GIGABYTE Aero 15-Y9 (Coffee Lake-HK) Laptop Review

Physical Overview

GIGABYTE's box is simple and packaging is all cardboard, which gets the job done.

Accessories include AC/DC power adapter, AC power cord, extra M.2 thermal pad, and manuals. The AC/DC adapter is rated at 11.8a at 19.5v, so 230W.

The top of the notebook is made of aluminum and there is some carbon fiber towards the rear of the notebook. The GIGABYTE logo lights up white when power is on. The bottom features five rubber feet, two are longer and located towards the rear of the notebook. The bottom vents are all intake vents for the fans, with the exhaust pointing out the rear of the notebook. We also have two speaker vents closer to the front of the notebook.

The front of the unit features a lip to grip the lid of the notebook, and the rear features a very large single centered hinge. The left side of the notebook features a Gbit LAN port, a USB 3.1 (10Gb/s) USB type-C port, a USB 3.1(not sure if Gen 1, 5Gbps or Gen2, 10Gbps) type-C port that also outputs DisplayPort 1.4 so it's from the RTX 2080, a headphone and mic combo jack, and HDMI 2.0 port. On the right side, we get a UHS-II SD card slot, two USB 3.0 ports, a Thunderbolt 3.0 port, DC input jack, and Kensington lock slot.

The QWERTY keyboard is backlit with RGB LEDs behind each key, and they are individually lit, anti-ghosting, and support per-key macros. You can use the RGB Fusion app in the Control Center to control lighting. It also features a number pad.

The bezel on the 15.6" display is thin at the top and edges, and the color is quite good with the X-Rite Pantone color calibration. You can turn the color calibration on and off to see the difference. It's an anti-glare display with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut.

The touchpad has no buttons, but we had no trouble with right and left clicks. The notebook features the Windows 10 touchpad gestures.