought, Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED was acquired in the KC-8RU5130VP modification - 4K OLED screen, i7-10870h, 16 GB, RTX 3060 6 GB, SSD for 512 GB.
Feedback after a brief period of using Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED
The laptop went without surprises - it was obtained almost what was expected:
- Silver, firmly shot down aluminum housing. This color was preferred (standard color for the model - black) in the hope that with time the scratches on it will be less noticeable.
- Excellent screen. But I can not say that I made some wow-effect, as you can read in reviews about a laptop: If you are already working for high-quality monitors with a wide color coverage, HDR and high resolution, it is hardly impressed by some kind of particularly strong.
- Small amount of unnecessary software. That is, almost and not it. On the system section of the disk free 405 of 460 GB.
- There are no complaints about the operation of the system as such, everything is OK.
- The unexpected positive: already installed Office, and since I have an Office 365 license, then immediately after the first login, it was automatically activated and without the need for download.
But it did not cost without negativity. He was in some extent we expect, because about these nuances I read in advance in reviews and on the forums. So:
- Our sources did not meet, but the Americans (they have an Aero for sale longer than here) refer to the problem of work Wi-Fi in 2.4 GHz networks - the network works extremely unstable, the adapter replacement does not affect the constructive features of the antenna. As the main network of the house, I use 5 GHz and everything is OK with it, but experimenting during for 2.4 GHz, I can really note some incomprehensible Internet work in this case. Maybe a coincidence, but not like.
- More than half of the reviews suggest that the Gigabyte Aero does not highlight Russian characters, as well as the auxiliary function of the keys, moreover, they are not particularly contrasting paint. Here I made a mistake: I was sure that since I was gaining blind texts, then it was without a difference. And the difference is: first, blindly I don't really remember the location of special characters in the English layout (and those that are recruited via shift + key is not high), secondly, while I'm not used to the location of the function keys, and that Remove the sound from the keyboard (and not turn off the latch screen), I have to hang over next to the F-keys and find the volume key. While "solved" the problem coding the desired functions of the color (independent RGB backlight is available for all keyboard keys). The text of this article is recruited on the keyboard of the laptop under consideration. I can not call it very comfortable, nor anyone is particularly inconvenient. Normal. My familiar keyboard - Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Desktop and Corsair K63 Wireless more convenient. However, I will continue to use: the laptop will more often be connected to the "large" monitor than to work without it.
Well, in the little things: I don't like stickers on the housing in Windows and laptops most, successfully removed.
Miscellaneous
Well, the rest of the observations, at different points:
- When initial configuration it seemed that something was not quite like this: it is not clear that, but "feeling." I went to the parameters, changed the update frequency from 59.97 to 60 Hz and the effect was disappeared.
- 12 screws (two of them under stickers) and the bottom cover is easily removed, with access to two RAM slots and two SSD M.2. If I'm not mistaken, the SATA interface supports only one of them. The screw for attaching an additional SSD is already in place.
- Installed memory - Crucial 3200 CL22, works in 2933 CL21.
- In BIOS, some interesting features are not observed.
- Sobbyness can be achieved without Intel XTU (in any case without hand actions with it), Throttlestop and other tools using only the built-in Gigabyte Control Center, but for this you need to disable Azure AI, otherwise it will change your settings on the go.
- I can not estimate the effect of Azure AI on the efficiency of the system. Something he does (automatically switches performance parameters, depending on the tasks), but how many artificial intelligence and real use there are not clear. Continue observation.
- Render of the same video in Premiere Pro: on the old PC - 4:48, but Gigabyte Aero - 1:17 with fully identical settings. I also checked the same video, but on the MacBook Pro M1 (8 GB) in Final Cut Pro - 2:27.
- Since the laptop seller gave XBox Game Pass for 1 month, a couple of toys were launched. Performance was determined by the built-in means of the games themselves. Forza Horizon 4 goes to 60 FPS sidelines with maximum quality in 4K. Wolfenstein YoungBlood with the quality of Main Leben graphics (RTX + DLSS) works without FPS sidets in FHD, but 4K does not pull (reports not enough for GPU memory, FPS in built-in tests at level 15-20).
- In the reviews in the store several times met the question: whether to wash if you set the permission of Full HD. It will be, but: unnoticed for games, and in the Windows interface - less critical than 4K screens with a large diagonal. But if possible, it is better to use scaling.
- The quality of the assembly is good, but not without flaws: for example, if you "feel" a closed laptop, on my instance it can be noted that the left loop is fixed higher than the right (visually unnoticed).
In general, while satisfied, I study on. If you have questions - ready to answer in the comments.
Update: problems came
After the first connection of the monitor through Thunderbolt, everything worked fine, after a reboot - Thunderbolt fell off, and very strange: it does not see the monitor connected to USB-C flash drives and smartphones, but sees a USB-hub monitor. Recovery points, drivers from Gigabyte and other manipulations tested.
I found the same situation on the Reddit, a person occurred on the same laptop literally 2 weeks ago, and the hardware problem was assumed (in Linux he also stopped working). But he decided to discharge to the factory through the Gigabyte Smart Recovery. But this recovery is refused to work: the interface is launched, and after the reset is confirmed - the usual launch of Windows 10 without reset. I'm trying to figure it out.
Update: Three days later, it revived, by the complete de-energization of the laptop with the disconnection of the battery. As far as I understood, the essence is that with the failures, the ThunderBolt controller itself can partially disable its functionality, and it does not always go out of this state, and the state is stored not in the OS, but on its chip.