Asus’ first Copilot+ business laptop goes above and beyond to get the job done.
Asus’ ExpertBook P5 is priced from Rs. 1,01,700 in India (excluding taxes)
Business laptops prioritise providing essential features at an attractive price. Compared to their glitzy consumer counterparts, business laptops are built for business requirements, appear practical at best and these (at least in India) get as barebones as they possibly can. So, what happens when Asus builds a business laptop to Microsoft's CoPilot+ PC requirements? Can we truly have a device that satisfies the needs of small to medium businesses and corporates but also offers good performance? Asus' new ExpertBook P5 laptop sure seems like a worthy candidate.
Asus' ExpertBook P5 defies expectations of a bulky or heavy business laptop. It has a slim overall profile that's sensibly designed (even compared to the Asus Zenbook S14), made from quality materials, and according to the company, is built to the US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard. This means that it can perform on a sunny beach (for the WFH crowd) or in the frigid temperatures of a corporate office.
The Asus ExpertBook P5 is only available in one matte grey finish
The laptop's hinges feel solid, and it is possible to lift the display with one finger (without appearing clumsy) at a presentation. The hinge also enables the display to open fully and rest flat on the table. No, this isn't designed to let your colleagues peer into your display from the other side of your table, but to prevent excessive pressure on the hinge. Since the display rests flat on the table, there are fewer chances of the hinge getting destroyed if something heavy falls or is placed on it accidentally.
The Asus ExpertBook P5's hinge lets its display rest on the surface
Unlike its snazzy counterpart, the Zenbook S14, the ExpertBook does not have a CNC-machined frame, which functions as the chassis. The business laptop instead goes with matte-finished aluminium lids or panels that lend it a premium look and feel. They do not gather fingerprints or smudges easily, but even if they do, these can be wiped off without much trouble. The panels also mean that there is a certain amount of flex; this is quite obvious with the display lid when you open it up but not so much with the bottom half, which is really hard to flex given the layered components and panels.
The camera has a handy privacy cover
I found ExpertBook's keyboard quite comfortable for all-day usage. There's enough key travel at 1.5mm, but I did find the keys to be a little stiff if you type a lot like I do. Key presses are quiet, which is good for conference rooms and meetings. The keyboard is also spill-resistant if you are the clumsy type and comes with a backlight so you can continue to toil away at night.
The rear venting means you can place the ExpertBook P5 in the dock and use the laptop with its lid shut
There are some simple design decisions made with the ExpertBook that feel logical and practical, forcing me to draw comparisons with its high-priced sibling, the Zenbook S14. Since the ExpertBook has an air inlet at the bottom (throwing hot air out from the back), it can be easily placed into a dock stand and function perfectly well with the lid closed. The Zenbook S14 needs to be open as it breathes from the perforations that sit above the keyboard on the inside.
There's a good selection of I/O ports except for the missing Ethernet port because of its slim design. The ExpertBook P5 provides 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 2 x Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1 x HDMI 2.1 port, and the usual 3.5mm combo audio jack.
The port selection on the Asus ExpertBook P5 is pretty good but lacks an Ethernet port
Coming to the bits that make this business laptop a CoPilot+ PC, it has an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V processor (4.8GHz), including the Intel AI Boost NPU with up to 47 AI TOPS, needed to meet Microsoft's requirements. There's 32GB of RAM (LPDDR5X), 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, and an Intel Arc 140V GPU for graphics. We ran our usual benchmarks, and the results are as follows:
| Benchmark | AsusExpertBook P5 | Asus Zenbook S 14 | Dell XPS 13 9345 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1,531 | 2,520 | 2,795 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 7,636 | 10,688 | 14,478 |
| Geekbench AI Quantised Score | 3,530 | 3,678 | 22,200 |
| PCMark 10 | 4,694 | 6,836 | N/A |
| 3DMark CPU Profile | 5,161 | 5,161 | 8,459 |
| 3DMark Night Raid | 33,631 | 34,727 | 25,732 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad Light | 2,741 | 3,243 | 1,931 |
Since this is a business laptop, my usage was limited to office work. And during that time, everything worked as smoothly as expected with the laptop barely heating up. And since the P5 managed a decent 33,631 in 3DMark's Night Raid, you can consider some casual gaming on this machine as well… if your IT policy allows it and your boss isn't around. The fans, when they did spin up (especially when I was running benchmarks), were still fairly quiet.
The Asus ExpertBook P5's IPS display is vibrant but not as good as the Zenbook S14's OLED panel
Our review unit came preloaded with Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft's Office Suite. Asus offers a bunch of AI tools; among these, I liked the included AI ExpertMeet, which basically provides AI-generated summaries for both live and recorded meetings. It is also capable of watermarking video calls with messages and business cards which can be handy for self-employed professionals or for SMBs.
Like the Asus Zenbook S14, the Asus ExpertBook P5 also offers a high-resolution IPS display. However, the P5's display resolution is a bit lower at 2,560 x 1,600 pixels versus the 2,880 x 1,800 pixels on the S14 and also lacks touch input. The P5's display strangely also offers a 144Hz refresh rate, which both feels out of place and does not perform as expected (not blur-free). A standard 60Hz or even a 90Hz panel would have sufficed, making way for some other additional hardware add-ons. On the plus side, the P5's matte display is better suited for glare-free productivity when working outdoors.
The ExpertBook's trackpad incorporates Asus' gesture actions (around the edges), which are useful but can get fidgety with ghost touches
The Asus ExpertBook P5 offers a 63Wh 3-cell battery. Thanks to the latest Intel silicon, battery life is quite solid, and I easily managed 9-10 hours of office use with the display set to a 144Hz refresh rate and the brightness set to 70 percent (because 50 percent wasn't bright enough). Asus provides a 65W Type-C power supply in the box, and it manages to deliver a 70 percent charge in an hour.
Of course, being a business laptop means the average consumer will not be able to purchase the ExpertBook P5 online or even in-store. Interested businesses or business owners will need to connect with Asus directly.
The Asus ExpertBook P5 offers excellent value given its target audience. It goes above and beyond to deliver some practical AI features for business users and offers more than enough power for the self-employed crowd at the right price. It's not as snazzy as its consumer counterpart, the Asus Zenbook S14 (Review) (priced from Rs. 1,42,990), but offers a sleek design that still looks and feels premium. The 144Hz display surely is overkill for a business laptop. An OLED display with a standard refresh rate would have been more useful. But pretty much everything else sure seems up for the job.
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