Editor's Note: This article is sponsored content from our advertiser Gigabyte and was not reported or published by the Tom's Hardware staff
When it comes to picking out a laptop, some companies like to box consumers into one reductive category or another. Gamers supposedly only care about powerful GPUs and dedicated graphics. Creatives get a more robust CPU and perfect color range, but not much else. And neither gamers nor professional creators get the portability and battery life marketed to “casual” shoppers.
But why settle for any one category, when you want, and deserve, a laptop that does all of that and more?
Thankfully, the wise people at Gigabyte realized there’s a huge overlap between folks who do graphic design, video editing and hardcore engineering calculations, and folks who like to boot up Steam and play their favorite battle royale game or MMO every night. So they designed a laptop that caters to all of them.
The Gigabyte Aero 15 Y9 crams some impressive hardware into its 0.7-inch-thick frame. The top-end model comes with an i9-8950HK Intel Core CPU—in layman’s terms, the first six-core processor built specifically to squeeze into a laptop.
Those six cores power the 15.6-inch 4K display, a must-have for video editors working with 4K footage, and a definite perk for gamers who like to play on the highest settings.
To further enable your intense graphical demands, they inserted premium NVIDIA GeForceⓇ RTX graphics into the Aero 15. You’ll choose between the GeForceⓇ RTX 2080 and the GeForceⓇ RTX 2070 both popular choices in the PC community for UHD and 4K gaming.
Add all that together, and the Aero 15 Y9 is the only laptop currently for sale with a 4K display, i9 CPU and GeForceⓇ RTX GPU designed for creators as well as gamers, according to Gigabyte.
But enough hardware information, you might be saying. How important is this raw power and color fidelity in your day-to-day work, really?
The i9 core is a great tool for running the intense applications that usually leave you watching the spinning wheel of doom for minutes at a time. An engineering student running MATLAB, for example, might be amazed at how much faster the program solves her complex equations, while an architecture design student using AutoCad will marvel at how much quicker the program generates his 3D models.
Once you’ve completed your project in record time, uploading your work to the cloud will also be a breeze. The Thunderbolt 3 port will speed up your laptop-to-storage transfer time, while the built-in UHS-II SD card reader will dramatically shorten the transmission window for your photos or videos.
Of course, for designers in general, all the power in the world doesn’t matter if the laptop doesn’t have a perfect sRGB color gamut. One moment your proposal looks nothing short of art, and then the next thing you know, you’ve sent a puce-colored mockup to your client instead of brown and made a fool of yourself.
That won’t happen with the Aero 15 display, pre-calibrated with Pantone-level precision to cover the full 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut.
Plus, all the professionals reading this will be gratified to know that the laptop’s exterior design, while stylish, isn’t the kind of garish, intimidating chassis you’d see on a lot of gaming laptops. You won’t be ashamed to bring it into a meeting with the higher-ups.
Now, finally, you’ve completed your work and just want to switch gears, head home and relax! At 2 kg, the Aero 15 doesn’t weigh nearly as much as some of its 15-inch competitors—especially considering how many cores are crammed inside of it—and you make it home easily. You may not have even brought your power cord with you today: the 94Wh battery should bring you all-day productivity.
With the GeForceⓇ RTX 2080 or GeForceⓇ RTX 2070 GPU, you’re already in for a fun 4K gaming experience. With the GeForceⓇ RTX 2080, your Aero 15 comes with a 4K UHD display running at 60 Hz, an excellent visual option for current- and next-gen gaming. Pick the 2070 and you’ll choose between a 4K display at 60 Hz and an FHD display at up to 144 Hz—for those hardcore esports pros or speedrunners who make every frame per second count.
The latest lineup of NVIDIAⓇ GeForceⓇ RTX graphics cards comes with some formidable AI-powered enhancements, such as Ray Tracing (better light effects) and Deep Learning Super Sampling (uprating non-4K visuals to 4K using anti-aliasing). Put together, these reportedly can optimize your FPS and overall performance.
Along with NVIDIA’s AI tricks, Gigabyte augmented the Aero 15 with its own exclusive Microsoft Azure AI, designed to optimize your computer experience well beyond just gaming. Using machine learning, Gigabyte programmed its Azure AI to automatically modify the Aero 15’s CPU frequency, GPU wattage, fan speed, keyboard backlighting and other settings on the fly, based on whatever application you’re currently using.
Put simply, if you turn the AI on, you shouldn’t need to adjust your computer settings manually to optimize performance and battery consumption. Close Adobe Creative Suite and open Call of Duty, and the AI should sense the change and re-prioritize its CPU and GPU power usage behind the scenes. No user input required.
If powerful graphics, a beautiful 4K display and automatic AI optimization speak to your computer needs, check out the Gigabyte Aero 15 store page and see the latest prices!