Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED review: A practical, yet dazzling creator laptop

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Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED: $1,599.99

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The Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED ticks off the primary wants on any content material creator’s listing – a quick processor, loads of RAM and a big 4K touch-sensitive show. It additionally chalks up a number of desires as effectively, like a helpful DialPad instrument that simplifies working in inventive apps. In the connectivity division, it doesn’t skimp, delivering a mixture of helpful ports in addition to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 assist, and although not particularly made for gaming, its highly effective discreet GPU and sizeable show allows you to take pleasure in first rate gaming on the facet.

Although its low-key design gained’t match each content material creator’s aesthetic aspirations, what it lacks in styling it makes up for in portability being each remarkably skinny and light-weight, making it an honest possibility for inventive professionals.

Specs and options

The Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED is accessible in configurations as much as Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU with both GeForce RTX 3050 Ti or GeForce RTX 3050 GPUs. Prices begin at $1,449 for the configuration with Ryzen 7 5800H CPU. Our assessment unit which at the moment retails for $1,599.99 at Amazon has the next specs:

• CPU: Ryzen 9 5900HX
• RAM: 32GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti w/4GB GDDR6 SDRAM
• Display: 16-inch 4K (3840 x 2400) 16:10 OLED (touch-sensitive) show
• Storage: 1TB PCle NVMe M.2 SSD
• Ports: Left facet: 2x USB 2.0 Type-A; Right facet: USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C; USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI 1.4; 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, MicroSD card reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0
• Dimensions: 14.19 x 10.20 x 0.74 inches
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
• Weight: 4.30 lbs (energy brick weighs 0.6 lbs)
• Color: Black
• Battery capability: 96WHrs
• Price: $1,599.99

Design and construct

Content creation laptops have a tendency to sit down within the gray zone between productiveness machines and the extra hardware-stacked gaming rigs. However, they often don’t shirk on high-end shows that ship the type of performance-oriented visuals inventive professionals crave.

The $1,599.99 Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED is a working example, being all concerning the beautiful visuals you will get on its spectacular 16-inch 4K OLED panel. The distinctive distinction is its low-key design. It oozes practicality slightly than the inventive aptitude that you simply’d count on to see in a laptop computer of this kind.

However, the VivoBook’s minimalist design presents its beautiful 16:10 panel exceptionally effectively, which seems extensive and tall whenever you flip the lid. It’s framed by 4.8mm skinny left and proper facet bezels that make up its 86 % display screen to physique ratio. There’s additionally more room vertically to take pleasure in right here than in 16-inch laptops with 16:9 shows and all that further room can take some getting used to. Once I did, I didn’t wish to return to utilizing my smaller laptop computer’s 16:9 panel.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Another eye-catching characteristic is the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s color-coded keyboard, which designates keys into purple, black, or gray keycaps. While this characteristic could possibly be written off as distinctive styling that units it other than laptops just like the 16-inch MacBook Pro or Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, when put to good use, it will probably actually ramp up productiveness. So can also the DialPad instrument that’s hidden in its extra-wide precision touchpad

Sounding good thus far? There’s only one caveat: The VivoBook Pro 16X OLED does feel and look a bit industrial. When you shut the highest, its black/gray anodized aluminum chassis seems rectangular and boxy. In the outer corners of the laptop computer, the place you’ll usually count on to see fashionable curves and trimmings, the VivoBook has simply unusual edges. Arguably, the dearth of aptitude is an efficient factor. It means the laptop computer appears to be like at dwelling anyplace. It additionally means this laptop computer lets its performance show its price.

Thankfully, what it lacks in appears to be like it makes up for in portability, being each remarkably skinny and light-weight. I discovered myself on multiple event having to remind myself that it’s a laptop computer with discrete graphics. Weighing simply 4.30 kilos, it’s greater than a pound lighter than its shut counterpart, the Asus ProArtwork StudioEbook 16 OLED. It’s additionally extra compact and thinner too, measuring simply 14.8 x 10.20 x 0.74 inches in comparison with the 14.25 x 10.39 x 0.78 inches. It feels sturdy and powerful too, with ample metallic protecting the breadth of its base. As far as 16-inch laptops go, it ought to confidently stand as much as the trials of normal each day use or journey.

Keyboard and touchpad

Asus have made the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s keyboard and touchpad surprisingly ergonomic. The keyboard’s colourful keycaps appeared a bit like overkill at first, however attempting them out in Adobe Premiere Pro, they made application-wide and panel particular shortcuts simpler to deploy.

Commands like (Duplicate) Ctrl + Shift + / have been a lot simpler to recollect and due to this fact quicker to execute than on my productiveness laptop computer the place the uniformly black keys are extra helpful for touch-typing than for firing off shortcuts in Adobe inventive apps. Overall, this sped up how shortly I might edit a protracted overdue dwelling video venture.

In regards to the keyboard structure, it’s just about the identical because the Asus ProArtwork StudioEbook 16 OLED’s structure, in that it options all of the command keys you’d look forward to finding on a creator laptop computer however not an excessive amount of extras. It does have a decent-sized numpad on the right-hand facet. It additionally sports activities half-sized arrow keys, nonetheless, in contrast to the ProArtwork StudioEbook 16 OLED, these line up neatly with the underside of the keyboard as an alternative of jutting out beneath it.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Typing on the keyboard felt moderately comfy. However, I did count on the beneficiant 1.35mm key journey to have made them bouncier. They felt a bit mushy as an alternative. For lengthy stints in Microsoft Word, chances are you’ll lose some accuracy, however they’re completely acceptable for hitting fast instructions in Adobe applications. The keyboard can also be backlit so as to preserve engaged on essential tasks even when the lights exit.

Looking on the positioning of the keyboard and touchpad reveals a effectively thought-out placement with a good quantity of area in your arms both facet of the touchpad. There’s additionally ample area between the keyboard and the show, that means a wayward finger isn’t going to set off the touchscreen by mistake whilst you’re typing.

Swiping in from the right-hand facet on the high-precision touchpad lights up the DialPad – the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s digital management dial – like magic. This neat addition offers you a similar UI and performance because the Asus ProArtwork StudioEbook 16 OLED’s bodily rotary controller, however with out taking over further area close to the keyboard. It additionally works the identical method. You merely use your finger to spin via menus and press down to vary no matter parameters you occur to be tweaking.

Compatibility-wise, the DialPad integrates with Adobe’s Creative Suite apps, so it’s primed for Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and AfterEffects. But if you happen to don’t see your app on that listing, it’s also possible to customise your DialPad in different applications in Asus’ proprietary Creator Hub app.

Giving the DialPad a attempt in Adobe Photoshop, it’s not arduous to see how these with extra information than me might use it to considerably ramp up productiveness. Even with my rudimentary Photoshop information, I discovered it a lot quicker to undo actions, change saturation in pictures, and modify layer opacity. I might do all of this with out having to maneuver my arms a lot in any respect.

Display and webcam

To describe the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s 4K show as beautiful is an understatement. It’s extra distinctive than beautiful, producing pictures in vibrant colour and true darks which have a depth I don’t usually see in a few of the finest 4K OLED TVs not to mention a laptop computer. There’s additionally consistency within the image high quality. At full decision, 4K movies seem buttery clean and pictures and textual content are crisp and detailed.

How does it obtain this? For colour and distinction, the show covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. It’s additionally fairly brilliant, hitting 550 nits peak brightness. The show’s 0.2ms response time additionally means any enter lag is just about imperceptible.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Unfortunately, the identical props can’t be given to the VivoBook’s inventory commonplace 720p webcam, which might have benefited from being a Full HD webcam. On the flipside, it does have a handy sliding webcam protect for privateness, which, together with the Windows Hello appropriate energy button/finger-print sensor, are good extras to have.

Audio and connectivity

Asus has delivered a great mixture of connectivity choices, however there are some things we want had been included. The first is one other USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, there being just one. A scan of my desk revealed not less than three gadgets that required a USB Type-C connection, so this could have been very helpful.

The VivoBook Pro 16X OLED might have additionally benefited from the additional bandwidth a HDMI 2.0 port supplies compared to the HDMI 1.4 port at the moment out there. Still, the addition of Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity means there are different quick methods to switch knowledge.

Laptops as slender as this one can typically wrestle to provide sufficient audio quantity, however the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s Hardman Kardon-certified audio system drum up first rate ranges on most settings. The sound produced is neither muffled nor tinny, nonetheless as is commonly the way in which with laptop computer audio system, the bass vary isn’t that nice.

Performance

The Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s Ryzen 9 5900HX processor is a Cezanne technology CPU, which is the codename for CPUs in AMD’s Ryzen’s 5000 collection. It options 7nm Zen 3 microarchitecture with 8 cores and 16 threads. Last 12 months this processor appeared in a whole lot of premium gaming laptops just like the Razer Blade 14, the place it proved top-of-the-line performers and comparable in pace to Intel’s Core i9-11980HK. Despite this, the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED positioned principally within the mid-range of our comparability line-up.

To check out our assessment unit’s efficiency, we pitted it in opposition to a set of laptops from our in depth secure of previous evaluations. This included principally these with discrete graphics playing cards that would muster related chops for 3D modifying, just like the Dell XPS 17 and the Razer Blade 14.

It additionally included laptops continuously utilized by content material creators such because the Asus VivoBook Pro Duo 15 and the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio – the latter with the identical RTX 3050 Ti GPU on-board.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

First benchmark off the block was the PCMark 10 Overall, which measures a laptop computer’s common efficiency in on a regular basis productiveness duties like net shopping and video chats. In this check, the Asus VivoBook was outclassed by the MSI Katana GF76, which sports activities considered one of Intel’s new 12th Generation i7 CPUs.

Even so, as anticipated it scored higher than comparability laptops with older and fewer spectacular CPUs. These outcomes present that the VivoBook Pro is appropriate for a spread of common productiveness duties in addition to multitasking.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

In our HandBrake check, which supplies a sign of a laptop computer’s skill to regulate throttling whereas finishing up a CPU intensive activity, the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED got here in forward of the pack, ending the duty barely quicker than even the sporty MSI Katana GF76. This consequence bodes effectively for creators – the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED clearly has what it takes to shortly full CPU-demanding duties.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Next up we in contrast the VivoBook’s CPU efficiency in Maxon’s Cinebench R15. In the Multi-Threaded check that makes use of all threads of a laptop computer’s CPU to render a picture on display screen, the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED scored in the course of the comparability subject. Its positioning forward of the very succesful Razer Blade 14 (which options the identical CPU) suggests the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s CPU will carry out comparatively effectively on the subject of duties like 3D modifying and encoding.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

While it’s good to know the way our assessment laptop computer performs when all cores are used, the huge variety of functions utilized by folks as of late gained’t make the most of all of the cores in a laptop computer’s CPU. To get a extra correct studying of how the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s CPU will fare with common app utilization we additionally ran the Cinebench R15 Single-Threaded benchmark which assessments only a single core. Again our VivoBook Pro 16X OLED’s rating was comparable with Razer Blade 14 efficiency.

3D efficiency

The VivoBook Pro 16X OLED sports activities an Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti discrete GPU. As our outcomes turned out, it wasn’t probably the most highly effective GPU in our line-up, but it surely did have some muscle, displaying itself to be succesful for its supposed use in 3D functions.

To check the 3D graphics functionality of the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED, we ran the 3DMark Time Spy 1.2 benchmark. According to Nvidia, an Nvidia Studio laptop computer sporting a GeForce RTX 30 collection GPU will get a 3D increase, benefiting from as much as two instances the rendering efficiency of laptops that includes the older RTX 20 collection GPUs, thereby making it simpler to render extra-large 3D fashions and edit as much as 8K HDR video.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Even although we didn’t have any laptops with RTX 20 collection GPUs in our comparisons to check this in opposition to, this declare appears fairly plausible because the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED managed to outperform even a number of laptops sporting RTX 30 collection GPUs. As a consequence, we are able to safely say the Asus VivoBook 16X OLED is effectively suited to work requiring 3D imagery or 3D rendering.

Although not a devoted gaming laptop computer, we determined to see how the VivoBook Pro 16X OLED carried out in a 3D gaming state of affairs. In our Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, it produced barely slower framerates than gaming laptops just like the Acer Nitro 5 and HP Victus 16. That mentioned, the comparability laptops all have extra highly effective RTX 30 collection GPUs and the VivoBook’s extra modest rating continues to be respectable contemplating its {hardware}.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Battery life

This final check is the one that will matter probably the most to many content material creators, particularly these wanting a laptop computer that gained’t run out of steam midway right into a workday.

To check the battery’s endurance on a single cost, we ran it down from 100 % capability to standby by taking part in a 4K video on repeat. In our battery check, the Asus VivoBook 16X OLED’s 96WHr battery lasted greater than 12 hours, which is greater than sufficient to cut back the necessity for frequent charging. However, you need to count on that tally to be markedly much less with extra exhaustive 3D rendering or encoding work or gaming.

IDG / Dominic Bayley

Conclusion

The Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED is a light-weight and compact laptop computer for content material creators with no-nonsense styling. It additionally options an ergonomic DialPad and color-coded keyboard that simplifies working in inventive apps. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and RTX 3050 Ti GPU mixture make it appropriate for a spread of inventive work together with 3D rendering and video modifying and even a bit of sunshine gaming. However, it’s most spectacular characteristic is its beautiful 4K OLED show. It’s top-of-the-line screens we’ve had the pleasure of utilizing.