Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve been using the Gigabyte AERO X16 with the RTX 5060 for about a week now, and it’s been an outstanding all-around machine. As a graphic designer and video editor, I really appreciate the bright 16″ 2560×1600 display—it’s sharp, color-accurate, and smooth at 165 Hz. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU and RTX 5060 combo handle design apps, 4K video editing, and moderate gaming without breaking a sweat. What impressed me most is how lightweight it feels for a 16″ laptop—easy to carry between home and work. The cooling system keeps performance steady (though it can get a bit loud under heavy load), and the build quality feels premium. Battery life isn’t exceptional, but that’s expected for a performance laptop. Overall, this is a great choice for creators or gamers who want a portable, high-performance system that looks professional and delivers reliable results.

Overall this is a nice and high quality laptop that can handle both your gaming and workstation needs. It has an amazing battery life and low temps with a nearly silent fan.

Amazing computer, great battery life and runs all of the games I've tried on it effortlessly. Sturdy build as well, I definitely feel confident when putting it in a bag to travel

The laptop is surprisingly powerful in such a compact package. It delivers beyond what I've ever experience with a laptop afar as performance is concerned, especially at this price point. That said, it does have a few shortcomings. 1) In my experience, The graphics card switching (for battery savings) bugs out, and requires me to boot into bios to disable in order to reset it. 2) The laptop overheads fairly easily. It becomes scalding if you actually use it on your lap for more than a few minutes. You probably want to keep it elevated at all times when in use. 3) The battery life is abysmal. 4) does not seem to charge with USB C, at least not adequately for the required power draw, even with extremely high wattage adapters. 5) I have yet to find a dock that works with this laptop that does not require the laptop to simultaneously be connected to the OEM power adapter. But if you use this laptop as an ultraportable powerhouse, it's great.

Excellent value! This laptop can play any new game at reasonable settings (limited by 8gb of vram) and edit my videos. It is super snappy to use. Solid build quality.

Sleek design! Super compact and futuristic. I like how its so slick and packed with overkill storage and rtx nvidia 50 series graphic cards for games is too op! :) cant beat this price for the most advanced hardware atleast accordong to moores law :)

Pretty good gaming laptop, runs the latest games without problem cool and premium design

I bought this laptop late August 2025 for college workload. It has overall well rounded specs for the price at the time. Works great for engineering applications in college with the 5060 gpu and AMD 350 chip but mine has major issues with its hardware just after 8 months of lite use for college. The major issue with mine was informed by geek squad as something motherboard related, geek squad could not fix it. The laptop will not go to bios anymore and no display on screen, power button doesn’t respond, fans and led keys will power on and off till laptop dies. Luckily it is under warranty from gigabyte and currently in the process of RMA with the manufacturer. Photos below are the images I was able to get before major issues occurred which now it is just a very expensive paperweight.

The features are as expected. Battery doesn't last more than 4 hours but it's expected in this kind of device. Copilot and snapshot can be useful every once in a while... I hope Microsoft can improve the overall experience in the future. The IA button from Gigabyte is... Inconvenient...it's placed close to the delete button and it's useless for me

This Gigabyte Aero X16 is a fantastic computer for my home office and PC gaming needs. I feel this allows me to enjoy the best of both worlds as a full time employee during the day and a recreational gamer in the evenings. This laptop has a nice look and design, with a decent set of specs for someone like me that needs a laptop for work and gaming. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 chip is a unique asset to this machine as it helps to accelerate the AI tasks that this machine can do. It's got 8 cores and 16 threads that can reach a 5Ghz maximum clock speed. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 offers exceptional GPU ability to handle all the games I've played so far with my Xbox Game Pass. The screen is a 16" WQXGA in 2560x1600 resolution, with 165 Hz refresh rates. 32GB of RAM with the ability to upgrade to 64GB. Also an adequately sized 1TB SSD that is fast and reliable so far during the time I've been using this. Windows 11 runs very well on this laptop along with the various Copilot+ PC abilities. Another fun addition to this machine is the brand exclusive GiMate smart AI software. There are plenty of useful ports such as 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, 1 USB-C, 3 USB-A ports for connectivity, a headphone jack, and a built-in Windows Hello front facing 1080p IR camera. Also this Aero X16 handles Wi-Fi 6e speeds which are faster and easier to connect to if your home/office is equipped. For a gaming laptop it's got a nice sleek body that weighs in at 4.19 pounds. Large in size and fairly light makes it easy to take with me from room to room and from the office to the coffee shop as well. The Aero X16 is a quiet computer with its design and WINDFORCE Infinity Cooling. The machine stays cool and operates at an optimal temperature without creating the heavy noise many other gaming laptops do under heavy stress. This has 12V power enhanced fans that create an optimal airflow inside of its thin chassis. The 76Wh battery capacity has been lasting me a long time and I've been pleased with it's duration through my day. This Aero X16 shines with its NVIDIA RTX 5060 chip which helps to boost the horsepower and ability of the graphics content. Faster generation of images and better clarity for gaming and creating content. The MUX Switch allows for flexibility to switch back and forth from internal GPU to discrete GPU to go with longer battery life or higher performance respectively. Using Copilot on this PC is very easy and it allows for enhanced tools to create, comprehend new languages, and make me look better on my video calls. Gigabyte has installed GiMate as a smart AI mate to make it easier for my daily interactions. GiMate helps to make controls more accessible, and more personal with voice commands. Use the GiMate to help make your computer operate better for your immediate needs by making it more performance oriented or more battery saver oriented. Interesting concept, but easy to use and easy to learn. The golden curve keyboard is a nice feel under my fingers as it has a contoured feel to my natural fingertips curves. The large touch pad offers best in class control and seems pretty accurate under all uses for my day to day needs. Dolby Atmos and spatial immersion are a nice touch for this Aero X16. I love watching streaming content and listening to music, and it has a full sound without sounding hollow or tin-like. Overall I have liked this as a solid laptop for my hybrid needs. It's a great daily driver for my work from home productivity needs, and a great gaming laptop with top of the line specs and internal components. It will handle 1440p gaming with DLSS and Frame Gen on and the performance doesn't slow down. Fast for productivity, and smooth for PC gaming needs. This Gigabyte Aero X16 is a fun and well designed laptop that will suit the needs of anyone like me that wants to have the best of both worlds, and is never too old to give up on PC gaming.

Solid laptop, battery ain't too bad for what it is my only gripe with it is how with dark to light websites the monitor needs to adjust it colors even after a settings calibration.

I really enjoyed this laptop for the first few weeks I got it. I purchased it and picked it up on December 5th, 2025. I was going to wait 6 months before reviewing this laptop but now I need to WARN OTHERS. The laptop was great to play a few games on from steam. I never played anything to resource intense. Just simple games like dayz, euro truck simulator, total war, Mount and blade 2 banner lord. After a few weeks I had to get a laptop radiator because the fans were running max speed, games were freezing and the PC was getting to hot. A few weeks after my radiator my battery was dying quicker than normal. Now today, 4-22-2026 at 4 pm EST I went to check for updates. There was 1 and I clicked update. I waited 20 minutes then saw the first image i attached in the review. The laptop was stuck in this update blue screen. I couldn’t do anything besides doing a factory restart which erased everything I had. (I hope I saved most of my stuff on the cloud). I’m going to contact GIGABYTE/ AORUS customer service and hope someone can help me with a diagnosis. I spent $1,000 on this laptop hoping it wouldn’t have any problems for at least 2-3 years but it hasn’t even lasted 6 months giving this problem which I read previously on other reviews for Gigabyte laptops. I own a 2019 MacBook Air and I’ve never had to contact apple customer service. Yes it’s very slow but it gets the job done. Please spend a little more money and get a better brand like ASUS. I took a risk on this brand and now I regret it. If Gigabyte can’t help me resolve these problems, I will file complaints and try to get my money back from this purchase. Side note - After the warranty expires, I’ve read this company will not answer you or help in anyway. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

The days of bulky gaming laptops are now over. The GIGABYTE - AERO X16 packs a punch even with its slim chassis design. Whether you are playing a game, rendering 3D models, or browsing the Internet, the AERO X16 will handle it all. I have had the chance to play with this gaming laptop these past couple days. This is a solid gaming laptop but there are some slight inconveniences. In this review, I will go over my experience with the AERO X16 and the pros and cons of this gaming laptop. *TLDR at the bottom ========== IN THE BOX/SET-UP: In the box, you get the slim GIGABYTE - AERO X16 gaming laptop, power cord, power supply, stickers, and some documentation. Setup is straightforward. It’s your typical out-of-box Microsoft setup experience. After the usual setup and Microsoft updates, you will boot into Windows. I did not find any bloatware. Kudos to GIGABYTE for that. There is the GiMATE app that comes preinstalled, which is important, and I will go into more details later. ========== DESIGN/SPECS: While I have used gaming laptops that were slimmer than the AERO X16, I appreciate the significant decrease in chassis size compared to other GIGABYTE gaming laptops that I have used in the past. This is by far the slimmest GIGABYTE gaming laptop I have used. It is much lighter, and even the power supply is smaller. On top of that, there is still ample air flow as well. The number of peripheral ports was not sacrificed either. You still get an Ethernet jack, 3 USB-A, HDMI, AUX, and 1 USB-C port. I would’ve liked another USB-C port, but at this price and for the sake of keeping the slim chassis, I cannot complain. The screen is beautiful, featuring a wide 2560x1600 resolution(3k) and 165Hz display. There are minimal bezels, which makes the display appear larger. The keyboard feels ergonomic and is quiet. The trackpad is very large, but it's nice to have. Overall, this is a well-designed gaming laptop. This AERO X16 gaming laptop contains the following key specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Memory: 32GB DDR5 RAM Storage: 1TB NIC: Realtek 8852CE Wi-Fi 6E ========== PERFORMANCE: I was able to use the AERO X16 in various situations over the past couple of days. I stressed test the laptop in various games, business apps, and even watched a couple of movies/live events. Finally, I ran several benchmark software programs. I will first cover the benchmark software. The first one I ran was 3D Mark. This was used to test out the laptop’s gaming capabilities. PC Mark was used to test out the computer’s capabilities with modern office applications like Word, video conferencing software, web browsing, data processing, etc., Cinebench was used to test out the computer’s CPU rendering performance, and Can You Run It was used to see how many of the top 9000 games this computer can run at the minimum and recommended requirements. The scores for these benchmark applications can be seen below. 3D Mark Graphic Score: 10402 CPU Score: 10378 Time Spy Score: 10398 PC Mark Overall Score: 7930 *Individual scores for a specific application in the PC Mark image Cinebench CPU (Multi Core): 17252 CPU (Single Core): 1968 CanYouRunIt CYRI Score Min: 100% CYRI Score Rec: 98% *This score is the percentage of games your computer can run at the minimum and recommended requirement levels. The benchmarks say this is a great gaming laptop that can also be used for business applications. The laptop should handle any application or game you throw at it. I did mostly game on it as that's what most people will use this laptop for, thus, I will focus on that. I played a variety of games from FPS like Destiny 2, to racing games like Forza Horizon 5, and action-adventure games like Control and Rise of the Tomb Raider. The laptop performed well with all the games I played. Although I did notice it struggles with Ray Tracing. This was prevalent in Control, where I was able to play at max resolution with graphics set to Medium and an average of 80fps. As soon as I turned on Ray Tracing, my frame rate dropped significantly. I was averaging around 40fps, which is terrible. On the other hand, some older games like Rise of the Tomb Raider performed phenomenally. With Tomb Raider, I was able to max out all graphics settings on max resolution. I also turned on DLSS to help with performance, and with all that, I was averaging between 100-128fps depending on where I was located. Overall, this is a great gaming computer that should be able to handle all games, but will require some fine-tuning to be able to get the most performance without sacrificing quality for some more graphically intensive games. ========== FEATURES/OTHER NOTES: The following are some key features and notes that I have about the AERO X16: - Built-in speakers sound great, but the lows are lacking - Be careful with maxing out memory or CPU usage with background tasks, a wallpaper I had set with Wallpaper Engine, was significantly slowing down the computer - The GiMate app is built in as a Control Panel for most hardware and key software tweaks that can be done on the laptop (RGB can be customized here, fan speed is set here, switch “scenario” profiles, etc.) - AI Power Gear (turns off dedicated GPU when no power is connected), while useful to save battery, can be a nuisance when using the HDMI port to extend/use an external display. If no power supply is available, the dGPU will need to be turned on manually to use the HDMI port - The fans are loud during high-performance scenarios like gaming. I recommend using headphones - There are other AI-related tools, such as AI Audio, AI Privacy, and AI Conference Background, that I did not get to, but they seem useful - Camera quality is bad. I recommend an external camera if you plan to use the camera ========== CONCLUSION/TLDR: Overall, this is a great gaming laptop that can also be used for business applications. The beautiful, wide screen is immersive and makes games appear vibrant, and allows for multiple windows to be displayed for those multitaskers. The slim chassis design is impressive, and there is less space, but there is still enough air flow to keep the laptop cool. Unfortunately, the fans do get loud during high-performance scenarios. The AERO X16 should be able to run all your favorite games at minimum settings, but will require tweaking for the graphically intensive ones. If you need an underrated powerhouse of a gaming laptop without completely breaking the bank, I recommend you give this one a shot!

Bought this about like 2 months ago and so stuff no complaints and been the best laptop ever

GIGABYTE AERO X16 comes with GeForce RTX 5060 empowering the gaming and AI. The review is done with the 32GB of DDR5 RAM and AMD Risen AI 7 350 As soon as turning on after all the corresponding to OS and Bio updates, it feels impressive the speed to open the games and copilot for simple task generation. Before the further review, the notebook technical specifications are: Microphone, Web Cam, Web Cam Indicator, Display Panel, Power Button, Keyboard, Caps Lock LED, Touchpad, Power Input Port (DC), Ethernet Port (Lan, HDMI 2.1 (TMDS), USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port (USB type-A), USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB type-C) Support DP 1.4 / PD 3.0, Power Indicator, Storage access Indicator, Audio Combo Jack, USB 2.0 Port (USB type-A), USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port (USB type-A) and Speaker. Its screen is IPS, 16inch, 250x1600, with refresh rate of 165Hz. From everything it can be remarked, some highlights on two specific functionalities. First on the copilot, interaction with the copilot for questions and answers is straight forward without latency. Questions and requests were modestly simple ones. However as reference, for instance for the request of create an image like “runners across Golden Gate Bridge” which has generated with four to five runners took about 2 minutes. Second on the game, having it unplugged and its battery status at 100%, playing Roblox entirely, the battery lasted 1hrs and 32min in the context of using a totally new battery. On the other hand, playing a Resident Evil, the fan noise can be heard loudly but the playing experience was rapid without latency that could be observed. From other usage experience, the camera only front facing with resolution of 2.1MP, it is quite sharp image or more than acceptable resolution for normal usage. It has backlit keyboard that during the dark make feel special while playing a game. Then having it in closed mode, and carrying, it feels very light and slim considering it is 16” notebook and made for game. Hence good for mobility aside of its size. As little tip, the camera can be disabled or covered but from the camera setting that allow to Enable/Disable. Depending on the preference, this is ok or others would have preferred the hardware version as well. On display, with its resolution and size of 16” does deliver a crisp and fresh experience to the eyes while watching movie and playing game. Except of that it comes installed with Windows Home instead of Pro version, the notebook by Gigabyte AERO X16 does feel quite powerful due to its graphic and and processors and well put together.

Solid gaming and design laptop at a reasonable value. Sure it “only” has an RTX 5060 GPU, but that’s like complaining about not having a Ferrari. Between playing the new Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4, Forza Motorsport, and Cyberpunk 2077 it did a great job on all of those games with either the internal screen or hooked up to a 3440x1440 HDR ultrawide monitor. Speaking of which, I learned that you’ll need to use the HDMI port if you want to use the NVIDIA RTX5060 for your external monitor. Hooking up a second screen through the USB-C port works just fine, but seemingly hooks up to the internal AMD GPU only. Not a big deal, but just remember to use the HMDI port for the best graphic experience. The sound features Dolby Atmos processing, which is good, but not particularly outstanding and lifelike. Don’t get me wrong, it gets reasonably loud but there’s a certain crispness the sound seems to be lacking. There’s quite a bit of audio tuning options though, and the included GiMate app has some interesting Ai sound features that could be useful as well. How much you think it helps the sound is really up to you, but I like the options and will continue to play around with them more. There’s supposedly an MUX switch that makes it easier to switch between the AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, however I can’t find it anywhere. In my older Gigabyte laptop it was in the Gigabyte Control Center app, but that app doesn’t seem to be working properly with this laptop yet. I don’t know if the GiMate app is supposed to supersede it, but either way, it’s missing the MUX switch. Fortunately, Windows should automatically utilize the NVIDIA GPU if you’re gaming and it switches between both cards pretty seamlessly. I don’t think of the Gigabyte Aero x16 as just a gaming laptop, but also an excellent daily use laptop. The fans are dead quiet while web browsing, streaming movies, and using office apps. The battery life is advertised to go a full 14 hours, which I haven’t really verified yet, but I went a good 8 hours web browsing and writing reports without needing a recharge. The thin and light body makes it easily portable too and not in that “technically portable” way. It actually fits in a backpack well and the 16” screen is a great balance between size and portability. The screen itself is an IPS 2560x1600 display that can run up to @165hz and is 100% sRGB Pantone validated. There is a little bit of light leak around the screen bezel, but it’s not really noticeable unless you’re looking at a fully black screen. If you’re looking for a gaming, design, photography, or even just daily use laptop, the Gigabyte Aero x16 is a solid choice. It’s light, portable, charges quickly, can go 10+ hours on battery, and can handle some of the most graphically demanding games today. The keyboard doesn’t feel cramped and has a big, responsive trackpad. It’s an excellent computer at a good price and should do most people very well. Great job Gigabyte! PROS - Snappy - Thin and light - No problem playing Cyberpunk 2077 at 3440x1440@120 HDR with high graphic settings and ray tracing - Big screen, small bezel - NVIDIA RTX 5060 - 14 hour battery life - Fast charging (full charge in about 45 min) - Comfortable keyboard - Responsive and large trackpad - 3 USB-A ports, 1 USB-C port, ethernet port, HDMI port, and headphone jack - Great gift for college CONS - Must use HDMI output to use RTX 5060 on external monitor - Can’t find MUX switch - Gigabyte Control Center doesn’t work (unless it’s GiMate now)

I haven't really done much in the way of gaming on this machine, but that wasn't why I was interested in it. I've been getting into 3D modeling and wanted something more capable and portable than my other laptop, which is a great device but can't really handle the GPU rendering it needs to do. In terms of size and weight, I'd consider Gigabyte's Aero X16 average. It's not too heavy to lug around, but it's not surprisingly light either. The overall feel of the laptop is solid and premium, with an understated matte metal finish on the lid, without a lot of the "gamer" design trappings. The lid is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but those buff right off with a microfiber cloth. I did load up a few games to test out. Specifically Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima. At high settings at native resolution with DLSS and framegen enabled I was getting 90-110fps and it was very playable. I was not expecting the 5060 to perform that well, and it's very capable for mobile gaming. The fans do crank up quite a bit when doing so, so maybe grab a good pair of headphones. It's a shame, because the audio on the device is also very good. 32GB of DDR5 at 5600 MT/s feels pretty standard for a gaming machine at this point. It's not going to break any speed records, but it's fast enough. But as I said, my primary use for this machine is running applications like Photoshop, Blender, and Fusion360. All of these apps can make use of the GPU to accelerate their performance, and it works very well for that purpose. I've modeled two different objects start to finish with it so far, and I'm looking forward to doing more. Where downsides are concerned, the machine has given me a bit of trouble. First, in the past week it's restarted itself in the middle of whatever I'm working on at least once a day. I save my work often and haven't been set back much, but it's still annoying, and the GiMATE app reports no driver or BIOS updates available, so I've no hopes of a quick fix for that. Secondly, something is loading itself in the background that occasionally bugs out and renders everything on the right side of my screen unclickable until I reboot, and I haven't been able to isolate what's causing it yet. It was also constantly nagging me to disable the discrete GPU for some reason (shouldn't Optimus able to handle that on it's own?) until I went into the BIOS and set it to discrete only mode (thank God for the inclusion of a MUX switch). For included software, it really feels like they tried to label everything possible as "AI" - including for ridiculous things like power settings. I get that it's a lot of marketing, but it feels overkill. There's one really interesting looking tool, an app called GiMATECreator that comes preinstalled, promising everything a creator could want in a generative AI app. When you start it up, it first wants you to go to a website called "Hugging Face" and sign up for an account, so that it can download AI models to use. I did this, generated a key and put it into the app, only to be told that I don't have permission to download any of the models, making the app unusable. If Gigabyte is going to "AI" features like this to advertise or sell their machines, they need to do a lot better than relying on a buggy, useless service to do it for them. Checking out the upgradability of the machine, I decided to pull off the back cover. It was a little bit of a struggle to pry it off after removing the screws, but not too bad. Underneath, every removable/replaceable component is easily accessible. You can swap out your RAM or WiFi card for faster ones if you want, and you can easily add another M.2 drive or replace the existing one, though an additional screw was not provided for the open M.2 slot (these usually come with one anyway). Unlike most laptops I've used, the rear cover doesn't encroach upon the sides or back of the laptop, so it doesn't touch any of the ports. This mean's nothing's going to break if you try to pull the cover off without unplugging your wireless mouse adapter, for example. This is all excellent and Gigabyte did a great job here. All in all, this is a great laptop for gaming and productivity, with some great hardware and fantastic design choices. Just don't let the promises of AI-centric functions fool you.

This is a great, mid-tier gaming laptop that won’t feel out of place as your primary laptop for work, school, or creative work. With respectable internals, 1TB of fast storage and 32gb of fast ram, you can do just about anything without getting slowed down. This comes with a slight downside of some fan noise and a barrel-style charging cable and ‘brick’ which make transporting this machine a little less convenient than more typical, modern USB-C charging solutions. __ Design __ I really like the look of this machine. It’s simultaneously minimal while not being boring. The simple side hinges with gap below the screen feels airy when open, while the center power button and venting pattern hints at its gaming focus. In this grey color it gives a ‘stealth-blade’ aesthetic that I like. The keyboard feels nice with decent travel, though I do feel that its techno-futuristic font occasionally makes it a bit hard to recognize special characters - like the ‘@‘ symbol, for instance. Not a huge issue, but something I noticed. This is slightly compounded by the clear lettering with backlighting. The I/O ports on this machine feel good, with both HDMI and DisplayPort (via USB-C) connections and everything placed at the sides, rather than the back (a lot more convenient!) __ Performance __ I tested the machine with The Callisto Protocol, Ghost Runners II and some slightly older games. All performed well thanks to the RTX 5060 and 32gbs of DDR5 ram in this machine. I didn’t see any tearing or dropped frames. If you play more intensive games, you may want to consider the model with the 5070 card, but for most who play occasionally or don’t expect top settings in every game, this is great! When gaming, the fans seem to run constantly, they’re slightly loud and create some vibration in the keyboard deck, but in a way that still feels acceptable. Integrated speakers are acceptable, but they aren’t my favorite part of this machine. They’re both a bit too hollow sounding and don’t get quite loud enough to drown out the above-mentioned fans while playing. I think I’ll stick to headphones more often than not as a result. During other tasks, this isn’t a big issue as the fans tend to slow down and don’t interfere. __ Screen __ The screen is pretty good on this machine. WQXGA (2560 x 1600 widescreen) is great for a gaming machine, but it’s probably the lowest resolution I’d go for on a screen this size. Completely appropriate, but it can’t compete with a 4k screen on higher end options. At the price of the machine overall, I think it’s good - with punchy colors and good color accuracy for those who wish to use this machine for creative tasks. The primary downside is that it only reaches 400 nits. I found this good for gaming in dim or dark rooms, but slightly problematic in bright daylight. In normal daylight, the matte finish on the screen also created some ambient glare which the screen couldn’t quite compensate for due to its brightness limitations. For most people, I imagine it working out fine, but something to keep in mind. __ Summary __ For the price, this machine combines respectable internals for a great, mid-tier gaming experience. Its sleek design is simultaneously understated and interesting, making for a machine that’s well suited for both productivity and gaming. The integrated speakers and screen brightness could be better, but overall it’s a great choice for those looking for a versatile, gaming-ready laptop. *** What I liked *** - Great aesthetic, feels modern but interesting. - Compact, lightweight and portable, yet gaming ready with good internals. - HDMI, DisplayPort (via USB-C), and other ports conveniently placed. - Color accuracy is good. *** What I didn’t like *** - Speakers sound a bit hollow to me. - Fans can be a bit loud when gaming. - Screen caps at only 400 nits, too dim for bright sunlight and some normal settings due to glare. - Keyboard font isn’t the easiest to parse at times. - Bulky charging cable and brick.

When I first got this and took it out of the box I was a bit skeptical because of how thin and light it was. Normally light in this segment means no good but those first thoughts were genuinely its strengths moving forward and I grew to actually love that part of it! With the specs on this laptop being the AMD Ryzen ai 7 350, rtx 5060, and 32gb ram with 1tb storage you have all the baseline specs you need to game, create or anything you would want to do with the size and weight of less powerful machines its an excellent in between. First impressions of this machine is it feels great with a metal lid but inside is a plastic keyboard deck. This at first left me confused but later made way more sense as this is much lighter than a normal 16” gaming laptop and it also doesnt conduct mass amounts of heat while gaming because of this. It also does not pick up mass fingerprints like they normally do when they are this type of material which is a first for me so im surprised to say the least. Anyway, on to the good stuff here. First the most important thing I feel should be said is the fact this has the 0db ambience “wind force” setup which makes it so when your doing regular non intensive web browsing, videos, light work the fans never even have to spin up or make sound. This is something I normally have to go way out of my way to make a thing with custom fan settings or turning down settings for something like work meetings or classes but this just comes that way. Even in “gaming mode” and the highest performance settings if you arent doing a large workload the fans DONT SPIN which is really cool to see come stock that way. Speaking of modes there is a keyboard shortcut (Fn+F7) for eco, balance and performance toggles for your specific needs and with the GiMATE which is gigabyte computers ai system you can press that Gi button (upper right) and tell it what you are doing so it will control power limits and fans for you which is like living in the future lol. The display gets really bright at over 400 nits and is 100% SRGB color accurate which is awesome. In a sea of OLED and mini led models out there this is unfortunately only a normal IPS LCD but it’s one of the best ive seen in the space and gets bright, has an excellent response time and as said color accurate so its great for gaming and content creation alike. The keyboard feels very good on this, no mistyping going on, no sponge or springy feelings to be felt anywhere and the RGB backlighting (single zone) is very bright and solid. The trackpad is massive, smooth, and is a springboard style but one of the best ive used on a gaming laptop of this style. The speakers are more than adequate for this though it is lacking deeper low end common with most all gaming laptops they do the job well enough when needed and I think with gaming most of us use proper headphones or ear buds anyway so its a non issue. The power adapter is very compact and light for this which is another excellent pro. You can power this via USB C as well which is what I did on the go and very handy and I only used the included adapter for gaming when I needed the full power so keep this in mind. On the other end of this using the ECO mode and all the ai features makes this thing last over 6 hours in my testing for battery life. Along with the battery life there is a setting inside the GiMATE software that allows you to limit your battery state of charge to either full 100%, balanced 80%, or max batt health mode at 60% all at the selection of the menu option without installing any weird 3rd party stuff which is really great in a machine like this. I just kept it at 60% mode all the time and when I knew I was going to leave the house I just changed the setting up to 100 a couple hours before and was good to go. The AMD Ryzen ai 7 350 chip is one of the most versatile CPU in the industry with ability to stay cool when needed and really pump numbers under boost clock conditions when under load. I really like these new chips this year and combining it with the RTX 5060 on this machine I was seeing levels well above tests ive done on prior year 4070 machines easily which were double the thickness and much heavier. On the benchmark side of things on time spy results I was able to crank out a great score of over 11,000 which is very impressive for the specs and size (as if this isnt the common theme). During full load the hottest the keyboard ever got was around 108F (41C) which is VERY respectable when it comes to gaming laptops and far under the number that would become uncomfortable to use. I was able to play GTA V, Fortnite, world of warcraft and many others for long hours sessions without issue, no throttling, no shudders, no issues at all and was very pleased with results. I did some light video editing in Resolve 20 Studio and it handled 10-bit HEVC, pro res and h.264 footage with ease, could scrub through footage no problem with this great combo of the 5060 and ai 7 350 your covered for basically any encode decode youd want which is normally a shortcoming of the AMD chips but not this year with this combo. Overall I dont think there is another better put together package of performance WITH portability out there for this price range and value. Sure there is some trade offs to be seen but the value reflects this and as such you’re not going to get the same performance elsewhere or being a co pilot + pc with a large amount of RAM which provides an insane value with this CPU and GPU for a total package.

My experience with the Gigabyte Aero X16 has been very satisfying. The 16” size gives it great portability while still staying large enough to actually play games on. This is a machine that's at home playing intense games or in an office environment handling productivity software. The case is one of the features that really shines on this model. I'm used to gaming laptops that are relatively thick and very heavy. This machine is nice and slim and while it does have some weight to it, it doesn't feel excessive. The overall look is really nice. The corners are sharp and clean giving it a professional look. The gray color makes the angles along the back edge stand out a bit instead of blurring them. I like the way exhaust ports are arranged. There are two sections at the back, one on each side, and each side has them as well, but they are kept to the back end. This is good because then the hot exhaust doesn't blow out right on your mouse hand. The deck and keyboard are also laid out well. There are no dedicated number keys. On a machine this size, it just wouldn't make sense trying to cram a larger keyboard in. What you do get is a mammoth touch pad that's responsive and incorporates the two buttons well. I was always able to hit the buttons on the first try. Some touch pads seem to play hide and seek with them, but these are good. The key backlighting looks very good. The colors are very rich and deep and don't look washed out at all. The overall feel of the keys is firm and responsive and the keyboard has an overall tight feel to it. The combination of the WQXGA display and the NVIDIA RTX5060 is fantastic. I really enjoyed playing games on this machine. DOOM: The Dark Ages looks amazing. The shadows and dark areas were definitely dark, but it was still easy to see details and not feel like you were stumbling around blind in the game. Colors are pretty amazing and this game looked great. I never saw any video anomalies while playing and it kept up with me without any problem. This is in part because of the Ryzen AI 7 processor. The whole machine just worked well, all the components worked together and it all felt very smooth. Nothing felt or looked forced or difficult tor the AERO to handle. The fan will ramp up while playing games and I totally expect (want) that, but the sound level was acceptable. It didn't seem distracting, and the machine stayed pretty cool while playing. I never felt the deck getting heated either. Laptop “sound” is something that I've just accepted as, well, pretty lousy. After all people have high expectations from the tiny little speakers that laptops generally include. Though I have to say, this is one of the best sounding laptops I've ever played on. The sound was very spacious and even cranking it up never distorted it or made it seem like it was straining to produce decent quality. Gigabyte calls this Personal Cinema with Dolby Atmos and that seems to be aptly named. The sound seems to envelop you rather than blare at you from the deck. To round out the specs, Gigabyte has included 32GB of RAM, which should be plenty for either office or gaming environments. The 1TB SSD certainly keeps the overall size and weight down, and the access speed up. While 1TB is ok, it does seems a bit skimpy, and I think it would have been better if it were at least 2TB. This is true no mater how you plan to use this machine. I'm not a fan of the included power supply with it's proprietary circular connector. It seems strange to include this port when the machine does charge via USB-C as well. I just don't understand why bother with this connector at all. Most other brands have ditched these circular connectors in favor of using the USB-Cs. I realize that the circular connector power supply “may” be slightly faster (although the USB-C seemed just as fast...), to me, it just seemed unnecessary. But, at least you have the option I guess. Aside from these two things, my overall experience was very enjoyable. In my opinion, pretty much all respectable gaming laptops will also perform well running office or technical software, this one is certainly no exception. But I think what allows it to be used in both environments so easily comes down to it's slim design, relative light weight and it's sleek, good looks. Also, the fact that only the keyboard lights up means that this machine won't look like a circus wagon sitting on a conference table in a meeting. And also, it has Windows CoPilot capabilities. This is a solid performer no matter how you decide to use it. To me, the price point is fair bordering on under priced. Really nice job Gigabyte!