When buying a laptop, everyone thinks that it will be the best purchase if it has a clear purpose and purpose, and if you buy a laptop with the right specifications and price.
However, since there are variables in people’s work, I think that if you have a product that can cope with any environment and any situation, it will ease your big worries.
These days, laptops should also bring satisfaction to creators who do high-quality, high-intensity work, such as video editing and image work, from various 3D work, and they must be able to drive games for leisure time.
And recently, the latest laptop of 2021 model that can satisfy these days users who demand the best laptop was introduced at Gigabyte.
It is the AERO series’ 2021 notebook, the AERO 17 HDR YC model.
K-bench was able to look at a model with the best display and hardware in 17 inches, which is the largest size of a laptop.
■ Aluminum chassis design without corners
K-bench reviews the AERO series several times a year, and in 2021, the first product, the AERO 17 HDR YC model, was examined.
This AERO 17 HDR YC model, which looks like the 2020 model and the 2021 model of the AERO 17 HDR YB model, seems to maintain the same form factor for the overall design.
This AERO 17 HDR YC model also has an excellent finish design, providing the feeling of wearing a suit without angular feeling. It seems that the CNC-based aluminum chassis customization method is still utilized.
If the appearance is different from the previous generation model, only the slightly different line design is shown on the top panel.
The overall size of the AERO 17 HDR YC model is also 396 x 270mm, which is the same, so despite the 17-inch model, the external size that doesn’t feel too big is still considered a big advantage.
In addition, the thickness that laptops are pursuing these days is also 21mm, so it is not very thick. Therefore, it is considered a product that can feel the so-called compactness even though it is a 17-inch model that is regarded as a large-sized notebook.
It would be the best product here if it were completely light, but it does provide a heavy feel as it is full of display size and hardware.
However, since 17-inch high-end laptops are a lineup that lightly exceeds 3kg, which is a heavy burden if weight is not taken into account, if you are considering purchasing, you need to look at whether you have paid attention to the weight.
Fortunately, the AERO 17 HDR YC model does not exceed 3kg, and it is measured at 2.7Kg. Therefore, it was presented with a sufficient weight to carry and use through a dedicated bag or backpack.
The appearance of the side ports of the AERO 17 HDR YC model also shows that there is not much difference from last year’s model.
On the left side, a wired LAN port, SD card slot, USB 3.1 port and audio IN and OUT ports are provided. On the right side, a USB 3.1 port provides a Thunderbolt 3 capable Type-C port, miniDP and HDMI and DC power ports.
In fact, you may feel that nothing has changed compared to the previous generation, but looking at the variety and amount of ports provided by the current AERO 17 HDR YC model, it seems to have been maintained because it is actually providing the best side ports among the current laptops.
Display ports that creators and gamers need, and ports that can connect a variety of devices are provided, and the Thunderbolt 3 USB port, which can be used without a separate power source, is considered the most characteristic feature if peripheral devices support it.
In the case of the rear design, a wide area is designed as an exhaust panel for effective cooling.
Inside this, Gigabyte’s characteristic wind force cooling system is applied, and it is a design that quickly draws heat through the thin surface and discharges it to the rear and side surfaces.
Laptop purchasers tend to care more about noise rather than subtly powerful cooling, but as I felt while testing the AERO 17 HDR YC model, it is naturally quiet when used in general, and when there is a high load, the fan is spinning somewhat strongly, but the past notebook I didn’t hear a roaring like a bunch. Also, depending on the high-performance cooling environment, heat was not felt much.
■ Immersive 4K IPS HDR screen
It can be seen that the demand for high-resolution displays for both monitors and laptops is increasing.
However, it is true that hardware performance is required in order to utilize high resolution, so it was not easy to apply even though we know the good things.
This AERO 17 HDR YC model is a model that can take advantage of a display that supports 4K resolution, which can be seen as the virtually highest resolution available.
As it can utilize 4K resolution on 17 inches, it provides a more detailed and clear screen, and at the same time, the thin bezel of 3mm level from the previous generation plays a prominent role in raising the immersion of the screen to the highest level.
The viewing angle is also important. It would be nice if you could always see the display in front of you, but there are many cases where you can’t.
Since the AERO 17 HDR YC model provides an excellent viewing angle along with the IPS panel, it was also possible to see an excellent appearance without color change or light deformation from any angle.
▲ It’s not easy to distinguish, but it feels like the excess color is slightly adjusted.
Also, if there are important parts on the screen, it will be the color and brightness.
The AERO 17 HDR YC model is designed to be used as a bright screen by supporting up to 500 nits of brightness for outdoor use.
Also, like the latest AERO series, X-rite Pantone color calibration is basically adjusted.
According to the official introduction of GIGABYTE, it is provided with a high accuracy of less than DELTA E=1>, so that it can be expressed with accurate colors even when working with color sensitive to color, such as photography or video work.
As the model name of the AERO 17 HDR YC model indicates, it also supports HDR and not only supports it, but also supports VESA 400 certified HDR designated by VESA, the official image and electronic standards committee.
As the higher brightness expression area expands, the contrast of the dark areas improves and the screen changes to a more realistic screen.
Existing calibrated accurate colors are also shown to provide a more realistic feel through the rich brightness support of HDR.
■ RGB emotional keyboard, from fingerprint recognition to audio
Along with the excellent display of the AERO 17 HDR YC model, the eye-catching part is also the gorgeous keyboard.
It can be seen that the provision of LEDs in notebook keyboards these days has become quite common, and in recent years, RGB LEDs for gamer sensibility are in vogue.
The AERO 17 HDR YC model provides a full array keyboard including a 6-layer and keypad, plus a keyboard with RGB LEDs added to it.
In addition, the control center, which is a dedicated software for Gigabyte, provides various convenient functions and settings from RGB LED effect change to macro setting.
Fingerprint identification is also provided for security.
A fingerprint recognition zone is provided on one side of the touchpad, and you can set and use security locks through fingerprint recognition for Windows login security and various sensitive security programs.
Due to the recent coronavirus situation, the use of video calls and video conferences has increased significantly. As a result, the security of the webcam may become weak as the laptop’s webcam is used too much.
Although thorough security management is required, hacking a webcam may leak your privacy. Accordingly, a slide cover that can be physically blocked is provided.
The default speaker sound of the AERO 17 HDR YC model is also pretty good.
In the past, it was difficult to get the impression that the sound of a laptop was just sound.
On the other hand, the AERO series consistently provides 3D surround through nahimic sound technology, so you can enjoy excellent sound. Also, depending on the settings, the connectivity from surround sound to a useful sound tracker for gaming, and other external sound devices has been highly evaluated.
Therefore, it seems to be a useful notebook for not only gaming but also musical work.
The AERO 17 HDR YC model is basically installed with a control center that can control all of the various functions provided, so it is possible to easily set various functions, from monitoring the condition of the notebook to the detailed options. It is seen as a laptop that can be used without worries even for users who are not.
■ CPU for creators, RTX 3080 MAX-Q finally started to be installed
The AERO 17 HDR YC model has powerful hardware specifications.
First, in the case of CPU, Intel 10th generation i9-10980HK is installed. The i9-10980HK is a CPU for notebooks that shows the best performance based on the 10th generation of Intel. With 8 cores and 16 threads, a 2.4GHz base clock and a performance base that increases to 5.3GHz when boosting, it can demonstrate its power from gaming environments to multitask environments. I can.
In other words, it can be seen as a powerful CPU that is much more useful for creators who frequently do various tasks because it is effective in various work environments.
And the most special part of this AERO 17 HDR YC model is in the GPU.
The 2020 models have been equipped with the NVIDIA RTX 2000 models, but from the end of last year to the 2021 models, the NVIDIA RTX 3000 models, which are still hot new generations, have started to be installed.
The model mounted on this AERO 17 HDR YC model is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 MAX-Q 8GB model.
It is a MAX-Q design that has excellent performance ratio, so it is somewhat disappointing compared to the desktop 3080, but it is clearly expected to provide powerful performance as it is the 3000th model.
The mobile version of the RTX 3080 now has features that seem to be named laptops, and features 6144 shaders and 8GB of GDDR6.
When it comes to the AERO series, it is an RTX studio supported and certified product.
RTX Studio can be certified only if it has high resolution, high RTX GPU mounting, SSD capacity and sufficient memory capacity.
The AERO 17 HDR YC model meets all of this, of course, and is better, so you can run and optimize creative programs in a better environment using the studio drivers and environments provided by NVIDIA.
In addition, it can be emphasized as a useful notebook for creators as it can decorate the creative environment provided by Nvidia itself.
With powerful CPU/GPU mounted, the amazing AERO 17 HDR YC model is a model with a very large amount of memory.
In particular, the reason why I mentioned that the AERO 17 HDR YC model will be quite useful to creators is because I thought about the part that adopted the basic 64GB memory.
These days, even if you are still playing high-performance AAA games, 16GB of memory is enough, and a total of 64GB of 32GBx2 memory is not enough and overflows.
As mentioned earlier, the moment when memory is needed the most is when multitasking or working on multiple tasks at the same time, which is quite attractive to creators who need to run multiple programs at the same time rather than gamers.
If so, how about full-scale performance? I ran a CPU/GPU benchmark program and some AAA games to see the overall performance.
In the case of CPU, it is the result of running the CPU-Z test and Cinebench R20, and in the case of GPU, it is the result of 3DMark and game.
Overall, you can see excellent results, and in particular, as the GPU performance improves, you can see that the gaming performance is remarkably improved.
In particular, it is expected that casual games or mid-range games will be able to enjoy games with a clean screen at 4K resolution, such as showing some frames at 4K resolution even in AAA games now.
Another surprising point is that this AERO 17 HDR YC model has plenty of storage as well as its ample memory capacity.
With 1TB of NVMe and 1TB of PCIe, a total of 2TB of storage is mounted, so you can use ample space at high speed.
■ Whatever you do, if you’re looking for a laptop ready, AERO 17 HDR YC
Except for special cases, most specifications of laptops are fixed and fixed at the time of purchase, so it can be said that buying a good product is the most important product when buying.
The 2021 AERO 17 HDR YC model is clearly charged at high cost, but I think the AERO 17 HDR YC model is the right one if you want to choose the right product when you buy it.
With a 17-inch display that offers outstanding image quality and resolution, a top-level CPU and the latest high-performance GPU, overflowing 64GB of memory and ample storage, there is currently no product like this for users who need a top-end laptop.
In addition, despite having these high-performance specifications, AERO’s unique slimness and weight are adjusted in a balanced manner, so it is sufficiently portable.
I want to highly recommend it to creators who often move around, but need high-performance equipment, and users who want to work and play at the same time.
Finally, in 2021, if anyone is looking for a laptop that is powerful, versatile, and capable of responding to any task, regardless of cost, I would like to introduce the AERO 17 HDR YC model.