Best Buy has
Gigabyte Aero 15 Creator Laptop (AERO 15 OLED KD-72US624SP) on sale for
$1399.99. Select free store pickup where available.
Thanks to Community Member
StrategyFreak for posting this deal.
Note: Only available for free store/curbside pickup. Availability may vary by location.
Specs:
- 15.6" 3840x2160 4K UHD Samsung AMOLED Display
- VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black, 100% DCI-P3
- Intel i7-11800H 2.3GHz 8-Core / 16-Thread 11th Gen Processor
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q 6GB GDDR6 Graphics
- 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz Memory
- 1TB M.2 NVMe Solid State Drive
- Intel AX200 Wireless + Bluetooth 5.2
- GIGABYTE Fusion RGB Per-Key Backlit Keyboard
- Windows 10 Home
- Ports:
- 3x USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A)
- 1x Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C)
- 1x HDMI 2.1
- 1x mini DP 1.4
- 1x 3.5mm Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack
- 1x UHS-II SD Card Reader
- 1x RJ-45
- Li Polymer 99Wh Battery
- All Aluminum Chassis
- ~4.4 lbs
Top Comments
Gigabyte posted on its own Web site a legitimate marketing message that simply mentioned that their laptops were manufactured in Taiwan and not China, and that they were proud of the quality control there.
These impish young people in China, with the full backing of the Chinese Communist Party, were offended that Gigabyte would dare state that Taiwan manufacturing was better then China manufacturing. They swooped in to bully Gigabyte into shutting up. Sure enough, within days of them posting this to Weibo, Gigabyte laptops disappeared from all e-commerce sites in China, and Gigabyte had to issue a groveling apology, as if they had committed a mortal sin in talking about "Made in Taiwan".
For those of you who don't China-Taiwan politics,Taiwan is a tiny country where many of the Nationalists who fled China after the 1949 Civl War went after they were defeated by the Communists. While the Communists proceeded to murder over 65 million of their own citizens and engage in human rights abuses that continue to this day, Taiwan became one of the economic powerhouse in Asia.
Now that China is become an economic force in itself, it is brainwashing its citizens to view Taiwan not as the independent country it's been since 1949, but as a "renegade province" to one day be invaded and "reunited".
I don't know if you're offended by China's increasing dominance over manufacturing, but I sure am. When I see a deal like this for a Made in Taiwan laptop, I'm going to jump at it and I'm going to tell everyone to buy it, if only to prevent China from taking over everything.
If China manages to take over chip manufacturing and ODM production, that will be a death knell to this industry that America invented. Taiwan is the thin line that's protecting us from ourselves.
That's enough to get me to buy Gigabyte from now on (and thanks to the OP for bringing up this deal).
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125 Comments
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But You won't do better than this until the holidays Nov-Jan. Eg. A Dell Rtx 2070 maxq oled, open box or discount came 7months ago for around $1100
Even my old desktop 1070 could do 4k at 35-45 FPS.
$35 max cash back.
Would this be a good choice? (Obviously with the RAM upgraded.)
I picked up the Dell G15 with the Ryzen7 and the RTX3060 a couple weeks ago. Not exactly loving it though it's nice.
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The screen is amazing. The connectivity is amazing. The build quality is good overall. It stands out as being stylish without looking too "gamery". It does have some issues, however; more on that later.
First, the good. It has the latest 8-core 11th-gen i7-11800H, an RTX 3060, Thunderbolt 4, and can be upgraded to 64 GB of RAM. It achieves high-end desktop-level CPU performance at mostly reasonable fan noise levels with some software tweaks. It has an HDMI 2.1 port, mini DisplayPort 1.4, 3x USB "3.2 Gen 1" (which is just USB 3.0) type-A ports, ethernet, and more. So you won't need a dock to get all the connectivity you probably want, but if you like using a dock then the Thunderbolt 4 port will support even the best ones out there.
The touchpad feels great and has a discreetly embedded fingerprint reader in the top left. The fans blow out the back instead of up at the screen, and there is a physical privacy cover/slider over the camera. The full keyboard with numpad and RGB barely fits in the frame but doesn't feel cramped. The keys themselves feel great and the typing experience is excellent once you get positioned (I have shift my hands maybe 1.5 keys left of where I would normally position them on a laptop).
The laptop is very thin even when closed, but the body is still stiff with extremely little flex. Everything stays cool even when the processor is under full load. By default the laptop stops charging the battery a little before full capacity which extends the battery life when constantly plugged in. I really can't say enough about all the excellent features in this laptop.
All that said, some mistakes were made. The single USB-C port (with Thunderbolt 4) port DOES NOT support power delivery; a heavy, large (but relatively thin) power brick is the only option to power the laptop. The manual is basically non-existent (only the 25-language 2-pager is available). There's a "nose-cam" webcam in the base instead of in the screen, so it can't even be angled up or down.
The screen is very reflective, not anti-glare. The screen assembly is stiff but flexes just at the top of the hinges and wobbles for an impressively long time when bumped (over 14 seconds??). When the screen is closed, the same applies; the flex just above the hinges allows the screen to open at least 1/2" with basically no resistance.
The feet toward the rear are long and aren't quite planar with the feet on the front, so with the screen open on a flat surface, which moves the center of mass way to the rear, the whole laptop can wobble front-to-back a little until you rest your palms on it.
The cooling solution can be sluggish to respond, and if allowed to ramp all the way up is too noisy to use in any kind of office environment. The BIOS is not unlocked and has only the most basic features, so there's no easy way to undervolt to try to get CPU temperatures under control.
The included software manages firmware/driver downloads and lets you switch between different profiles cleanly enough, but I found myself fighting with it to set the fan profile quiet enough, so I uninstalled it after using it to download the latest firmware/driver updates for the laptop.
If you use this in an office environment, the CPU is going to be thermally throttled 99% of the time when all cores are loaded (but performance under these conditions still beats most if not all 10th gens). Or your coworkers are going to hate your new jet engine simulator. CPU performance falls by up to 40% when unplugged due to the CPU power limit dropping from around 80W to the stock 45W, and there is no way I could find to increase the power allotment when running on batteries.
Despite these issues, the laptop still looks and performs great vs other options that you can actually buy right now, especially for the price. I wanted to love this laptop but the lack of USB-C power delivery, along with the lack of documentation/manuals for what Gigabyte is trying to sell as a creator or borderline enterprise laptop, ended up being deal-breakers for me.
Multiple competitors offer more power-hungry laptops that support USB-C 100W power delivery at least to charge the battery or provide full CPU performance when the GPU is not loaded. The 230W power brick supplied with this laptop weighs 1.85 lbs. And while Gigabyte claims the laptop itself weighs 4.4 lbs, I measured it at 4.9 lbs (2224 g) on a food scale. And since you have to use the proprietary charger, this might as well be a 6.25-6.75 lb laptop (depending on who you believe) if you need to take it anywhere for more than a few hours.
So if you're looking for a desktop replacement, especially if you use the integrated display as one of your monitors, you're probably going to love this laptop for its performance and versatile physical ports, and you are going to struggle to do any better for the price.
But if you need even occasional portability, the hefty power brick is going to make it feel like you're lugging around a beefier 17" laptop, and if you're using it on the go, the otherwise beautiful screen becomes wobbly and reflects everything.
I'd highly recommend this as a reasonably professional-looking, budget-friendly desktop replacement / somewhat portable workstation, but not so much as the kind of laptop you'd take home everyday or even on business trips.
Gigabyte posted on its own Web site a legitimate marketing message that simply mentioned that their laptops were manufactured in Taiwan and not China, and that they were proud of the quality control there.
These impish young people in China, with the full backing of the Chinese Communist Party, were offended that Gigabyte would dare state that Taiwan manufacturing was better then China manufacturing. They swooped in to bully Gigabyte into shutting up. Sure enough, within days of them posting this to Weibo, Gigabyte laptops disappeared from all e-commerce sites in China, and Gigabyte had to issue a groveling apology, as if they had committed a mortal sin in talking about "Made in Taiwan".
For those of you who don't China-Taiwan politics,Taiwan is a tiny country where many of the Nationalists who fled China after the 1949 Civl War went after they were defeated by the Communists. While the Communists proceeded to murder over 65 million of their own citizens and engage in human rights abuses that continue to this day, Taiwan became one of the economic powerhouse in Asia.
Now that China is become an economic force in itself, it is brainwashing its citizens to view Taiwan not as the independent country it's been since 1949, but as a "renegade province" to one day be invaded and "reunited".
I don't know if you're offended by China's increasing dominance over manufacturing, but I sure am. When I see a deal like this for a Made in Taiwan laptop, I'm going to jump at it and I'm going to tell everyone to buy it, if only to prevent China from taking over everything.
If China manages to take over chip manufacturing and ODM production, that will be a death knell to this industry that America invented. Taiwan is the thin line that's protecting us from ourselves.
That's enough to get me to buy Gigabyte from now on (and thanks to the OP for bringing up this deal).
I have the old aero 15x and it's a bummer not being able to bring small charger when going to café or office - though the battery is excellent, cant last the whole day working. So i was really hoping the new one had 100W pd usb c atleast like the other gaming laptops that offer it. Well thats just my point of view.
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Join The Conversation
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