Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED (H7604)

A slick, powerful laptop that's well suited to creative tasks, but make sure you buy the version with a 3D screen

- TIM DANTON

PRICE £2,500 (£3,000 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk

The first version of the ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED (see issue 330, p56) was one impressive beast. Not content with whacking in a cutting-edge AMD Ryzen processor and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics, it offered the novel combination of a built-in dial and glorious 16in OLED panel. This year's update isn't radical, but improvements all round make it even more appealing to the creative professionals that Asus is targeting.

I have only one disappointment: at the time that Asus announced this update, it also shared details of a 3D version of the laptop. Just like the Acer SpatialLabs View screens I reviewed two months ago (see issue 344, p58), the ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED (note the "3D") creates stereoscopic 3D images without the need for glasses. Such technology works fantastically, using eye-tracking software and micro lenses to beam slightly different images to each eye.

When you want to switch back to 2D, it only takes one click.

Sadly, if that appeals then you must wait for a launch "later this year". For now, you must make do with the non-3D version. And you will need to still wait until mid-June for that, at which point it will become available from Scan (code LN135615).

Screening success

In terms of colour accuracy and coverage, Asus throws everything it can at the screens in its ProArt range. Here, that includes Calman Verified and Pantone Validated certifications, with the guarantee that each panel's average Delta E (a measure of colour accuracy) will be under two. Our panel's accuracy was even better: it averaged 0.51 and had a maximum Delta E of 1.12.

Colour coverage is superb, too. You have a choice of colour profiles, including DCI-P3, where it covered 99% of the gamut. Print designers who prefer to work in the Adobe RGB space should stick to the Native profile, with 98% coverage.