Many Black Friday gaming laptop deals have passed my desk today, but these four Gigabyte gaming laptops stood out as the most noteworthy. All four of these laptops come with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU and Intel Core i7 12700H CPU—yet not a single one costs more than $1,500.
That's quite something, and I'll tell you why. We don't see many RTX 3060 laptops going for ~$1,400 today, but they absolutely exist, and they used to be a lot more common. To net a much more powerful mobile GPU in the RTX 3070 Ti for the same price is a sign of the times: GPU prices are dropping, and newer laptop GPUs will be on the way very soon. We may even hear about Nvidia's next-gen mobile GPUs on January 3. All of this means we're able to mop up the leftover RTX 30-series laptops for quite a bit cheaper than we're used to.
These four Gigabyte laptops are all prime examples of how much more laptop your money can get you right now.
Two of these laptops, the Aero models, are more creator-focused and cheaper than the other two. Meanwhile the Aorus laptops are built with gaming in mind. All four are discounted by $900 or more, so it's just a case of picking which one suits you best.
Let's start with the two Aero models: the Aero 5 XE4 and the Aero 16 XE5.
The XE4 asks for $1,250 of your hard-earned money. In return, you receive the RTX 3070 Ti and Core i7 12700H within a svelte chassis, alongside a 4K AMOLED 15-inch display, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a generous 1TB SSD.
The downside is that the XE4's 4K display maxes out at 60Hz, which isn't necessarily ideal for gaming. That extra real estate is instead leaning towards use with creative applications, such as Adobe After Effects, which means it really depends on how you're going to use this laptop. On the flip side, the RTX 3070 Ti is powerful, but it's not going to smash through the 60Hz ceiling in all too many demanding games, so you can still use that GPU to its full potential.
The chassis on the Aero really is lovely, too. I've had a fair bit of hands-on experience with a previous Aero model, mostly for video editing work, and I can attest to how compact and sturdy it is for the price. I'm not a fan of dragging around a massive gaming laptop, so the thinner Aero footprint worked beautifully for me. That said, there's no escaping how heavy these laptops are versus some thinner and smaller 2-in-1s, and I wouldn't trade my Dell XPS 2-in-1 for traveling.
Now before you make your mind up on this laptop, I'll throw the second Aero, the $1,299 XE5, into the mix. Everything I just said of the XE4 is true for the XE5, with a few exceptions: the XE5 comes with 16GB of newer DDR5 RAM, a silver finish, and a slightly larger 16-inch 4K screen. Those upgrades cost just $49 more than the XE4, so it's worth thinking about.
For the changes, the XE5 is a little wider and deeper than the XE4, but it's still a pretty slick machine. The XE5 also comes with the Aero Hub to make connecting a bunch of devices a bit easier.
I'd be tempted by the slightly pricier XE5 model when it comes to these two Aero machines, but don't decide just yet. Not until you've seen the two Aorus gaming laptops.
We've two rather different-sized beasts in the Aorus 15 XE4 and Aorus 17 XE5, yet they're very similarly priced. The XE4 asks for $1,430, and the XE5 is $1,449.
The Aorus 15 XE4 is the more compact machine with a fairly slimline chassis for a gaming laptop like this. You could find thinner devices, but this certainly isn't a hulking monster. This device comes with 16GB of DDR4 memory and, importantly, a 1440p screen with a 165Hz refresh rate. That's right in the sweet spot for PC gaming.
Meanwhile, the larger Aorus 17 XE5 has 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1080p, 360Hz screen. As such, I think this laptop is a little more niche in its appeal—it's way more the choice for competitive gaming than anything else.
So for gaming, it's probably the Aorus 15 you'd want to grab this Black Friday. If neither that nor the Aero XE5 is your sort of thing, you've made it this far, why not also check out our roundup of the best Black Friday PC gaming deals? It's updated regularly, but no matter what, there should be something in there for you over the coming week.
