Asus Zenbook Pro 16X OLED Review — The Best Tool for Creators?

Asus’ latest Zenbook line is bringing some serious bang for the buck of consumers, offering high-end specs at reasonable price-points, not to mention some additional innovations that are exclusive to the brand. The company’s Zenbook Pro 16X offers a flexible laptop that can be as effective in the office as it is on the battlefield, bringing an application-smashing and gaming-ready option to the South African market; but should it be on your radar?

Before we look under the hood, it’s fair to give Asus some praise where it’s due. The company has been delivering some fantastic designs with its laptop and notebook chassis, and the Zenbook Pro 16X doesn’t break that mould. You get a gorgeous and sleek plastic outer shell (that doesn’t leave pesky fingerprints, thankfully) that keeps the body light and portable. However, there’s an elegance to the build that keeps it from feeling flimsy, as the raised, angled keyboard, display, and keys themselves all feel tactile and solidly built.

On top of that, there is also the Asus NumberPad 2.0, which allows you to switch the trackpad to a digital numpad on the fly with the touch of a tiny button on the corner. If you’re jumping between scrolling and punching in digits on an Excel sheet, for example, this will be an invaluable feature.

One of its biggest highlights is the 16-inch 4K 16:10 OLED display, which is one of the brightest and most impressive screens seen on a laptop in this class, delivering clear and crisp visuals even in highly-lit, sun-soaked rooms, which is pretty impressive and a must for those who work in bright office spaces.

The Zenbook Pro 16X also features what Asus calls the Active Aerodynamic System (AAS), which sees the laptop screen mounted onto the collapsable and raised keyboard frame, there are clear vents that go from the internal hardware area, under the screen, and out. Not only does this design give the laptop some literal breathing room, but it also prevents hot air from being pushed onto the screen, which has been said to cause damage to displays over time.

This design also allows the fans to draw in cooler air from above, as opposed to from below where warmer components have a greater effect on intake flow, keeping the Zenbook Pro 16X as cool as possible during intensive gaming sessions.

Speaking of, the device features the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, which is a good card for a laptop that delivers a solid performance and will be suitable to play most games under the sun on higher settings or handle graphical tasks and video editing easily. It’s a shame it’s not the more powerful Ti version of the RTX 360, but, given the price-tag of the laptop and slimmer build, it’s understandable to not have the more expensive and larger GPU crammed in there.

On top of the graphical set-up, the Zenbook Pro 16X includes Intel’s revamped 12th gen i9 processor (12900H), which is one of the flagship bullet points on this device, and sees the device running and operating at an incredibly snappy speed. Multi-application use is seamless, and jumping in and out of games goes down without a hiccup.

32GBs of RAM are on board in order to give the Zenbook Pro 16X the memory it needs to keep things ticking over, and it seems more than sufficient when doing just about any task.

The Asus Zenbook Pro 16X is a very impressive addition to the mid-to-higher tier of multi-function laptops on the market. It’s not going to be a gaming beast with the capability to play the most cutting-edge games on ultra settings. But as a solid workstation that doubles up as a good portable gaming option, the Pro 16X does the job with no fault. Its beautiful display, streamlined build, and unique cooling and touchpad features make it a great proposition worth considering.

The Asus Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is priced at R59,999, which isn’t anything to scoff at, but given the capabilities and meticulous quality of the 16X, it’s hard to find that quality elsewhere.