It’s trite to talk about the growing trend of remote work, but the reality is the last couple of years have seen a huge uptick in people working away from the traditional office environment. The number one way to be productive when you’re on the go is a laptop that can go anywhere with you and do whatever you need, and so people are ever on the look for a capable digital companion.
ASUS Vivobook Pro 16x OLED – which we’ll call the Vivobook in this quick look review – is undoubtedly such a workhorse.
Designed with the power-hungry creative in mind, the Vivobook features the speed and accuracy you need, and the design you probably want, to work effectively on the go. With a 16-inch 4K OLED display, snappy AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics built in, this is the laptop to accompany for you both work and pleasure.
Why does it stand out?
A super-powerful AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor moves everything along super quick, and coupled with 32GB of RAM and a huge 1TB SDD, this laptop will take anything much that you throw at it. My day job has some pretty resource-intensive applications in regular use, and the Vivobook handled them with ease, barely breaking a sweat (when my day-to-day laptop has its fans going flat out). With dual fans and advanced thermal technology, the Vivobook keeps its cool when others don’t.
There’s a huge battery inside too – 96Wh, to be precise – which means that you can work hard, all day, with plenty to spare. Bear in mind, though, that this chunky laptop requires an equally chunky charger – it’s possible that using it with any existing USB-C chargers may not deliver enough power to kick it over.
On the left hand side you’ve got two USB 2.0 Type A ports, and on the right, a 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD slot, USB 3.2 Type C port, HDMI and USB 3.2 Type A port, as well as a dedicated DC-in charger port.
Windows 11 Business is installed out of the box, and – in a refreshing change from laptops from some other OEMs – there’s not a raft of crapware installed by default. In fact, ASUS keeps it fairly minimal. This is a laptop you can set up the way you like it, not the way an OEM reckons you might like.
Perhaps the most obviously cool feature is the 4K OLED display. It’s simply beautiful, and puts other laptop displays to shame. Except for the size – 16-inch laptops are a bit big for me – I love it. It’s a beautiful screen to work on, and an even more beautiful screen to consume media on. The experience isn’t hurt at all by the beautifully tuned audio system included.
What lets it down?
Look, honestly nothing much. To me, the laptop is a shade too big, but I say that in full knowledge that my current laptop (at 13-inches) is a bit too small. I’m not sure whether this is just a “getting used to it” thing, or whether I really do want something around the 14-inch size.
Perhaps the only other thing that annoyed me a little – and this really won’t be a problem for many – is the hefty power requirements to drive the laptop. My desktop docking station could not put out enough power to charge the laptop, though I suppose if I pulled apart my desk and put a more powerful power supply in there, it might get there.
This isn’t an especially cheap laptop at $2,499, but as with anything in life you get what you pay for. At this price point, not only are you getting a tonne of RAM, storage and processing power, but you’re also getting a lot of 4K OLED display, fast 3D graphics courtesy of a decent GPU, and performance to make mincemeat of your work tasks during the week.
You could easily spend more and get less with different OEM brands, but really what you’re paying for is a brand label and a logo on your laptop … and while ASUS is not a brand to be sneezed at, this is significantly more laptop than you could get.
For that reason alone, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED from ASUS is an astounding laptop for the price, and one well worth considering if you need a true mobile workstation.
ASUS’ Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is available in Australia now, and you can buy it online and from select retailers located on ASUS’ product page.
