ASUS ProArt Laptops Challenge MacBook Pros with New NVIDIA RTX Spark Chip

ASUS was one of the launch customers for NVIDIA's new RTX Spark ARM "superchip" and it's laptops look like the most interesting ones for creators. With the ProArt P14 and P16, ASUS is going up against Apple's MacBook Pros and even trying to one-up them with features like bright 4K OLED displays, a sleeker design and more ports. However, all will depend on how well the new NVIDIA processor stacks up against Apple's Silicon, supported apps and whether buyers will be willing to stomach Windows 11.

The ASUS ProArt P16 is 3.9 pounds and 0.51 inches thick, while the ProArt P14 is 3.2 pounds and 0.55 inches. Those dimensions are quite a bit slimmer and lighter than both the MacBook Pro 16 and MacBook Pro 14, which is a big plus if you lug one around for a living. On top of USB-C ports, they also support HDMI 2.1, USB-A, SD card and Wi-Fi 7.

For displays, ASUS has used its Lumina Pro OLED tech with up to 4K on the ProArt P16 and 3K on the ProArt 14, along with 120Hz refresh rates. Those displays offer 1,600 nits of peak brightness, 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and Delta E less than 1 color accuracy that's ideal for video or photo editors. Those specs are similar to a MacBook Pro's XDR screens, but ASUS's OLED displays should beat Apple's Mini LED tech in terms of contrast and black levels.

ASUS says that the laptops will support key content creation apps like Adobe Creative Cloud, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 21 and Blender for Windows 11 on Arm, just like Qualcomm's Arm chips. However, the RTX Spark chips are designed for more demanding tasks and can "render ultra-large 90GB-plus 3D scenes, edit 12K 4:2:2 video, run 120B-parameter LLMs with up to 1 million tokens context... and play AAA games at 1440p and 100 frames per second," according to NVIDIA.

We should soon see if it lives up to those ambitious claims and how long the battery lasts under such loads. Another key will be Windows 11, which is still too messy and too tangled up with CoPilot+. The prices, of course (which have yet to be revealed), will also be an issue. Otherwise, ASUS's new laptops look promising and will give video editors and other creators more choice.