GIGABYTE AERO 17 HDR XD - 17.3" UHD 4k IPS Anti-Glare, Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Win10 Pro, Creator Laptop (AERO 17 HDR XD-73US524SP)

Purchased this laptop primarily for 3D Modelling in Blender while running Linux and it suites this task perfectly. Screen has beautiful color depth and the RTX 3070 [Max-Q] has enough power and VRAM (8GB) to handle my common workloads. Blender recognizes the Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU out of the box and you can choose between CUDA or OptiX (recommended). The viewport runs very smooth even at higher samples, the renders are quick, you can sculpt and edit textures without lag or input delay. The laptop has a full number pad on the keyboard so you have full access to common shortcuts. The 16GB RAM that comes installed is enough for what I'm currently working with but I can certainly see upgrading in the future.Some quick notes to all buyers: The laptop has 2 PCIe NVME slots; the drive that comes with the laptop resides in the Gen4 slot and *appears* to be the 1TB unbranded OEM version of Crucial's P5 (which is actually quite good). The empty slot is Gen3. The RAM installed is 2 DDR4 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB at 3200MHz. The max supported RAM of this laptop is 64GB.With that aside, many other reviewers have spoken about the main features of this laptop so I will leave most of that out my review and focus on letting other Linux users in on my own experiences, albeit quite brief considering I cannot share actual configuration files here. :)Normally I wouldn't mention the installation but to get Linux installed on the EFI partition I had to disable "Secure Boot" in the BIOS in order for it to boot the installation image from my USB stick. After that my Gentoo Linux installation went fine. (After installing Linux there are wiki pages telling you how to re-enabled Secure Boot while recognizing your Linux installations, if you so choose.) I compiled the kernel, installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers, and after reading some wiki pages and forums about smaller tasks, I'm satisfied with a fully working Linux installation.The keyboard backlight works out of the box. I can toggle between each of the modes while holding Function and pressing Spacebar. While holding the Function key down all the functions keys remain illuminated until you let go, regarldess of which mode you're using. I will say I'm disappointed that Gigabyte didn't illuminate the actual function icons as well, instead of just the literal F1, F2, etc. but it's not a big deal. After using the keyboard for a bit you will memorize the function positions for the Volume keys and so forth. By default the F1 keys are what you get when you press the key and you access the function by holding Fn+F*. You can change this in the BIOS (which is accessed by pressing F2 during boot) to invert the behavior. The only keys that aren't acknowledged at all (as of 5.17.1 kernel) are the screen backlight dimming keys (Fn+F3 brightnessdown and Fn+F4 brightnessup). Those keys have no recognized codes so you cannot rebind them and will need to control your backlight by binding different keys to your backlight control program.For Xorg you have the choice to go hybrid Intel/Nvidia (there is NOT a Mux switch in this laptop, you simply need to pre-configure your Xorg.conf files accordingly) or full Nvidia. I decided to do full Nvidia after testing the hybrid for a while setup.. If you go hybrid you will lose out on FPS at full 4K since the Intel will control your actual display while Nvidia is the backend ("prime-run") and Intel cannot keep up with the Nvidia card. If you do not play many games or want to save on battery this setup can work. If you decide to go full Nvidia like I did then everything will automatically run and be displayed through the dedicated graphic card and there is no loss in FPS. The setup involves using "xrandr" and I recommend looking up how to do it on the Arch Linux wiki page, just read the section about using only Nvidia.Other than that everything else works flawlessly. I have full access to all the ports (including Thunderbolt 4), the Intel wireless works fine, I connected my "Elecom HUGE Trackball" mouse and "Huion HS64" stylus graphic tablet and I'm able to run Xorg as well as all programs/games within at full 4K. Temperatures for the CPU average around 41C idle (with Xorg running) and the GPU idles around 37C. Even in a fully modded game it never gets to the point of throttling so Gigabyte appears to have proper cooling for the GPU while the CPU can reach 80C if you're compiling intense programs for long durations or running older games that only support single-threads such as Euro Truck Simulator 2. It's not common to get this warm but thought I'd mention it. Gigabyte includes a small thermal heatsink for installing onto your second NVME slot but I would recommend purchasing the thin IcePC graphene-coated copper heatsinks here on Amazon for cooling both of your NVME devices.Overall I have no major complaints with the laptop. Some general nit-picks could be that the speakers are small but they sound fine, though for the price tag you would've hoped for better. The webcam is positioned to look up at your face which can be unflattering but I never use laptop webcams anyway so I'm hyped about the inclusion of a webcam privacy cover switch which Gigabyte so kindly has installed. The touchpad is too far to the right for me so my palm brushes against it while typing but thankfully Xorg (libinput) automatically disables touchpad while typing by default and you can change palm sensitivity further if you like. And of course, like I said the brightness keys are not recognized which is a small bummer but definitely not a deal breaker (this may be fixed in future kernel updates anyway).If you're a Linux geek like me then you have nothing to worry about. I took the risk and it paid off as far as compatibility goes. Supremely happy with my purchase of this laptop and I'm having a blast modelling and rendering 3D characters and environments while taking breaks to play games and watch videos at a beautiful 4K. This review may not be for everyone but for those it does help, I'm glad.-----***UPDATE (end of 2022) [about 6 months later]***I remain to have no issues on Linux, only the previously mentioned nit-picks. My advice is that if you're looking at this laptop for Linux then you should be fine, but if you're considering keeping your Windows installation and working within that OS then you may have issues with the Wi-Fi, so be prepared for that.As it stands, I still highly recommend this laptop for Linux users. I've been using mine everyday; operating on Gentoo (AKA, compiling my own software from source on a daily schedule), editing and rendering 3D models, using my drawing tablet, playing games with high computation such as modded EU4 + CKIII + Factorio + RimWorld (among others), watching videos in 4K, editing videos in 4K, having dozens of tabs open in my web browser at all times, etc. So, it remains under heavy use and many different load cases and has served me brilliantly. I wish I could share the nerdy details and configuration setups, but Amazon is not the place for that.As a side note, I do not work for Gigabyte or am sponsored or anything like that. I spent my own money on this and have been experimenting and working with the device on my own. These views and experiences are what I've learned along the way - this is simply a review and update, hoping to guide others in their own purchase decisions. Unless something major happens, I will no longer edit this post and you can assume the laptop is still going strong. Think logically and always compare with other options.***UPDATE (mid 2023)***After some recent firmware updates I had Wi-Fi issues such as slowing down and periodic dropping of connection. This is strange since I did not have the issue for over 6 months of owning the laptop. I did some research and while the stem of the issue may be within the device itself, I have found that using a new wireless connection tool has solved the issues for me. In fact, the speeds are super fast now. The tool I am using is called "iwd" which is a new program developed by Intel themselves for use on Linux. If you're using any laptop requiring the "iwlwifi" firmware then I suggest swapping to this new program and seeing if it resolves your issues.

10 DAYS IN UPDATE:DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP!THE WI-FI NETWORK ANTENNA’S BLOCK OUT THE 5GHZ channel, and under GPU it will completely disconnect.ONLY SOLUTION IS TO REROUTE WI-FI ANTENNA’s or install additional ones.Gigabyte/intel will tell you to turn off all the bells and whistles you got the adapter for, basically reverting you to 2.4ghz 802.11n. Which is unacceptable for a 2k laptop in 2022!A laptop that can’t keep a Wi-Fi connection because of a 4 year old design flaw IS A HUGE ISSUE FOR ME. I cannot stay connected to an Ethernet cable for the next 4-5 years of owning this laptop.***********************************************ATTENTION update from the FUTURE :THE WIFI ADAPTER SOLD WITH THIS LAPTOP IS AN INTEL AX200 160mhz, it drops connection and has a slow link speed. Apparently these issues can’t be solved with a driver update. Don’t believe me? Google it for yourself.“Solutions” range, but most consistently drop link speed rate or ask for you turn off 5ghz entirely.ORIGINAL POST:An hour into owning this device and I’m not liking the experience. I’m on my third, as far as I can tell, try with trying to get past the Windows 11 startup screen. First time it went to update and then restarted over, Second time I got all the way to the Username selection but nothing I typed showed up, just blank spaces. On my third, seemingly something went wrong and it restarted the process from the beginning, try and it’s updating right now. I get it, it’s not the device per se but the operating system. But still. 1.6k price tag should merit a smoother first startup process.I will update further as I get farther into this process.UPDATE:Just spent the last 12 hours downloading windows updates, driver updates, changing settings and hating windows 11.Pretty much all the complaints I could have about this device, are due to Windows 11.NEXT DAY UPDATE:Wi-Fi seems to be extremely weak, and with simultaneous Bluetooth connections it seems to drop out. Idk how to test anything because windows 11 has moved EVERYTHING around.Wi-Fi IS DROPPING connection. I have 3 completely different completely separate networks, I can’t connect to any at any reasonable distance.When not connected to a network and you click connect, it will say it can’t connect but when you try again it’ll connect right away.Windows 11 also HATES this, it freaks out when you loose a connection. All the security services freak out, cussing the system to bog.I just spent the last 2 hours trying to get a stable connect to install a program. To install it. NOT download.GAMING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE, and if I try I will PISS EVERYONE OFF who’s team I’m on. This is fun. 2k laptop. And it can’t hold a stable Wi-Fi connection. Wtf.EVERY restart there is a new process in task manager, some useless nonsense like “phone link” “widgets” “one drive”I am getting ICON flicker that I have not been able to fix. Windows will start, icons will be good then a couple seconds later it starts flickering.The mouse is also pretty weird; I am unaware if it’s windows that is slightly edging it closer to objects or the mouse is just really sensitive. But it feels like windows will “edge” your cursor closer to objects it’s heading towards. SUPER ANNOYING!The gigabyte software DOES NOT WORK. I can’t get it to open. The program is also REALLY weird, the desktop icon is an app extension that just opens the program(yah so instead of actually opening the app/program it opens an app that opens the program but since it won’t open at all, it does nothing.)AS FOR THE LAPTOP:The screen is beautiful…The fans started out with a high whine, and have already turned into a slight grind. Just barely noticeable at certain speed, but I’m days in… so, that’s not looking good.Bought a router, hoping it solves my Wi-Fi issue.Speakers are nice, not too loud, but louder than my last laptop. The laptop has 2 speakers on the bottom, so if you set your laptop up above the ground, those pretty much won’t do anything. The speakers on the top work well, still not loud. But I can hear movies with a fan on and pointed at my face, so not too bad.RGB keyboard is fun, secondary keys do not have a secondary led(function keys). Not too bad, I don’t need to look at the keys. But the gigabyte software resetting the RGB setting every restart is annoying.RAM capacity seems great, although windows 11 feels like it’s notUPDATE: 4 DAYS INFinally figured out windows doesn’t update the drivers for the intel ax200 gig + Wi-Fi card and so it needs to be updated. I got mine updated to 22.150.0.3, before the update it wouldn’t hold anything over 100Mbps and often sat at 69Mbps, now it’s sitting comfortably at 250++.Sadly I bought a Belkin rt3200 3.2Gbps ax router to make sure it wasn’t my network.Don’t know where the other multiple gigabyte link rate has gone. Probably has to do with my location, I will test closer to double check to make sure #1 it doesn’t drop out with a REAL file transfer rate test soon, #2 see if I can actually get ax speeds(through internal network).THIS SCREEN IS BEAUTIFUL!!!And the MAIN reason I chose this laptop over all others. And not an unrealistically priced one.I DO want to note that I am coming from a 720p(technically 764p) laptop from 2009. So my perspective will fur sure be different than yours.I didn’t, and don’t care, this is a 60hz monitor. Still absolutely gorgeous to look at. And I don’t expect to be playing any realistic games, or at least not much against other people.Windows 11 HDR adjustments aren’t too bad. Especially with all of the other programs(intel internal graphics/nvidia). Kinda too many for me to set or remember at the moment, I feel like I eventually will. But I am completely satisfied with both non-HDR and HDR.DEEP BLACKS. The colors absolutely POP!And the screen get’s pretty bright. Windows reports it at over 600 nits. Which is a HUGE upgrade for me. Sometimes the screen looks like it’s about to catch fire because it’s so bright. I am definitely not used to 4K 10bit HDR native file(not streamed) flash lights in movies. Literally squinted. Dope feeling!Hd adult content, dear god.WINDOWS 11, really feels half baked. A lot of things bug out here and there. My troubleshooter error’s out. Which doesn’t make much sense.. although it kinda does, I’ve never been able to get reliable help from that(I’ve pretty much used every major version of windows to date) but figured I’d give it a try. I mean it’s 2022..SO MANY MOVED SETTINGS/LAYOUTS, it’s really burning this whole experience.ALREADY noticing a trend that most problems for windows 11, or resources rather, aren’t really out in full yet. So most things point to windows 10. With the whole TPM windows 11 thing, and the tech industry being a little slow atm, I don’t really see this ending anytime soon.GPU, CPU, RAM are absolute powerhouses!!I do see, for my workload, that 16gb won’t be enough. AS OF RIGHT NOW I only have Warframe downloaded(cuz my internet has sucked), but COD war zone has 20ish gb’s left. I will update when I get that running.Warframe, max settings: butter smooth. 4K monitor and focus point is a little weird for me. But I’m coming from a 720 laptop that only had integrated graphics, and was REALLY CHEAP(back in 2009).FANS!!!!!:ARE NOT SOUNDING GOOD. And is scaring the absolute crap out of me. If days in, I can hear a slight ball bearing grind. We’re going to have issues. I’ll have to search up if there is a way to grease them or something(for the future). I don’t want to open this thing up yet. Because honestly, idk if I’m going to keep it. It’s kinda turning into a lot more hassle than I was expecting from a MARKED DOWN $1.9k laptop. I figured it was because of global recession or whatever. I hope I’m not wrong.FYI: BASIC LAPTOP BIOS.But there’s a secure boot loader option.I wonder what’s going to happen if I try to dual boot with Linux.6th day UPDATE:Gigabyte software could be a billion times better, as of right now I have to continuously restart the laptop until I can get the control center running just to adjust settings. NOT GOOD AT ALL.Fans are getting worse.7th Day UPDATE:SO MANY SETTINGS.I have accidentally updated intel UHD driver I guess, and now my nvidia gpu is the secondary gpu. I have went through countless settings. Still can’t get it to work correctly. Games still work btw, and somewhat fine. Which is weird. I’m just seeing opposite numbers in task manager(70-90% for uhd integrated and 20-40%nvidia). Seems like it should be the opposite of that. No?Laptop is still a powerhouse, regardless of all of my software issues/nuisances.I WANTED TO GIVE A KODI REVIEW:It’s dope on this laptop. I have many video files that have an extreme range of different qualities, 480p looks amazing. Idk wtf is going on. Magic probably. I do have to use the latest kodi v20 Nexus “daily” for the HD settings and UI to look correct. But that’s not a problem for me. I have a 1080p 10bit hdr file and I can see pores. Fun experience. Streamed 4K is really dope, but kinda difficult for my internet. I’ll have to get a 4K file and see what it can do natively.8th day UPDATE:THE WIFI ADAPTER SOLD WITH THIS LAPTOP IS AN INTEL AX200 160mhz, it drops connection and has a slow link speed. Apparently these issues can’t be solved with a driver update. Although going from the factory installed one, did seem to add more stability.Tomorrow I will contact gigabyte, because in order to fix it either: I return it and they upgrade me to rev2+ of the same device, give me another laptop with one of those in it, or give me a different Wi-Fi card(looks like ax210 works), or I buy and install my own. But I’m pretty sure opening up the laptop will void my warranty. And I’m just over a week in.I really haven’t been able to use this laptop other than slightly watching movies/tv through kodi.I’ve been dealing with the timeframes graphics taking over games and the Wi-Fi adapter dropping connection and refusing to connect while a game is open.If I don’t overload the Wi-Fi connection, then it doesn’t drop.But that’s basically what you do when you get a new laptop/computer.IDK what to do, if I can’t get the Wi-Fi adapter to work correctly/get a new one/get an upgrade OR be able to replace it myself WITHOUT voiding my warranty, then I might continue on down this road..BUT if I can’t get this Wi-Fi thing fixed, THERE IS LITERALLY ZERO POINT OF THIS DEVICE.At least for me. I constantly do HUGE file transfers, or mess around with 2k, 4K, 8k streams.Idk what I did, but I feel like I got the intel uhd integrated graphics taking over my nvidia graphics thing handled. Integrated graphics now will utilize less than nvidia graphics while gaming. Which I feel like is a positive. I guess I was expecting 10% usage or lower or nothing and anything else higher for nvidia. But it’s more like a 1:3 percentage ratio.I just maxed out ram usage the other day. It wasn’t that hard. Trying to game on laptop monitor, secondary monitor had kodi and a movie running, with Firefox in background and a couple other Windows. Still powered through it like nothing. Fans DID speed up, but not too bad.OHH and it seems like the “whir” I was hearing with the fans is completely gone. Super weird.New fan sound? LolI will update when I figure out the Wi-Fi adapter thing from gigabyte and post on whether or not opening the lid voids the warranty.Don’t see why not, they did provide SSD thermal pads INSIDE the box with instructions. How else am I to apply those?9th DAY UPDATE:Gigabyte says opening back plate DOES NOT VOID WARRANTY!!I just purchased the (wide tiger) intel ax210NGW Wi-Fi 6e. Amazon says it will be delivered tomorrow. We’ll see if I got the right one without looking at it first 😂 I’ll know by tonight if I got the right one or not.12AM:just saw this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabyte/comments/snd6tb/aero_15_oled_kd_wifi_disconnection_under_gpu_load/Reddit: “Aero 15 OLED KD, Wifi disconnection under GPU load : FIX”Looks like people have tested MULTIPLE DIFFERENT SETTINGS/FIRMWARE/CARDS/ROUTERS and all roads lead back to antennas.I HOPE TO GOD IT’S NOT THAT! I have a brand new Wi-Fi adapter showing up tomorrow.I hope I don’t get drops.Because if I do, I’m jumping ship and returning everything. Laptop, router, adapter. And changing review to 1.A laptop that can’t stay connected to the internet is basically a brick these days, especially with subscription as a service business models.1AM:Disabled the GPU, ran everything(YouTube, kodi, Warframe/COD warzone) no drops. Slow, but it didn’t disconnect.Something weird is going on.Idk what to do.New Wi-Fi card isn’t going to fix that.Idk what’s causing that. Dirty pcie lines? Noise? Omg I have to return the laptop.10 Day UPDATE:Installed the new intel ax210 Wi-Fi adapter. Same speeds, but no drop outs. At least not yet. Oh and I can’t load 4K content now without a constant buffer. When I could yesterday, with a cheaper less powerful Wi-Fi adapter.I WILL BE RETURNING THE LAPTOP!!!If I can, I am 10 days in. I will report back if I can.

I've had this for a couple days now. Only upgrade I did was adding a 2nd NVME (2TB). This laptop cold boots in 7-10 seconds. It can easily do heavy load multitasking (even with the 16GB Ram). I'm not a real gamer, so I cant comment on that. However for Photoshop, Autocad and 4k movie editing this laptop has way more then enough power to handle.The fact that this has 4k HDR display is crazy to me. This display is literally breathtaking. The HDR is "Entry level HDR" so it's not like my TV but to have this on my laptop pictures/videos looks amazing!(1 month update)This laptop after a month is perfect!, I only ran into one issue after installing GEFORCE EXPERIENCE... it causes random BSOD. Unistalling it fixed everything.I did one additional upgrade to 64gb RAM. The 16gb that comes with is probably good enough for the average user.. but I'd recommend atleast upgrading it to 32gb eventually.It is very quite when doing websearching, youtube watching, Autocad or even video/photo editing.When my son used it for minecraft, you can start hearing the fans spin after the laptop starts heating up.... nothing too loud though.(2 Month Update, Final update unless something happens)So after using it for a couple months I realized when using the Laptop on battery once in a while the screen would flash black randomly. This is easily fixed by updating the Intel graphics driver to the newest (As of this review the newest version is: 30.0.100.9805).One more thing for people that have problems with the keyboard settings not staying... update the Gigabyte Control Panel. For me, that fixed it and my keyboard lights up how I selected every startup.Everything else is working great and as expected!I really love this laptop!