Gigabyte has spent the past few years trying to catch up to Razer and its flagship gaming laptop, the Blade.
Razer practically invented the thin-and-light gaming laptop category
with the Blade in 2013, and since then it’s slowly evolved into a great
laptop for both productivity and gaming.
More recently, gaming laptop manufacturers have followed
Razer’s lead, trying to position their computers as productivity devices
that double as weekend gaming rigs. Gigabyte continues the tradition
with the new Aero 14 laptop, which it says can get 10 hours of battery
life in a productivity mode that switches over to Intel’s integrated
graphics during less intensive activity.
These are the specs:
- 14-inch QHD 2560 x 1440 IPS Display
- Up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM
- Intel’s 6th generation Core i7 Skylake processor
- USB 3.1 with Type-C, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0, and an SD card reader
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB of GDDR5
- Auto-adjusting backlit keyboard with additional macro keys
The laptop weighs in at just under 4.2 pounds with a
thickness of 19.9mm, which stacks up pretty well with the Razer Blade
which weighs in at 4.25 pounds with a 17.8mm closed height.
Gigabyte also included a few features for power users,
like the HDMI 2.0 port which lets you connect the laptop to an external
monitor and use the full 4K resolution. Software add-ons like the Fan
Tweak let you adjust the fan speed depending on the type of activity
you’re working on. Finally, the macro keys along the side of the
keyboard are customizable and can change color with the Macro Hub
included software.
The Gigabyte Aero 14 is available now in black, orange, and green, starting at $1599.