{"id":17611,"date":"2020-05-30T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2575293"},"modified":"2020-05-30T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T14:18:00","slug":"asus-proart-studiobook-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/05\/30\/asus-proart-studiobook-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Asus ProArt StudioBook 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although it leaves out a few expected features, the Asus ProArt StudioBook 15 delivers good performance and a handsome 4K display at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n

The ProArt StudioBook 15 ($1,999 as tested) from Asus is a mobile workstation<\/a> flavored for the mainstream. Designated an Nvidia GeForce RTX Studio<\/a> model, it delivers strong creative performance at a lower price than the business-savvy HP ZBook 15 G6, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 2, and the Dell Precision 7540, including a powerful 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card. Though it serves up a beautiful 4K screen in style, its puzzling omissions of a webcam, Thunderbolt 3, and biometric features make it a distant second choice behind the MSI P65 Creator<\/a>, which offers all three for less money.<\/p>\n

True Desktop-Replacement Hardware<\/h2>\n

The StudioBook 15’s key specifications (in the model H500GV-XS76 configuration tested here) include an Intel Core i7-9750H six-core, 12-thread processor (2.6GHz base and up to 4.6GHz turbo), the above-mentioned Nvidia GPU, 32GB of DDR4 memory, and a 1TB solid-state drive with Windows 10 Pro that’s really two 512GB drives striped in RAID 0. System memory tops out at an interesting, seldom-seen 48GB, as 16GB is soldered\/non-removable and the one DIMM slot accepts up to a 32GB module. The standard warranty is unfortunately just one year.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

My configuration is the starting point; for nearly twice the price, the $3,899 W500G5T-XS77 model bumps the memory to 48GB, doubles the storage to 2TB, and vaults the GPU to an all-powerful 16GB Quadro RTX 5000 to go toe-to-toe with the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: The Best Chromebooks for Kids in 2020<\/a><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

But that loftily priced configuration is meant for an entirely different market. The bread-and-butter product is, no doubt, the model I’m reviewing. It’s a fine kit for the money as far as hardware goes; Acer’s ConceptD 7 CN715-71-70LR<\/a> offers just half the memory (16GB) for $2,299, though MSI’s P65 Creator undercuts it by $100 to $200 in its Creator-1084<\/a> guise.<\/p>\n

The Dell Precision<\/a>, HP ZBook<\/a>, and Lenovo ThinkPad<\/a> models I mentioned in the intro aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons with the StudioBook 15. Their enterprise focus means they offer a lot of technologies that an individual wouldn’t need (and are not offered in the StudioBook 15), such as Intel vPro remote management and SmartCard readers.<\/p>\n

Those features doubtless raise their prices, but not as much as their Nvidia Quadro graphics cards do. I built the Dell Precision 7540 out to $3,055 on Dell’s website with a 6GB Quadro RTX 3000, the workstation equivalent of the 6GB RTX 2060 in my StudioBook 15. It’s a formidable premium that, in the absence of absolute requirements for such hardware, might not buy you better results. Hitting this fact further home are the StudioBook 15’s independent software vendor (ISV) certifications, which are rarely seen outside of enterprise-grade notebooks. (See the Asus product page<\/a> for a list of tested apps.)<\/p>\n

A Sleek Design<\/h2>\n

The StudioBook’s blue-gray outsides give it a sleek, professional look. Its chassis, measuring 0.8 by 14.2 by 9.9 inches, is trim for its screen size. At 4.4 pounds, it’s just a smidge heavier than the MSI P65 Creator (4.2 pounds) and still on the light side for a laptop that packs this much performance.<\/p>\n

The build quality is topnotch. The keyboard surround, the palm rest, and the lid backing are magnesium alloy, the latter with a fine brushed pattern that glints in bright light. <\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

The rest of the laptop is plastic, but it’s hard to tell at a glance. The chassis is strong and flex-free.<\/p>\n

The StudioBook 15’s gorgeous 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) display is surrounded by thin bezels and has an anti-glare finish to keep reflections down. It has wide viewing angles and is downright dazzling at maximum brightness. <\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

Asus claims the panel covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut, which I didn’t verify, but its rich hue doesn’t leave much to question. The included MyAsus app lets you dial in the color temperature to your needs.<\/p>\n

Great Layout, Lackluster Feel<\/h2>\n

This Asus gets major points for its productive keyboard layout. The function keys (F1 through F12) are clustered in groups of four; a column of Delete, Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End keys line the right side; the arrow keys, while not full-size, are in the intuitive inverted-T arrangement; and there’s even a set of dedicated media playback keys. The white backlighting has three brightness levels.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

All those upsides make it even more unfortunate that the typing experience is mediocre. The key travel distance is too shallow to provide more than spectral feedback; it’s like tapping lifeless plastic squares.<\/p>\n

The StudioBook 15’s buttonless touchpad, meanwhile, is centered within the palm rest, instead of against the main part of the keyboard layout…<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

Despite that, I had no issues with my right palm (which is directly over the pad, hence touchpads are usually centered with the keyboard) accidentally registering. The pad is average-size and has good tactile clicking action.<\/p>\n

Don’t Look, Ma: No Webcam<\/h2>\n

The StudioBook 15’s lack of a webcam is surprising. It has an array microphone for voice calls, but you’ll need to invest in an external camera to join your friends’ or coworkers’ video chats. It also has no built-in biometric features, such as a fingerprint reader (let alone an IR face recognition webcam) for Windows Hello, which a professional-oriented system should have.<\/p>\n

Another omission on a notebook this expensive is Thunderbolt 3. A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port on the system’s right edge, which supports DisplayPort over USB-C, is mild consolation.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

Other connectivity over there includes a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and a Kensington-style cable lock slot. There’s no media card reader.<\/p>\n

Left-edge connectivity includes the power jack, Gigabit Ethernet, an HDMI video output, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a microphone jack, and an audio combo jack. An Intel AX200 card provides Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

The StudioBook 15 has a great-sounding pair of speakers under its front corners with a very convincing surround sound effect.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

They aim downward, and thus project best when the notebook is sitting on a hard surface.<\/p>\n

Performance & Benchmarks<\/h2>\n

One thing we’re not short on is mobile workstation reviews, which pack the charts below. The Dell Precision 7540 is the most formidable with its eight-core Xeon CPU and a 16GB Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000, while the Razer uses the same basic GPU in a power-limited Max-Q guise.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

The least powerful system is the MSI Prestige 15<\/a>, whose low-clocked six-core CPU is rated for just 15 watts (the others are all 45-watters).<\/p>\n

Throughout my testing the StudioBook 15’s two cooling fans remained quiet, if not inaudible, with just the sound of air being pushed through the exhaust outlets. The chassis also didn’t develop any hotspots. Under the all-important day-to-day usage scenario, I couldn’t tell if the fans were on or not. That’s always a blessing; nothing is more annoying than a laptop’s fans constantly going on and off.<\/p>\n

Storage, Media, and CPU Tests<\/h2>\n

Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, a holistic performance suite that simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the system’s boot drive. Both tests yield a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.<\/p>\n

I consider the StudioBook 15’s slightly low score in PCMark 10 to be an anomaly, as it performed much more competitively in all our other tests. I’m not 100 percent sure what held it back, but I suspect the screen: A laptop having a 4K native resolution does <\/em>sometimes stress the machine more on this specific test versus a 1080p panel. It certainly wasn’t storage bandwidth, as its PCMark 8 score is on par with the others.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/p>\n

Next up is a pair of CPU-crunching tests. Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake video editing test we transcode a 12-minute clip of 4K video down to 1080p.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/h3>\n