Asus Zenbook A16 evaluation: An almost excellent productiveness laptop computer

Greatest Costs At this time: Asus Zenbook A16 UX3607O

There’s quite a bit to like within the Asus Zenbook A16. It boasts sturdy CPU efficiency, wonderful battery life, and a completely top-notch multimedia expertise. The 16-inch body is surprisingly light-weight, too.

There’s, nevertheless, a caveat: I obtained two flawed evaluation items, one in every of which compelled a substitute, whereas the opposite was a minor blemish that didn’t have an effect on its key strengths.

As a productiveness machine, this laptop computer will get quite a bit proper. However spending over $2,000 continues to be a major funding, particularly with Qualcomm positioning its Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive chip as able to dealing with the most recent video games. That wasn’t my expertise, and Intel’s competing “Panther Lake” laptops have since carved out a stronger place for graphics efficiency. This can be a sturdy productiveness laptop computer with quite a bit to love, however its high quality points and premium value stop it from being a real standout.

Asus Zenbook A16: Choices

At press time, the Asus Zenbook A16 was solely accessible from Greatest Purchase with the choice of both 512GB or a full terabyte of SSD storage. Weirdly, Greatest Purchase’s 1TB configuration is priced at $1,699, whereas the 512GB configuration is priced at $1,899. Asus additionally presents a extra highly effective configuration (the UX3607OA-XS99 for $2,199.99) with the premium Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive X2E96100 processor.

This evaluation is a composite of two totally different laptops. My first evaluation unit survived an early run of battery-life testing to generate a streaming rating, however then failed to carry a cost thereafter. Asus despatched a second unit over, which in any other case labored virtually completely. I spot-checked a few of the outcomes I had compiled with the primary laptop computer utilizing the second laptop computer. The one substantive distinction I seen was within the show brightness, which modified from 434 nits to 460 nits — price mentioning, however not significantly vital.

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Asus Zenbook A16: Configuration

• Mannequin quantity: UX3607O
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive X2E96100
• Reminiscence: 48GB DLPDDR5X
• Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno X2-90
• NPU: Sure, 80 TOPS
• Show: 16-inch 2880×1800 OLED 120Hz, 500 nits rated
• Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 strong state drive
• Webcam and microphone: 1080p webcam with IR digicam, array microphone
• Connectivity: HDMI 2.1, 2 USB4 (40Gbps), 1 10Gbps USB-A, audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Howdy facial recognition
• Audio: Six-speaker system
• Battery capability: 50 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.52 x 9.43 x 0.74 inches
• Weight: 2.65 kilos
• Working system: Home windows 11 House
• Value: $2,199.99 MSRP as configured
• Guarantee: One yr (producer guarantee) plus one-year unintended safety if registered

Asus Zenbook A16: Design, construct high quality

Asus ships this laptop computer in a single “Zabriskie Beige” colorway, named after an iconic vista in Demise Valley, California. Maybe I spent an excessive amount of time dwelling within the Arizona desert, however the beige doesn’t resonate with me in any respect and the reference to Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, of Borax fame, didn’t both. There was a time throughout which the trade all settled on beige bins, and I don’t have to return to that point.

In any other case, Asus constructed this laptop computer out of “ceraluminum,” which Asus says gives a gentle end that feels heat and clean to the contact. That may be true, however it nonetheless appears like plastic, although it’s rated for MIL-STD 810H situations as effectively.

There’s a little bit of give within the heart of the keyboard, however in any other case this laptop computer feels sturdy and structurally sound. The show reclines previous 45 levels, however not flat, with a stiff hinge that defies wobbling.

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Aesthetically, I don’t love this laptop computer. Functionally, it’s a special story. When seen from the facet, this laptop computer is barely 0.65 inches thick, with not an entire lot of additional area on both facet of the chassis. At 2.87 kilos, the Zenbook A16 won’t be the lightest laptop computer ever, however nonetheless, contemplate the scale– it’s a 16-incher! All in all, you’re getting numerous efficiency packed inside a big, gentle laptop computer that slips simply into your bag.

The Asus Zenbook A16 ships with a pair of USB 4.0 Gen 3 USB-C ports on the left-hand facet; these are functionally equal to Thunderbolt 4, however with out the Intel branding and certification. There’s additionally a USB-A port, HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Asus may have used the additional area to both facet of the keyboard for audio system. As an alternative, they’re downward going through and mounted underneath the keyboard tray.

There’s solely a single M.2 2280 PCI 4 slot for storage, which is occupied by the built-in SSD.

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The laptop computer’s venting is normal: air is sucked in from a grille on the underside of the machine, then pushed out vents mounted contained in the hinge. Though Qualcomm designed the laptop computer’s Snapdragon Elite X2 Excessive processor to run at full velocity on wall and battery energy, the fan noise is quiet and unobtrusive at default ranges.

Asus Zenbook A16: Show, audio

The Zenbook A16’s show is characterised as “3K,” a 2800×1800 OLED with a 16:10 facet ratio. Visually, the show is rated with VESA’s VESA CERTIFIED Show HDR True Black 1000 ranking, with 1,100 nits of peak HDR brightness. As famous above, my gentle meter put the show output at a most of 430 nits (460 nits on the substitute laptop computer), barely lower than the rated 500 nits. We use 250 to 260 nits as a cushty gentle degree for indoor use.

The show isn’t contact enabled, which is one thing I all the time wish to see inside a productiveness laptop computer. However the Zenbook A16’s show is in any other case shiny and comparatively color-accurate.

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I additionally just like the inclusion of variable refresh fee help, which could be set to both a hard and fast 120Hz refresh fee or allowed to wander dynamically between 120Hz and 30Hz. The previous permits for clean scrolling and mousing throughout the display, shifting to 30Hz permits the laptop computer to cut back energy when displaying a static picture like a Phrase doc. (Which may not be as readily obvious in our assessments, which use video working at a hard and fast fee in addition to a extra power-intensive office-like workload.)

Nonetheless, all that undersells the multimedia expertise. OLED screens are implausible, and I’m a fan of the “excellent” blacks that an OLED show tasks. However the audio (Asus simply calls it a “built-in speaker”) is implausible, with terrific sound whether or not or not you could have the quantity dialed down or at its peak. Usually, on the excessive finish, the audio degrades right into a muddy mess, however not right here.

Asus additionally has a “quantity booster” management as a part of the MyAsus app, however that’s not essential. I ought to be aware that I manually used the MyAsus app to tune the audio to its “Music” setting, quite than the default Dynamic setting, which sounds virtually pretty much as good.

I’m tempted to say that this laptop computer’s audio is pretty much as good as a conveyable Bluetooth speaker, however these are inclined to have a chamber that may produce deep, resonant bass. This laptop computer can’t fairly obtain that, however it comes shut.

On different Asus laptops powered by Intel chips, the MyAsus app additionally comes with further choices to tune the microphones to zero in in your voice and eradicate background sounds. This Snapdragon laptop computer lacks these further options, however performs completely completely. You could hate AI, however with the ability to converse at a standard quantity with a rock music blaring behind you is a cool form of magic.

Asus Zenbook A16: Keyboard, trackpad

Keyboards are a subjective expertise, and I’ve all the time ranked Asus keyboards considerably beneath their rivals. The Asus Zenbook A16 features a backlit chiclet keyboard with 1.3mm of key journey, which is about on par for many laptops. (Some individuals favor a brief, responsive keystroke, whereas I favor an extended, extra deliberate key journey, which was extra typical years in the past. Some business-class laptops push into the 1.4-1.5mm vary.)

Asus modifies the highest row of its keyboard to help some proprietary capabilities, which is a blended bag. I just like the devoted “print display” (or Display Snip) key, which permits for straightforward screenshot grabs, and there are devoted buttons for the touchpad, mic, and digicam. (This laptop computer has no bodily digicam shutter.) Lastly, there are devoted keys for launching the useful MyAsus utility app, and the far much less helpful Asus ScreenShare app, which requires some looking to truly banish.

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For a 16-inch laptop computer, nevertheless, some could also be shocked on the lack of a devoted 10-key keypad.

Asus contains a regular, massive trackpad that covers a large swath of the accessible area beneath the keyboard. It makes use of the standard hinge methodology, which signifies that it’s clickable as much as the highest fourth or so of the trackpad. There aren’t any haptics or power suggestions, however the trackpad is completely useful in any other case.

Asus Zenbook A16: Webcam

I walked away quite impressed by the Zenbook’s webcam, whose 1080p decision produced an excellent, life like picture underneath regular, late afternoon pure gentle. By now, after all, that’s pretty normal, however nonetheless.

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About the one flaw right here is the dearth of a devoted bodily webcam shutter. As an alternative, you’ll be able to disable the webcam and the mic from the highest row of operate keys. I additionally didn’t discover any webcam-specific options throughout the included MyAsus app, although that’s not a criticism.

I feel you’ll be able to actually get away with not needing an exterior webcam with this laptop computer, nevertheless.

Asus Zenbook A16: Efficiency

The Asus Zenbook A16 and its Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive processor proceed to ship about the identical efficiency on battery life as they do whereas on wall energy — not precisely, however fairly shut. Because the authentic X1 Excessive launched with those self same traits, we’ve seen Intel’s processors start to comply with swimsuit, most lately within the Core Sequence 3 processor (Wildcat Lake) discovered throughout the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i laptop computer.

As our outcomes will present, the Asus Zenbook A16 and the X2EE chip inside it are the inspiration for a terrific productiveness machine, although it doesn’t fairly push into the gaming realm. A part of that may have needed to do with a driver subject (defined beneath), but additionally, the panorama has modified — Intel’s X7 and X9 sequence of “Panther Lake” chips actually add graphics prowess that different chips can’t sustain with. Nonetheless, this laptop computer nails the productiveness fundamentals. Sturdy CPU efficiency on wall and battery energy, and lengthy battery life.

Some nonetheless have lingering considerations about software compatibility. On this case, about the one subject right here is in one in every of our benchmarks, PCMark 10. In any other case, these points have been largely solved, with video games being the exception. For video games, your odds are good however not assured. Operating effectively, although, is one other story.

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As famous above, the fan noise may be very quiet. That doesn’t imply that there isn’t some thermal throttling, nevertheless, when the laptop computer dials down the clock velocity to forestall overheating. I used to be a bit of shocked to see efficiency drop by 18 % over a chronic CPU take a look at. Nonetheless, there was no subject with extended GPU use.

Just like the first-generation Snapdragons, battery life may take an enormous hit when underneath steep workloads. The laptop computer chewed via our Handbrake CPU take a look at on wall energy simply advantageous, averaging about 20 minutes or so per run. On battery, starting with about 80 % battery, the laptop computer accomplished one run completely effectively, however slowed dramatically because it neared the top of the second and couldn’t full a 3rd. I take a look at battery life in a number of methods already, which I’ll clarify beneath.

The laptop computer’s Arm processor signifies that we all the time must do a little bit of tap-dancing between apps for compatibility’s sake. I’ll first evaluate the Asus Zenbook A16 first as its personal machine, however add a little bit of context with another assessments as effectively. That’s the case for the Procyon Workplace take a look at, beneath.

In any other case, I in contrast the Asus Zenbook A16 to a number of 16-inch laptops in addition to a single 14-inch and 15-inch mannequin. (Lots of in the present day’s 16-inch laptops would have been 15-inch laptops a number of years in the past, albeit with a thicker bezel.)

I selected the $1,139 HP OmniBook 3, with a first-generation Snapdragon X1 chip inside. I added the $2,349 Dell XPS 16 (2026) and the $1,799 Acer Swift 16 AI, each of which use Intel’s “Panther Lake” cellular processors with their highly effective built-in graphics. The $3,997 Lenovo ThinkPad P16V Gen 3 cellular workstation contains Intel’s “Arrow Lake” cellular processor, whereas the $1,099 Acer Aspire 16 AI drops right down to the older “Lunar Lake” processor at an aggressive value.

The 14-inch $1,479 Asus ExpertBook P3 provides an award-winning AMD Ryzen AI 300 chip to the combination, whereas the $899 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 5a 2-in-1 provides a member of AMD’s most up-to-date Ryzen AI 400 household.

From a efficiency standpoint, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive chip on the coronary heart of this laptop computer has a killer power: multithreaded CPU efficiency. Purposes designed to reap the benefits of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive structure can see vital advantages. Gaming laptops supply greater efficiency, however in the case of productiveness laptops, Snapdragon chips ship spectacular outcomes. Gaming laptops typically handle battery life measured in only some hours, whereas this laptop computer can hold going for a lot longer.

The X2E-96-100 chip makes use of a 3nm manufacturing course of and features a complete of 18 cores.

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Our first take a look at demonstrates this laptop computer’s power: mainly, it’s the perfect at workplace work in various historic laptops we’ve examined. We usually use the PCMark 10 take a look at to run right here, however that take a look at is incompatible with Arm. As an alternative, I examined various consultant laptops utilizing Procyon’s Workplace take a look at, which accurately assessments the laptop computer on how effectively it makes use of Microsoft’s Workplace purposes.

I’d count on many of the laptops to carry out effectively right here. Nonetheless, it’s a powerful endorsement in case you’re on the hunt for a productiveness laptop computer.

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Cinebench is another benchmark, exhibiting how the laptop computer ought to work on different CPU-centric assessments.

It’s additionally price noting that this chip’s single-core efficiency is about 148 on the Cinebench 2024 benchmark, about on par with Apple’s older M3 silicon and near its M4 chips. I view single-core CPU efficiency as an indicator of how snappy a laptop computer runs the working system, and that was typically borne out by my testing as effectively. (Intel’s Core Extremely X9 388H Panther Lake chip, which excels in gaming, reported a single-core rating of 130.)

I additionally pulled a graphic from an earlier evaluation, including the Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive information. There’s a whole lot of data right here, however search for the variations between efficiency on battery and wall energy. That is particular to the Geekbench cross-platform benchmark, a well-liked alternative for exhibiting CPU efficiency. The Asus laptop computer we’re testing right here is correct on the prime of the record.

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Observe that Home windows makes use of a “Prism” emulator inside Home windows. If the appliance isn’t particularly written for the Arm chip, Home windows can translate the directions into these the chip can use. Whereas this does cut back efficiency for non-native apps, the CPU efficiency helps offset this.

This issues in our Handbrake take a look at, which transcodes a Hollywood film into a special format: a chronic CPU take a look at. We don’t use an Arm-specific app right here, although there are new, trendy Arm-compatible assessments. Right here, we use a model of Handbrake (0.99) from a number of years in the past for consistency’s sake.

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The 3DMark Time Spy benchmark that we use to point out off graphics efficiency wasn’t particularly designed for Arm, both, although the assessments have been run on the laptop computer with the right graphics driver.

This graphic exhibits that the most recent Snapdragon chip really performs fairly effectively in opposition to earlier Snapdragon chips and the Arm Ryzen lineup we’ve examined. Intel has prioritized GPU efficiency, and that’s paid off. The Lenovo ThinkPad is in a separate class as a result of it contains an Nvidia RTX Professional 2000 discrete GPU.

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Graphically, our evaluation unit had a problem underneath the hood. Nowhere throughout my testing did the laptop computer refuse to run an software or to take action with apparent glitches. Nonetheless, when testing Cyberpunk: 2077, I seen that the sport reported the graphics driver as a generic one. Once I tried to replace the driving force utilizing Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU driver package deal, the software program reported that it couldn’t discover a Qualcomm GPU, which was clearly not the case. It additionally reported the dearth of a show driver when opening Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Nonetheless, I later downloaded Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Management Panel, which confirmed that I really had the most recent Adreno graphics driver (32.0.149.0, launched Feb. 6).

That didn’t seem to have an effect on gameplay from a compatibility standpoint. The laptop computer reported body charges of 54 fps whereas enjoying Cyberpunk: 2077 at 1080p (Low settings enabled), virtually on the 60 fps degree most players contemplate playable. At 1080p Extremely settings, Shadow of the Tomb Raider produced body charges of 38 fps.

After downloading the Snapdragon Management Panel, I checked once more: the identical 38 fps for Shadow, however body charges climbed reasonably to 62 fps whereas working Cyberpunk: 2077 at Low settings.

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However XDA Builders, for instance, reported body charges of 62 frames per second when working Cyberpunk in Steam Deck mode. My system reported 42 fps in the identical configuration. After downloading the Snapdragon Management Panel, I rechecked: 62 fps, albeit simply after boot on a chilly system.

I additionally downloaded and ran LM Studio to check this laptop computer’s AI capabilities by way of an LLM or AI chatbot. Although I downloaded the Arm model, the app didn’t detect the GPU for offloading computational information, and it threw an error message that prevented the mannequin from working. AI efficiency appears to have much less emphasis today, however that is the place the humongous 48GB of soldered RAM comes into play, permitting bigger AI fashions to be loaded. Theoretically, at the least.

I selected to not pursue the matter any additional. I’ve to evaluation the laptop computer that I obtained, not what it may be able to underneath superb situations.

Lastly, we come to battery life. That is the place a Snapdragon laptop computer usually excels. Fortunately, this one does! Even with a modest 50Wh battery.

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All advised, the Asus Zenbook A16 delivered virtually 18 hours of battery life, which is implausible for a laptop computer.

Nonetheless, battery life is ruled by what you’re asking the laptop computer to do. Gaming laptops final for a number of hours, in case you’re fortunate, underneath full load. Our video take a look at loops a 4K video time and again till the battery expires. Below totally different workloads, the battery life varies considerably. For instance, whereas streaming Netflix, the laptop computer’s battery lasted about 13 hours. Whereas performing a standardized workplace benchmark (which calculates Excel spreadsheets, codecs Phrase paperwork, and extra), the accessible battery shrank to about eight hours and 5 minutes. That’s extra of a real-world battery take a look at, which measures what I’d count on you’d be doing with this laptop computer: work and stream.

Do you have to purchase the Asus Zenbook A16?

As a productiveness laptop computer, positive. However is it the most suitable choice in its class? I’m much less positive of that. On paper, the Acer Swift 16 AI outperforms it in value, efficiency, and battery life, with an analogous show. I feel characterizing the Swift 16 AI as an Editor’s Selection on this class continues to be the proper transfer.

I even have to notice that each laptops I obtained from Asus had their very own points. I’ve examined various Asus laptops and these are the primary that gave me issues. Whereas these points are disappointing, they don’t erase the issues this laptop computer does effectively. I used to be particularly impressed by its multimedia efficiency, battery life underneath lighter workloads, and its remarkably gentle design.

Finally, the Zenbook A16 doesn’t fairly attain the extent wanted for an Editor’s Selection award. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless quite a bit to love right here, particularly in case you prioritize portability and battery life.