Remember NVIDIA\u2019s RTX Spark?<\/h2>\n
Last month, I spent a few days exploring NVIDIA\u2019s new RTX Spark platform and came away thinking that it could make Windows on Arm a much more interesting proposition than what we have seen so far. Not because it suddenly makes Intel and AMD processors irrelevant, but because NVIDIA is approaching the platform from a different direction, with a strong emphasis on graphics performance, content creation and, perhaps more importantly, running AI workloads locally (aka on-device).<\/p>\n
For those unfamiliar with RTX Spark, it combines an Arm-based NVIDIA Grace CPU with a Blackwell RTX GPU and unified memory, much like how Apple\u2019s M-series processors work. The difference is that NVIDIA brings its CUDA ecosystem into the equation, which is particularly useful for developers working with AI models and applications that already take advantage of its GPUs. Depending on the configuration, you can get up to 128GB of unified memory, and that is a considerable amount to have available in a laptop.<\/p>\n A tale of 2 ASUS ProArt P16 laptops.<\/p>\n Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n I have already covered RTX Spark\u2019s capabilities, including gaming, content creation and running local AI models, in my earlier impressions article. Sothis time, I want to focus on the laptop that gave me my first taste of the new platform, the ASUS ProArt P16<\/b>.<\/p>\n And there is something else worth looking at. ASUS has two versions of the RTX Spark-powered P16 with different OLED displays, and we have both for this review. The more expensive model gets a 4K Tandem OLED<\/b> screen, while the other makes do with a 3K OLED<\/b> panel. But considering that both screens already have impressive specifications, is the higher-end display really worth paying more for?<\/p>\n All RTX Spark laptops like the ASUS ProArt P16 are built to run agentic AI tools.<\/p>\n ASUS ProArt P16 RTX Spark Laptop<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n One thing I appreciate about the ProArt P16 is that ASUS has resisted the temptation to make it look like a gaming laptop. There are no aggressive lines, unnecessary RGB lighting or oversized. Instead, the P16 has a relatively understated aluminium chassis that looks more like a professional workstation than a laptop designed to play the latest games.<\/p>\n At around 1.77kg<\/b>, it is also reasonably light for a 16-inch laptop, particularly one with this much processing power. The chassis measures roughly 13mm at its thinnest point and 16mm at its thickest, which makes it considerably more svelte than many traditional mobile workstations too. That said, the P16 isn\u2019t what I would describe as an ultraportable, but for a laptop with a large display, I think ASUS has struck a reasonable balance between size and portability.<\/p>\n More importantly, ASUS has not sacrificed connectivity just to make the laptop thinner. You get three USB4 Type-C ports, a USB-A port, HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack and an SD Express 7.0 card reader (great news for content creators). There is also Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity.<\/p>\n ASUS makes excellent laptops and the ProArt P16 is no different. Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For typing, ASUS has opted for a full-sized keyboard without a numeric keypad, which leaves enough space for a comfortable key arrangement and speaker grilles on either side. The keys have a reasonably spacious layout, with good travel and tactile feedback that make typing feel comfortable even over longer periods. I also like that the keys don\u2019t feel overly soft or mushy, and there\u2019s enough resistance to give each keystroke a satisfying feel. The backlighting also makes it practical to use in darker environments.<\/p>\n Below it is a large haptic touchpad, which feels smooth and responsive, with accurate tracking that makes everyday gestures such as scrolling and switching between applications feel natural. The haptic feedback is also consistent across the entire surface, so clicking feels just as comfortable near the top as it does at the bottom.<\/p>\n However, the display is where things become more interesting, especially since we have both versions of the P16 to look at.<\/p>\n The standard model comes with a 16-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED<\/b> touchscreen, while the higher-end version gets a 3840 x 2400 Tandem OLED<\/b> touchscreen. Both have a 16:10 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 colour coverage, making either suitable for photography, video editing and other creative work.<\/p>\n The difference is in resolution, brightness and the panel technology. The 3K OLED has a rated peak HDR brightness of 1,100 nits, whereas the 4K Tandem OLED can reach 1,600 nits.<\/p>\n Having used both displays side by side, I think the 4K Tandem OLED does have its advantages, particularly when you\u2019re watching movies, playing games or working with high-resolution photos and videos. The higher resolution makes fine details look sharper, although I wouldn\u2019t say the difference is immediately noticeable at a normal viewing distance. Where the Tandem OLED really makes a stronger impression is its higher brightness, especially when watching HDR content. Highlights look more vivid, while bright scenes have that extra punch without compromising the deep blacks and contrast that OLED panels are known for.<\/p>\n For content creators, the additional resolution also gives you more room to work with detailed images and 4K video footage, which can be useful when editing. That said, I still think the 3K OLED looks excellent in its own right, and unless you\u2019re particularly demanding about display quality, you probably won\u2019t feel like you\u2019re missing much.<\/p>\n There is also the question of battery life. A higher-resolution display has more pixels to drive, although that does not automatically mean it will always consume more power. Display brightness, content and panel efficiency also play a part, which is why I wanted to test both models rather than assume that the 3K version would last longer.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the 3K OLED configuration is not officially available in Singapore, at least for now. That is a shame because it gives buyers another option, particularly those who want RTX Spark\u2019s processing capabilities but do not necessarily need the more expensive Tandem OLED panel.<\/p>\n As I mentioned in my earlier RTX Spark impressions, the ProArt P16 is not quite like a conventional Windows laptop. The RTX Spark N1X processor in our review configuration has a 20-core Arm CPU and a Blackwell GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores. The version I previously tested also came with 64GB of unified memory, which allows the CPU and GPU to share a common pool rather than rely on a separate allocation of dedicated graphics memory.<\/p>\n That makes a difference when working with large AI models, but it is also worth remembering that this is still Windows on Arm. While Microsoft\u2019s compatibility layer has improved considerably, some applications continue to run through emulation, while others may not work properly at all.<\/p>\n Fortunately, most everyday applications are not particularly demanding for this hardware. Browsing with multiple tabs open, working across Microsoft Office applications and editing photographs should pose little to no difficulty. What interested me more was how the P16 would perform against Apple\u2019s 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max, which offers a similar combination of high-performance processing and unified memory.<\/p>\n For productivity testing, I have included UL Procyon\u2019s Office Productivity benchmark. It uses actual Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook workloads, making it a more useful measure of everyday responsiveness than relying entirely on synthetic CPU scores.<\/p>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Interestingly, the 4K Tandem OLED model score just a tad higher than the 3K OLED version \u2013 just shy of 7%. That seems rather unusual considering that both laptops have essentially identical hardware apart from their displays. I wouldn\u2019t read too much into this result, however, since a higher-resolution screen shouldn\u2019t automatically make a laptop faster at office tasks. But suffice to say, those are pretty good scores.<\/p>\n Gaming is another area where RTX Spark has a lot to offer. During my earlier testing, I was able to run Cyberpunk 2077 at around 75fps at 1440p with medium settings, which is pretty good for a laptop that does not rely on a discrete graphics card.<\/p>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For a new test against the MacBook Pro with M5 Max, I upped the ante running the game at higher details \u2013 albeit at a lower 1080p resolution. As you can see in the chart above, the Apple machine ran smokes around the RTX Spark laptop, although it is important to remember that the Windows version of the game is running through emulation, while the same game runs natively on MacOS. But that does not mean the P16 is a poor gaming laptop. In fact, having access to NVIDIA\u2019s DLSS and ray-tracing technologies makes it a pretty capable machine for playing games. However, if you\u2019re looking to buy a laptop for gaming, then there are better options out there that also cost far less.<\/p>\n But perhaps the more interesting comparison is how both laptops perform when running AI models locally. After all, that is one of the key selling points of the RTX Spark in the first place, and having access to CUDA and up to 128GB of unified memory makes the ProArt P16 an interesting alternative to Apple\u2019s MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n To see how the two platforms compare, I ran llama.cpp on both laptops to see how quickly a model processes the information on them, and how quickly it generates a response. Both are measured in tokens per second, but they tell us different things about AI performance.<\/p>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Interestingly, the results were mixed. Using a smaller 9-billion-parameter model, the ProArt P16 processed prompts at higher tokens per second, compared to the MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n However, the situation reverses when the AI starts generating its response. The MacBook Pro delivered almost double the tokens per second against the ProArt, making it substantially faster at producing text. The difference becomes even more interesting with a larger 27-billion-parameter model, where the M5 Max also produced more tokens per second than the RTX Spark.<\/p>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n But I don\u2019t think these numbers necessarily tell us which laptop is better for local AI. In the same tests, the ProArt was able to begin answering a prompt containing a 50-page document faster than the MacBook Pro. By the time both machines completed their responses, however, they had taken roughly the same amount of time.<\/p>\n What this tells me is that RTX Spark\u2019s strength isn\u2019t necessarily in generating text faster than Apple\u2019s silicon. Rather, its ability to process large prompts quickly, combined with NVIDIA\u2019s CUDA ecosystem and unified memory architecture, makes it particularly useful for certain AI workloads. Apple\u2019s M5 Max is still a formidable competitor, especially when it comes to generating responses, so I wouldn\u2019t say RTX Spark has a clear performance advantage across the board.<\/p>\n And that is worth remembering if you are considering the ProArt P16 primarily for AI development. Having a powerful GPU and plenty of memory is certainly useful, but the applications and models you intend to run will ultimately determine whether NVIDIA\u2019s platform makes more sense than a MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n Going back to the Battery life is another area where I wanted to see how the two displays affect the overall experience. Both P16 variants use a large 99Wh battery<\/b>, but the difference in display technology could make one more efficient than the other.<\/p>\n Image: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n And I have to say the difference in the Procyon\u2019s Office Productivity Battery Life test was quite substantial. It makes the 3K model a more interesting proposition than I initially thought. The 4K Tandem OLED certainly has its advantages when it comes to resolution and brightness, but you\u2019re also giving up a considerable amount of battery life when using the display at its maximum setting.<\/p>\n Final thoughts<\/b><\/p>\n The ASUS ProArt P16 is one of the best-looking first generation RTX Spark laptops.<\/p>\n Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n There are two ways I look at the ASUS ProArt P16. The first is simply as a laptop, and from that perspective, I think ASUS once again has done a great job. It looks professional, is relatively thin and light for a 16-inch machine, has a useful selection of ports and offers a large OLED display that is well suited to creative work.<\/p>\n The second is as one of the first laptops powered by NVIDIA\u2019s RTX Spark, and that is where things become a little more complicated.<\/p>\n I like what NVIDIA is trying to achieve here. Bringing the Grace CPU, Blackwell GPU and unified memory together truly elevates Windows laptops for developers and creators who want to work with AI locally. It is not merely about running a chatbot on your laptop, but having the hardware and software ecosystem to experiment with larger models without relying entirely on cloud services.<\/p>\n At the same time, I do not think RTX Spark is something everybody needs. If your work mainly involves Microsoft Office, web browsing, photo editing and occasional video work, there are plenty of less expensive Intel- and AMD-powered laptops that will do the job just as well. And while the P16 can handle games, it is not necessarily a better buy than, say, an ROG gaming latop.<\/p>\n The comparison with Apple\u2019s M5 Max MacBook Pro is also revealing. Apple\u2019s processor has a clear advantage in several conventional CPU workloads, while the P16\u2019s appeal lies more in NVIDIA\u2019s GPU capabilities, CUDA support and flexibility for local AI development. Neither platform is automatically the better choice; it depends on which applications you actually use.<\/p>\n Then there is the question of the displays. I do not think the 4K Tandem OLED is necessarily the one everybody should buy simply because it is technically superior. The 3K OLED already offers a high resolution, wide colour coverage and a 120Hz refresh rate, and for many people, that should be more than sufficient.<\/p>\n Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n And having seen the battery life results, I think the 3K version actually makes a stronger case for itself. Almost two additional hours of battery life under our demanding test conditions is not something I would dismiss lightly, especially when the difference in resolution may not be particularly noticeable to many users during everyday work. It\u2019s unfortunate that ASUS isn\u2019t bringing this configuration to Singapore, because I suspect it would have appealed to buyers who value battery life over having the higher-resolution display \u2013 and cost lesser too.<\/p>\n In Singapore, the 64GB version of the ProArt P16 starts at $7,499<\/b>, while the range starts at $6,599 for the 48GB<\/b> configuration and rises to $11,099 for the 128GB<\/b> model. Those are considerable amounts of money to spend on a laptop, especially when you can buy a capable Windows workstation or MacBook Pro for less.<\/p>\n But the ProArt P16 is not really trying to appeal to everybody. It is a premium creator laptop that also serves as a showcase for what NVIDIA believes the next generation of Windows on Arm computers can do. And while I still think RTX Spark has some convincing to do, particularly when it comes to value, the P16 makes a pretty good case for the platform.<\/p>\n The ASUS ProArt P16 (H7607) is available at the ASUS <\/i>webstore<\/i> and authorised dealers now. A 14-inch version of the laptop, the ProArt 14, is available now as well.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\nDesign and everyday experience<\/h2>\n
Performance and battery life<\/h2>\n
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