ASUS Laptop Vivobook Pro 16X OLED M7600RE 16.0 4K OLED 16:10 Laptop (AMD Ryzen 7-6800H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Windows 11, 550nits Screen)

BEWARE: RAM IS 16 GB AND SOLDERED (NOT UPGRADBALE)Overall I am impressed with this laptop and am surprised to see so few reviews on the AMD Pro 15 models. While the screen is 1080p the versatility of colours emitted from the screen is vastly different from a HDR screen you would see with most other laptops. The processing power of this laptop is very impressive with the Ryzen 9-5900HX (3.3 single x 8 cores) handling very demanding software itself. However, this is limited to only 16gb of soldered ram which you can't replace (may be different in the future) which may hold the performance back in the future. Power consumption of the CPU has small limitations which in fact increases its effectiveness (up to 54 W).I would consider the battery life to be average at 8 hours on light usage (such as a word document) and 6 on streaming or watching videos. Using battery mode the performance is limited and you can limit this further to provide more battery life. This is replaceable. When this laptop is connected to power its performance can be turned up to "performance mode". The device can be controlled directly using the MyAsus application which can be accessed through the keyboard.The keyboard quality is average with low key travel and some keys (particularly w, e, s, a), (ironically used most for gaming) sounding slightly cheap and hollow. The keyboard is backlit although this is not as bright as I would like. The PgUp/PgDn keys do not work whilst gaming. Tools available via the keyboard are exceptional, beating every laptop I have owned previously.Software is reliable however, windows 11 may be hard to get used to.In terms of gaming this performs very well with reasonable graphics and average frame rates (around 60Hz for most FPS), although the two fans are quite loud but nothing a closed door and headphones cannot fix. Fan can be set to 3 levels of cooling including whisper and performance mode.This is an OLED screen and necessary measures should be taken to prevent degradation such as OLED burn from static images.In the build quality is very high with an aluminium lid and decent plastic surrounding the motherboard and keyboard. This looks better in person than the images provided. This laptop looks professional and comes with a camera cover with additional mute mic and camera off keys.Port selection is adequate however, the only viable video output is a single 1.4 HDMI port which is adequate for a mid range gaming monitor (around 120Hz can be achieved). 2x USB 2 ports are adequate for accessories such as a mouse and USB stick but are on left side. There is an additional USB 3.2 port on the right (uncertain as to whether or not it would provide a low end video output) and a USB-C port 3.2 (data only). Micro SD card reader achieves average speeds.Overall, the laptop is light, professional, versatile, fast and good value for money. This is was purchased with my own money and this review is not affiliated with ASUS/Amazon. Please watch the prices as this has fluctuated between £1000 and £1100.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this laptop. It has a solid build, beautiful screen and great performance, competitive with my 2-year old PC, and it's pretty lightweight and slim. Asus Dial happened to be more useful, then I expected.There are certain things you should consider before buying, though:1) Battery life is rather poor. I get about 4 hours working with several lightweight apps like Chrome+Spotify+Acrobat. It's less, while using professional software - although for the best performance you need to be plugged anyway.2) The OLED glossy screen works best when you are in dimly lit or dark environment. So if you intend to spend a lot of time outside in the sun - I'd suggest to look for a matte screen, otherwise you are going to see perfect reflections of yourself and the surroundings instead of the content on screen.3) Tiny things that I just found annoying: the keyboard backlight has 3 levels of brightness and the lowest one is still too bright to work in the dark. There are no HOME and END keys which I use all the time in my professional software, meanwhile there are TWO print screen buttons.

After watching some YouTube reviews, I had a pretty good image of what to expect from this laptop, so I decided to make the investment since the manufacturer advertised it to be designed and made for creators. Well, silly me now, because the laptop wasn't exactly as expected. Here are a few of my cons and pros after using this laptop:First of all, the powerful knob for creators. Designed on paper to be a great tool for creators and advertised as the pride of this laptop, when in reality it has limited functionality, poor performance, and is not quite a solid build quality. The rotation is smooth, but not precise, and I don’t see myself using the dial.- The ram. Not soldered, and that is actually a big pro! For creators, 16GB is definitely not enough RAM, but with two memory slots on the motherboard, there is enough room for a RAM upgrade. However, the laptop comes with only one stick of 16GB RAM installed, so basically, is fast like an ostrich that runs on one leg. Right out of the box, the laptop needs an upgrade in order to be useful for creators and with 64Gb now, the gaming experience, rendering, and editing videos worked at high-resolution without any lag or issues.- The Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi 6 card was another disappointing story of this laptop. Sadly, most manufacturers don’t share the full technical specifications, and Asus is no exception.Featuring an old and outdated Intel aw201D2W, the laptop struggles to keep a stable and fast connection and is highly unlikely to upgrade to a new Wi-Fi card generation because it’s soldered on the motherboard. If you have issues with signal or drop connection like it happened to me, just uninstall the BT and wifi drivers and make a fresh install after restart.- The 3070ti and performance. The graphic card it's a beast and works as a 3070ti should, but the software makes the difference. There are two official drivers on the NVidia website. One driver is optimised for gaming and the other for studio performance. As expected, the 3070ti still suffers from software limitations. And because it’s a trend now to push the users for a new upgrade every year, soon enough we are going to have a laptop that makes spaghetti and flies to the moon and back too.- The trackpad deception and the amazingly 3 buttons design. The trackpad is literally a cheap quality with average performance and feel. Personally, I find the buttons to be very uncomfortable to use and poorly designed.- The keyboard is not bad or great, and that would translate into an average typing experience.- The build quality is pretty good, but when compared with my partner’s Zephyrus G14 2021 and many other laptops, this studiobook doesn't seem to have the same premium quality. And lastly, the finish it's a dust and fingerprint mangnet. and I need to mention the presence of the annoying noise that comes from the coil whine.The cooling and the thermals are pretty good. Plenty of ports, and I like the ProArt logo on the lid, but also the 4k display and the fast SD card slot on this laptop. These final features are good enough for creators and fully matched the description.All in all, I really like the idea of buying and using a dedicated laptop for creators, but for almost £2000, the performance and the quality of this studiobook 16 OLED are not above 3.8 stars.Overall, and despite my cons, this laptop is still a good choice to pick up for productivity, video editing and gaming in mid-2023 and even 2024.