The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 offers top-tier gaming performance with a high refresh rate display, making it an outstanding choice for intensive gaming, but it's larger and heavier, affecting portability. The Gigabyte Aero 5 is less expensive and features an OLED display with higher resolution and better color coverage, ideal for creative professionals but with lower refresh rates suitable for general use and 3D tasks. While both have similar battery life, consider the ASUS if gaming is a priority, or the Gigabyte for portability and creative tasks that benefit from a superior screen. 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 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17
Very good for gaming and AI
Very good overall build quality
Very good speakers
Excellent keyboard
Advantages of the Gigabyte Aero 5
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has no clear advantages over the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17.
Key differences
Gaming and AI
8.4/10
7.9/10
8.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.3/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
360Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
Yes
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
Yes
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
6.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
7.0/10
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 is very good for gaming and AI, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is good.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Screen Quality
8.1/10
8.6/10
17.3in
SIZE
15.6in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
360Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
292.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
446.0 nits
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has a better screen than the Gigabyte Aero 5 for gaming and AI, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 has a better screen for general use, engineering and design, and content creation.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 likely has a high-resolution display with solid color accuracy and brightness, making it very suitable for general use and detail-oriented work required in engineering and design, but its lower refresh rate hampers the gaming and 3D experience. The Gigabyte Aero 5 probably offers similar benefits with excellent resolution and a wide color gamut, ensuring sharp and vivid imagery for general and professional design tasks, yet it too may fall short for gaming and 3D due to a lower refresh rate. Gaming and 3D activities specifically benefit from higher refresh rates which provide smoother motion, a feature where both laptops don't excel as would be expected from devices tailored for such high-intensity tasks.
Portability
Poor
Fair
17.3in
SIZE
15.6in
6.3 lbs
WEIGHT
5.0 lbs
1.0in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has only fair portability, while the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has poor portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
8.5/10
7.8/10
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has very good 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
$2,499
$1,250
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
$3,500
$4,000
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has a price of $2,499 and the Gigabyte Aero 5 costs $1,250.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 and Gigabyte Aero 5 are both good for general use.
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.
Engineering and Design
8.6/10
8.7/10
9.2/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
8.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.3/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Gigabyte Aero 5 and ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 are both very good for engineering and design.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 with its top-tier Intel i9 processor and high-refresh-rate IPS screen suits intensive tasks like 3D modelling or data simulation, but it's bulkier and heavier, thus less portable than some laptops. On the other hand, the Gigabyte Aero 5, while slightly less powerful with an i7 CPU, features a high-resolution OLED display that's ideal for color-sensitive design work, and it's lighter, which enhances portability.
Content Creation
8.2/10
8.2/10
9.2/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
The Gigabyte Aero 5 and ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 are both very good for content creation.
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
7.5/10
7.9/10
9.2/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
9.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Gigabyte Aero 5 and ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 are both good for software development.
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.
Battery
7.0 Hours
7.0 Hours
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has 7 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.
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How the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 and the Gigabyte Aero 5 compare to other laptops
"Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 laptop review: liquid metal 7 nm AMD Zen 3 is stunning. The raw performance increase is absolutely bonkers if you're upgrading from a laptop on Coffee Lake-H or older. The 45 W Ryzen 9 5900HX is neck-to-neck with the thicker, heavier, and hotter Schenker Ultra 17 running on a desktop-class Core i9-11900K despite their wide TDP differences. The performance-per-watt advantages can make Intel Rocket Lake feel like a last generation platform at times. As for the chassis itself, it's a huge light show with RGB LEDs on almost all sides of the system."
"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 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 or the Gigabyte Aero 5
About ASUS
ASUS, a Taiwanese electronics brand, is one of the largest personal computer vendor by market share. The majority of their laptops are targeted towards personal use or gaming. Their most popular product lines include the budget-friendly VivoBook, more premium ZenBook, and their TUF and ROG gaming laptops, the latter of which has a reputation for excellent gaming performance.
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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