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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tomatechchap, and this is the new ASUS ProArt StudioBook 16 OLED.
00:06Bit of a mouthful, but there is an awful lot going on with this because it is essentially another one of those creator laptops.
00:13High-end, powerful laptops with color-accurate screens and still reasonably portable form factors
00:19aimed at, you know, content creators and YouTubers and renderers and all those fancy workstation-y people.
00:26Including me, to be fair, and actually this is exactly the kind of laptop that I would
00:29want to use as a desktop replacement or even when I'm editing on the go.
00:33But the problem is there are so many of these NVIDIA Studio certified creator laptops these days,
00:40and, you know, what will convince you to drop two or three grand on this one and not the other one?
00:45For example, I recently reviewed the MSI Creator Z16, which was a great laptop,
00:50and it had a 120Hz screen, which is not something you see very often on non-gaming laptops,
00:54so for me that was a real standout.
00:56But ASUS are doing something a little bit different with this.
00:58We've still got the high-end specs and the beautiful OLED screen, which we'll come back to in a second,
01:03but it's all about this guy, this ASUS Dial.
01:06I must admit, before I actually got hands-on with this, I didn't know if I loved the idea of having
01:11this wheel between the trackpad and the keyboard.
01:14I thought it might get in the way and feel a bit uncomfortable under my wrist,
01:17but as you can see, as I type and then use the trackpad, it actually never gets in the way.
01:21It's always under your palms.
01:23So to answer what might be your first question, no, it's not in the way, which is great.
01:27But then your second question is probably, why?
01:30What is this for?
01:31Well, in programs that support it, like Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects,
01:36it's essentially another way of helping you interact with the program.
01:40And it actually works really well, whether you're scrubbing through your timeline,
01:44zooming in and out, or you're just using it on Windows to adjust the volume or brightness.
01:49Lightroom Classic is pretty fun, where you can adjust the exposure and shadows
01:52and contrast with this in a very analog way, which I must say does feel quite intuitive.
01:58There's definitely going to be some muscle memory relearning to be had here to remember to use it
02:03and fully take advantage of it.
02:04And also, while you can customize the functionality in the different apps
02:08within this Creator Hub program, which I'll talk about in a second,
02:11you don't have unlimited options for it.
02:13There are only really a handful per program.
02:15And again, the list of programs that this supports is very limited.
02:19There's no DaVinci Resolve or, you know, 3ds Max or SolidWorks
02:22or actual Lightroom outside of Lightroom Classic.
02:25So hopefully we do see this continue to be supported by Asus.
02:29Although it is really good to see that you actually get similar functionality
02:32with this to using the Microsoft Dial.
02:34So actually in the Creator Hub, you can switch between Asus Dial and Microsoft
02:38to then get different uses out of it.
02:40It definitely makes the laptop stand out.
02:42And alongside the three function keys that we get on the bottom here below the trackpad
02:47and also a couple of customizable buttons actually on the keyboard,
02:50you can really set this up to how you use it to hopefully, again, speed up your workflow.
02:55So this little built-in dial is definitely a highlight of a laptop,
02:58but it is by no means the full story.
03:00Because for me, one of the absolute standouts of this is this screen.
03:04It's a 16 inch, 16 by 10, which is great to see, 4K plus resolution OLED screen.
03:10We're looking at 100% sRGB and 97% Adobe RGB and DCI-P3.
03:16Although Asus claim 100% P3, but well, that's what I got from my tests.
03:20I must admit, I do love this trend towards 16 by 10 aspect ratios.
03:25We're seeing a lot more of it these days.
03:26And combine that with the 4K res and also that OLED panel,
03:30this is absolutely glorious to use.
03:32It really, really is.
03:34And if you're worried about OLED burning,
03:36well, firstly, Asus give you a 7,000 hour warranty for this screen at 200 nits.
03:42But realistically, I've never had a problem with OLED screens.
03:45There's built in pixel refreshes in terms of the actual Samsung panel that they're using.
03:50And also it comes pre-shipped with dark mode.
03:52And there's a few other things you can do, like automatically hide the taskbar.
03:55Really, you don't have to worry.
03:56And you are getting that 1 million to 1 contrast ratio.
04:00And also 500 nits of brightness, which is pretty decent.
04:02The downside, though, is that it is a 60 hertz panel.
04:05I think that would have been the one extra feature
04:08that would have really put this over the top for me,
04:10like the MSI Z16 would be to have that 120 hertz screen.
04:14Because even if you're not gaming,
04:15that smoother refresh just makes everything you do on a desktop
04:19or, you know, in Premiere Pro on a timeline feel smoother.
04:22Although this does have a trick up its sleeve
04:24because the touchpad doubles as a digitizer.
04:27So you can use your stylus of choice with this
04:30and the 1024, I think it is, levels of pressure.
04:33And then do your fancy drawing and doodling on screens.
04:36So that is definitely a nice extra to have,
04:38along with an Asus dial as well,
04:40to really make this stand out as a creator laptop.
04:43Amazingly, we're this far into the video
04:45and we haven't even talked about specs yet.
04:47So let's get those out of the way.
04:49And this new ProArt StudioBook
04:50comes with either an RTX 3060 or 3070,
04:54which I've got in here, which is a 110 watt TGP variant,
04:58along with either a Ryzen 7 5800H or Ryzen 9,
05:02up to 64 gigs of RAM and two terabytes of storage,
05:05both of which are upgradable, which is great to see.
05:08And also interestingly, the two M.2 slots for the storage
05:11are pre-configured in RAID 0.
05:13So I'm actually getting up to
05:14about 6,000 megabytes per second read and write.
05:18And finally, powering everything,
05:19we have a 90 watt hour battery,
05:22which is a pretty good size.
05:23And Asus say we'll get you
05:24about eight and a half hours of light use.
05:26Although in my tests,
05:27that's closer to sort of six and a half, seven hours.
05:29If you're gaming on this or intensive workloads,
05:32that's going to drop right down.
05:33So realistically, you're going to want to plug it in
05:35with this power brick.
05:37So this is essentially what you're carrying with you.
05:40Now, it is actually quite a portable laptop
05:42for a 16 inch screen with these car specs.
05:45It's not too bad at all.
05:46We're looking at 2.4 kilograms and just under 20 mil thick.
05:51So reasonably thin and light,
05:53although you'll definitely feel this in your backpack
05:55or your briefcase if you're lugging it around with you,
05:57but not too bad.
05:58And actually we do have a really good range of ports as well,
06:01including an RJ45 ethernet,
06:04the three and a half mil combo jack,
06:06two USB 3.2 Gen 2 type A's,
06:09and also two type C's,
06:11a full size and very fast SD card reader,
06:14and also a full fat HDMI 2.1 port.
06:18Now you'll also notice this power button
06:20doubles as a fingerprint reader.
06:22Plus we have this webcam up here with an IR camera as well.
06:26So it supports Windows Hello face unlocking.
06:28And it also has this very nifty little webcam privacy shutter.
06:32So if you don't fancy anyone hacking into your laptop
06:35and then spying on you,
06:36then you can physically hide it,
06:38which is quite nice to see.
06:39In terms of design,
06:40there's no mistaking this is a more professional
06:43kind of workstation-y laptop.
06:45It's a subtle, smart, and quite professional design.
06:48It's an all aluminum alloy chassis,
06:50which also has an anti-fingerprint smudge coating
06:53built in apparently,
06:54which seems to be doing a fairly good job,
06:56although there's still a couple of greasy stains
06:58from my grubby paws.
07:00Speakers are top-notch.
07:01They're Harman Kardon tuned
07:03and there's actually a really good amount of bass to it,
07:05which is not something you usually find on laptops.
07:07So very impressive speakers.
07:09Now, as you can hear,
07:11it does get quite loud,
07:12although this is with the full fan toggle enabled
07:16and also in rendering mode.
07:18Normally, in normal mode,
07:20it's actually pretty much silent.
07:21Even when you're, you know,
07:22just browsing Google Chrome, doing light stuff,
07:24you won't really hear the fan.
07:26But I do love the idea that in the Creator Hub here,
07:28you can just put it into rendering mode,
07:30turn on full fan,
07:31and then you're going to get the best performance,
07:33which obviously is what you're going to want
07:34if you're rendering a video
07:35or actually playing games on this.
07:37So this is the ProArt Creator Hub
07:40and it's a pre-installed app you get with the laptop
07:42and you've got this dashboard
07:43which gives you all your sort of important information.
07:45You can go to the color calibration tab
07:47and if you plug in a colorometer,
07:49you can actually calibrate the color that way.
07:52And then you've got the control settings
07:53for adjusting the ASUS dial
07:55and all the customizable buttons.
07:57And basically, you can just tinker with the laptop
07:58and set it up how you like.
08:01But overall, I mean, top-notch specs,
08:03a really beautiful color-accurate OLED screen.
08:06This ASUS dial, which of course makes it a bit unique,
08:08great range of ports,
08:10really comfortable and responsive keyboard and touchpad.
08:13Yeah, what do you reckon?
08:14Would you be tempted to buy something like this?
08:16And also, what do you think of the dial?
08:17Great idea or just a bit of a gimmick?
08:20Let me know what you think in the comments below.
08:21Thank you so much for watching, guys.
08:23If you do want to see more from me,
08:24a cheeky little like and subscribe
08:25would be very much appreciated.
08:27I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Jam.