This Windows Laptop BEATS the MacBook

The speaker expresses initial excitement about Snapdragon on Windows, noting that Apple Silicon's impact on the PC space created an opportunity for Qualcomm to introduce competition. The first generation of Snapdragon X was good, offering incredible battery life and solid performance, but had "rough edges" that deterred some users. The speaker is now reviewing the new ASUS Zenbook A16, which runs the most powerful Snapdragon chip ever in a Windows PC. Before detailing the A16's strengths, the speaker points out some aspects they are not fond of. The keyboard, with 1.3 millimeters of travel, feels a bit shallow. The touchpad, while massive, is not haptic, leading to missed light taps. However, its "smart gestures" feature, which allows swiping on the sides to adjust brightness or volume, has significantly improved since the A14 model and works well. The six-speaker setup is described as "just fine," and the speaker wishes ASUS had utilized the empty space on either side of the keyboard for larger speaker grilles. Additionally, both USB-C ports are on the left side, which is a minor inconvenience for those who prefer flexibility in plugging in. Despite these minor criticisms, the laptop's lightweight design is a major highlight. Weighing just over two pounds for a 16-inch device, it feels premium, a sensation enhanced by ASUS's updated Ceraluminum finish, which gives it a smooth, stone-like texture. Port selection is generally good, including HDMI, a headphone jack, USB-A, and a full-size SD card reader, though the placement of the USB-C ports remains a point of contention. The screen is a real standout: a 16-inch, 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,100 nits of brightness, described as "about as good as a laptop screen gets in 2026." A significant feature of the Zenbook A16 is its standard 48 gigabytes of RAM. This is integrated directly onto the chip, providing faster bandwidth, lower latency, and eliminating the need for costly memory upgrades. While 48GB is considered "absolutely overkill," it is presented as a major selling point, especially when compared to more expensive competitors like the M5 MacBook Pro, which typically offers 16GB of RAM. The Snapdragon X2 series also boasts an 80 TOPS NPU, currently the most powerful in any laptop, enabling features like voice changing and the ability to run powerful local AI models. Regarding pricing, the speaker advises consumers to consider the Best Buy exclusive model at $1,600 over the $2,000 ASUS store exclusive. Both models share the same 48GB of RAM and 2.8K OLED display. The Best Buy model includes a touchscreen and features an 18-core X2 Elite Extreme chip clocked at 4.7GHz, only slightly lower than the ASUS store's 5GHz version, making the $400 saving worthwhile. A smaller Zenbook A14 is also available, starting at $1,149, but it uses the regular X2 Elite chip, not the Extreme version. The speaker has been daily driving the A16 for over a week and praises its "snappy" feel. Compared to a first-generation Snapdragon device, everything feels quicker. Even demanding tasks like the YouTube Captions Editor, which typically lags on other systems, runs "really quite smooth" on the X2 Elite Extreme, a noticeable improvement not always reflected in benchmarks. It's emphasized that the X2 Elite Extreme, especially the 5GHz bin, is the most powerful Snapdragon chip available and is exclusive to the Zenbook A16, suggesting other X2 series laptops may offer slightly less performance. Benchmark comparisons were made against the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro and the original Zenbook A14. In single-core performance, the M5 MacBook Pro holds a slight edge (about 5% in Geekbench), but the A16's performance is significantly better than many x86 Windows options. Multi-core performance is where the 18-core Extreme chip excels, outperforming the M5 by 27% in Geekbench and a massive 67% in Cinebench. This lead is attributed to better thermals, allowing for sustained power during long CPU-intensive tasks. Surprisingly, the Zenbook A16 also beat the M5 in graphics benchmarks, a notable achievement given Apple Silicon's previous lead in GPU performance. The performance jump from the original X Elite to the X2 Elite Extreme is over double, a huge leap in a single generation. A key takeaway is that this performance comes from a chip that sips power compared to traditional x86 processors, which is the core advantage of Snapdragon on Windows. This power efficiency enables "all-day battery life" and high performance in a lightweight laptop. In real-world usage, the A16 delivers 10 to 12 hours of battery life, allowing for charging every other day. The Zenbook A14, with its smaller screen and more efficient processor, is expected to offer even longer battery life. Gaming on Snapdragon has seen significant improvements. Two years ago, gaming was a major downside due to compatibility issues, poor performance, and lack of anti-cheat support. Now, most of these issues have been addressed. "Baldur's Gate 3," a visually demanding game, runs well on the A16 at 1200p with FSR 2.2 quality upscaling and medium settings, achieving 60-100 FPS. Fortnite, which previously didn't work, now runs at close to 120 FPS in performance mode (scaled down to 720p). While not a gaming laptop, the A16 demonstrates the X2 Elite Extreme's capability to play demanding games with reasonable settings. Fan noise is present but not egregious, and the laptop remains cool, with heat only noticeable above the keyboard area. Performance on battery is nearly identical to when plugged in, a significant advantage. The speaker concludes that while it's not a primary gaming device, it's "super, super doable" for casual gaming alongside work. Regarding general usability, the speaker asserts that the A16 functions as a "normal laptop" without issues. Chrome, Slack, Spotify, most Adobe apps, and even previously broken software like NordVPN now work perfectly. While specific specialized software might require checking, for most users performing most tasks, "it just works." This represents the biggest change from Snapdragon's early days and allows the A16 to compete effectively with the M5 MacBook Pro, matching it in single-core performance and surpassing it in multi-core and graphics. The speaker highlights the A16's value proposition, noting that a similarly spec'd 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro and 48GB of RAM would cost around $3,100, almost double the A16's price. In conclusion, the Zenbook A16 with the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is deemed a success, delivering performance legitimately competitive with Apple Silicon, not just for a Windows PC, but "just good, period."