Gigabyte’s Aero 17 HDR XB balances content creation and gaming needs while looking like a trim workstation. Its screen, battery life, and performance are quite good. Just know that the webcam is stuck awkwardly above the keyboard.

Incredible performance for the specs/price and an outstanding screen makes this an excellent choice for creatives working with digital art, design, animation and video.

Gigabyte’s refreshed Aorus 15G for 2021 has a subtle, all-black design that takes a page from the company’s more svelte Aero lineup of creator-focused laptops. It’s a nice upgrade, but there aren’t many other changes from last year’s model, for better or worse. It offers the same wide variety of ports (including the all-too-rare full-size SD card reader), and impressively, Gigabyte fit an excellent 15.6-inch display into a 14-inch wide chassis. But at the same time, the keyboard is cramped and the nostril webcam is awkward to use. There are some other swings and misses, but it nails what it’s really focused on: gaming. The bump up to Nvidia’s RTX 3070 graphics chip inside is the biggest change, and it helps this thin-and-light gaming laptop run most games beyond 60 frames per second, crossing the bar for reliably smooth gameplay.