Making things small is always a challenge, and making small things powerful is downright one of the most difficult tasks on the planet. Take any sports car with a super-high power-to-weight ratio, for example; getting its design and materials right is a painstaking process. But the joy of driving one is simply priceless.
Similarly, small and powerful computers will always be more expensive than big and powerful ones, simply because it takes an immaculate use of available space in the most efficient way possible to create something that’s tightly packed and delivers an equally tight punch.
Along the same lines, we find the ASUS ProArt PX 13. As its name suggests, it is a 13-inch creator laptop belonging to ASUS’s ProArt lineup. It is 17.7mm thick, it has a 360-degree hinge and a quite beautiful touchscreen OLED display. For the uninitiated, the ProArt lineup offers high-performance tools for creative professionals, tailored for tasks like design, editing, and 3D rendering. The lineup includes products like Motherboards and Graphics cards, displays, desktop computers, and of course laptops.
The ASUS ProArt PX13’s I/O setup is solid for a creator laptop. You get two USB 4.0 Type-C ports with display and power delivery, a USB 3.2 Type-A for legacy devices, and HDMI 2.1 for connecting high-res monitors, which covers a lot of creative needs. The MicroSD 4.0 card reader makes transferring media quick and easy, while the 3.5mm audio jack is great for wired audio. With Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, you’re set for fast, future-ready wireless connectivity. Overall, it’s got what you need without going overboard on ports.
Processor: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 Processor with 10 cores, 20-threads, 24MB cache, and upto 5 GHz turbo boost frequency along with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU): AMD XDNA with up to 50 TOPS
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU with Memory: 6 GB GDDR6 and Integrated AMD Radeon 890M Graphics
Memory: 24 GB LPDDR5X onboard RAM
Storage: 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
Display: 13.3-inch 16:10 60Hz OLED touchscreen with 2880 x 1800 (3K) peak resolution and 0.2ms response time
Ports and Connectivity:
Battery:
Dimensions and Weight:
The laptop looks like a small, thin, black box. Its rounded edges and the metallic top lid do their best to make the laptop easy to grab onto and keep the design very simple. The laptop gets a decently big enough lip, enough to put all the four fingers, to lift the lid. The base is also just heavy enough to allow you to keep the laptop stable and in its position while you lift the lid with just one hand.
Moreover, the 360-degree is smooth and it doesn’t lift up the laptop from the back side even if you place the lid at a steeper angle. You do get the stylus with the laptop and you will find it in the charger box in a separate box of its own. Underneath the laptop, you also get two horizontal strips instead of four separate rubberized feet. They aren’t high at all and you will feel that the laptop sits mostly flat on any surface.
The ASUS ProArt PX13 is equipped with versatile I/O ports tailored for creators. It features one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two USB 4.0 Type-C ports (supporting display output and power delivery), and an HDMI 2.1 for high-res external displays. A 3.5mm audio jack and Micro SD card reader cover audio and data transfer needs, while a DC-in port provides charging.
The keyboard is a 75% layout and includes arrow keys. As an AI-PC, it also has a Windows Co-pilot key. The key travel is around 1.7mm, which is surprisingly high for a 13-inch thin and light laptop. The keyboard is backlit, with three levels of brightness and a function row shared with features like volume and brightness controls, as well as camera and microphone controls.
On the other hand, the touchpad is also decently sized. It distinguishes itself with the integrated ASUS DialPad, a virtual control wheel designed to aid creative workflows. This feature allows users to intuitively adjust settings such as screen brightness, volume, and various parameters within compatible applications like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I have to say that if you already are accustomed to using a mouse to tackle all your creative workflows then chances are that you may not find yourself the ASUS DialPad as much.
In my opinion, it’s best offered as an optional extra.
The 13-inch OLED display has its ups and downs. It only reaches around 380 nits of peak SDR brightness, which, while good enough for indoor use, isn’t nearly sufficient for using outdoors. However, its brilliant contrast ratio, 0.2ms response time, and 2880 X 1800 resolution (255 ppi) make it simply gorgeous to look at. The image it shows is sharp, colour-accurate, and punchy. It goes without saying, but whenever you use this for consuming content, you’ll realize you’re getting your money’s worth every time.
The beautiful display also has a 60Hz panel. On one hand, 60Hz isn’t the best choice for gaming in 2024, but considering that the ASUS ProArt PX13 also serves as a creator laptop, the 60Hz refresh rate begins to make sense. The laptop is also equipped with an RTX 4050 laptop GPU with a 95W TGP and 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM. With this setup, a 60Hz refresh rate is sufficient, as few games running at high resolution will reach 60 FPS or beyond. Simply put it is a great machine for content creation, and consumption but not so good for high-intensity gaming.
Moving on to the speakers, I’d say that they are loud but have a small sound stage and the base is also a bit low. The speakers are bottom-firing, so the sound gets muffled if you place the laptop on a soft surface. The audio quality is fine for everyday tasks, but it might fall short for audiophiles or professionals who expect high-fidelity sound.
The ASUS ProArt PX13 comes with a CPU which I haven’t tested yet. I have tested its bigger cousin the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. I am of course talking about the Ryzen AI 9 HX 365. Instead of featuring 12 cores, it gets 10 cores and instead of 24 Threads, it gets 20. The boost clock between these chips is 5.0GHz and 5.1GHz for the HX 370 and HX 365, respectively. However, both chips have the same power draw range between 15-54W.
Also, the HX 370 I tested was in a 16-inch ASUS Zephyrus G16 but the HX 365 in the ASUS ProArt PX 13 has relatively smaller breathing room in a 13-inch chassis. Also the former gets 3-fans inside the chassis but the PX 13 has only two. Now, first up in Cinebench R23, I clearly see a good difference between the two CPUs, with HX 370 scoring 23134 in multicore and 2026 in single-core tests. Meanwhile, the HX 365 scored 20078 and 1938 in single and multicore tests.
A similar trend appears in the Cinebench R20 test, where the HX 370 scores 8739 in multicore and 796 in single-core tests, while the HX 365 achieves 7884 and 759 in multi-core and single-core tests, respectively.
In the Cinebench R15 OpenGL graphics test, the HX 370 scored 250 while the HX 365 scored 251, indicating that despite differences in core counts, number of threads, and core clock, the iGPU performance is similar in both chips.
Speaking of graphics performance, as I mentioned, the ProArt PX 13 comes with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Studio version. But despite that, it is a much more powerful 95W TGP variant. However, it is still not as powerful as an RTX 4050 in a full-fledged gaming laptop like the Gigabyte G6X. But it is still more powerful than the RTX 4050 something like an MSI Cyborg. In 3DMark TimeSpy and FireStrike, the PX 13 with the RTX 4050 scored 7789 and 19606, while the G6X with the same GPU achieved 8813 and 20933. The RTX 4050 in the MSI Cyborg scored around 6874 and 15692 in these tests, respectively.
In terms of thermal performance, the 13-inch chassis performs well. Under normal use cases, the maximum CPU temperature reaches only around 48 degrees. While gaming, the CPU core temperature reaches close to 78 degrees, and under CPU-specific load, the temperature can soar up to 95 degrees.
The highest surface temperature reaches 41.2°C, located above the function row at the top edge of the keyboard, while the W, A, S, D key area, the middle, and the right side of the keyboard remain relatively cooler. Specifically, the left side stays at 29.1°C, the middle section reaches 37.0°C, and the right end remains the coolest at 27.9°C. In terms of fan noise, the fans peak at 34.5 dB, drop as low as 27.7 dB, and average around 31.1 dB, balancing both light and heavy workloads.
The 1TB SSD in the ProArt PX 13 is a PCIe Gen 4 unit that performs solidly compared to SSDs in other creator laptops, placing it right in the middle. It outpaces the Zephyrus G16 in both read and write speeds, with the PX 13 achieving a sequential read of 5278.03 MB/s and a write speed of 3754.56 MB/s, compared to the Zephyrus G16’s 5069.44 MB/s read and 2314.6 MB/s write speeds. However, it falls short of the Dell XPS 16, which reaches 7079.26 MB/s in read speeds but lags in write speed with 1554.83 MB/s.
The ASUS ProArt PX 13, equipped with a 73Wh battery, offers a range of battery life depending on usage. For general tasks like web browsing and document editing, it typically lasts around 5 hours and 9 minutes. When streaming 1080p content at full brightness, the battery holds up for approximately 6 hours and 40 minutes, but this drops to just over 3 hours and 15 minutes for 4K streaming. During continuous web browsing, the laptop manages about 9 hours and 20 minutes. Overall, while the ProArt PX 13 provides reasonable battery life for everyday tasks, high-resolution streaming or intensive creative work significantly reduces its endurance.
The ASUS ProArt PX 13 is a compact powerhouse tailored for creative professionals who need a balance of portability and performance. Its standout features include a vibrant 13.3-inch OLED display, precise colour accuracy, and a sturdy build with a 360-degree hinge, making it versatile for various work settings. The laptop packs an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Studio GPU, which perform admirably for content creation tasks but fall short for high-intensity gaming, especially with its 60Hz display. Its 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD offers fast read and write speeds, placing it between competing models like the Zephyrus G16 and Dell XPS 16.
However, the laptop’s limitations are noticeable. The 380-nit display brightness, while stunning indoors, struggles in outdoor lighting. The 13-inch chassis keeps thermals under control but can get warm under heavy loads, peaking at 41.2°C above the function row. Additionally, the speakers are decent but may disappoint users seeking high-fidelity sound due to their limited sound stage and bass.
At ₹179,990, the ProArt PX 13 is ideal for creative professionals who need a portable, colour-accurate laptop for design and editing. It’s a great option for those seeking a powerful yet compact device for on-the-go work. However, gamers or users needing extended battery life for high-resolution video playback or intensive workloads may not find suitable alternatives in this form factor. If you’re open to a slightly larger option, the Zephyrus G16 2024 offers excellent performance for both gaming and creative tasks.
