ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED Review: Subtle But Powerful Laptop That Fits Creators’ Needs

The ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is brought in to the Malaysian market as the 12th Gen Intel laptops are being push to the market. Once again, ASUS evolved their Zenbook Pro design to better suit its consumers. Let’s take a look on what the new Zenbook Pro has to offer.

ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED – Specifications

Design

Unboxing it from the box, we even have the box redesigned into an angled box instead of the standard rectangular box. The box also works as a laptop stand which is so thoughtful. The Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is tucked in the box and you are to slide it out with ease. The metallic touch gives off an industrial design and on its cover we have the ASUS anniversary logo etched on instead of the ASUS logo. If you look closely, you will notice the ripple effect extending from the logo across the cover which is a nice detail to the design.

Opening the chassis, ASUS redesigned the internal layout where they call it the AAS Ultra hinge which lifts the keyboard to be more ergonomic and enhances the thermal performance. Tucked below the keyboard is the NumberPad 2.0 and a dial on its left.

While on the display side we have a 4K 16:10 HDR OLED NanoEdge touchscreen which supports up to 60Hz refresh rate. The touchscreen features a NanoEdge design with incredibly slim bezels providing up to 90% screem-to-body ratio. The screen is also certified VESA Display HDR True Black 500 and is PANTONE validated which brings visuals with accurate color and high dynamic contrast reproduction for better visual experience.

Looking at the connectivity ports of the laptop. As a heavy duty laptop, I would expect to have all the ports I need without needing to use a external hub to connect devices. On the left we have the DC-in, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and 2 Thunderbolt 4. While on the right we have HDMI 2.1, Audio combo jack and a SD Express 7.0 card reader. The ports available makes it possible for the Zenbook Pro 16X OLED to easily output to an external display or add on external storages and connections to peripherals.

Let’s talk about RGB lights! I love RGB lights. The RGB on the ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is subtle yet satisfying. The backlit keyboard is per-key white lighting and RGB lightbars for lighting modes customizable via MyASUS software. Remember the ASUS logo on the casing? It lights up as well! The illuminated monogram logo syncs with the keyboard to enhance your experience. When you power the laptop on or off, or switch performance modes, your laptop can display an exclusive light effect. If your battery’s low on juice, all the lights will glow red. There’s even a light effect when you plug in a USB device.

Performance and User Experience

Being a heavy duty workbook, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is powered by the newly launched 12th Gen Intel Core H-series Processors and the RTX 3060 graphics. The model we have for review comes with the Intel® Core™ i7-12700H, the performance is boosted greatly in comparison with the previous generation Zenbook Pro 15.

Thanks to the ASUS Ice Cool Pro thermal technology, the processor is able to run and perform better without overheating. While the multi cores of the processor can be fully utilized, we are able to run multiple task with heavy loads without lagging. Supporting this processing power is the 16GB LPDDR5 RAM memory that ASUS packed in onboard.

Remember that dial we mentioned earlier? Let’s look more into it. The ASUS Dial is a completely new way for creators to interact with tools. Creators that are often using the Adobe creator software likes photoshop, premiere and so on can press hold the dial to turn on the ProArt Creator Hub customizing tools to the dial for efficient workflow. However, it takes sometime to get used to having a dial there as when I first picked up the laptop I always accidentally click on the dial while I type.

To customize it, you can simply turn in to the control setting page to set it up. Many might wonder what does the dial do if you are not a creator with those software. ASUS updated the dial so that it can work with office software, entertainment and internet browser as a shortcut button. You can turn up the volume, mute, and so on depending on the settings you set it to.

To enhance your experience with the laptop, ASUS integrated the world’s 1st haptic touchpad with their NumberPad 2.0. It might not seem like much, but now you can press/click on the touch pad in any point to do a left click as well as press and pull to select things on the screen. With every click you would feel a slight pressure assuring you are navigating as you desire.

Apart from that, the ASUS Ice Cool Pro thermal technology ensures that the laptop hardware does not overheat. The ErgoSense Keyboard is lifted so your wrist will not feel so tired from typing over long hours. Not only that, because the keyboard is lifted from the bottom chassis even with heavy workload for long hours, you will not feel the heat on the keyboard and could still work comfortably.

Last but not least the laptop is packed with 96Wh long lasting battery, I tried downloading games, working and playing YouTube in the background. It lasted almost 14 hours before I needed to put it to charge again.

Conclusion

The ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is now available in the Malaysian market and is priced at RM 11,999. Even with a hefty price tag, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 16X OLED does offer more than you pay for. I would highly recommend this laptop to creators out there. The dial and the touchpad are just such a great add-ons to the laptop. Not only that, the OLED display and the Harmon Kardon certified speakers with Dolby Atmos support heightens your visual and entertainment experiences. Do drop by your nearest ASUS store to get a touch and feel of the laptop. I am sure the build feels classy and solid to meet your demand for work efficiency.

The laptop is also available to be purchased online at Shopee and ASUS Malaysia.

Outlook Photos