Asus ExpertBook P3 evaluate: A greater Copilot+ PC for work

Finest Costs At this time: Asus ExpertBook P3

The 14-inch Asus ExpertBook P3 is a work-focused Copilot+ PC that delivers a surprisingly good physique — all-metal construct high quality, a handy guide a rough keyboard, and unusually good audio system — with AMD internals that ship critical efficiency. For a lot of employees, the intense multithreaded CPU efficiency right here shall be extra necessary than a laptop computer that might theoretically final 24 hours away from an influence outlet.

Asus delivered a wonderful package deal right here, and I’m a fan… principally. I wasn’t notably impressed by the show on my evaluate mannequin, and the webcam is a weak level. However the total package deal is superior to the common enterprise laptop computer and much superior to the common Copilot+ PC with regards to CPU efficiency.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Specs

The Asus ExpertBook PM3406CKA is a enterprise laptop computer with an AMD Ryzen AI processor. Our evaluate mannequin got here with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, Radeon 860M graphics, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB solid-state drive. Asus listed it at a value of $1,479 on its web site, however it was on sale for much less, $1,229 on Amazon on the time the evaluate was being accomplished.

Whereas AMD’s Ryzen AI {hardware} can’t fairly ship the battery life you’ll discover on Qualcomm Snapdragon X or Intel Lunar Lake {hardware}, it does ship an unimaginable mixture of conventional x86 {hardware} (not like Qualcomm Snapdragon X), robust multithreaded CPU efficiency (not like Intel Lunar Lake), and a Copilot+ PC-ready NPU (not like Intel’s different {hardware}). Battery life continues to be strong. It’s simply not the 20+ hour runtimes I’ve seen on Intel Lunar Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus {hardware}.

On the time of the evaluate, Asus was promoting fashions of this machine with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 CPU and AMD Radeon 820M graphics beginning at $949.

• Mannequin: Asus ExpertBook PM3406CKA
• CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350
• Reminiscence: 32GB DDR5 RAM (5600 MT/s)
• Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 860M
• NPU: AMD NPU (as much as 50 TOPS)
• Show: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS show with as much as 60Hz refresh price
• Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p digital camera
• Connectivity: 2x USB Sort-C (USB 3.2 Gen2), 2x USB Sort-A (USB 3.2 Gen1), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo audio jack, 1x RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet, 1x Kensington Nano lock slot
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Gigabit Ethernet
• Biometrics: Fingerprint sensor and IR digital camera for Home windows Good day
• Battery capability: 70 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.31 x 8.94 x 0.71 inches
• Weight: 3.6 kilos
• MSRP: $1,479 as examined

Asus ExpertBook P3: Design and construct high quality

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

The Asus ExpertBook P3 has an all-metal chassis. Asus calls it a “sturdy aluminum construct” and says it meets US MIL-STD 810H testing requirements for performing in troublesome situations. Whereas my evaluate workflow doesn’t embody dropping laptops or subjecting them to sandstorms, this machine did really feel extremely sturdy.

Design-wise, you’re getting a silver chassis with a black keyboard and a black bezel across the show. The beveled edges on the fringe of the laptop computer’s keyboard tray are shinier. It appears and appears like a really rugged, very skilled enterprise laptop computer.

This 14-inch all-metal construct and three.6-pound chassis feels well-designed. Even the hinge feels fastidiously designed: Not like many laptops, I can open the laptop computer’s show with only a single hand. The hinge retains the show properly in place, and I don’t have to make use of two fingers to open the machine.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Keyboard and trackpad

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a chiclet keyboard with a 1.5mm key journey depth. It feels snappy and responsive, and it was a pleasure to sort on. The white backlight makes it readable in low-light situations.

The big trackpad additionally feels glorious. The press-down motion has a very good tactile really feel — it shortly springs again after you click on it down. The floor was easy and responsive. I want haptic trackpads, however that is fairly a pleasant mechanical trackpad.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Show and audio system

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 14-inch IPS show with a 1920×1200 decision and a 60Hz refresh price.  That’s an affordable decision, however the refresh price is simply common. The massive downside is the brightness. With simply 300 nits of most brightness, there’s no manner round it: This isn’t a very spectacular show.

That’s frequent for work-focused PCs, which are inclined to go for shows that ship longer battery life and prioritize different specs over a visible “wow” issue. This show does have a pleasant anti-glare coating, which makes it extra readable in difficult lighting situations. For individuals utilizing this PC on the go, the show will most likely be the largest disadvantage: Extra brightness could be an actual improve.

This laptop computer’s audio system sound unusually good for a enterprise machine on this value vary. There’s extra bass than I might anticipate, they get a lot loud, and the excessive notes can get vivid and crisp in songs like Steely Dan’s Aja, an audiophile commonplace benchmark.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 1080p webcam, and it wasn’t notably spectacular. The picture high quality appears grainy and washed out. On a snowy day in New England, the daylight wasn’t sufficient to supply a crisp image, and neither was my workplace’s overhead lighting. The webcam is the one part right here that feels prefer it doesn’t fairly match the standard of the remainder of this machine.

This machine does have a bodily webcam shutter change, which is at all times good to see.

This laptop computer’s built-in microphone setup sounds surprisingly good, too. The audio high quality of my voice was deeper and richer than it usually is on the common laptop computer I evaluate. I’d be joyful utilizing this to talk in on-line conferences, though I want the webcam delivered a greater picture high quality.

The ExpertBook has an IR digital camera for Home windows Good day facial recognition sign-ins, in addition to a fingerprint reader constructed into the ability button on the top-right nook of the keyboard. You need to use whichever biometric methodology you want.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Connectivity

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

The Asus ExpertBook P3 packs a wonderful choice of ports. On the left, you’ll discover two USB Sort-C ports, a USB Sort-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a combo audio jack. On the appropriate, this machine has a second USB Sort-A port, an RJ-45 Ethernet jack, and a Kensington Nano lock slot.

That’s a wonderful choice of ports, together with Ethernet, however bear in mind there’s no SD card reader right here. Additionally, this machine expenses by way of USB Sort-C, so that you’ll at all times be plugging the charging cable into the left. I want there was a USB Sort-C port on all sides of the machine, although. The USB Sort-C ports are USB 3.2 Gen2, so there’s no Thunderbolt or USB4 right here.

The Asus ExpertBook P3 helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, so you could have the most recent bleeding-edge wi-fi {hardware}. Mixed with Gigabit Ethernet, this machine is prepared for all kinds of community setups on the go.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Efficiency

The Asus ExpertBook P3 carried out nicely in day-to-day productiveness duties — net browsers, workplace suites, communication instruments, and the kind of Home windows desktop apps most employees could be working on laptops like this one.

We ran the Asus ExpertBook P3 by our commonplace benchmarks to see the way it performs.

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an concept of total system efficiency. With a PCMark 10 rating of seven,636, the Asus ExpertBook P3 exceeded the efficiency you’d get from Intel Lunar Lake-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

Subsequent, we run Cinebench R20. It is a closely multithreaded benchmark that focuses on total CPU efficiency. It’s a fast benchmark, so cooling underneath prolonged workloads isn’t an element. However, because it’s closely multithreaded, CPUs with extra cores have an enormous benefit.

With a multithreaded Cinebench R20 rating of 6,213, the Asus ExpertBook P3 and its eight cores with 16 threads exceeded Intel’s eight-core Lunar Lake {hardware}, which is concentrated on effectivity and never multithreaded CPU efficiency.

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

We additionally run an encode with Handbrake. That is one other closely multithreaded benchmark, however it runs over an prolonged interval. This calls for the laptop computer’s cooling kick in, and lots of laptops will throttle and decelerate underneath load.

The Asus ExpertBook P3 accomplished the encode course of in a median of 974 seconds, or simply over 16 minutes. That’s a wonderful rating, particularly for a Copilot+ PC laptop computer.

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

Subsequent, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop computer, however it’s nonetheless good to examine how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU efficiency.

With a 3DMark Time Spy rating of three,037, the AMD Radeon 860M graphics right here simply aren’t as highly effective as what Intel provides in Lunar Lake programs. Nevertheless, they’re nowhere close to the bottom-of-the-barrel older “Intel Graphics” GPUs that many lower-end laptops are at the moment transport with.

General, efficiency was glorious for a machine like this one. If you happen to prioritize graphics efficiency, nevertheless, you’ll need a machine with a distinct GPU (doubtless a discrete GPU).

Asus ExpertBook P3: Battery life

The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 70 Watt-hour battery. Mixed with AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 {hardware}, I’d anticipate to see first rate battery life for a laptop computer, however not most ultraportable battery life. And that’s precisely what the benchmarks confirmed.

Foundry / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Metal on repeat on Home windows 11 with airplane mode enabled till the laptop computer suspends itself. We set the display to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, which meant we needed to crank this laptop computer’s show brightness up. It is a best-case situation for any laptop computer since native video playback is so environment friendly, and actual battery life in day-to-day use is at all times going to be lower than this.

The Asus ExpertBook P3 lasted a median of 768 minutes, which is 12.8 hours. Relying in your workload and your display brightness, you could possibly get a full workday of battery life out of it, however simply barely. The battery life is okay, however battery life is a trade-off you make while you select AMD Ryzen AI {hardware}. They provide first rate energy effectivity, however you get extra efficiency than you do with Intel Lunar Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon X {hardware}, and also you pay for it with greater energy consumption.

Asus ExpertBook P3: Conclusion

The Asus ExpertBook P3 is a good laptop computer combining an all-metal construct high quality and “AI PC” {hardware} that delivers a mixture of strong CPU efficiency and an NPU that may drive Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC options. On high of that, the value — $1,200 to $1,400 or so, relying on the sale pricing — is a superb worth for a machine that comes with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive.

The primary draw back right here is the show: Many individuals will need one thing brighter and maybe higher-resolution. The opposite draw back right here is battery life: Chips from Intel and Qualcomm will ship for much longer battery life at the price of top-end CPU efficiency, and that shall be a greater match for employees with mild workflows. However this can be a sturdy laptop computer that may ship spectacular efficiency with affordable battery life and at a good value. It’s an amazing laptop computer.