Asus launched the new Vivobook Pro lineup late last year(September) and the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED has finally landed on our review desk. There is a smaller Vivobook Pro 14X OLED option. The Asus Vivobook Pro 14X/16X OLED lineup sits right between the Zenbook Pro series and the Vivobook lineup aimed at creators.
The Vivobook Pro 16X OLED(N7600) ticks a lot of checkboxes for creators and the company even included its ASUS DialPad – the world’s first virtual DialPad on a laptop. The dial-pad has the same user interface and functionality as the physical dial on its bigger sibling – the Asus Vivobook Pro Art Studio books but more below.
The laptop comes in a large box carrying the device itself, a backpack, a 120W power supply, a compact wired Asus-branded mouse, paperwork and ASUS Vivobook 2021 stickers.
Design
Vivobook Pro 16X OLED opts for a minimalist look lacking the flare of the gamer-focused Zepgyrus and Zenbook lineup. Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes in two colours: Cool Silver(our unit) and Comet Grey which Asus says uses a new weave-textured coating that helps prevent fingerprints and smudges.
As a creator-focused laptop, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED brings with it a solid selection of ports. On the left side are two 2.0 USB ports(Type-A) and the power and battery indicator LEDs.
On the right side are the power jack, another full-size 3.2 USB port(Gen 1 Type-A), a full-size HDMI port, a maxed-out Thunderbolt 4 port(Gen 2 Type-C), and a MicroSD reader, and a 3.5mm combo jack. However, a full SD card reader would have been so much better. For connectivity, you have WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.
The back has a pedestal with a logo and inscriptions and stripped lines on the other part.
Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED rocks a V design colour-blocked chicklet backlit keyboard with some clear colour coding for different groups of keys such as an orange colour-blocked ESC key and a pattern-blocked Enter key. You’ll see the keys are at the edges in dark grey while the middle keys are in light grey.
There’s also a full decked-out number pad.
I did like the keys and their large keycaps. It’s quiet when typing thanks to 1.35mm key travel – very handy when you’re outdoors as your typing shouldn’t be a distraction.
You also get a Single sign-on(SSO) fingerprint power button that offers one-touch login.
The touchpad is double its size from the previous vivobook. And the virtual dial pad is also included here and we’ll talk about more below.
On the top bezel is a webcam shield to provide you with instant privacy thanks to the shutter. You can still use the F10 to shut off the camera too.
The HD(720p) webcam and the fine for video calls on Zoom, Google Meet or Teams. Asus included its AI noise cancellation technology to enhance your video call experience too and ye, you can choose your prefered profiles in the myASUS app. And it’s pretty darn good – it eliminates crying babies in the background when you’re home, ambient noise when you’re in the office or chatter when you’re in a cafe or in a park.
Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes with decent Harmon Kardon tuned sound and DTS Audio Processing that offers different pre-made profiles including Music, Movies, Games, Custom and a five-band graphic equalizer.
The star of the show is the sharp 16:10 4K OLED screen with 3840 x 2400 resolution.
It’s Pantone validated, DisplayHDR 500 TrueBlack certified, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, 133% sRGB and 89% Adobe RGB Gamut. It also has 550 nits peak brightness and a refresh rate stuck at 60Hz.
There’s another version of the laptop that has a 120Hz IPS panel.
The 4K OLED screen makes it so enjoyable to use the laptop even if you’re not in the content creation business. It makes for a great picture with colours that pop, excellent contrast(1,000,000: 1 contrast ratio) and great viewing angles. You’ll be binge-watching a ton of content on this laptop, especially hdr-supported content.
The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED screen’s low blue light has been certified by TüV Rheinland certified thus it emits 70% less harmful blue light to protect your eyes.
You can change the colour profiles in the myAsus app and switch between Normal, Vivid, Eye Care and Manual. Also, inside the app, you can take care of the OLED screen to avoid burn-in by enabling the transparency effect on the taskbar, pixel refresh that launches a special screen saver that activates after 30 minutes of inactivity, pixel shift, and hiding the taskbar automatically.
The audio is excellent too. It’s a great laptop for multimedia consumption.
Asus went with an aluminium chassis and the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is a sturdy but compact build. It’s easy to open and close the top lid with no wobble.
Despite its 16-inch size, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED felt more portable sitting at 1.95Kg.
Performance
Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED ships with 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-11370H with integrated Intel Iris(R) Xe Graphics and discrete NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 graphics with NVIDIA Studio driver support. You can also go for an AMD Ryzen 5900Hx option. Our unit is the former configured with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage and comes running Windows 11.
This whole setup makes the laptop a performance powerhouse. It handled my general work cases – multiple chrome tabs, Spotify streaming, YouTube videos playing in the background, and photo editing.
The RTX 30-series GPU included will handle all your creative workflows too – whether editing 8K HDR raw videos or rendering 3D models in Blender Cycles, AutoDesk Arnold or Chaos V-Ray.
In comparison with an M1 MacBook, the GeForce RTX 3050 performed really well in programs like DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro 2021 and Adobe Lightroom.
| Software | DaVinci Resolve: Bride_HeavyStyles Video Output | Premiere Pro 2021:Encode BigBuckBunny_4K H.264 Video | Adobe Lightroom - Enhance Details: 6 RAW Images |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3050 | 129 seconds | 247 seconds | 22 seconds |
| M1 | 382 seconds | 404 seconds | 24 seconds |
Another trick up its metaphorical sleeve aimed at creators, ASUS brought a virtual DialPad located on the top left side of the large trackpad.
The dial-pad lets you interact with creative apps in an immersive way and gives you precise and intuitive parameter controls.
You can not only simply adjust brightness and volume but also use it for vertical scroll. The Dial Pad comes with support for Adobe Creative such that in:
- Photoshop, you can modify the brush size and switch between layers
- Lightroom Classic, you can adjust colour balance and tone
- Premier Pro, you can jog through scenes with the time axis adjustment feature and adjust audio tracks
- After Effects, you can navigate the timeline and zoom.
These are just the premade options, you can customize the dial pad in the ProArt Creator Hub app with your own pre-made groups and functions to optimize your workflow.
Other supported apps include Xbox, Spotify, RedCine Tether, RedCine X Pro, Microsoft’s Apps(Teams, To-Do List, Store, One Note, Excel, Edge, News, OneDrive and Mail), Disney Plus, Chrome and DaVinci Resolve.
The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes with IceCool Plus technology and a dual-fan cooling design that incorporates two heat pipes to keep everything cool when you’re working on the laptop.
There are modes to switch to either on:
- MyASUS: Efficient, Quiet(restricts performance) and Standard(balance) modes
- ProArt Creator Hub: Whisper(minimizes fan speed), Standard mode(default), Performance(maximizes cooling for demanding tasks), Full Speed(for ultimate performance) modes
You can also do a little bit of gaming too. Asphalt or Modern Combat played really even on maximum settings. Other games like Far Cry 5, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Call Of Duty, GTA and Doom Eternal need to be played at Full Speed for smooth gameplay.
Other than the heavy taxing, the laptop remained pretty cool even in my actual laps while I was doing my usual tasks when set in Standard mode.
The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is such a powerhouse not only for creators but also for regular users.
Battery Life
Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes with a 6-cell, 96Wh capacity battery. while the 14-inch version has a 93Wh capacity battery.
Continous office work use can push it between 6 and 6 and a half hours – so it can actually pull almost a full day so you won’t have to worry about hogging an outlet.
Creative work and gaming take a toll on the battery as you can get between four and five hours.
Charging takes an hour and a half.
Another feature is charging by the type-C port if you have a power bank that supports power delivery.
Verdict
Asus nailed it with the Vivobook Pro 16X. This is a beautiful piece of hardware that’s well put together – a sturdy aluminium build, excellent audio, a brilliant OLED screen in a 16:10 aspect ratio, light and portable, solid performance for creators and regular users, long-lasting battery life, quiet keyboards, large trackpad, Asus Dial Pad and a nice selection of ports.
Pricing and Availability
The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is available at Text Book Centre for Ksh 206,000.
