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The ASUS ZenBook laptop series is developed specifically for those who want a combination of premium design and performance for various productivity and leisure purposes. One of the new models introduced by them last year is the ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED laptop, which is a laptop specially developed for digital designers.
ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED
16″ 4K screen, (4096 × 2560 pixels)
OLED, 60Hz
Intel Core i9-12900H CPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB GDDR6 GPU
RAM 16GB DDR5-5200MHz
1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe storage
Primary Camera 1080p Infrared
I/O 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
2 x Thunderbolt 4
1 x HDMI 2.1 output
Kensington lock
Battery 61.6 WHr
230W charging
SIM/Telephony None
WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/6e
Audio Jack Yes
Waterproof None
Windows Hello Face Scan System
Selling Price RM11,999
Screen
The screen display is one of the most important aspects of this laptop. It uses a 16-inch NanoEdge HDR OLED panel with a 4K resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate.
In terms of color processing capabilities, this laptop's screen display can process 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, as many as 1.07 billion colors and has a brightness value of 550 nits which also comes with DisplayHDR True Black 500 verification which is not only very good for viewing your favorite movies and television series, but also to process videos with accurate colors.
As a productivity laptop, this screen display also comes with a higher 16:10 display ratio and this allows more content to be shown on the screen display. In the meantime, it also comes with a touch screen function and this makes it easy for users to zoom in on the content they want quickly and easily.
Even better, the viewing angle of this screen display is also almost 180 degrees without losing details of sharpness or color processing, allowing this computer to be used as a collaboration device quite well.
One drawback that can be shown is that because this display is an OLED display, there is still a glare issue where the light source will be reflected very brightly on this screen display. This doesn't really interfere with the use of this laptop, but depending on the position of the laptop, you might feel like it bothers you.
Shape
This ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED comes with a design that resembles the ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop that uses a unique Active Aerodynamic System cooling system where the keyboard part is slightly raised to open a space that allows this AAS cooling fan to flow hot air from the components for cooling. which is faster.
This laptop also comes with a thickness of around 1.78cm and this allows it to fit into various types of backpacks even though it has a 16-inch screen display. With this thickness as well, this laptop is loaded with various types of input and output plugs.
These include two Thunderbolt 4 plugs that also support Power Delivery and a DisplayPort display cable, one HDMI 2.1 plug, one 3.5mm audio plug, one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A plug and one SD Express 7.0 card reader.
Although this laptop supports charging using a USB Type-C plug, the use of an AC power plug is still used because of the electrical power that needs to be supplied to the CPU and GPU components when this laptop is used for graphics and video processing purposes.
This means that if you take this laptop to work outside the office, you will still need to carry the charger with you. We will also explain this a little when talking about the battery below.
Keyboard
The keyboard for this laptop is also seen as quite unique, where due to the AAS cooling system used, the keyboard part will be raised as well when the display part is raised.
This is seen to have the effect of giving users a more comfortable keyboard angle, according to our video editor who uses this laptop to edit YouTube videos.
The quality of this keyboard itself is also seen to be quite good, where the keys are tactile keys with soft bumps. Depending on your usage pattern, the experience of using this keyboard is either very comfortable, or rather awkward.
This is because the angle of using the laptop keyboard is dependent on the opening angle of the laptop screen. The use of the Active Aerodynamic System cooling system will raise the angle of the keyboard to flow more heat to cool these components.
A new addition to this laptop is the presence of the ASUS Dial touch wheel which can be used by digital content creators for a variety of uses such as selecting colors from the color wheel quickly and easily or to scroll the timeline when editing a video.
ASUS is seen working with companies like Adobe to develop support for this feature, and our video editors are taking advantage of it by using it to scroll video timelines, manipulate content colors and more.
Specifications And User Experience
In terms of internal specifications, the ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED model we reviewed is powered by an Intel Core i9-12900H processing chip with 16GB of memory and 1TB of internal storage.
It is also loaded with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card that is powerful enough to edit and process videos with resolutions from 1080p up to 4K without problems. If desired, you can also use this laptop to run games at Full HD resolution with medium and high settings without problems, but this is not the main function of this laptop.
ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED may be developed using the basic construction of a gaming laptop, but it comes with some changes especially in terms of software coupling to make it a laptop that can be used as a productivity laptop for creative professionals.
One of these improvements comes through NVIDIA Studio software support where the graphic components of this ZenBook Pro 16X OLED are optimized to be used together with creative productivity software such as Adobe Premiere, Filmora, DaVinci Resolve and so on.
Components that are commonly known to the public for gaming purposes can now be utilized for productivity purposes that require high processing power.
A video editor in our office has been using this laptop for a long time, and in his opinion, the ASUS ZenBook 16X OLED is powerful enough to cut, splice and process videos without any lag or heat issues.
Speaking of heat, the combination of the Active Aerodynamic System cooling system and the IceBlade fan circulates the heat from this laptop's components to the parts very efficiently, where the keyboard area that normally gets hot used when editing with the keyboard is now no longer a problem because the part that lifted a little.
In terms of fan noise, yes the component cooling fan will spin and make noise but it's not loud enough to be a problem for him. In the meantime, if it's an issue for you, using headphones or earphones will help in turning off the fan noise.
Audio
The ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED also uses a Harman/Kardon speaker system that comes with built-in Dolby Atmos support. The speakers are mounted along the sides of the keyboard, and they are very helpful in ensuring that the audio quality of the processed work is of high quality.
This also gives this computer the advantage of being a leisure laptop where the quality of the audio played on videos on platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and so on supports the use of high quality audio technology.
Treble along with high notes that aren't too loud can be heard, and in terms of bass quality, this laptop surprised us by featuring quite deep bass quality for a productivity-focused laptop.
Battery
The battery life of this laptop is one of the not so good aspects of this laptop. On a full charge, this laptop can last for around three hours only, regardless of the user's usage pattern.
In fact, in battery-powered mode, our video editor said that the video editing software would experience lag issues, most likely due to the reduced speed of the processing chip when in this mode.
Not only that, the built-in HDR mode in Windows 11 will also be deactivated and this will cause colors to appear a little more faded when watching or editing videos.
The battery issue for this laptop is not surprising as it is a desktop replacement laptop that offers powerful specifications in a thin and light design. If you are someone who works outside the office with this laptop, our advice is to bring this laptop charger with you.
In the box
Here is what is received in the box with purchase.
1x ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED.
1x USB-C charging block.
1x 3 pin head cable.
1x Manual.
Conclusion
ASUS ZenBook Pro 16X OLED is a premium productivity class laptop that comes with its own uniqueness, such as the ASUS Dial controller and also the Active Aerodynamic System cooling system design that ensures that the keyboard stays cool and can be used for hours without problems.
The price tag of RM11,999 may be a bit steep for specs that include a 12th generation Intel processing chip and a mid-range NVIDIA graphics card, but additional functions such as the use of a 4K resolution OLED screen display along with the certainty that your creative productivity software will work with the computer This hassle-free operation is something that not many other brands can provide to you or your company.
PROs and advantages
Thin and light design
Powerful components
A cooling system that allows long-term use
The latest technology features such as Thunderbolt 4 and WiFi 6E
CONS and shortcomings
The angle of the keyboard may be a little awkward
Low battery life
Performance drops when using battery power
Premium price tag