It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a GIGABYTE notebook. I love them to bits (simply because the ones I’ve been fortunate enough to review have been awesome) and it looks like the latest GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED might continue the trend.

I mean, not only does the notebook have incredible hardware, it’s also sleek and light. Yeah, I’m chomping at the bit just talking about it.

So without further ado, here’s what I think of GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED.

What is the GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED (Intel 10th Gen)?

The GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED (Intel 10th Gen) is a premium 15.6″ notebook with cutting edge hardware. It packs the latest Intel 10th generation CPU (Intel Core i7-10875H), an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super with Max-Q design (8GB), a 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD and 16GB RAM.

Here are the complete specs for the machine.

The machine doesn’t have any ports behind (that’s reserved for the vents), so everything’s array on both the left and right sides.

There’s pretty much nothing that’s missing. You have USB 3.2 ports, a Thunderbolt 3 (Type-C) port, HDMI, a 3.5mm jack, a mini-DisplayPort…even a card reader and an Ethernet port!

Any of those would be a major selling point by themselves but they aren’t the GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED’s ace in the hole. What is?

Take a look at the name.

Yep, the game changer here is the inclusion of a 15.6” Samsung 4K AMOLED display. The cherry on top? The display’s also X-Rite Pantone Certified, with (and I kid you not here) EVERY SINGLE DISPLAY calibrated individually in the factory to make sure everything passes muster.

Now let that sink in for a while.

While most manufacturers claim that their display’s Pantone validated (which means some samples were sent to Pantone for approval), the GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED is one of the few notebooks out there with a display that’s Pantone certified.

What’s the big deal about this anyway?

It means that the colors on-screen are as close to real life as can be, with incredible color accuracy and a much wider color spectrum. It’s invaluable to those in the design and creative industry, but even normal people can spot the difference.

It’s not just company hyperbole too, I can honestly see a big difference between how the colors pop on the OLED display compared to other 4K sources I have at home. The visuals are much more vibrant and vivid, with the whites especially being incredibly good.

GIGABYTE’s gearing this monster for the content creator crowd; those who work with Adobe Creative Suite or even modeling software like MAYA or Cinema 4D. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU that’s in the machine is especially suited for that with its special Studio drivers that are custom tailored for creative programs.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m blown away by the display. I just love it to bits. Unfortunately, there are some aspects that I don’t.

The first is the keyboard.

I love the LEDs, no issues there. They’re bright and light up the buttons beautifully. The letters on they keys shine through nicely. However, somebody clearly forgot to do the same to the secondary functions symbols.

In the dark, I can’t type my passwords because they use symbols like @, ! and the like. These special characters aren’t lighted at all, which makes it a guessing game when you’re working in the dark. Is the $ key with the 5 or is it on 6? Prepare to keep hitting that backspace button a lot.

It’s great that it features anti-ghosting tech (with up to 80 simultaneous key presses) though.

The second issue is that the power cable plugs in to the right side of the machine. It’s not an issue if you’re left handed, but since the majority of humans are right handers, that’s also a pain in the ass.

I keep hitting the cable with my mouse every time I move it too high. As a result, I have to move my mouse lower than I’d like, which makes typing awkward. Of course, if you want to use a wireless mouse that’d help matters, though I reckon you’re still going to be annoyed at the messy cable coming out the side of the laptop.

Finally, I just don’t like integrated trackpads. This is just personal preference but I prefer trackpads with physical buttons to press. Apart from that niggle, the trackpad is responsive enough and it’s cool that the trackpad has a built-in fingerprint sensor!

One final cool piece of hardware’s the audio. Integrated with the Nahimic 3 3D audio software, the sounds the speakers pump out are pretty damn good. Certainly much better than a notebook’s speakers have to be.

The volume’s pretty loud, and there’s no audible distortion or noise at high volumes. I watched Netflix on the machine and was pretty impressed by the range that the speakers delivered though at the end of the day, I still preferred to use headphones.

For Gamers?

Of course, despite it’s target audience being content creators, this bad boy isn’t a slouch in the gaming department either. Don’t believe me? No worries, I’ve done the benchmarks to prove it.

For 3D and PCmark, the results speak for themselves. The GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED is clearly overkill when it comes to normal work related duties.

For 3Dmark, it’s a keeper too, with high scores on both TimeSpy and TimeSpy Extreme.

Here’s how the machine performs on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I’ve benchmarked it on both 4K and 1080p, with every single preset available.

4K
1080p

From the results, it’s entirely possible to play the game on 4K on the highest preset (not Custom, which I individually put everything on the max settings) if you’re willing to settle for a 30fps experience.

Not willing to? Then why not lower the resolution a smudge to 1080p, where you’ll find that the machine’s capable of a solid 60fps all the way. It could be even higher but the game seems to limit fps to 60 for some reason.

That’s not the case with the other games on the list; Three Kingdoms and Final Fantasy XV.

For Three Kingdoms, the frame rate holds up in both 4K and 1080p. Like Tomb Raider, 4K gaming is clearly possible on the machine though you’ll may want to reduce some settings to get a high frame rate. It’s understandable though; with all its settings maxed, huge battles in Three Kingdoms can be killer on any current hardware.

4K

That’s not to say the notebook is incapable of handling that; you just need to head on to 1080p for an enjoyable experience.

1080p

On Final Fantasy XV, that’s not much of an issue. Even on 4K, with everything on the highest setting, the game manages to be completely playable, hovering around 30fps, If you’ve played FFXV on a base console (that means on the PS4 and Xbox One, not the Pro and X), it’s a comparable experience.

4K

If you want buttery smooth frames though, that’s waiting on 1080p. There the GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED tears it up, with high scores no matter what preset you’re on.

The Bottom Line.

If you’re a content creator, this is undoubtedly THE machine for you. While the hardware is comparable to other premium notebooks, the Samsung OLED display takes it to a whole new level.

It doesn’t even matter if you’re not into content creating too! The NVIDIA RTX GPU functions as well in gaming as it does in creative apps, with it being able to deliver good gaming experiences on 4K and stellar gaming performance on 1080p.

While there are issues with the notebook (the secondary function keys not lighted being the biggest), you can make allowances to make them less of a pain.

At the end of the day, the GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED is a beast of a machine, no matter if you want to use it for gaming or content creation.

Head on over to these sites to get your hands on one:

TLDR:

Great machine for content creators and gamers.

The Good.

  • Great performance.
  • Incredible display.
  • Pantone certification puts it in a whole new class.
  • Blazingly fast SSD storage.

The Bad.

  • Power cable on the right is awkward and annoying.
  • Secondary functions on keys not lighted.
  • Trackpad has no individual buttons.

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.