Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review – can you play AAA game?

The AERO 15 OLED is the first laptop designed specifically with digital creators in mind. Perfect for photographers, graphic designers and entrepreneurs on the go, the AERO 15 OLED offers unparalleled performance, stability, and does it all without overheating. The all new AERO evolves again from the inside out with an upgraded cooling system, refined aesthetics with an unparalleled visual experience, giving users the power to realize endless creative possibilities. With the AERO series, users can have lightning fast video or 3D rendering, or embrace smooth as butter gameplay of AAA game titles. Find more in Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review. From the beginning, the AERO series raised the bar of what a high-performance laptop should be; ultra-light, ultra-fast, with no limitations. Cutting edge engineering enhanced the end user experience by tackling the finer details, optimizing performance through calibration.

Pros & Cons – Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH

Pros
Oled display is gorgeous with absolutely no defects.
1660Ti runs all my games externally at 1440p flawlessly (Witcher 3 with “Hairworks” off and Sekiro stable at 60fps on Ultra)
1660Ti is compatible with Nvidia Studio, so my engineering software renders models as if using professional GPU
5+ hours of realistic battery life on a gaming laptop with 4k display
Build Quality is excellent. No flex picking the notebook up from the corner with the lid open.
Installing second M.2 2280 SSD and RAM upgrade was a 10 minute job tops.

Cons
Fans are very loud while gaming or working. If you want thin, powerful, and stable, then you’re going to have to live with loud.
Had to undervolt the CPU with Intel XTU software to prevent thermal throttling.
Had to undervolt/overclock the GPU in order to maintain stable temps (65-70C) while gaming.
Notebookcheck rates the FHD version of this laptop for 90 minutes longer battery life on their realistic usage benchmark.
1660Ti not powerful enough to run AAA games in 4k native resolution.

Specifications – Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH

Price & availability

The Aero 15 OLED comes in a variety of configurations at different price points – the model we tested came with an Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, 16GB of RAM and a Nvidia RTX 2070 GPU and on the street costs around $2,499 (£2,299, AU$3,799). 

Stepping up to an Intel Core i9-9980HK processor will set you back an additional $500 (£600, AU$600), or alternatively you can keep the i7, double the RAM to 32GB, double the PCIe SSD storage to 1TB and bump the GPU to an RTX 2080 for $3,299 (£3,399, AU$4,799).

The latter two configurations are at the upped end of the spectrum, but if you’re happy to pare back the graphics performance you can actually nab the Aero 15 OLED for as little as $1,899 (£1,899 AU$2,999) when configured with a GTX 1660Ti. 

The Aero 15 OLED is up against devices like the latest Razer Blade 15 and MSI’s GS65 Stealth in terms of specs, and despite that shiny new Samsung OLED screen it’s actually surprisingly good value against these formidable opponents.

Key features – Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH

4K UHD AMOLED Display

The display on the AERO features minimal 3mm bezels and an 89% screen-to-body ratio for a more immersive viewing experience that’s more screen. It has also been factory-calibrated and received the X-Rite Pantone certification for accurate and wide coverage of colors. Additional features of its Samsung AMOLED display include a 1ms response time, 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, and reduced blue light emissions.

Microsoft Azure AI

The AERO laptop is built with Microsoft Azure AI, which uses machine learning to automatically and dynamically adjust CPU and GPU wattage based on different apps.

Killer Ethernet E2600 + Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650

Killer Ethernet and Wi-Fi can help optimize your internet connection by prioritizing gaming and select apps. Users can have it automatically do it or manually configure it themselves.

Supra Cool 2

Gigabyte’s Supra Cool 2 cooling system consists of two 71-bladed fans, five heat pipes, and 11 intake/exhaust vents. With these combined, the AERO can efficiently dissipate heat to prevent components from overheating and throttling.

Windows Hello Fingerprint Login

In case you forget your password, you can easily log into the system with just a touch.

Camera Cover

The webcam has a movable cover for additional privacy. Simply slide it over the camera when it’s not in use.

RGB Fusion 2.0

Select from 16.7 million colors to light up your keyboard. Aside from lighting, the keyboard also supports custom macro commands and up to 80 simultaneous key presses.

Nahimic 3

Nahimic 3 provides users with virtual 7.1 surround sound for gaming, movies, conference calls, and more.

Compare Gigabyte AERO 15 vs Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop

Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review

Design

At 4.9 pounds and 14 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches, the Aero 15 is still slim and light for a 15-inch gaming laptop, so it should fit in most 15-inch laptop bags. The Alienware m15 OLED (4.8 pounds, 14.9 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches), the Razer Blade 15 (4.7 pounds, 14 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches) and the Lenovo Legion Y740 (5 pounds, 14.2 x 10.5 x 0.9 inches) are roughly in the same range (Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review).

The new Aero 15 swaps out the simple carbon-fiber arrow for a brushed-aluminum design that resembles a bow releasing an arrow toward the hinge. And instead of the Gigabyte logo hovering overhead against the matte-black hood, there’s an Aero logo, which is neat, because it gives the Aero 15 an identity of its own. On the hinge, there’s a steel, engraved Aero logo and just above it are two white LEDs that are shining on it, which is reminiscent of the Washington Monument at night. It’s unique, but unnecessary.

All the real goodies are on the inside. First, there’s the lovely per-key RGB-lit keyboard, a fingerprint sensor embedded in the touchpad and a sleek, triangle-patterned air vent just above the keyboard. The bezels on the display are pleasantly narrow, but unfortunately, the webcam is located on the hinge at the bottom. However, Gigabyte did include a privacy shutter, which is nice, because hackers won’t get to sneak a look at your nostrils.

Ports

This sleek machine still boasts a decent number of ports.

The right holds room for the power jack, an SD card slot, one Thunderbolt 3 port and two USB 3.1 ports. If you need additional ports, consider getting a USB Type-C hub or a docking station.

On the left, there’s an HDMI 2.0 port, one USB Type-C/DP 1.4 port, one USB 3.1 port, a headphone jack and an RJ45 Ethernet port.

Display

The Aero 15’s 15.6-inch, 3840 x 2160 Samsung AMOLED panel is vivaciously bright and feverishly colorful. You won’t need a gaming monitor to accompany this bad boy.

At 357 nits, the Aero 15’s OLED panel crushed the 306-nit category average. The Razer Blade 15 (262 nits) and the Legion Y740 (267 nits) didn’t break 300 nits, but the Alienware m15’s OLED screen once again excelled, at 376 nits of brightness (Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review).

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the neon sign for La Casa Mexicana was incredibly vibrant. When I took a tour through the jungle, even the darkest corners were fleshed out with visible leaves and branches. The panel was sharp enough to show off the threading on the net that a baddie was wearing over his head just 5 feet from me.

In the trailer for Motherless Brooklyn, Bobby Cannavale’s red tie popped with color. When a shadow loomed in the dark around the Borough Bridge Authority, there was still a good amount of detail in windows off to the side. And when the M1911 sat on a coffee table, the grip looked especially sharp on the Aero 15’s screen.

According to our colorimeter, the Aero 15’s OLED panel covers a wide 200% of the sRGB color gamut, toppling the premium gaming laptop average (144%) as well as the Razer Blade 15 (149%) and the Legion Y740 (112%). However, the Alienware m15’s OLED panel is still king, covering 265% of the sRGB.

HDR

The panel has been certified as VESA DisplayHDR 400, which means it can achieve a design-friendly 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and meets newer independent HDR specifications that have been tailored specifically for computer monitors. The VESA DisplayHDR 400 standard is the entry-level tier, and means that this panel can reproduce an HDR color palate at a peak brightness of 400 nits. That isn’t bright enough to qualify for TV HDR certifications (which generally require a screen to hit 1,000 nits minimum peak brightness) but with computer monitor’s generally aimed at up-close, personal use, they don’t need to get as bright to be able to produce HDR images.

Audio

The Aero 15’s bottom-firing speakers are decently loud but don’t provide enough bass to make the deeper beats come to life. I blasted Sum 41’s “The Hell Song,” and the opening electric guitar riff sounded a little shallow. I didn’t notice a significant problem until more of the percussion came in. It was difficult to separate the instruments, and eventually, the song was overwhelmed by the vocals and everything in the background sounded like noise.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the higher-pitched tones, like the chirping birds and croaking frogs, overwhelmed more important sounds like low-toned footsteps. When I knocked out a baddie with my bow, the thud sounded muted because there wasn’t enough bass backing it. Despite that, Lara’s voice sounded clear and crisp when she spoke.

The system comes with the Nahimic audio software, which features four presettings: Music, Movie, Communication and Gaming. Within those tabs are settings for the bass, treble, voices and surround sound. Despite all of my tinkering, I couldn’t find a sound that was just right for either music or gaming. You’ll want a pair of headphones or computer speakers when gaming on this thing.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The 4.1 x 2.7-inch touchpad is soft and comfortable to use, but some of its real estate is cut off because of the embedded fingerprint reader. Windows 10 gestures worked well, such as three-finger tabbing and two-finger scrolling. But, even if the touchpad didn’t have a fingerprint reader, you’d probably want to pick up a gaming mouse.

Typing on the Aero 15’s deep-travel keys felt oh-so-satisfying as I blasted my way through a typing test with ease.

I nailed 80 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is way over my 70-wpm average. The keys traveled at a solid 1.6 millimeters, landing within our preferred 1.5- to 2.0-mm range, and they required a meaty 71 grams of force to actuate.

Like the previous model, the keyboard features per-key RGB lighting, which can be controlled via the Gigabyte Control Center’s Fusion tab. The app features effects like Wave, Breathing and Raindrop. You also have the option to assign each key a specific color.

Gaming, Graphics and VR – Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH review

Underneath the hood of this beastie is an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU with 8GB of VRAM. It tore through Middle-earth: Shadow of War at 36 frames per second on 4K at Ultra settings as I sliced and diced my way through a horde of orcs.

The Aero 15 OLED averaged 97 fps on the Hitman benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), missing the triple-digit mark and dropping short of the 108-fps premium gaming laptop average. It did beat the Razer Blade 15 (96 fps) and the Legion Y740 (96 fps), but was then surpassed by the Alienware m15 (102 fps). On the 4K benchmark, the Aero 15 OLED matched the Alienware m15, at 48 fps, but both were under the category average (54 fps).

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest, 1080p), the Aero 15 OLED hit a solid 60 fps, which is nearly on par with the premium gaming laptop average (62 fps). The RTX 2070 GPUs in the Alienware m15 (40 fps) and the Legion Y740 (55 fps) weren’t nearly as fast. However, at 4K, the Aero 15 OLED hit 20 fps, which is short of the category average (22 fps) and the Alienware m15 (21 fps).

On the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (Very High, 1080p), the Aero 15 OLED nailed 81 fps, surpassing the average premium gaming laptop (77 fps), the Alienware m15 (76 fps), the Razer Blade 15 (76 fps) and the Legion Y740 (67 fps). At 4K, the Aero 15 OLED averaged 24 fps, losing out to the Alienware m15 by a single frame (25 fps) and falling below the category average (29 fps).

The Aero 15 OLED scored 79 fps on the Shadow of War benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), which is a decent way from the premium gaming laptop average (95 fps). It also couldn’t get past the Alienware m15 (83 fps), the Razer Blade 15 (91 fps) and the Legion Y740 (87 fps). Meanwhile, the Aero 15 OLED performed similarly on the 4K benchmark, hitting 36 fps, which got beat by the category average (42 fps) and the Alienware m15 (38 fps).

Microsoft Azure AI

Like the Aero 15 Classic, the Aero 15 OLED boasts the power of Microsoft’s Azure AI. But once again, it’s not all that impressive against competitors that don’t have an AI backing it. Gigabyte’s Gaming+ and Professional+ software connects to Microsoft’s Azure AI to automatically optimize your performance by adjusting the power distribution of the CPU and GPU, based on the data it collects on the specific app or game that’s running.

We ran benchmarks with the AI both off and on in its three separate modes in order to test the difference in performance. AI Edge Learning doesn’t connect to the cloud but can adjust performance based on the data it’s already collected. AI Azure Download connects fully to the cloud, but doesn’t share your settings, so the Azure AI cannot collect data. Finally, AI Azure Download and Upload connect to the cloud to download settings as well as upload your data.

For the most part, Microsoft’s Azure AI increased performance in each game, but it was incredibly inconsistent.

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, the Aero 15 OLED went from 52 fps to 60 fps at 1080p; and 17 fps to 20 fps at 4K, going from off to AI Azure Download and Upload.

Meanwhile, the Aero 15 OLED did better on the AI Edge Learning setting for the Hitman benchmark, jumping from 95 fps to 97 fps (1080p) and 44 fps to 48 fps (4K).

It was a similar situation on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark, where setting it to AI Edge Learning pushed the system from 70 fps to 81 fps (1080p) and 21 fps to 24 fps (4K).

However, on the Shadow of War benchmark, the Aero 15 OLED capped at 79 frames per second on all of the tests except the AI Azure Download and Upload, where it hit 77 fps. The only noticeable jump was on the 4K test, when it went from 34 fps (off) to 36 fps (AI Edge Learning).

Using the power of the Microsoft Azure AI is more of a gimmick than anything else. All it does is adjust performance automatically for you, but it’s nothing that you can’t do on your own through the Gigabyte Control Center.

Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED SA-7US5130SH performance review

Here is how the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED 2019 fared in our suite of benchmark tests:

• 3DMark Sky Diver: 28,598; 
• Fire Strike: 13,962; 
• Time Spy: 5,885
• Geekbench 4: 5,264 (single-core); 22,574 (multi-core) 
• Cinebench CPU: 973 points; 
• Graphics: 111 fps
• PCMark 8 Home: 3,484
• PCMark 8 Battery Life: 4 hours and 20 minutes
• Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 4 hours and 42 minutes
• Total War: Warhammer II (1080p, Ultra): 66 fps; (1080p, Low): 138 fps
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (1080p, Ultra): 78 fps; (1080p, Low): 112 fps

The performance of the Aero 15 OLED XA model that we tested was (as expected) outstanding, with the updated 9th generation Intel Core i CPU offering a minor improvement across on general working tasks against its predecessor. 

Those last Aero 15 units we tested had some thermal issues on the highest specced models, which meant there wasn’t much of a performance bump between the Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs. We didn’t get a chance to test the 9th generation Core i9 model this time around, but Gigabyte has said that the cooling system has been re-engineered with new fans, heat pipes and vents that combine for 30% better cooling. If the thermal management really is that much better, there should be a decent bump in the Core i9 CPU performance. 

Fortunately, that OLED display still looks excellent at 1080p resolution, so Aero 15 OLED models with the GTX 1660Ti will still benefits from the panel’s great colors – however if you’re aiming for 4K gaming, you’ll definitely want to opt for an RTX 2070 or RTX 2080 configuration.   

The Aero 15 OLED XA includes with an RTX 2070 GPU, and in games managed averages of 66fps in Total War: Warhammer 2 and 78fps in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, respectively, using 1080p at ultra quality settings. If you increase the resolution to 4K, you’ll see these frame rates drop to a “just playable” 23fps and 33fps respectively, so while gaming at the screen’s native resolution on new titles isn’t out of the question, you will need to dial down the quality.

Gigabyte’s 512GB SSD copied 4.97GB of data in 10.5 seconds, translating to 485 megabytes per second, which is short of the premium gaming laptop average (762 MBps). It was faster than the Alienware m15’s 500GB SSD (462 MBps), but it couldn’t beat the Legion Y740’s 256GB SSD (566 MBps) or the Razer Blade 15’s 512GB SSD (636 MBps).

Battery Life

The Aero 15 OLED’s battery life is significantly shorter than its predecessor’s, but it’s still not bad. After continuously surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the Aero 15’s battery lasted 3 hours and 38 minutes, surpassing the 3:18 premium gaming laptop average. It also beat the Legion Y740 (2:16) but still couldn’t last as long as the Alienware m15 (3:51) or the Razer Blade 15 (5:02). If you’re looking for a longer-lasting laptop, it’ll probably be hard to find one that can competently run games.

Battery life was impressive for a high-performance laptop, managing 4 hours and 20 minutes in the demanding PCMark 8 battery benchmark. This should translate to up to 5-6 hours if used in a balanced or power saving mode for light work tasks – a little shy of a full working day.

Webcam

This 720p shooter is bad not only because it has a bottom angle but also because it takes crappy shots. My face and hair were so blotchy that I couldn’t make out a single, sharply defined edge. The worst part is that the camera is on the hinge, not the display, so you can’t even adjust the angle if you wanted to.

To be fair, it produced decently colorful shots: Link’s tunic on my shirt was appropriately green. Still, the light from the window behind me completely blew out the surrounding wall. You should definitely pick up an external webcam if you’re getting this laptop.

Heat

While the Aero 15 OLED gets a little hot under the hood, the chassis isn’t scalding hot while you’re gaming, so a lap desk isn’t absolutely necessary. After playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider for 15 minutes, the underside hit 111 degrees Fahrenheit, which is above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 94 and 83 degrees, respectively. The hottest it got was just above the center of the underside, clocking in at 137 degrees.

On our normal heat test, the Aero 15 OLED’s underside reached 96 degrees after streaming a 15-minute 1080p video. The center of the keyboard got 84 degrees and the touchpad hit 78 degrees.

Software and Warranty

The Aero 15 is relatively scant on software. There’s the Gigabyte Control Center, which features several tabs with beneficial settings. These include the Smart Dashboard tab (monitor and change performance speed), the Manager tab (display, battery and Wi-Fi settings), the Fusion tab (keyboard lighting) and the Device Setting tab (fan control).

You also get the Killer Control Center app, which lets you prioritize your bandwidth. The Windows 10 bloatware includes such games as Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Friends and Microsoft Solitaire.

The Aero 15 comes with a one-year limited warranty.

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