The ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 is without doubt one of the most attention-grabbing so-called “NVIDIA Studio” laptops out there in the marketplace. This review reveals one other side of the Inventive Laptop computer market that we see skyrocketing previously couple of years.
ASUS has been catering to inventive execs for years and is an innovation chief in some ways for that market section. If something, most individuals don’t know sufficient about ASUS’ historical past of inventive innovation. The NVIDIA Studio label will earn further consciousness for ASUS.
Should you’re not conversant in NVIDIA Studio, observe the hyperlink and skim our overview. In a nutshell, it’s an NVIDIA platform and a set of necessities for laptops that ensures consumers can simply establish high-caliber inventive laptops.
The NVIDIA Studio software program additionally prioritizes DCC (Digital Content material Creation) apps’ stability and optimizations over gaming, regardless that they continue to be very a lot gaming-capable with related graphics efficiency.
Specs highlights and choices
Our particular check unit is supplied as follows: Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage (1 SSD), 4K OLED show, and the NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU. You possibly can configure it for about ~$2200 at publishing time.
Configuration choices
Relying in your finances and desires, ASUS provides extra configurations, with extra inexpensive CPUs (Ryzen 7) or dearer ones such because the Intel Xeon line. As much as 64GB of RAM is supported, making this a correct workstation.
Customers can even choose “as much as” a GeForce RTX 3080 or the workstation equal referred to as the NVIDIA A5000, which may run skilled drivers tuned for DCC apps. If the finances is extra restricted, the GeForce RTX 3060 is out there too.
The storage choices are thrilling. Going from 1TB to 8TB, you even have the choice of utilizing a RAID-0 configuration to considerably enhance efficiency by aggregating bandwidth throughout a number of SSDs.
Industrial Design
The ProArt Studiobook 16 makes use of an all-metal design that feels extraordinarily inflexible and durable. That’s why I’m not shocked that it passes the MIL-STD 810H navy sturdiness exams, one thing that not many OEMs do.
This laptop is a lightweight workstation, and its 5.29 Lbs weight is nicely in-line with others on this class, together with some we’ve reviewed lately: the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE and the Acer Idea D5.
You’ll find lighter office-productivity 16-inch laptops such because the Huawei MateBook 16, however you’ll see that the graphics efficiency differential is vital. Extra on that later.
There’s a floor remedy to guard the metallic and even maintain fingerprints away. It’s removed from being “smudge-free,” however it’s a pleasant strive.
“APPRECIABLE COMFORT AND PRODUCTIVITY”
Probably the most outstanding design function of the laptop is the ASUS Dial positioned on the upper-left of the trackpad. It’s sunken into the chassis and doesn’t protrude. You solely really feel it a little bit bit on the ball of the thumb, so it doesn’t get in your method. Should you press the dial, it triggers an motion.
What the dial does is determined by the context. For instance, in Home windows, the dial will typically management the brightness or quantity. Nevertheless, its actual energy is revealed when utilizing it in Adobe’s Inventive Cloud apps that provide ample help for a lot of these gadgets.
I’m no designer, however I do use Photoshop and Premiere. Customers will rapidly modify to having this dial, and it’ll induce considerable consolation and productiveness, so it’s an ideal concept. When in comparison with an exterior Dial peripheral, the principle distinction is that your hand doesn’t want to maneuver practically as a lot as a result of it’s proper there close to the keyboard.
For a fast overview of the ASUS Dial, watch the official teaser:
For added customization of the ASUS Dial, folks can launch the ASUS ProArt Creator Hub and create new app profiles, along with switching between varied efficiency modes or calibrating the show colours. The video beneath reveals a great overview of the functionalities:
Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard is positioned barely greater to accommodate the dial, however general it’s snug and doesn’t essentially change hand placement.
The keyboard keys are additionally barely smaller than on another 16-inch laptops, making room for the numeric pad to the precise and the Dial.
DDC apps usually require inputting numerical values in edit containers, so having the numeric pad could make a giant distinction when working. Then again, one varieties barely quicker with bigger keys.
ASUS additionally makes use of the keyboard as a fan consumption, considerably growing the chassis’s cool-air move. Since heavy GPU utilization is at all times restricted by warmth, I like this quite a bit. The general cooling design appears very environment friendly.
The trackpad is massive and comfy, however the floor isn’t “clicky” and ASUS as an alternative depends on three bodily buttons. As a matter of non-public desire, I’d quite have the 2 bodily trackpad buttons positioned on the high, like ThinkPad laptops do, as an alternative of the underside.
“THE TRACKPAD IS ALSO A DIGITIZER”
The ProArt Studio 16’s trackpad can be a digitizer that helps 1024 ranges of stress. I haven’t tried the stylus, however it looks like an awesome integration to this inventive laptop.
Ports
The ProArt Studiobook 16 has a good assortment of ports, and the official illustration beneath reveals that very nicely. Integrating an RJ45 port is great as a result of many professionals want Gb Ethernet for community storage or file transfers. A wired connection is superior to the utmost WiFi throughput and latency.
I might have appreciated to see a second Thunderbolt 4 connector as a result of one might go to a TB dock, whereas the opposite would possibly join instantly with an exterior high-speed TB4 storage resolution.
There’s a full-size SD card reader (SD Categorical 7.0, 985MB/s), which is nice, particularly for those who’re coping with a lot of 4K video recordsdata the place this type of efficiency will be maximized. The HDMI port helps as much as 8K/120Hz or 10K/60Hz.
Sound high quality
The Harman Kardon audio system output good and highly effective sound. ASUS has chosen an clever method to place the 2 major audio system on the entrance fringe of the pc.
It’s a lot better than having bottom-firing audio system, as some sound power goes instantly in direction of the consumer. Nevertheless, it’s not as highly effective as up-firing quad-speakers or soundbars, as seen on some Lenovo Yoga laptops.
The variations are most evident if pushing the sound to 100%, and that’s the place you may spot an absence of bass and encompass energy on the ProArt Studiobook 16. Superb, however not the perfect.
Show
Our 16-inch 4K OLED show has a 16:10 ratio, which typically improves productiveness because of the additional vertical area in comparison with a 16:9 one.
That is an excellent show with superior distinction (1,000,000:1), ultra-fast response time (2ms), and wonderful brightness ranges (550 NITs).
Skilled customers will respect the 100% DCI-P3 coloration gamut and the HDR True Black 500 certification that might be very priceless with the proliferation of 4K HDR recording.
Asus has included some software program to tune and calibrate colours, however remember the fact that OLED shows must be color-calibrated for a particular brightness degree if you would like the perfect outcomes.
Whereas I’m okay with the 4K OLED 60Hz show refresh fee, it’s good to know {that a} 120 Hz IPS 2.5K show is out there too. That panel must also be extra power-efficient for those who want additional battery life on the go.
The highest bezel hosts a webcam with an infra-red sensor appropriate with the Home windows Howdy face login system. There’s an array of microphones for higher sound recording, which ought to make a giant distinction in video-conferencing audio high quality.
Efficiency
As a lightweight workstation, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook 16 reveals nice efficiency in its class. You possibly can take a look at numbers from Geekbench 5 (artificial CPU check) or Cinebench R23 (3D software program rendering) to see processor efficiency that’s inside what we anticipate from this configuration.
Graphics efficiency is important for Inventive apps, and that’s the place NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 makes a giant distinction. I’m including the Huawei MateBook 16 for reference because it has an awesome CPU, however no discrete graphics.
The extra demanding 3DMark Port Royal check illustrates the potential distinction between the RTX 3060, 3070, and RTX 3080/A5000 GPUs, since you’ve the selection between all of those.
Even for those who take a look at “efficiency for the value,” (value-proposition) the ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 appears to be like superb. You possibly can see which you could get barely extra efficiency in your cash.
Nevertheless, do not forget that game-centric laptops just like the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE don’t have creative-centric components just like the dial, trackpad digitizer, or 64GB of most RAM.
The Acer ConceptD5 can be a greater DCC laptop comparability, and each are neck to neck with regards to value-proposition, with a slight benefit for ASUS due to the higher consumer expertise (dial+digitizer).
Lastly, the storage efficiency is excellent, particularly the write pace, one of many highest. Should you go for the non-obligatory RAID0 configuration, you need to see numbers much like our Predator Triton 500 SE that has such a setup.
Battery Life
The 90Wh battery capability is massive, and whereas it’s potential to seek out rivals with 99Wh capacities in the marketplace, it gained’t make that huge of a distinction in the actual world.
In our workplace productiveness exams, we received about 4 hours of steady utilization, and other people can anticipate to have the ability to watch native movies for about 6 hours with reasonable brightness.
It may not appear to be quite a bit, however these very highly effective computer systems have a base energy consumption that’s a lot greater than your typical workplace productiveness laptop.
You’ll must plug 240W energy provide to run at peak efficiency and remember the fact that it’s comparatively cumbersome, which is solely normal: that’s the case for all rivals too.
Conclusion
The ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 is a wonderful NVIDIA Studio laptop. It combines the precise design, consumer expertise (show, dial, digitizer), efficiency, and pricing. It’s the proper selection for a lot of customers, and the mixing of the dial and digitizer might prevent cash on two gadgets normally bought as peripherals.
A discrete GPU is required to realize most efficiency in lots of DCC apps, and the GeForce RTX 3070 with NVIDIA Studio drivers is a formidable selection. Alternatively, the GeForce RTX 3060 has a superb value, efficiency, and thermals ratio.
“AN EXCELLENT NVIDIA STUDIO LAPTOP”
On the high-end, the RTX 3080 or A5000 are improbable for fast bursts of labor, however remember the fact that sustained efficiency may be restricted by cooling.
The info reveals this laptop has efficiency corresponding to highly effective gaming laptops or enterprise workstations. Nevertheless, the ProArt Studiobook 16 is genuinely constructed for DCC purposes.
It’s a reminder that efficiency will not be the one productiveness issue. The consumer expertise would possibly make somebody work quicker, extra effectively, and with greater focus.
The identical is legitimate for having a extra snug expertise that makes you’re employed longer, just like the OLED show optimized to cut back eye pressure.
Filed in
. Learn extra about Asus, Inventive, Laptop computer Opinions, Laptops and Social Hit.