The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) comes at a premium price and might serve you well if you're looking for a high-quality display, long battery life, and solid build quality for general use or professional work such as photography or design; its MacOS operating system and lack of gaming features, however, might not be ideal for gaming purposes. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Excellent for general use
Very good for software development
Excellent for content creation
Excellent overall display quality
Best in class overall build quality
Good portability
Best in class battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Advantages of the Gigabyte Aero 5
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has no clear advantages over the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023).
Key differences
General Use
9.1/10
7.9/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
487.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
446.0 nits
17.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
7.0 Hours
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
7.6/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
6.7/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for general use, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Content Creation
9.1/10
8.2/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for content creation, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is very good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
8.9/10
7.9/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is very good for software development, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
9.3/10
8.6/10
16.2in
SIZE
15.6in
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
487.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
446.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has a better screen than the Gigabyte Aero 5 for general use, AI, engineering and design, software development, and content creation.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) excels in screen quality for general use and engineering due to its high-resolution display, bright panel, and wide color gamuts, which render sharp, accurate, and vivid colors essential for design work. However, its likely standard refresh rate is not ideal for 3D applications, which benefit from faster refresh rates to display smooth motion. On the other hand, the Gigabyte Aero 5 also features a high-resolution, bright display with good color range, making it suitable for general use and engineering, but similar to the MacBook, it falls short for gaming and 3D due to a less optimal refresh rate.
Battery
17.5 Hours
7.0 Hours
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has 17.5 hours of battery life. The Gigabyte Aero 5 has 7 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Good
Fair
16.2in
SIZE
15.6in
4.7 lbs
WEIGHT
5.0 lbs
0.6in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has good portability, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
10.0/10
7.8/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has best in class build quality, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$2,423
$1,250
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
$3,500
$4,000
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has a price of $2,423 and the Gigabyte Aero 5 costs $1,250.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 and Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) are both good for gaming and AI.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is well-suited for 3D tasks primarily because of its efficient GPU that's integrated with the Apple M2 Pro chip and its high-refresh-rate Mini LED screen, although it may be limited in gaming because many popular games are not compatible with macOS.
Engineering and Design
8.8/10
8.7/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
5.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.3/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) and Gigabyte Aero 5 are both very good for engineering and design.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) excels in engineering and design use due to its powerful Apple M2 Pro processor, ample RAM, and a high-quality Mini LED screen with wide color gamut coverage, but its portability is limited by its weight and thickness. Conversely, the Gigabyte Aero 5 also shines for such tasks with its similarly sizable RAM, a formidable Intel i7 processor coupled with a dedicated Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU, and a vibrant OLED display, though its bulkiness and heavier weight impact its ease of transport even further.
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How the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) and the Gigabyte Aero 5 compare to other laptops
"The Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023: M2 Max challenges GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. The new MacBook Pro 16 2023 with the M2 Max SoC is the most powerful laptop Apple has on sale right now. While we do not get the expected performance and efficiency improvements from completely new 3 nm chips, which we expected ahead of the launch, the 2023 model is still a solid update. The CPU of the M2 Max can be up to 20 % faster than the old model and we also see an advantage of 25-30 % for the GPU with 38 cores. However, both components also consume more power, so the efficiency did not change that much under maximum load."
"It is unfortunate that the Gigabyte AERO notebook series have seem to lost its charm, as it’s not exactly any much different from the AORUS series now. Regardless, content creators and designers will certainly still appreciate the features on the AERO 5 XE4, which are fundamental to their work. This largely revolved around the notebook’s display, which is colour calibrated and validated, high resolution (4K) and with great AMOLED colour representation. Now that the AERO 5 XE4 has improved its performance with the latest CPU and GPU, the professionals can also appreciate the improved productivity from the notebook."
Get a great deal on the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) or the Gigabyte Aero 5
About Apple
Apple, an American technology company, is one of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. Their MacBook laptops feature a slim, minimalistic design, class-leading battery life, and premium display and speaker quality. In 2020 Apple switched from using Intel processors to their own silicon chips which have excellent performance and efficiency. The macOS operating system is the second most widely used OS, after Windows.
About Gigabyte
Gigabyte is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer. While Gigabyte mainly focuses its business on desktop hardware, Gigabyte is known for its value-oriented G series laptops, thin and light Aero series, and performance-oriented Aorus series. Gigabyte laptops offer a strong value proposition to compete with mainstream alternatives.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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About the laptop team
Joe Golden, Ph.D
CEO and Laptops Editor
Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Chandradeep is a staff expert and software engineer and expert in televisions and monitors. He’s been making monitor recommendations for ten years.
Craig Russell
Laptops Expert
Craig is a UK-based laptops expert. Craig works in IT, where he recommends and supports laptops and PCs for clients and has been recommending laptops on Reddit for five years.