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Asus looks to head off 16-inch MacBook Pro with new ProArt StudioBook laptops

Asus looks to head off 16-inch MacBook Pro with new ProArt StudioBook laptops

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Tons of power for creatives

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Asus is continuing its push to establish itself as the Windows laptop choice for creative professionals with two new machines that the company is announcing at IFA 2019, the ProArt StudioBook One and ProArt StudioBook X.

The StudioBook One joins the company’s other RTX Studio laptops as the new flagship and is touted as “the worldʹs most graphically powerful laptop” on account of its Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 graphics and Intel Core i9-9980HK processor. Its 16:9 15.6-inch display runs at 4K resolution with refresh rates up to 120Hz and is covered with Gorilla Glass 5 for a flush surface between bezels and screen. The company is really talking up the panel’s accuracy and wide range of color reproduction, as well.

It’s outfitted with a 1TB NVMe SSD and 32GB of RAM. Asus says the StudioBook One features “a powerful cooling system featuring a lightweight, aerospace-grade titanium alloy thermal module designed to optimize inlet and exhaust flow.” Connectivity options include three Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports. According to Asus, the “the CPU, GPU, and thermal systems are placed behind the display to ensure comfortable use, even when placed on the user’s lap.”

The StudioBook X has a 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Asus says it has a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio that helps the whole thing feel more like a 15-inch laptop. It can be configured with either an Intel Xeon (E-2276M) or Core i7 (9750H) processor and up to a Quadro RTX 5000 with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Fully specced out, you can get this workhorse with up to 6TB of storage (a mix of NVMe / SSD / HDD) and up to 128GB of RAM. It’s got two Thunderbolt 3 ports, three USB 3.1 Type-A, a UHS-II SD card slot, and an ethernet jack. The StudioBook X also offers faster peak Wi-Fi performance than the One with Wi-Fi 6 compared to Wi-Fi 5.

But the big feature Asus is highlighting with the X is its signature ScreenPad 2.0 trackpad, which puts app shortcuts and other software tricks into a screen. beneath the trackpad. This is the first StudioBook to get that feature.

The other theme Asus wants to push is non-stop performance. Both the ProArt StudioBook One and StudioBook X are designed to make the most of their processing power without having to throttle down during intensive rendering tasks or extended workflows involving animation, high-resolution video editing, and data-hungry processes.

The ProArt StudioBook One and StudioBook X are joined by the StudioBook Pro and StudioBook lines, which both come in 15- and 17-inch sizes. The ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 features Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q graphics; the 15-inch Pro has Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q graphics. The standard StudioBook 17 and 15 both include GeForce RTX 2060 graphics.

The new Asus laptops come as Apple is rumored to be preparing a 16-inch MacBook Pro aimed at professional customers who have been disappointed with the current design and its unreliable keyboard design. The 16-inch MacBook Pro could finally begin a move away from the troubled “butterfly” keyboards in favor of a more traditional scissor-switch style.