The Gigabyte Aero 5 is a more affordable option with a high-quality OLED display, making it cost-effective for general use and some engineering tasks. Consider the Gigabyte Aero 5 for a balance between cost and capability, or the MSI Stealth 17 for top-tier performance, especially if budget and portability are not primary concerns. 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 Gigabyte Aero 5
Good battery life
Advantages of the MSI Stealth 17
Very good for general use
Excellent for engineering and design
Excellent for gaming and AI
Very good for software development
Best in class speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.9/10
8.7/10
3840 x 2160
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
446.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
384.0 nits
7.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
5.5 Hours
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
6.7/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
6.4/10
The MSI Stealth 17 is very good for general use, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is good.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 offers a premium OLED screen with higher resolution, but it is heavier and slightly bulkier than the MSI Stealth 17, thereby less portable. The MSI Stealth 17, boasting a superior CPU and four times the RAM, excels in overall performance and has a more refined keyboard, although it has a shorter battery life and a lower resolution IPS screen compared to the Aero 5.
Gaming and AI
7.9/10
9.1/10
8.3/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.7/10
3840 x 2160
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
240Hz
Yes
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
7.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
8.0/10
The MSI Stealth 17 is excellent for gaming and AI, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is good.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 offers respectable gaming and 3D capabilities with its Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU and OLED screen, which provides stunning visuals although with a lower refresh rate, which is less ideal for fast-paced gaming. In contrast, the MSI Stealth 17 excels in gaming and 3D rendering with a more powerful Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU and a high refresh rate IPS screen that delivers smoother visuals, making it superior for these tasks despite being less portable due to its larger size and weight.
Engineering and Design
8.7/10
9.4/10
9.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.5/10
8.3/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.7/10
16.0 GB
RAM
64.0 GB
The MSI Stealth 17 is excellent for engineering and design, while the Gigabyte Aero 5 is very good.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 offers a high-quality OLED screen and efficient core components suitable for design tasks, while the MSI Stealth 17, with more RAM and a more powerful processor and graphics card, excels in engineering applications that demand top-tier performance. However, the Aero 5 is more portable and quieter, making it better for on-the-go use, whereas the Stealth's superior screen refresh rate and slightly larger display cater to precision and smooth visuals necessary in some design scenarios.
Content Creation
8.2/10
8.8/10
9.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.5/10
3840 x 2160
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
16.0 GB
RAM
64.0 GB
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The MSI Stealth 17 and Gigabyte Aero 5 are both very good for content creation, though the MSI Stealth 17 is somewhat better.
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
7.9/10
8.5/10
9.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.5/10
16.0 GB
RAM
64.0 GB
3840 x 2160
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The MSI Stealth 17 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
8.6/10
8.6/10
15.6in
SIZE
17.3in
3840 x 2160
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
240Hz
446.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
384.0 nits
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has a better screen than the MSI Stealth 17 for general use, and engineering and design, while the MSI Stealth 17 has a better screen for gaming and AI, content creation, and software development.
The Gigabyte Aero 5 boasts a display with vibrant colors and sharp images due to its high resolution and brightness, which enhances the viewing experience for everyday tasks and professional design work, with its wide color gamut ensuring accurate color reproduction for detailed engineering and design tasks. The MSI Stealth 17 also offers a clear and bright display, with less color space coverage than the Aero but still sufficient for most general and design purposes, ensuring very good visual fidelity for these use cases. However, both laptops fall short for gaming and 3D applications since they lack high refresh rates, which are crucial for smooth visuals and responsive gameplay for fast-paced action and rendering.
Battery
7.0 Hours
5.5 Hours
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has 7 hours of battery life. The MSI Stealth 17 has 5.5 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.
Cost
$1,250
$3,899
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
$3,500
$4,000
The Gigabyte Aero 5 has a price of $1,250 and the MSI Stealth 17 costs $3,899.
"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."
"The MSI Stealth 17 Studio is a laptop with a quiet RTX 4080 for almost every occasion. The MSI Stealth 17 Studio is equally capable of high-level media processing and playing current games. It remains pleasantly quiet, even if a few percentage points of power have had to be sacrificed in the process. But, it is not quite perfect: To some extent, the Stealth 17 is well thought out. It packs tons of graphics power and high-end components in a slim case. The laptop's cooling system can be set such that, noise-wise, it doesn't even reach low volume. However, small flaws cloud otherwise exceptionally positive impressions."
Get a great deal on the Gigabyte Aero 5 or the MSI Stealth 17
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.
About MSI
MSI, also known as Micro-Star International, is a Taiwanese technology corporation. MSI is known for their wide range of gaming devices. Their series include the entry-level Cyborg/Thin and Sword/Katana series, the mid-range Bravo/Delta and Crosshair/Pulse series, and their high-end Vector, Raider, Stealth, and Titan GT series. At every performance level, MSI offers a variety of devices with varying balances between performance, battery life, weight, and price, making them a solid option to consider at every price point.
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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