I’ve already covered the 2021 lineup of VivoBook Pro mid-range all-purpose laptops in our reviews of the 14-inch Pro M7400 , 15-inch Pro M3500 , and the 16-inch N7600 series , and in this article, we’ll discuss what’s arguably the most interesting full-size option in this entire VivoBook Pro lineup, the Vivobook Pro 16X M7600 model.
Asus offers the Pro 16X notebooks in either Intel or AMD variants, and this here is the AMD option in its top-specced variant, with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, 32 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti graphic chip. Paired with the 16-inch OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, as well as good inputs and a large 96 Wh battery, this could be a highly competent work/creator laptop.
So here are my thoughts on this VivoBook Pro 16X M7600QE, with its strong points and the drawback that you should consider in your purchase decision.
Specs as reviewed – Asus VivoBook Pro 16X M7600
Asus VivoBook Pro 16X M7600QE
Screen 16.0 inch, 4K+ 3840 x 2400 px, 60 Hz, OLED, glossy, non-touch, 400-nits, Samsung SDC415D panel
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, 8C/16T
Video Radeon Vega + Nvidia GeForce GTX 3050Ti 4GB (35-50W)
Memory 32 GB DDR4-3200 (soldered), up to 32 GB
Storage 1x M.2 PCIe x4 SSD (SK Hynix BC711), single M.2 2280 slot
Connectivity Wireless 6 (Mediatek MT7921), Bluetooth 5.1
Ports 1x USB-A 3.2 gen1, 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-C gen2 – data only, microSD card reader, audio jack
Battery 96 Wh, 120W barrel-plug charger with quick-charging
Size 360 mm or 14.19” (w) x 259 mm or 10.20” (d) x 18.9 mm or 0.74” (h)
Weight 4.23 lbs (1.92 kg)+ .45 kg (1 lbs) for the charger+cables, EU version
Extras white backlit keyboard, glass touchpad with virtual Dial, HD webcam with privacy shutter, stereo bottom speakers, finger-sensor in the power button
Intel Tiger Lake versions of this laptop are also available, as the VivoBook Pro 16X N7600 series reviewed here .
Update: Here are my thoughts on the latest update in this lineup, the 2023 Asus VivoBook Pro 16X K6604 model . And here’s my detailed review of this updated Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED series .
Design and construction On the outside, this AMD-based Pro 16X is identical to the Intel model that we’ve already covered in-depth in this other article, so I’m not going over all the details again.
In a few words, though, this is a large-footprint laptop, as you can tell by its 16:10 display with fair bezels all around, so a fair bit larger than most other 15 or even 16-inch options out there. It’s still rather portable, though, as it only weighs less than two kilos, plus less than half a kilo for the compact charger.
It also doesn’t sacrifice on the build quality, internal specs, or battery size. The entire chassis is made out of strong pieces of aluminum, and the whole thing feels fairly well made, although not as dense or as nicely polished as the higher-tier notebooks out there, like an XPS or a ThinkPad X1E or a MacBook. It’s not competing against those, either, but rather against the Acer Swift X 16 , Dell Inspiron 16 , or the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 kinds of laptops.
Asus offers the laptop in either a dark-gray color variant or in a lighter silver model. This here is the gray color, while the silver is illustrated in our previous review of the Pro 16X N7600. I prefer the more exquisite looks of this variant, just be aware that it’s showing smudges and fingerprints far easier on both the lid and the arm-rest.
As far as the practicality goes, the laptop sits well-anchored on the desk thanks to its grippy rubber feet, the edges and corners are blunted and friendly on the wrists, and the screen can be comfortably picked up and adjusted with a single hand. The hinge is also stiff enough to keep it in place as set up, and allows it to lean back to about 150 degrees.
The cooling system still blows some of the hot air into the screen, though, as the exhausts are placed between the hinges. However, as you’ll see in our tests down below, the hinge is designed to divert most of the air down and to the back of the laptop, away from the user and from the display.
As for the IO, I’m not a fan of the fact that most connectors are cramped on the right side of the laptop, potentially cluttering your mouse area when connecting peripherals. On top of that, there’s no Thunderbolt 4 connectivity on this AMD model, and in fact, we’re only offered a data-only USB-C port, which lacks video via DP or power delivery, so you can’t charge this Pro 16X variant with USB-C. All these are an option on the Intel configuration and might be a potential deal-breaker for some of you.
Keyboard and trackpad The keyboard on this VivoBook Pro 16X series is a standard layout for a VivoBook, with properly sized and spaced main keys, but squished arrows and a narrower set of keys used for the NumPad section. Home/End/PgUp/PgDn functions are both binned as secondaries for the arrows keys, but also secondaries for some of the keys in the NumPad Section.
The keycaps are smooth and feel nice to the touch, and the feedback and typing experience are pretty good here, a bit on the softer mushier side, but most should find this a reliable typer overall. This is also quieter than the average keyboard in this class, with the exception of the Space key.
The illumination system is white, with 3 brightness levels to choose from. There’s also a dedicated Caps Lock indicator, and you’re getting the ability to re-activate the lighting by swiping your fingers over the clickpad when it times out. The contrast between the gray/black keys and the white lighting is much more readable on this color variant than on the lighter silver option.
For mouse, Asus offers a large glass clickpad on this VivoBook Pro lineup, centered on the arm-rest. It performs well and feels nice to the touch, and it also felt more solid on this implementation than the one tested in the Pro 16X N7600.
This doesn’t act as a NumberPad, instead, the novelty for the entire 2021 VivoBook Pro lineup is the addition of the Asus DialPad, a virtual dial that you activate on the clickpad by swiping from the right corner. By default, this gives you control over the screen’s brightness and audio volumes, but can be customized in the ProArt Creator software for other functionalities. Furthermore, this also integrates with Adobe software such as Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere, and the clip down below better explains what it can do.
VIDEO I was able to give this feature a proper try with all the notebooks tested in the last months, and it could be useful in certain situations, but it’s not entirely accurate and doesn’t work as smoothly as advertised, so I’d only put this in the “nice to have” section, yet most likely rarely end up using it in real life. Perhaps you’ll feel otherwise if you edit photos/videos without a mouse, but that’s not me.
Finally, for biometrics, there’s a finger-sensor in the power button that works just fine, but no IR camera.
Screen – 4K OLED At this point, the VivoBook Pro 16X M7600 is available with a 4K+ 3840 x 2400 px OLED panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 60 Hz refresh, and a glossy non-touch finishing.
However, the specs on Asus’ website also mention an IPS variant with a 2560 x 1600 px IPS panel with 120 Hz refresh, 500-nits of brightness, and still 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, just like the OLED. Not sure if that’s glossy or matte, but it’s definitely a very interesting option for those of you who would prefer a hassle-free IPS over an OLED panel on your laptop, and I’d consider myself in that category as well.
Back to the OLED on our sample, with the sharp pixel density, excellent contrast, and vivid colors, this is a very nice screen and well suited for daily use and for creative color-accurate work. Plus, without a touch layer, there’s no longer that graininess effect noticeable over white content (when browsing and reading texts) that we experienced on the touch-enabled OLED Asus laptops .
Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor :
Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC415D (ATNA60YV02-0);
Coverage: 100% sRGB, 96.8% Adobe RGB, 99.3% DCI-P3;
Measured gamma: 2.22;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 401.08 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: 5.78 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
White point: 6400 K;
Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
Response time: <1 ms;
PWM: to be discussed.
The panel comes with a Pantone validation, and it is very well calibrated out of the box. We also haven’t noticed any significant color or luminosity variations between quadrants, making this a viable choice for professional color work.
On the other hand, at only 400-nits of peak brightness and with the glossy finishing, you might struggle with this display in very bright environments or outdoors. However, there are actually two OLED panel variants, the one that we have here with 400+ nits of max brightness, and another with 550-nits of peak brightness. This is most likely going to confuse potential buyers, as it would leave it to the stores to correctly specify the type of OLED panel in each case.
These aside, there’s also the discussion around the pros and cons of OLED panels on laptops. That’s a topic for a more specific article, but you should nonetheless research and understand the advantages (blacks, contrast, colors, low blue light emissions, etc) and the potential culprits (such as flickering, black crush, gray banding, temporary image retention or even permanent burn-in with bright static interfaces) of OLED laptops before deciding whether they’re the way to go for your or not. Generally, I consider IPS screens the more hassle-free option for laptops, while with OLED panels you need to be more careful and adjust your habits to prevent unwanted surprises long term: use an aggressive screen-saver, use a dark theme for your interfaces, and especially try not to use the display at high-brightness for long, etc. etc.
Hardware and performance Our test model is a top-specced variation of the VivoBook Pro 16X M7600 in the M7600QE configuration built on an AMD Rryzen 9 5900HX 8C/16T processor with Radeon Vega graphics, paired with an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti 35-50W dGPU , 32 GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and 1 TB of SSD storage.
What we have here is a Media Review sample provided by Asus, identical to the retail units you can find in stores. We tested it with the software available as of mid-December 2021 (BIOS 306, ProArt Creator 2.0.10.0 app, Nvidia Studio Driver 472.47). Some aspects might change with future software tweaks.
Specs-wise, this is built on a full-power AMD Ryzen platform, with the top Ryzen 9 5900HX processor on our configuration. Asus implements various power profiles on this laptop, allowing the CPU to run at up to 54W sustained power here. That only allows the Ryzen 9 to run within 85-90% of what it would be capable of in thicker implementations, which is still very capable for a mid-range portable chassis. Ryzen 5 5600H and Ryzen 7 5800H configurations are also available.
For the GPU, this M7600QE comes with an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti chip, with a TGP of 35W and up to 50W with Dynamic Boost. This is the highest-end dGPU option available for this series, and configurations with an RTX 3050 or Vega-graphics only are also available.
The memory is soldered on the motherboard, so non-upgradeable. Asus offers 8, 16, and 32 GB configurations with DDR4-3200 memory, so make sure you get the one that fits your needs, as there’s no room for upgrades.
Storage might also be a slight limitation with this series, as there’s only a single M.2 2280 slot inside. That means you can’t add a secondary drive when you’ll run out of space, you’ll have to replace the one that comes preinstalled. I was expecting an extra drive slot on this 16-inch laptop, but instead, Asus stuck with almost the same internal design between their 14, 15, and 16-inch VivoBook Pros, most likely as a cost-saving measure.
The SSD and WiFi chip are the only upgradeable components, and accessing them is a simple task, requiring you to remove the back panel that’s held in place by a couple of Torx screws. None of them are hidden behind rubber feet.
As far as the software goes, at this point, both the standard MyAsus app and a new ProArt Creator Dashboard allow control over the power profiles. The two are tied together, so operating a change in one app automatically applies it in the other.
With the most recent ProArt variant, Asus has unified the naming of the profiles in the two apps: Whisper, Standard, and Performance. There’s also a Full Speed mode which pretty much runs the fans at max rpm all the time, which I find unnecessary. The performance on Full Speed and Performance ends up similar in demanding loads.
The Standard profiles keep the fans mostly idle with light use, and very quiet with multitasking. The laptop feels snappy with daily mixed-use, video streaming, text-editing, and the likes.
On to more demanding tasks, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 benchmark for 15+ times in a loop, with 2-3 seconds delay between each run.
On the Performance mode, the Ryzen 9 processor peaks close to 65 W for a little bit, then drops and stabilizes at around 54W of sustained power, with clock speeds of ~3.7 GHz, temperatures of 86-88 degrees Celsius, as well as full speed fans and noise levels of 47-48 dB at head-level.
The CPU is power-limited in this implementation and cannot run at its potential 4.2 GHz all-core Turbo speeds. That’s why the Ryzen 7 5800H option could be the better-value choice in this chassis.
Switching over to the Standard mode limits the fans to only around 35-36 dB. In this case, the CPU gradually settles at around 50W of sustained power, with temperatures in the high-80s. The performance also drops by about 7% from the previous profile, making this mode far better balanced than Performance.
Whisper mode limits the noise even more, but also limits the CPU at only 15W, resulting in roughly 55-60% of the performance measured on the top profile.
Finally, the laptop runs at only up to 15 W of power when unplugged, on the standard mode. All these findings are detailed in the chart and logs down below.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this Ryzen 9 5900HX implementation fares against other performance ultraportables in this test, both Intel and AMD. It’s more powerful than what you’ll normally find on this sort of a product, and a major update over the Intel Tiger lake H35 4C/8T platforms. I also included a Ryzen 5 5600H configuration in here, so you’ll know what to expect if you’re going that route, as well as a power-limited Core i7-11800H implementation.
We also ran the 3DMark CPU profile test. This laptop is very competitive in the lower-core loads, and only 5-7% slower than the full-power Ryzen 9 implementation in the Lenovo Legion 7 at max threads.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom.
We also ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit passed it just fine, which means there’s no performance throttling with longer-duration sustained loads.
Next, here are some benchmark results. We ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Performance profile at FHD resolution, for consistency with our past reviews. Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 11020 (Graphics – 11749, Physics – 24044, Combined – 4838);3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 563;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 5223 (Graphics – 4856, CPU – 9148);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 8817;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 2785;Handbrake 1.3.3 (4K to 1080p encode): 45.35 average fps;PassMark10: Rating: 5166 (CPU mark: 24044, 3D Graphics Mark: 9916, Disk Mark: 26594);PCMark 10: 6262 (Essentials – 10369 , Productivity – 8332 , Digital Content Creation – 7712);GeekBench 5.0.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 1526, Multi-core: 8269;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2107 cb, CPU Single Core 241 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 4900 cb, CPU Single Core 573 cb;CineBench R23 (best run): CPU 12331 cb, CPU Single Core 1489 cb;x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 29.62 s.
We also ran some Workstation related loads on this Ryzen 9 + RTX 3050Ti configuration, on the Performance profile:
Blender 2.90 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 3m 21s (Performance);Blender 2.90 – BMW Car scene- GPU Compute: 1m 17s (CUDA), 46s (Optix);Blender 2.90 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 45s (Performance);Blender 2.90 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 5m 47s (CUDA), 2m 29s (Optix);Pugetbench – DaVinvi Resolve: 827 points;Pugetbench – Adobe Afert Effects: 691;Pugetbench – Adobe Photoshop: 877;Pugetbench – Adobe Premiere: 562;SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 53.6 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 32.37 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 64.4 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 10.62 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 166.32 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 17.04 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 11.82 (Performance);SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 101.46 (Performance).
These are solid results for a laptop with this kind of specs.
On the CPU side, the Ryzen 9 5900HX is a beastly performer even in this somewhat constrained portable implementation, within 5-10% of the full-power variants in the Legion 7, ROG Scar or the ROG Advantage . However, I still think the Ryzen 7 5800H would be the more balanced CPU choice on this platform, as it would nearly match the performance of the Ryzen 9 in most cases, and only trail it by 2-5% in single-core loads, but at a lesser price.
Compared to the Intel Core i7-11370H in the Intel-based VivoBook Pro 16X, the AMD platforms are not as snappy with single-core loads, but 50-100% faster in multi-threaded activities and benchmarks.
With combined loads, the AMD and the Intel variants are a fair bit closer, but once more the AMD configuration comes in front thanks to the more capable Ryzen processor and the higher tier 3050Ti dGPU available on this model, in comparison to the 3050 that’s offered on the Intel configuration. These translate into 5-20% increases in the mixed workloads tests, such as SPECviewperf and the Adobe/DaVinci software.
This laptop is also quite a significant upgrade in performance from something like a Dell XPS 15 , available right now in a rather similar 8C Intel + 3050Ti configuration. However, because that’s a lower-power implementation, it trails this VivoBook Pro 16X by up to 20% in the CPU multi-threaded loads and 15% in GPU loads.
Potential buyers should also consider the fact that this laptop runs noisy on the Performance profile, with the fans ramping up to 48 dB at head level. This can be unacceptable in professional environments, and here’s where the Standard mid-tier profile comes into play, as it keeps the fans at around 35-40 dB, limits the GPU at up to 40W with Dynamic Boost, and only takes a roughly 5-10% hit in general performance, with minimal increase in internal temperatures. Here are a couple of benchmarks results on the Standard profile:
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 10505 (Graphics – 11292, Physics – 24765, Combined – 4402);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 4672 (Graphics – 4295, CPU – 9312);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 8038;PCMark 10: 6091 (Essentials – 10422 , Productivity – 7710 , Digital Content Creation – 7633);GeekBench 5.0.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 1474, Multi-core: 7990;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 4558 cb, CPU Single Core 558 cb.
Overall, the Standard profile is by far the most usable option on this design, and what I’d recommend most of you to set the laptop on. Sure, you can squeeze a little better results with Performance, but the expense in fan noise is hardly worth it.
Gaming performance While you should not get this laptop with gaming in mind because of the high-resolution 60Hz screen and the MaxQ dGPU hardware, let’s still look at how this Ryzen 9 + 16 GB RAM + 3050Ti configuration does in games.
For starters, we ran tests on Ultra settings on FHD resolution, with the laptop set-up on the Performance profile. We also threw in the 3050 configuration of the Intel VivoBook Pro 16X, as well as the 3050Ti configurations of the XPS 15, Vivobook Pro 14X , and the Zephyrus G14 , for comparison.
Ultra settings, VivoBook Pro 16X – XPS 15 9510 – VivoBook Pro 16X – VivoBook Pro 14X – Zephyrus G14 –
Far Cry 5 77 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
56 fps (49 fps – 1% low)
64 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
68 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
84 fps (72 fps – 1% low)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor 99 fps (71 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (51 fps – 1% low)
86 fps (61 fps – 1% low)
88 fps (63 fps – 1% low)
113 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 43 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
41 fps (31 fps – 1% low)
35 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
40 fps (29 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 61 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
49 fps (24 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (33 fps – 1% low)
56 fps (45 fps – 1% low)
69 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 30 fps (12 fps – 1% low)
28 fps (12 fps – 1% low)
19 fps (9 fps – 1% low)
24 fps (11 fps – 1% low)
26 fps (14 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 63 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
58 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
60 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
63 fps (47 fps – 1% low)
70 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3 – recorded with Fraps/in-game FPS counter in campaign mode;
Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
However, if you must run games on this, I’d recommend trimming down on the details and set-up the resolution at FHD+ to properly benefit from the screen’s 16:10 aspect ratio. Here’s what we got on Medium settings at FHD+ resolution.
Medium settings, VivoBook Pro 16X – XPS 15 9510 – VivoBook Pro 16X – VivoBook Pro 14X –
Far Cry 5 83 fps (55 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
69 fps (57 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor 132 fps (93 fps – 1% low)
102 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
119 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
111 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 52 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
50 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
47 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
51 fps (39 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 68 fps (53 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
62 fps (40 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 96 fps (62 fps – 1% low)
92 fps (59 fps – 1% low)
89 fps (65 fps – 1% low)
98 fps (73 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3 – recorded with Fraps/in-game FPS counter in campaign mode;
Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
These are good framerates for this kind of 3050Ti configuration . Just like with other loads, this laptop runs loud on the Performance mode, at 47-48 dB. It does keep the internal hardware at good temperatures this way. Far Cry 5 is once more an exception, as it draws a combined power of 80W of the two components (30W CPU + 50 W GPU), and leads to the CPU running in the 90s. However, most other games only draw 55-60W of power on this computer, leading to temperatures in the 60s on the internal components.
Lifting the back of the laptop off the desk in order to facilitate the flow of fresh air into the fans further amplifies the noise, with only a minimal impact over the temperatures, so not worth pursuing.
Instead, you’ll most likely want to use the Standard profile, which limits the fans at around 38-40 dB and applies a 40W power limit on the dGPU, resulting in a 5-10% decrease in framerates. Not much, considering the more pleasant experience with the quieter fans. The internal temperatures go up by a few degrees, but they’re still very good in most titles.
Finally, you can also run games while the laptop works on battery. The system supplies 40W of combined power in this case in Witcher 3, with 30W on the GPU, ensuring good framerates and 2+ hours of runtime on a charge. the fans ramp at only about 35-36 dB.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others Asus went with a dual-fan dual-heatpipe thermal module here. This is more complex than on regular VivoBooks powered by low-voltage hardware, and fairly similar to the designs available on other mid-tier 15/16-inch notebooks.
Fresh air comes in from the bottom with this design, through the open intakes over the fans and heatpipes, and the hot air is pushed out through vents hidden under the hinge. The plastic hinge is designed to split the hot air, sending most of it down and to the back and away from the user, and only some into the screen, as shown in the thermal readings down below.
Asus also ramps up the fans to 47-48 dB on the Performance profile, which is loud for a laptop of this kind. The Normal profile is much quieter, at 38-40 dB, with only a slight toll on performance, and should be considered instead for the more balanced overall experience.
The fans rest idle with light use on battery and barely kick on with daily multitasking while plugged in. I also haven’t noticed any coil whine or electronic noises on our sample, but make sure to test for them on yours.
As for the external temperatures, no complaints with daily use, even with the mostly passive cooling, or with demanding loads and games. The majority of the chassis stays under 40 degrees Celsius, with small hotspots around the radiators and over the heatpipes, on the back. Some of the hot air is pushed into the screen, but thanks to the hinge design, the panel only reaches safe temperatures in the mid-30s in the warmest spots. Also, keep in mind we’ve registered these heatmaps in the demanding and unoptimized Far Cry 5, and the temperatures would actually be lower with the less taxing and better-balanced games.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Standard Mode, fans at 0-30 dB *Gaming – Performance mode – playing Far Cry 5 for 30 minutes, fans at 47-48 dB
For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 through a Mediatek module on this laptop. It performed well with our setup.
Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills placed on the bottom of the laptop, on the front lip. The angled shape of the D-Panel allows the sound to bounce off the table without distortions and prevents you from easily muffling the speakers while using the computer on the lap. The sound quality and overall volumes are only about average for a multimedia laptop of this generation.
I’ll also mention that there’s an HD camera placed at the top of the screen, with a physical shutter, and it seems a little better quality than the norm, at least in fair lighting. The webcam is flanked by microphones.
Battery life There’s a 96 Wh battery inside the VivoBook Pro 16X, so Asus didn’t skimp on this end either. Paired with the efficient AMD hardware and the 4K OLED screen, it allows for pretty good runtimes here.
Here’s what we got, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness).
10 W (~9+ h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Normal + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;8.5 W (~10+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Normal + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;7.5 W (~12+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Normal + Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;14 W (~5-6 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Normal + Better Performance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.
Quite surprisingly, this AMD version ran less efficiently than the Intel model tested a few weeks ago , especially with video streaming.
The laptop ships with a mid-sized 120W charger. It’s a standard design with two long cables and plugs in via a standard barrel plug. Unlike on the Intel variant, USB-C charging is not possible here.
Price and availability- Asus VivoBook Pro 16X The VivoBook Pro 16X is listed in stores in some regions at the time of this article.
You’ll find this top-tier VivoBook Pro 16X M7600QE configuration with the Ryzen 9 5900Hx + 3050Ti + 4K OLED screen + 16 GB of RAM + 1 TB of storage listed at 1650 USD MSRP, at launch. The same is listed at 1800 GBP in the UK and around 2000 EUR in Germany.
Opting for a Ryzen 7 with 16 GB of RAM model allows to shave 100-200 off those prices, and lower-end variants down to a Ryzen 5 5600H + RTX 3050 should also be available in the near future, with a potential starting price of $1099.
The Intel variants of this laptop are also available in some regions if you’re shopping on a slightly lower budget and don’t need the kind of CPU performance offered with the AMD platform. Those sell for around 1400-1500 EUR/USD for a Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 model.
Follow these links for updated prices and configurations in your region: AMD-based M7600 model and Intel-based N7600 model .
Final thoughts- Asus VivoBook Pro 16X This AMD-version of the VivoBook Pro 16X is a far better-balanced mid-tier configuration that can handle everyday activities quietly and efficiently, but also demanding workloads and even games when needed.
While still a somewhat power-limited implementation of the Ryzen 9 processor and the RTX 3050Ti chip, this is a very capable performer in its class. It’s also fairly priced in some markets, such as in the US, and the best value is with the Ryzen 7 + 16 GB configuration if you don’t need the 32 GB of memory in your activities.
That aside, I’d be very interested in the non-OLED version of this laptop, with that bright and color-rich 2.5K IPS panel. Sure, this 4K OLED is awesome to look at, but I still prefer the hassle-free practicality of a good IPS over having to deal with an OLED on a laptop, despite the excellent blacks and the fact that I’m a big advocate of OLEDs on TVs or phones. Still, it’s nice to have the option here (at least at some point, as for now only the OLED configurations seem to be available in stores).
Now, if you’re looking for a mid-tier laptop in a tighter budget, the regular 15-inch VivoBook Pro 15 series reviewed here in the AMD versions or here in the Intel variant should also be on your list, and even the Intel-based variant of the Pro 16X, as long as you’re OK with only a 4C Tiger Lake H35 processor. This article compares the Core i7-11370H to the Ryzen 7 5800H platforms and is a good place to start understanding the differences between the two variants.
Update: An interesting ZenBook Pro 16X is also available in the meantime, alongside the updated variants of the VivoBook Pro 16x.
For me, the AMD configuration makes a lot more sense on this sort of a laptop, even if Asus skimped on the USB-C connectivity here and I’d have to give up on USB-C charging and USB-C video.
This wraps up our review of the Vivobook Pro 16X M7600, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback down below.
Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
nicholas barretto
December 15, 2021 at 5:10 am
is there anyway to upload the vbios from this 35w+15w 3050ti? i am doing some vbios testing and im very interested in this bios
Andrei Girbea
December 15, 2021 at 1:05 pm
I no longer have this around, sry, but the latest BIOS is available here: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/Vivobook/Vivobook-Pro-16X-OLED-M7600-AMD-Ryzen-5000-Series/HelpDesk_BIOS/. Isn't it available for your laptop?
Kalumba
December 15, 2021 at 2:28 pm
Hey, are you guys planning on reviewing the Thinkbook 16p? It looks like an amazingly balanced machine and I'd love to read your deep-dive on it before making my purchase.
Andrei Girbea
December 15, 2021 at 2:28 pm
No, we can't get one from Lenovo and it's not something we plan on purchasing ourselves for a review.
Jeff
December 15, 2021 at 4:07 pm
Damn it, I like everything about this except for the lack of USB-C video/charging. Any chance for the new ZenBook Pro 15 review?
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/Zenbook/Zenbook-Pro-15-OLED-UM535-AMD-Ryzen-5000-Series/techspec/
Andrei Girbea
December 15, 2021 at 4:10 pm
Not right now. I'll ask, maybe I can get a sample, I'd be interested in testing that one as well.
Andrei Girbea
December 15, 2021 at 4:30 pm
So, no on the UM535, but we'll have a review of the 15 pro UM5500 in the next few weeks: https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Laptops/For-Home/Zenbook/Zenbook-Pro-15-OLED-UM5500-AMD-Ryzen-5000-Series/techspec/ . They seem very much the same. Not sure if before or after CES, we've got a full plate right now
Aurelio
December 15, 2021 at 4:58 pm
Nice review! This machine does look like a good option for non-gamers and all kinds of professionals; with the added bonus that it costs less than the M16.
(Does it make sense comparing this to the M16?)
Still…
Why do manufacturers still spec notebooks with USB-A 2.0? Is it just to save a few dollars on royalties or do they have a more legitimate reason?
And why not have at least one of the ports be USB-A 3.2 gen2 (10Gbps)? How much more could that really cost? (or AMD processors/chipsets do not support that standard yet?)
The bad choices in port options on this laptop alone would make me opt out of it, in favor of other models in the same price range that look a little better on that particular part of specifications.
aikay
January 29, 2023 at 10:47 pm
Hello Andrej, maybe you can help: I am going crazy here, trying to get a LG Gram +View USB-C Monitor connected to the Asus M7600 >> does the "lack of charging/video" actually mean that the USB-C port cannot even run an external monitor? Or should that be possible, and I just need to continue trouble shooting…?
Andrei Girbea
January 30, 2023 at 10:55 am
you'd have to use HDMI, there's no video through the USB-C on this VivoBook.