Battery life and charging times
The Gigabyte Aero 16 offers a fairly mixed performance in terms of battery life and charging times, delivering different results for different types of use. The laptop is equipped with an 88 Wh lithium-polymer battery, which is relatively large compared to other models in its class. Despite this capacity, however, everyday use shows that the actual battery life of the Aero 16 is usually very limited. When used intensively, especially for tasks that put a strain on the powerful graphics card and processor, the battery life can be estimated at around two hours, and sometimes even significantly less. This relatively short runtime at higher loads is a disadvantage for users who want to use the laptop on the go for longer periods without access to a power source.
I also don’t want to hide the fact that connections on airplanes and trains are usually limited to 90 watts (or less). This is a fact that is usually not mentioned in reviews. I have been explicitly told more than once by cabin crew that this is not possible. In moderate use, such as surfing the Internet, editing documents or using multimedia, the Aero 16 performs somewhat better. Under these conditions, the battery life can be extended to around six to seven hours if the screen brightness is reduced to an average level. This makes the laptop sufficient for use in typical office environments or for creative work that does not require maximum performance. However, the runtime is rather short compared to other high-end laptops.
The charging times of the Aero 16 are quite efficient thanks to the included 240-watt power supply. The laptop can be fully charged within about one and a half to two hours, which is an acceptable time considering its battery capacity. The ability to quickly bring the laptop back up to a sufficient charge is an advantage, especially for users who rely on flexible use and often move between different workstations. However, the power supply itself is relatively large and heavy, which can limit the portability of the laptop as there is additional weight and bulk to consider. And with the fat brick, you quickly become the focus of the cabin crew, who like to take a look at the connected load. But I’ve already written about that.
The fact is that the Gigabyte Aero 16 has strengths and weaknesses in terms of battery life and charging time for different user scenarios. The fast charging capability is a plus point, but the runtimes under full load are rather limited compared to competitors, which can be a challenge for mobile creative professionals in particular. Users who need a longer battery life may therefore have to fall back on alternatives with better energy efficiency. That’s just the way it is.
Performance
The performance of the Gigabyte Aero 16 shows a rather mixed picture, depending on the tasks it has to handle. The notebook is equipped with a powerful 13th generation Intel Core i7-13700H processor, which has 14 cores (6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores). This configuration enables high multi-threaded performance, which is particularly effective in applications such as video rendering, 3D modeling and other creative workloads. In synthetic benchmarks such as Geekbench 5 (who actually plays that?), the single-core performance is almost 1700 points, while the multi-core performance reaches almost 13,800 points. But my task is completely different.
For graphics-intensive tasks such as using Adobe Premiere Pro or Photoshop, the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 offers additional performance that is a pleasure to use. This GPU is particularly useful for tasks such as real-time rendering, video editing and 3D animations. When using Inventor Pro, AutoCAD and LTspice XVII, the Aero 16 showed really good results, especially in the area of 3D modeling and simulation. This underlines the laptop’s suitability for creative professionals who rely on high graphical performance. I don’t bother with benchmark bars due to the lack of comparable devices and my poor LG Gram would be a very cheap victim. A different target group.
However, the Aero 16 shows some weaknesses in gaming, because native Ultra HD is definitely not an option with current titles. But I don’t want to play games with it and if I do, I at least have to use supersampling. DLSS Balanced is usually enough, but titles like Black Myth: Wukong run reasonably smoothly at most in WQHD with medium settings and without RT. That’s why the OLED panel’s limitation to 60 Hz doesn’t weigh too heavily, because you’ll never achieve much more in demanding titles with OLED-compatible settings anyway. And it also gets really loud. Next paragraph please.
Heat development and volume
Another important aspect is heat development and thermal management. The laptop gets noticeably warm during longer periods of use, for example when editing videos or playing games. However, the cooling system can keep the system at an acceptable temperature level without significantly reducing performance. However, it must be mentioned that the fans become very audible under heavy use, which can be annoying in quiet environments. Or to put it in a nutshell: it gets really loud. The thermal management is solid, but could disturb your neighbors (or your own well-being) during intensive use, which should be taken into account when choosing the respective workstation.
Summary and conclusion
Finally, despite all the justified criticism, I would like to draw a rather conciliatory conclusion, because unfortunately there is always something wrong. However, the positive aspects of the Aero 16 outweigh the negative ones and my complaints are very subjective, but I can easily put them aside. Whether it’s the unfortunately obligatory additional adapter with additional USB-A ports, Ethernet and SD card reader or the power consumption and acoustic background noise in the form of a rather loud fan ensemble, packing very powerful hardware into a very small space simply always requires compromises. Once you have internalized this, you can live with it. It’s even really good, because the Aero 16 is also a feast for the eyes and a nice, almost trace-free hand rest.
For me, this is more or less a duo, which I see as a kind of gain in this form, because you can choose between a computing powerhouse with plenty of power and a real flyweight for light work in between. If you have exactly this option in the form of two completely differently designed 16″ notebooks and don’t want to spend another 20 years looking for the egg-laying wool-milk sow, then this is a very acceptable solution where each notebook can play to its strengths without having to make lazy compromises. Some may call the two notebooks decadence, but I simply call it fair and see it as a luxury that we have earned ourselves.
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