Asus ProArt P16 review: A drop-dead gorgeous 4K creator laptop

Nearly any laptop with a fast CPU and GPU offers the performance desired by “creatives” and “creators” but, as Apple has proven with its long-standing MacBook Pro, details like weight, connectivity, and battery life matter.

The Asus ProArt P16 pays attention to these details yet also manages to cap the laptop’s MSRP at a high-yet-not-excessive $2,300. It’s a solid combination, though the P16 doesn’t win in every category. 

Further reading: Best laptops for video editing 2024: Work faster with these expert picks

Asus ProArt P16: Specs and features

The Asus ProArt P16’s headline feature is the AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX. It has a 12-core processor (four performance cores with eight efficient cores). It also has a 50 TOPS NPU and AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics—though, for the most part, the 890M will only be used when the laptop is on battery power. 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 with up to 105 watt TGP
• NPU: AMD XDNA NPU up to 50 TOPS
• Display: 3840×2400 OLED 16:10 aspect ratio 60Hz refresh rate, 500 nits HDR peak (claimed)
• Storage: 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid state drive 
• Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera with IR for Windows Hello
• Connectivity: 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1x USB-C 4.0 Gen 3 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x SD card reader 
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition
• Battery capacity: 90 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.97 x 9.72 x 0.68 inches
• Weight: 4.08 pounds
• MSRP: $2,299.99

While the Ryzen AI 9 processor takes the spotlight, Asus packs a lot of extras into the ProArt P16. Notable features include a 4K OLED display, 2TB solid state drive, a USB-C 4 port with 40Gbps data speeds, an SDcard reader, and Wi-Fi 7. 

The Asus ProArt P16 I tested was a mid-range model. Asus also offers an entry-level model with the same processor and RAM, a 1TB solid state drive, and RTX 4060, for $1,899.99. On the flip side, a model with the same specifications as the laptop we tested but an upgrade to 64GB retails with an MSRP of $2,699.99.

Asus ProArt P16: Design and build quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus ProArt P16 is the kind of laptop that might be taken to meetings with clients and colleagues regularly, so Asus opts for a conservative, inoffensive look. It’s essentially a black slab with a small Asus logo tucked away in one corner.

There are some positives to the design. Asus’ materials feel sturdy and the metal finish shows a nice luster when light hits the laptop. And while the design is understated, I will give Asus credit for maintaining consistency across ProArt products. This laptop looks similar not only to other Asus ProArt laptops but also Asus ProArt monitors.

Looks aside, the ProArt P16’s design is comparable to its competition. It’s a somewhat large laptop due to the 16-inch display, but the thin bezels keep its footprint small—less than 14 inches wide, under 10 inches deep, and less than seven-tenths of an inch thick. Asus has an advantage in weight, as the ProArt P16 is just 4.08 pounds. That’s less than the MacBook Pro 16, Dell XPS 16, or Razer Blade 16. 

Asus ProArt P16: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The typing experience is a strength of the Asus ProArt P16. The laptop features a large center-aligned keyboard with a spacious layout, including large keycaps for most keys and ample space between them. Key travel feels generous, although the bottoming action is wooden and vague.

On the whole, the typing experience can’t match leaders like Lenovo ThinkPads or the Apple MacBook Pro 16, but I found it to be on par with, if not better than, the Dell XPS 16 or the Razer Blade 16.

The Asus ProArt P16 deserves praise for its large touchpad, which measures six inches wide and four inches deep. Although it may not surpass competitors like the MacBook Pro 16 or the Razer Blade 16, it still offers more space than most. Windows multitouch gestures feel smooth, and there’s ample room for executing gestures that require multiple fingers such as the five-finger swipe to minimize all windows.

The touchpad doesn’t have haptics but physically clicks when tapped. I think a well-executed haptic touchpad is better, but some may enjoy the physical action.

Asus also provides a small, circular etch in the upper left corner of the touchpad which can act as a Windows scroll wheel. As someone who creates content for my YouTube channel, Computer Gaming Yesterday, I appreciate this feature.

I found the software a bit finicky, though, which forced me to dive into Asus’ settings to control the wheel’s function and sensitivity on a per-app basis. That might turn off users who just expect the wheel to work for scrolling in all apps right out of the box. It’s admittedly been some time since I last used Microsoft’s Surface wheel, but I recall it required less configuration. 

Asus ProArt P16: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Asus doesn’t pull any punches with the ProArt P16’s display. It features a 16-inch OLED panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3840×2400. That’s as good as it gets for a modern Windows laptop display, with the arguable exception of a few mini-LED displays, which can achieve higher brightness levels in general use and in HDR.

The display is an excellent choice for a laptop aimed at professional creatives and consumers. It has the pixel count to view 4K footage at its native resolution, and the resolution is useful when editing high-resolution photos and images. It boasts an incredible color gamut and deep contrast, too, ensuring that content viewed on the display will look both accurate and attractive.

However, as with other OLED displays, brightness and glare can be an issue. The display is bright enough for indoor use in a room with some light control, but it can appear dim if used near a sunny window or outdoors. The screen is glossy, so glare and reflections can at times make the display difficult to view.

Asus sticks with a 60Hz refresh rate. I prefer to see a refresh rate of up to 120Hz on high-end laptops, as it delivers a smoother and more responsive experience, but 60Hz is typical for 4K OLED displays in laptops. I think most creatives will be willing to overlook this downside.

Audio quality is good, but not great. The ProArt P16 has a pair of upward-firing speakers placed on each side of the keyboard. They deliver clear, crisp sound at moderate volumes and handle less complex audio, like podcasts, well. However, music and games at higher volumes can overwhelm the speakers, muddying the soundstage significantly and resulting in an irritating audio experience. 

Asus ProArt P16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Asus ships the ProArt P16 with a 1080p webcam that delivers performance comparable to competitors. The image looks reasonably sharp and colorful in good lighting, but it can start to look grainy when room lighting is less favorable. It’s a good webcam and serviceable for calls on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

I have a similar opinion of the microphone. It captures clear audio and does a decent job of removing background noise. However, like other laptop microphones, it can sound hollow and distant. Again, it is comparable to alternatives: most are fine, but I can’t recall when I last tested a laptop microphone that left me surprised by its audio quality. 

The laptop supports biometric login through Windows Hello facial recognition. It’s easy to set up, reliable, and works in both bright and dark rooms. A fingerprint reader is not available.

Asus ProArt P16: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

There’s no shortage of connectivity on the Asus ProArt P16. It features two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio combo jack, and an SD card reader. Ethernet is the only port some shoppers might miss, but many laptops now exclude it, so the ProArt P16 is no different from most competitors here.

One of the USB-C ports supports USB 4.0 with data rates up to 40Gbps, while the other supports USB 3.2, and both support DisplayPort Alternate Mode for video output to an external display as well as USB Power Delivery for charging the laptop. The USB-C ports top out at 100 watts of power, though, which is half the wattage delivered by the proprietary 200W power adapter included with the laptop. The power adapter is required to achieve the best performance and charging speeds.

The inclusion of two USB-A ports is helpful for supporting legacy connectivity and older devices. It’s also good to see a full-sized SD card slot, especially in a laptop meant for creatives. You can take an SD card out of a typical DSLR camera and pop it into the laptop.

Wireless connectivity is great, too, as the laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. These are the most recent versions of each wireless standard, so the ProArt P16 will support all of the latest wireless features at the best possible speeds.

The ProArt P16 has an edge over competitors, including the Apple MacBook Pro 16, Dell XPS 16, Razer Blade 16, and Lenovo Yoga 7i 16. These competitors typically leave out some aspects of connectivity that are found on the ProArt P16. For example, the Dell XPS 16 doesn’t have any USB-A ports and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 16 lacks Wi-Fi 7.

Asus ProArt P16: Performance

The Asus ProArt P16 is an intriguing laptop from a hardware perspective, as it’s one of the first to have AMD’s new Ryzen AI 9 370 HX chip. It includes a twelve-core processor (four performance and eight efficient cores) with a base clock of 2GHz and boost clock up to 5.1GHz. In this laptop, it’s paired with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive. The Ryzen AI 9 370 HX is a powerful processor—but it’s not setting records.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

First up is PCMark 10, a general system benchmark meant to mimic a range of day-to-day and productivity tasks. Here the Asus ProArt P16 with AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX turned in a mediocre score of 7,608. That’s definitely not bad, but it’s a mid-pack result and one that falls almost 1,000 points behind leading laptops with 16-inch displays. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R20 is a more focused look at a short-duration, heavily multithreaded workload, but it doesn’t change the story much. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 delivered a strong score of 8,578, but it didn’t outrun most competitive laptops. Intel Core i7-14700HX and Core i9-14900HX laptops have the edge in this test.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Next up is Handbrake, a video encoding app that we use to encode a two-hour-long 1080p movie from MP4 to MKV. It’s a long duration multithreaded workload. Intel tends to edge out AMD in this test, and the Asus ProArt P16 doesn’t buck that trend. It took 961 seconds to complete the task, which is not bad (anything under 1,000 is quite good). But Intel’s 14th-gen Core i7 and Core i9 processors win by throwing tons of cores, and no shortage of power, at the problem.

In summary, the ProArt P16’s processor performance is quick but just ok when compared to the alternatives. It’s a capable system for a wide variety of creative professional apps. However, it’s clear that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is not a leader but, instead, just competitive. As I mentioned in my Asus Zenbook S 16 review, I have a beef with AMD’s branding. To me, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 doesn’t feel worthy of the “Ryzen 9” brand and would have felt more appropriate if sold as a “Ryzen 7” chip.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Next up is our first graphics test, 3DMark Time Spy. Here the Nvidia RTX 4070 in the ProArt P16 delivered a competent result of 10,608. That is lower than gaming laptops with RTX 4070 GPUs—the ProArt P16 proved itself more capable in real-world game tests. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a good example of a demanding and graphically feature-rich game that came out of the PlayStation 4 / Xbox One console generation. It doesn’t pose much challenge for modern laptops even at 1080p and Highest detail, so the ProArt P16 happily churns out an average of 142 frames per second. That even matches some gaming laptops, such as the Gigabyte Aorus 16X. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

It’s a similar story in Metro: Exodus, where we observed an average of 50 frames per second in the game’s benchmark at 1080p and Extreme setting (but with ray-tracing disabled). Exodus might be an older game at this point, but the Extreme detail preset lives up to its name, so this is a healthy result. 

We tested Cyberpunk 2077 to gauge how the laptop performed in newer titles. It averaged a pleasant 73 frames per second at 1080p and Ultra. Upgrading to the Ray-traced Overdrive preset, however, tanked the framerate to just 20 frames per second. Both results are without DLSS. Gamers looking for a playable experience in Cyberpunk 2077 should try 1080p at the High RT preset with DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Super Resolution turned on. In this scenario, the ProArt P16 achieved 88 frames per second. 

I have one final note about the Asus ProArt P16’s performance and that’s heat. The laptop can get hot at full load: I measured a maximum external temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is most intense at the rear bottom of the laptop when the laptop is plugged in. So, if you plan to run an intensive workload with the laptop plugged in, then I recommend you don’t do it with the laptop on your lap. 

Asus ProArt P16: Battery life

AMD’s processor performance might not match Intel—but, then again, AMD processors also tend to throw less raw wattage at the problem. While that might hurt them in multithreaded workloads, it can prove a benefit in battery tests. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus ProArt P16 endured over nine hours of our standard battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel. That’s an excellent result that defeats most comparable Intel-powered laptops. In addition to a more miserly processor, the ProArt P16 makes good use of switchable graphics, flipping from the Nvidia RTX 4070 to the integrated Radeon 890M when appropriate. 

Asus ProArt P16: Conclusion

The Asus ProArt P16 is a laptop with a specific audience—creative professionals and prosumers—and it hits the target. The ProArt P16 has many features this demographic will crave including a wide range of connectivity, a spectacular 4K OLED display, a large touchpad with virtual scroll wheel, and good battery life. 

Performance is a bit compromised, though, and prevents the ProArt P16 from obtaining a higher score. Make no mistake: it’s still a quick laptop and likely more than adequate for the needs of most people it targets. However, it’s clear that Intel-powered competitors can deliver better multithreaded performance. And while the Nvidia RTX 4070 performs well, gaming laptops will often provide the same level of performance at a lower price.

But that also demonstrates why the ProArt P16 works for its audience. It’s not the quickest 16-inch laptop, but it does a good job of balancing speed with portability, weight, size, and price—a recipe that makes it a solid choice.