Gigabyte Aero 15X-CF2 (W/ Pantone screen & GTX 1070 Max-Q)

Gigabyte’s latest laptop has a GTX 1070 graphics core and a Core i7 processor, but you wouldn’t know it from the outside.

The Aero15X arrives in a sleek, dark box with moody photography on the outside, and it’s wrapped in more black material on the inside.

The understated design continues to the laptop itself. Despite the gaming notebook specification, its exterior is subtle: the lid has a smart logo and a little bit of carbon-fibre edging, and the interior has a understated logo, a neat hinge and a small bezel.

It’s not augmented with any silly lights or extra design touches – instead, Gigabyte has let the hardware do the talking. The keyboard stretches across the entire base, and the screen does the same thing. Its bezel is just 5mm thin, which makes it far narrower than anything else out there – and that’s how Gigabyte has been able to cram this 15.6in panel inside a 14in frame.

The Aero is dominated by its screen, keyboard and machined aluminium, but it certainly doesn’t look bland.

It’s extremely smart, and it’s more subtle than its key rival – the Razer Blade. That machine had a bright green logo and shinier metal, as well as the more outlandish Razer packaging.

The smart, sturdy Gigabyte compares well to the Razer in the design department, but it is a little chunkier – the Gigabyte’s 2.1kg weight makes it about 250g more on the scales, and the Aero’s 20mm body is two millimetres thicker.

Those dimensions aren’t enough to make the Gigabyte feel noticeably bulkier than the Razer, but it’s worth noting if you want the slimmest and lightest machine available.

The machines share a similar port selection. The Gigabyte has three USB 3 ports and a single USB 3.1 type-c connection, just like the Razer, and both machines have Thunderbolt and HDMI – ideal for outputting to VR headsets.

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