I’m going to get right to it here: I absolutely love this laptop, except for one thing. I’ll tell you what that thing is at the end, but you’ll probably guess before we’re too far into this review.

The ProArt P16 is the latest in Asus’ line of high-end notebooks designed for creators on the go. To call this a bleeding-edge device would be an understatement, as it’s loaded to the gills with enough tech to remain a dazzler for the foreseeable future.

Raw Power

Photograph: Chris Null

The specs tell a lot of the story. Outfitted with both an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, the unit takes an uncommon best-of-both-worlds approach by bundling one of the fastest laptop CPUs and the fastest laptop GPU into a single package. These are complemented by a whopping 64 GB of RAM and a 4-terabyte solid state drive in my tested configuration.

The ProArt P16 features a 16-inch touchscreen with an outstanding resolution of 3840 x 2400 pixels. Asus’ Lumina OLED display is Pantone-validated and—by an insane margin—the brightest I’ve ever measured, over 30 percent brighter than its closest competitor, based on my light-meter testing. Brightness aside, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better-looking display—and it even sounds great. Six speakers crank out audio that, at full volume, can be deafening at short range.

Connectivity is solid if slightly short of exceptional, featuring two USB-C ports (one with USB 4 support), two USB-A ports, a full-size SD card slot (for camera mavens, surely), and a full-size HDMI jack. The included 240-watt power adapter connects via a separate, proprietary DC-in port, but the unit will also charge (more slowly) via a lower-wattage adapter connected to one of the USB-C ports.

Photograph: Chris Null

Performance is off-the-charts impressive. It broke Windows-based records on general business and productivity apps, and the unit shone even more brightly when faced with any sort of graphics workload, video game, or AI task that can make use of the GPU. All told, it sets a high mark for performance. (Note that performance will suffer considerably if you aren’t connected to a full-power charger.)

All of this sounds like it would require a chassis that’s a behemoth, but Asus manages to keep the weight down to just 4.3 pounds, with a maximum thickness of 22 mm. The unit does get a little warm and a little loud under load; the heat is manageable, but the sound can be a bit much.

The laptop doesn’t just perform well, it also looks great doing it. Matte black inside and out, with a “stealth hinge” that disappears into the rear of the machine, the device looks modern and understated, with little more than a tiny Asus logo on a corner of the lid by way of flair. The paint is quite smudge-resistant as well. When opened, the unit reveals a thoughtfully designed keyboard with excellent backlighting—though I would have preferred full-height arrow keys instead of the half-height ones here. A numeric keypad would also have been nice, but that would certainly have cramped the design a bit.

Dialed In

Photograph: Chris Null

The touchpad deserves its own discussion. While the spacious tracking area is responsive (if perhaps overly large), it’s the small dial embedded in the pad in the upper-left that immediately draws the eye. This is a feature called Asus DialPad, and it’s a special part of the touchpad that can be used to perform context-sensitive functions within apps that support it (largely photo and video editing apps) by dialing in a circle.

In CapCut (which comes installed), the dial can be used for zoom, frame-by-frame stepping in a videoclip, and other adjustment functions. Adobe app support is also broad and preconfigured, but all of these functions can be adjusted by the user in the ProArt Creator Hub settings software. Outside of an app, the DialPad also lets you quickly adjust system volume and brightness without having to take your hand off the touchpad.

A bevy of software is bundled with the unit. In addition to CapCut, it’s preloaded with Nvidia Studio Suite, Asus StoryCube (a file-management assistant), and Asus MuseTree (streamlining the creative process). It’s also a Copilot+ PC, so you have access to all of Microsoft’s AI tools. I tested all of these functions and found them to be worthwhile additions—though none are absolutely game-changing.

All told, I really loved working with the ProArt 16 and was sad to have to box it up at the end of my week of testing. But I realize I’ve perhaps left you hanging. I mentioned at the start that there was one negative with the laptop, and it might well be a deal-breaker. It’s the price of the thing. At $4,000, this is the costliest laptop I’ve tested since reviewing the insane $5,000 HP Spectre Foldable two years ago, and that hardly even counts.

A better comparison is probably pitting the ProArt against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, which has similar levels of performance and costs around $3,500 these days in its top-tier configuration. Both are exceptional systems, though today I’d have to give the edge to the ProArt based on its sheer power and discrete GPU.

I know there are people out there who have the budget for these kinds of laptops, and if you do, you know who you are—but even I have to say that I’m tempted by the raw power and surprising sophistication of this machine. The bottom line is that if you need the absolute best performance you can get in a Windows laptop today, look no further. This is it.