Apple’s M-series processors revolutionized the laptop market by delivering incredible power and efficiency. Years later, Qualcomm took over the competition with its Snapdragon X Elite processor, which was built on the same ARM architecture, and offered excellent battery life. However, while ARM processors may work for home users and students, business users typically have a full set of applications, some of which are also legacy, that desperately need an x86 machine. Thankfully, Intel’s Lunar Lake provides exactly that, and the ASUS ExpertBook P5 offers exactly that.
It’s important to note that the ASUS ExpertBook P5 is not a laptop that you can order online or buy directly at their store. Instead, you can contact ASUS, and their representatives will arrange something for you. Alternatively, if you’re lucky, your company’s IT department may consider P5s for the next laptop refresh. Frankly, they definitely should, because that’s exactly what a business laptop should be. Fast, portable, durable and with a battery that won’t bother you all the time. Why do I say that? Read our in-depth ASUS ExpertBook P5 review to find out.
Design and performance
The P5 comes in a sleek and lightweight all-aluminium body, weighing just 1.27 kg. The design is super minimalistic, with the smart and bright ASUS ExpertBook branding on the lid. The laptop comes with MIL-STD 810H military-grade certification, which we have seen on most ASUS laptops. “What interested me most was how strong this machine was,” he said. The lid has absolutely zero flex, and the hinge is also quite sturdy, ensuring no wobble.
You can open the lid with one hand, and inside too, the entire keyboard deck is built like a rock. The screen can also retract 180 degrees, something that most business users prefer in their laptops. The laptop is quite slim, which means it will fit into almost any sleeve you want to pair with it.
Moving on to the display, the 14-inch IPS panel is a bit below the usual OLED panels that ASUS offers in this price segment under the ZenBook series. That said, the anti-glare coating with 300 nits peak brightness works well for use while traveling. It’s not the best, and I would have preferred a brighter panel here, but given that business laptops typically have the same apps open for most of their operating time, there’s a risk of panel burn-in if the panel went to OLED. There will be a risk of having a problem.
However, getting back to the positives, the 100% sRGB color gamut coupled with the 2,560 x 1,600 resolution is great, meaning even professionals in the creative workplace will find these handy. It also has a smooth refresh rate of 144Hz, which I suspect any business user will benefit from. But hey, at least the animations will look seamless when sitting next to a user with a MacBook Pro, so there’s that. Jokes aside, the fact that 60Hz looks dull, especially when our smartphones operate at higher refresh rates, makes things easier on our eyes by going the same route on a laptop.
Ports, Audio and I/O
Next we have connectivity, which is an important factor for most professionals. Most of the ports on the ExpertBook P5 are on the left side, including a Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, another Thunderbolt 4 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
On the right side, there’s a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, coupled with a Kensington Nano security slot. I really appreciate ASUS offering dual Thunderbolt 4 ports on the P5, though I wish one of them was on the right side. Since both ports support USB-PD (which is the only way to charge the laptop), this will make things a bit more convenient for users.
The P5 is by no means a laptop designed for entertainment, so I didn’t really have any high expectations from the audio department. The placement of the dual speakers at the bottom isn’t the best, but ASUS has done a good job of tuning them. You can easily watch any movie or TV show on it without any problem.
There’s also a 1080p IR webcam at the top, with support for Windows Hello. The face unlock feature works very well to help you with video calls, and the camera quality is great too. Additionally, there is ASUS ExpertMeet software that includes smart AI features to assist most business users.
Just as Zoom offers a business card, there is also a webcam watermark feature to put a business card overlay over your video during your presentation. Additionally, the AI Meeting Minutes feature captures detailed transcriptions of meetings, making it easy to differentiate between different speakers. AI translation subtitles provide real-time language translation during discussions, ensuring seamless communication. Then there’s AI Noise Cancellation that reduces background sounds while improving tone clarity, and the AI Camera enhances image quality by following your movements.
keyboard and trackpad
Due to its 14-inch chassis, the ExpertBook P5 doesn’t feature a number pad, but it does have an excellent keyboard. The keys are well spaced, and the 1.5mm of travel works well, even for people who like to type in short bursts like me. Audio feedback isn’t as clean as the famous Lenovo ThinkPad lineup, but the ExpertBook sounds good in its own way.
There is a white backlight below the keyboard to help you read at night. And before you ask, no, there is no blue light for the volume of hotkeys at the top. Instead, ASUS has simply put a blue stroke on these keys for reasons best known to them. Still, the keyboard works great, and I have no complaints here.
The same sentiment applies to the touchpad, which is quite large and spacious. Thus, it was able to accommodate my larger hands easily. Gestures work very well, and the smooth surface ensures your fingers don’t slip.
Would ASUS have opted to include the NumPad in the touchpad as they did previously? Maybe, but if you ask me, I’m glad they didn’t. The NumPad has never been reliable in my testing, and for a professional user, I’m glad ASUS chose something that won’t fail the user.
ASUS has included Smart Gestures, which allows you to easily adjust volume and brightness along the edges of the touchpad. There’s also the ability to forward or rewind a video or easily launch the ASUS ScreenExpert tool. I find this to be a great addition and something that most users will definitely benefit from.
Performance and battery life
Moving towards performance, the ASUS ExpertBook P5 comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor coupled with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM with a clock speed of up to 8533 MT/s. For graphical utility, there is Intel Arc 140V and 1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD, which performs quite well. This is a bit less than the expected 7000MB/s speeds of Gen 4 SSDs, but performance should be fine for most users. Additionally, ASUS also includes an M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0×4 slot for adding additional storage, and if you want, ASUS can configure it in a RAID 1 configuration when you purchase it.
The ASUS ExpertBook P5 is one of the first business laptops to hit the market with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, so expectations were certainly high. Thankfully, the chipset doesn’t disappoint, with excellent scores across all synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench, Geekbench and even 3DMark, where the Arch 140V GPU holds its own. The single-core score of 120 in the Cinebench R24 is quite excellent, putting it ahead of most gaming laptops.
Compared to other processors, the 258V shows its edge over the previous Core Ultra 7 155H processor on the HP Specter x360, as well as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite on the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q. It pales in comparison to the Apple MacBook Pro’s M3, but that’s a different ball game altogether. Additionally, you’ll notice that the 258V’s single-core performance is quite good, but it scores lower in multi-core performance across the board. Interestingly, it’s the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H that performs best, and that’s saying something.
To get an idea of the capabilities of the Intel Arc 140V, I also tried playing some games on it. Unfortunately, both CS2 and deadlock were hovering in the 70-80 FPS range with everything set to low, so even casual gaming is a solid no-no on this laptop. Again, this is no surprise, so I wouldn’t hold it against this machine.
Of course, the biggest advantage of the Core Ultra 7 258V processor is its efficiency, and the laptop performs well on that front. The laptop easily lasted a full day, including working on documents and spreadsheets, editing product shots in Photoshop, and attending multiple calls, etc.
I also ran the laptop through the PCMark 10 video loop battery test, where the P5 lasted a full 15 hours. Yes, that’s less than the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q which lasted more than 20 hours, but it’s still excellent, especially for users who need an x86 machine.
decision
Which brings us to the decision. The ExpertBook P5 range with Ultra 5 processor starts at Rs 1,01,700 + taxes, making it a good fit for professionals. If you’re a business user who relies on a mix of new and old software for your business needs and are looking for a sleek and portable laptop that’s durable, powerful, and has great battery life, the ASUS ExpertBook P5 is a solid recommendation. Is. ,
The inclusion of a NIST SP 800-155 compliant BIOS ensures enhanced security by detecting and mitigating firmware threats. Additional and exclusive AI features to the ExpertBook lineup make the P5 a preferred choice for professionals. However, for home users, there is the ASUS ZenBook S 14 OLED, which has largely the same package but opts for an OLED panel. It’s a better machine for most non-professional users, especially considering that it’s readily available, offers similar performance and battery life, and even has support for touchscreen displays.
Expert Rating: 8/10
professional:
- excellent build quality
- Good performance for professionals
- long battery life
- Custom BIOS for security
Shortcoming:
- Multi-core performance is slightly lower
- Not for direct purchase
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