At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019, the Taiwanese company Gigabyte presented two new notebooks with artificial intelligence based on Microsoft Azure on board.
The AERO 15-Y9 and AERO 15-X9 are technically relatively similar. Both laptops feature a 15.6-inch display with UHD resolution (4,096 × 2,160 pixels) and 60 Hz refresh rate. The X9 version is alternatively also available with a Full HD panel (1920 x 1,080 pixels) and 144 Hz. The processor used is an Intel Core i9-8950HK (6 cores, 2.90 GHz clock, 4.80 GHz turbo), the X9 also has an Intel Core i7-8750H (6 cores, 2.20 GHz clock, 4.10 GHz turbo). The main memory offers between 8 GByte and 32 GByte capacity. In addition, two SSDs can be connected via M.2 slot. The graphics card for the Y9 version is a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GByte), the X9 has a GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GByte).
Despite the powerful hardware and the relatively large 92 Wh battery, the laptops weigh only 2 kg. Since the Gigabyte Aero gaming notebook is similarly compact as the Dell XPS 13, the cooling in particular is a point that could cause problems, as the Intel Core i9 in combination with the dedicated Nvidia graphics cards provides a lot of waste heat.
The highlight of the new laptops, however, is not the fast hardware, which can also be found on other gaming laptops, but the Azure-AI cloud. Gigabyte uses the Microsoft platform to learn over time how users use their devices. The artificial intelligence should automatically adjust the voltages of the processor and the graphics card as well as the speed of the fans. It remains to be seen whether in practice this really offers an advantage over conventional energy profiles or whether it is just an advertising promise.
Gigabyte has not yet announced the release date and prices. A base price of around 2,500 euros is expected, similar to last year’s predecessor model.
