I Recommend This Asus Laptop To Creative Pros And Office Workers Alike (and It's $300 Off)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Asus ProArt P16 is disposable now, starting astatine $1,900.
• It pairs powerful hardware pinch a suite of customizable options designed for creatives.
• The heavy personalization requires engagement from nan user, nan immense trackpad won't beryllium everyone's cup of tea, and nan ultra-glossy show tends to glare.

Over astatine Best Buy, nan Asus ProArt P16 is connected waste for $1,700.

Asus' ProArt bid consists of sleek laptops pinch high-end hardware for creatives. At nan apical of nan statement is nan caller AMD-powered ProArt P16, which exudes powerfulness and capacity pinch a sleek, all-black shape factor, elephantine trackpad pinch Asus' proprietary DialPad, and a superb display. 

I had a chance to spell hands-on pinch nan ProArt P16 a fewer months agone and recovered it to beryllium a highly tin instrumentality pinch a batch of earthy power. However, it besides requires immoderate customization and optimization to get nan astir retired of it. Before I touch connected that, let's return a look astatine nan hardware.

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The ProArt P16 has 32GB of memory, an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, and a 12-core, 24-thread spot pinch a 50 TOP NPU. This beardown halfway powers nan device's imaginative endeavors, whether video editing, utilizing precocious animation aliases schematic creation programs, aliases simply multitasking pinch a fistful of different apps and dozens of browser tabs.

One of nan champion parts of this laptop, however, is its display. The 500-nit, 3840 x 2400 solution AMOLED touchscreen show delivers a crisp, agleam image pinch a glossy, premium coating. Powered by nan Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, it features DLSS 3 (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and support for ray tracing.

Although it tin present a bully gaming experience, it's held backmost a spot by nan 60Hz refresh rate, which is portion of nan give-and-take of nan device's wide characteristic set. Asus' determination to limit nan refresh complaint is disappointing, but it keeps nan value constituent debased and solidifies its intended usage lawsuit arsenic a creator-first machine. 

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In that vein, it comes pinch a stylus that feels precise and responsive, particularly connected nan smooth, glossy display, which feels for illustration a blank canvas beckoning you to sketch on. The pen connected this laptop is bully capable for artists and designers to usage seriously, arsenic each excessively often, they're either excessively laggy aliases excessively barebones to warrant using. Here, however, it's snappy and responsive and comes pinch various capabilities that activity successful tandem pinch nan DialPad to powerfulness customizable, single-click actions. 

I besides admit that this laptop is not a 2-in-1. Convertible laptops are often forced to move to tablet mode if you want to usage them pinch a stylus, arsenic pressing connected nan show successful laptop mode pushes it down unless you support it pinch your hand. 

The ProArt P16 was designed pinch this successful mind, arsenic nan show locks into spot astatine its furthest angle. Instead of folding backmost from nan unit of nan pen, it stays upright pinch a generous grade of bend. Just support successful mind that pushing backmost excessively difficult will consequence successful nan beforehand of nan instrumentality lifting disconnected nan desk. 

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The Asus DialPad is different unsocial characteristic that creatives will emotion to tinker with. If you haven't seen it before, it's a small, raised instrumentality connected nan trackpad that tin beryllium customized to activate different settings, for illustration changing brushwood sizes successful Photoshop aliases cutting, pausing, aliases rewinding successful CapCut aliases Premiere. The DialPad's mini beingness size makes activating and scrolling done nan "wheel" accelerated and easy, particularly for communal features.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

My only gripe astir nan DialPad was that it took a infinitesimal to group up. It came abnormal connected nan laptop retired of nan box, requiring maine to activate it pinch a circumstantial motion connected nan trackpad that isn't evident unless you look it up (you property nan icon successful nan apical correct area of nan trackpad, past quickly descent diagonally down toward nan mediate of nan trackpad). As 1 of this laptop's premier features, wouldn't it make consciousness to a) person it activity retired of nan container and/or b) characteristic an easy setup tutorial?

Also: Need a caller laptop for nan office? Save $400 connected nan Dell 16 Plus and amended your workflow

Once it was activated, however, I quickly became a fan. I for illustration really granular you tin make nan customizations, and it's useful moreover beyond imaginative usage cases. In fact, I recovered that immoderate of nan astir useful cases were successful productivity apps and successful nan browser, enabling speedy functions during nan workday for predominant actions. 

Asus/ZDNET

The different Asus programs that travel pinch nan laptop are useful to varying degrees, not to mention that they were alternatively slow to occurrence up. Asus' "Muse Tree," for example, took an unexpectedly agelong clip to instal and get going. I had a chance to spell hands-on pinch this app previously, and though it's a very cool idea, I'm still connected nan obstruction regarding its usefulness. 

The high-end and satisfying keyboard has perfectly silent keys. Similarly, nan trackpad is massive, extending from nan keyboard to nan separator of nan device, and has a velvety matte texture. One downside is that I had immoderate problem getting it to usability astatine a precocious capacity successful a peculiarly acold office. If your hands are connected nan acold side, you mightiness acquisition immoderate slow responses. 

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This could perchance beryllium adjusted pinch optimization, which is nan different large point I'd for illustration to mention astir this laptop. In my experience, Asus laptops respond peculiarly good to optimization settings crossed nan board. The ProArt P16 is simply a cleanable illustration of this; different profiles aliases settings parameters tin drastically impact performance, ranging from artillery life to velocity and responsiveness.

This besides applies to Windows updates, peculiarly regarding demanding workloads. When I first fired up this laptop, for example, its capacity was noticeably worse until I went done nan bid of Windows updates for nan OS, updated drivers, and followed up pinch nan database of updates successful nan MyAsus app. 

The P16's capacity improved aft I updated it, and it was past optimized further erstwhile I sewage utilized to nan DialPad and configured nan trackpad and powerfulness profiles. 

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

All of this is to opportunity that nan ProArt P16, for me, was not a laptop that came fresh to spell retired of nan container but alternatively requires immoderate personalization and attraction to get nan astir retired of it. This applies to its rich | characteristic set, but it takes a infinitesimal to incorporated it into imaginative workflows. Ultimately, this is simply a bully thing, arsenic it encourages invention connected nan user's portion to break retired of cloned UIs and workflows that each look nan same. 

Putting a much actual number to its performance, successful our benchmarking tests, nan ProArt P16 placed location successful betwixt nan M3 MacBook Pro and nan M4, though it should beryllium noted that it's much connected par pinch nan M3 than Apple's latest M4 product.  

Lastly, let's concisely mention nan battery. This is simply a laptop pinch a powerful suite of hardware and a 16-inch AMOLED display, truthful I wasn't expecting overmuch going into my testing. However, I was pleasantly amazed astatine really robust nan artillery is, particularly erstwhile paying attraction to power-saving settings. 

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I easy sewage complete 10 hours of artillery life pinch normal usage and intermittent high-demand tasks. However, pinch intensive imaginative tasks and dense multitasking, you tin expect astir 7 hours earlier connecting to an outlet. 

ZDNET's buying advice

If you're looking for a powerful laptop pinch coagulated hardware and a rich, move characteristic set, I urge nan Asus ProArt P16 arsenic a coagulated prime for precocious creators who want to situation nan position quo and bask tinkering pinch customization settings to maximize imaginative output. 

However, if you're looking for an out-of-the-box imaginative powerhouse, I urge nan Apple M3 aliases M4 MacBook Pro. It has each nan powerful hardware fresh to tackle imaginative tasks and couldn't perchance beryllium easier to group up. If you for illustration nan ProArt P16 but want thing a spot much accessible, Asus' ProArt PZ13 is a much compact type astatine almost half nan price. 

This article was primitively published connected December 6, 2024, and was updated connected July 23, 2025.