Apple’s M-series processors revolutionised the laptop market, offering great power and efficiency. Years later, Qualcomm caught up to the competition with its Snapdragon X Elite processors, built on the same ARM architecture, and offering excellent battery life. However, while ARM processors might work for home users and students, business users usually have a whole set of applications, some of which are also legacy, that desperately need an x86 machine. Thankfully, Intel’s Lunar Lake delivers just that, and that’s exactly what the ASUS ExpertBook P5 offers.
It’s important to note that the ASUS ExpertBook P5 isn’t a laptop 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 in luck, your company’s IT department might consider the P5s for the next laptop refresh. Frankly speaking, they definitely should, since this is exactly how a business laptop should be. Fast, portable, durable, and with a battery that doesn’t leave you tensed all the time. Why do I say that? Read on to find out in our in-depth ASUS ExpertBook P5 review.
Table of Contents
Design and display
The P5 comes in a sleek and lightweight all-aluminium body, weighing just 1.27kg. The design is super minimalistic, with a smart and shiny ASUS Expertbook branding on the lid. The laptop comes with MIL-STD 810H military-grade certification, which we’ve seen on most ASUS laptops. That said, what interested me the most is just how sturdy this machine is. There’s absolutely zero flex to the lid, and the hinge is quite sturdy too, ensuring there’s no wobble.
You can open the lid with a single hand, and inside too, the entire keyboard deck is built like a rock. The screen can go back to a flat 180 degrees too, something that most business users do like in their laptops. The laptop is quite slim too, which means it will fit just about any sleeve you want to pair with it.
Moving to the display, the 14-inch IPS panel is a bit of a step down from the usual OLED panels that ASUS offers in this price segment under the ZenBook series. That said, the anti-glare coating coupled with the 300 nits of peak brightness does a decent job for usage while travelling. It’s not the best, and I would have preferred a brighter panel here, but considering that business laptops usually have the same apps open for most of their operating time, the panel would be prone to burn-in issues if they went OLED.
Back to the positives, though, the 100% sRGB colour gamut coupled with the 2,560 x 1,600 resolution is great, which means professionals in a creative workplace will also find these handy. There’s also a smooth refresh rate of 144Hz, which I doubt any business user would benefit from. But hey, at least the animations would look smooth when sitting next to a user with a MacBook Pro, so there’s that. Jokes apart, the fact is that 60Hz does look rather sluggish, especially with our smartphones operating at a higher refresh rate, so going the same route on a laptop is just making things easier for our eyes.
Ports, audio and I/O
Next up we have connectivity, which is an important factor for most professionals. The Expertbook P5 has most of its ports 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.
Over to the right side, there’s a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, coupled with a Kensington Nano security slot. I genuinely admire ASUS offering dual Thunderbolt 4 ports on the P5, though I do wish one of them was on the right side. Since both ports support USB-PD (that’s the only way to charge the laptop), it would have made 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 hopes from the audio department. The dual speakers at the bottom don’t have the best placement, but ASUS has done a fine job of tuning them. You can easily watch a movie or TV show on it without any issues.
There’s also a 1080p IR webcam at the top, with support for Windows Hello. The Face Unlock feature works very well, and the quality of the camera is great too, to aid you in video calls. Additionally, there’s the ASUS ExpertMeet software that includes smart AI features to assist most business users.
Similar to how Zoom offers a business card, there’s a Webcam Watermark feature to insert a business card overlay on your video while you present. Adding to that, the AI Meeting Minutes feature captures detailed transcriptions of meetings, distinguishing between different speakers with ease. AI Translate Subtitles provide real-time language translation during discussions, ensuring seamless communication. Then there’s AI Noise Cancellation which minimizes background sounds while improving vocal clarity, and AI Camera enhances image quality while following your movements.
Keyboard and trackpad
Owing to its 14-inch chassis, the Expertbook P5 doesn’t feature a number pad but has an otherwise excellent keyboard. The keys are well spaced out, and the 1.5mm key travel works well, even for those who love to type in short bursts like me. The audio feedback isn’t as clean as something like the legendary Lenovo ThinkPad lineup, but the ExpertBook does feel good in its own way.
There’s a white backlight underneath the keyboard to help you read at night. And before you ask, no, there’s no blue light for the volume of hotkeys at the top. Instead, ASUS just has a blue stroke on these keys, for reasons best known to them. Nonetheless, the keyboard works very well, and I don’t have any complaints here.
The same sentiment carries forward to the touchpad as well, which is fairly large and spacious. As such, it was able to accommodate my large hands with ease. The gestures work very well, and the smooth surface ensures your fingers glide on.
Could ASUS have opted to include a NumPad into the touchpad as they have done in the past? Maybe, but if you ask me, I’m glad they didn’t do it. The NumPad has never been reliable in my testing, and for a professional user, I’m happy ASUS opted for something that won’t fail the user.
What ASUS has included is Smart Gestures, which allows you to easily adjust the volume and brightness, all with the edges of the touchpad. There’s also the ability to forward or rewind a video, or just launch the ASUS ScreenXpert tool with ease. I find that a great addition, and something that most users would definitely benefit from.
Performance and battery Life
Moving on to performance, the ASUS ExpertBook P5 comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor coupled with 32GB LPDDR5X RAM clocked at a whopping 8533 MT/s. There’s the Intel Arc 140V for graphical utility, and a 1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD, which performs pretty well. It’s a little short of the expected 7000MB/s speed of Gen 4 SSDs, but the performance should be fine for most users. Additionally, ASUS also includes an M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0×4 slot for adding extra storage, and if you want, ASUS can configure it in RAID 1 configuration at the time of buying.
The ASUS ExpertBook P5 is one of the first business laptops to come to the market with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, so of course expectations were high. Thankfully, the chipset doesn’t disappoint, with excellent scores across all synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench, GeekBench, and even 3DMark, where the Arc 140V GPU holds its ground. A single-core score of 120 in Cinebench R24 is quite excellent, which puts it ahead of most gaming laptops too.
When compared to other processors, the 258V shows its lead against the previous Core Ultra 7 155H processor on the HP Spectre x360, as well as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite on the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q. It does fall short against the Apple MacBook Pro’s M3, but that’s a different ball game altogether. Additionally, you’ll notice that while the single-core performance of the 258V is pretty good, it has a lower score in multi-core performance across the board. Interestingly, it’s the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H that performs the best of the lot, and that’s saying something.
I also tried playing a couple of games on it, just to get an idea of the Intel Arc 140V’s capabilities. 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 on this laptop. Then again, it’s not surprising, so I won’t hold it against this machine.
Of course, the biggest advantage of the Core Ultra 7 258V processor is its efficiency, and boy does the laptop deliver on that front. The laptop easily lasted me an entire day of work use, which included working across documents and spreadsheets, editing product shots in Photoshop, and attending multiple calls and so.
I also ran the laptop through the PCMark 10 video loop battery test, where the P5 lasted a whopping 15 hours. Yes, that’s shy of the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q that lasted over 20 hours, but it’s still excellent, especially for users who need an x86 machine.
Verdict
Which brings us to the verdict. The ExpertBook P5 range with Ultra 5 processors starts at Rs 1,01,700 + taxes, which puts it in a sweet spot for professionals. If you’re a business user who relies on a mixture of newer as well as older software for their professional 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.The inclusion of a NIST SP 800-155 compliant BIOS ensures enhanced security by detecting and mitigating firmware threats. The additional and exclusive AI features for the ExpertBook lineup make the P5 the go-to choice for professionals. However, for home users, there’s the ASUS Zenbook S 14 OLED, which has pretty much the same package but opts for an OLED panel. That’s a better machine for most non-professional users, especially considering that it’s readily available, offers the same performance and battery life, and even has support for a touchscreen display.
Expert Rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Excellent build quality
- Good performance for professionals
- Long battery life
- Custom BIOS for security
Cons:
- Multi-core performance is slightly lower
- Not for direct purchase
