My trials are deep, strange, and still ongoing. Stay tuned.
But that review will spend a lot of time talking about CUDA cores, tokens, local AI models, and benchmarks. Before I disappear down that rabbit hole, I want to talk about the actual laptop, because this it feels as a premium machine designed to compete with high-end MacBook Pros.
The Asus ProArt P16 is the cleanest, most impressive laptop I have ever reviewed. It reminds me of Darth Vader in the best possible way: a large, cold, imposing slab of black metal that seems to signify business. Kind of a royal vibe: “You can do without the jokes, Commander. I’m here to put you back on the schedule.” That’s exactly what I want from a $7,000 laptop.
Better yet, Asus somehow squeezes its 16-inch screen and 128GB of unified memory into a chassis that’s just 0.51 inches thick and 3.95 pounds. It feels almost impossibly thin when you pick it up, but the metal construction is rigid like a carbonite-frozen Han Solo, with no flexing or creaking. The hinge opens smoothly with one hand. The black finish looks great, although it does pick up fingerprints and grease over time. It might just be because I’m a fat, degenerate gamer, but hey, on the plus side, it’s also easy to erase.
More surprising: this tends to remain remarkably silent in many (but not all) scenarios. I spent hours analyzing large local AI models while developing my real-world benchmark suite, and the P16 remained much less audible intrusive than I expected from such powerful and thin hardware. Although I haven’t tried playing with it.
A suitable OLED for $7,000
The 16-inch OLED touchscreen is just as luxurious. Its 3840×2400 resolution and 283 pixels per inch keep everything razor-sharp, while the 120Hz refresh rate keeps motion fluid. OLED’s perfect blacks and intense contrast make colorful images almost appear to emerge on the panel instead of existing within it. It is bright, dense, vibrant and beautiful. Seriously, I’ve never touched a laptop with such a luxurious and lovely OLED panel, even if it doesn’t translate well to still images.
