Gigabyte Aero 16 YE5 laptop review

Gigabyte recently introduced new models of laptops from the Aero line. The Aero 16 YE5 came into my hands. The first impression of the new product is positive. And, mainly this merit of the updated design, and of course the new generation processor. I will try to state my impressions in order.

Specifications

You can get acquainted with the characteristics of the Aero 16 YE5 laptop on the official page (where else) of the Gigabyte website.

Packaging and equipment

The box is mostly white. But it was not without bright accents – the end faces received a bright green color. The box has a plastic carrying handle.

Inside the box there is a voluminous cocoon made of polyethylene foam, which provides a secure fit and protection from damage. The laptop itself is additionally placed in an envelope made of non-woven material.

Inside the box, in addition to the laptop itself, there is a power supply with a power cable, a small box with a hub and an envelope with documentation

Delivery set includes:

  • Power cable

  • Power Supply

  • Hub with extension cable and storage case

  • Documentation set

Appearance and features

As already mentioned, Gigabyte has taken a big step forward in updating the Aero line. First of all, it concerns the appearance. The difference is especially noticeable with a visual comparison (the manufacturer’s website will help with this) of the current model and models of the previous generation. The previous generation Aero (Intel 11th Gen) was visually similar to other Gigabyte laptop lines and could easily be confused with, for example, the Aorus line. But the novelty received a completely different design.

The color of the laptop has become silver, and the body has become aluminum. Decorations in the form of decorative textured inserts on the lid have disappeared. The design has become premium … or something.

The lid of the laptop is smooth, with a light matte texture. The luminous AERO logo is located in the center.

The Aero 16 YE5 is well built and feels solid. The metal surfaces are tactilely pleasing.

Keyboard and touchpad

Keyboard Aero 16 YE5 does not have a block of additional keys. The key layout is closer to ISO: a double-decker Enter and a short left Shift with a backslash next door. Island-type keys. The color of the keys is black, which contrasts well with the case. Latin characters are located in the center, and Cyrillic in the lower left corner.

The keyboard backlight has only one color – white. Implemented highlighting of both Latin and Cyrillic characters.

The touchpad is located exactly in the center. It’s black, like the keyboard, and quite large. The touchpad does not have explicit keys. They are not outlined and hidden under the plane.

The elongated power button is located in the center, exactly under the inscription AERO on the bottom frame of the screen.

Above the keyboard, along the top edge, there is a strip of small holes, behind which the laptop’s speakers are hidden. The same holes are located to the left and right of the keyboard. Under them is hidden part of the radiators of the laptop cooling system.

Screen

The bezels on the Aero 16 YE5 are still very thin. Their thickness is about 3 mm on top and sides, about 10 mm on the bottom.

According to AIDA64, Samsung’s ATNA60YV05-0 OLED matrix with a diagonal of 16” and a resolution of 3840×2400 is used.

The screen has a glossy finish. This has a positive effect on color reproduction and contrast. However, when working in a well-lit area, reflections on the screen surface can be distracting and disturbing.

Interfaces and ports

The lid has an interesting detail – a smooth protrusion in the center. When closed, this projection makes it easier to lift the lid. And on the inside, on this ledge, there is a webcam lens and an array of microphones.

This protrusion is clearly visible when looking at the front edge of the laptop from the end.

The rear face is entirely reserved for the holes of the cooling system. They are located a little deeper and are covered with a kind of casing from above. This makes them invisible.

All interface ports of the Aero 16 YE5 laptop are located on the side faces.

On the left are:

  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-C) port with DP support

  • 1 combo 3.5mm audio jack

Here you can see three holes in the cooling system.

On the right are:

  • 2x Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) with DP functionality (1 port supports Power delivery)

  • power connector

A set of interfaces look minimalistic and even somewhat ascetic. Of course, the presence of Thunderbolt 4 provides ample opportunities for connecting third-party devices, but nevertheless it is unusual not to see connectors for connecting an external monitor (HDMI or DP) and a wired network.

By connecting the complete hub, four ports are added to the laptop interfaces:

For ease of use, the hub can be connected via an extension cable.

The delivery set includes a plastic case, which is convenient to use for storage and transportation of the hub.

Cooling system

A significant part of the area of ​​​​the Aero 16 YE5 pallet is given over to the ventilation holes. They are divided into seven columns.

These ventilation openings are covered with a fine perforated mesh on the inside.

After removing the pan, you can clearly see the cooling system. Four heat pipes and two fans are clearly visible. Cool air is sucked in from below, through the pan, and, passing through the radiators, is thrown out from behind and on the sides. The location of two M.2 drives is clearly visible, lying on either side of the 6200 mAh battery. The RAM is equipped with two so-dimm strips.

In addition to the ventilation grilles, there are four gray rubber feet on the pallet. Two long at the top, and two shorter at the bottom.

Software

Notebook Aero 16 YE5 has proprietary software that allows you to control the functions of the laptop. Among them: setting the operating mode of the cooling system, enabling and disabling modules (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), a monitoring panel. The software also has an “AI” tab, which is a set of profiles with the ability to quickly switch between them.

Other software screenshots

Testing

Testing was carried out with the laptop powered from the mains.

AIDA64

Aero 16 YE5 basic system information obtained by AIDA64 utility.

Cinebench R23

Cinebench R23.200 benchmark results in single-core and multi-core mode.

Geekbench

Comprehensive assessment of the Geekbench 5.4.5 system

CPU

The Aero 16 YE5 has an Intel Core i9 12900H. This is a 14-core (6P+8E), 20-thread Intel 12th generation (latest, at the moment) codenamed Alder Lake. The maximum frequency of productive cores is 5.0 GHz, and of productive cores is 3.8 GHz.

In the CPU-Z benchmark, the processor scores 736.7 points in single-threaded and 7687.4 points in multi-threaded loads.

RAM

The 32 GB memory is equipped with two DDR5 sticks manufactured by A-Data. RAM frequency 4800 MHz, timings 42-39-39-77.

AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark test results.

video card

The Aero 16 YE5 features a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti discrete graphics card with 16GB GDDR6. Frequency in Boost mode 1125 MHz with a maximum power consumption of 105 watts.

Drives

The laptop has two single-terabyte M.2 drives. They work on a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. CrystalDiskInfo identified the model of both drives as Samsung MZVL21T0HCLR-00B00. This is the OEM version of the flagship Samsung 980 PRO, also known as PM9A1.

Since Samsung PM9A1 is a well-known drive model, I don’t see the point in delving into SSD tests.

Temperature and noise level

During the tests, the laptop was on a regular desk. The ambient temperature was at the level of 25-26°C, the background noise level was 23.4 dB.

The cooling system mode is set to “Normal” The graph of the fan speed in this mode can be seen below.

The load stress test is the simultaneous running of the system stability test in AIDA64 and Furmark. The test took place in two stages with the laptop lid open and closed. The load was carried out until the temperature stabilized and an additional five minutes. The maximum achieved values ​​were recorded.

Temperatures and noise levels with closed and open lids differ little. With the lid closed it is slightly quieter and also slightly hotter. The cooling system, after warming up all the components and stabilizing temperatures, works stably at a speed of 77% of the maximum.

The temperature of the laptop surfaces during the stress test was measured with a household pyrometer. The measurement results can be found below.

During testing with the Cinebench R23 benchmark, the cooling system was running at 52% speed, and the noise level was 31.6 dB.

The temperature of surfaces (topcase, keyboard) during idle time is 37-43°C, depending on the specific point. Component temperatures during idle are summarized in a histogram.

Gaming performance

Graphic settings are set to the maximum possible (or close to them). Testing was carried out at two screen resolutions – 3840×2400 and 1920×1200.

Nutrition and autonomy

The Aero 16 YE5 laptop comes with a large 230W power supply. A full charge of the included laptop, which is being used for office work, takes about 2.5 hours.

A 100% charged battery lasted almost three hours (2 hours 52 minutes) of active office work (simple PS photo editing and web surfing) with a screen brightness of 50%, Wi-Fi on and a balanced power profile. Naturally, the duration of work will differ in each case. It depends both on the nature of the work and the number of running applications, as well as on the brightness of the screen and the use of wireless interfaces.

Conclusion

Notebook Gigabyte Aero 16 YE5 left a good impression. The design update has definitely benefited. This appearance of the laptop will be quite appropriate for business meetings. As for the filling, the Aero 16 YE5 received a flagship processor with a powerful graphics card and two excellent solid state drives with a total capacity of 2 TB. Such hardware demonstrates a high level of performance, which is likely to satisfy the requirements of most potential buyers. The controversial point is the minimalism in the interfaces, albeit with the presence of several functional Type-C connectors. Many users are not ready to abandon the familiar integrated USB Type-A, but, most likely, this practice will eventually spread among the new laptop models of most brands.

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