ASUS Zenbook A16 is one of the first Copilot+ PCs/laptops based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme 18-core Armv9 SoC and is now available for $1,699 on BestBuy or $1,999 on the ASUS website.
The laptop features a 16-inch “3K” OLED with touchscreen, 48GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, HDMI 2.1 video output, WiFi 7 and Bluetooth connectivity, and a few Thunderbolt and USB ports.
ASUS Zenbook A16 (UX3607) specifications:
- SoC – Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
- CPU – 18x Armv9 cores with 12 Prime cores up to 5.0 GHz (single/dual core) / 4.4 GHz (multicore), and 6 Efficiency cores up to 3.6 GHz
- GPU – Adreno X2-90 @ 1.85 GHz with support for DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0
- VPU
- Encode: HEVC, AVC: Dual 8K UHD @ 30 FPS, AV1: 8K UHD @ 15 FPS, UHD @ 60 FPS
- Decode: AV1, HEVC, AVC: Dual 8K @ 60 FPS
- Concurrent: 8K UHD @ 30 FPS Encode + 8K @ 60 FPS Decode
- AI accelerators
- 80 TOPS (INT8) NPU
- Dual Micro NPU on Qualcomm Sensing Hub
- System Memory – 48GB LPDDR5X @ 9600 MHz (PoP)
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe (PCIe Gen4) SSD
- Full-sized SD card slot
- Display – 16-inch touch OLED with 2880 x 1800 resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, 1100 nits brightness
- Video Output – HDMI 2.1
- Audio
- Built-in microphone and 6x speakers
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Dolby Atmos, Smart Amp Technology
- Camera – 1080p front-facing camera
- Wireless – WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
- USB
- 2x USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps) ports with USB-PD and DP Alt Mode
- 1x USB Type-A 3.2 port
- Security – Facial recognition
- Misc
- Backlit keyboard + touchpad
- Actively cooled design
- Power Supply
- Up to 130W via USB-C port
- 3-cell 70 Wh Lithium-ion battery good for 21+ hours of battery life
- Dimensions – 35.36 x 24.23 x 1.65 cm
- Weight – 1.3 kg
The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme laptop ships with Windows 11 Home as MyASUS, ScreenXpert, GlideX, and StoryCube programs. A few years ago, Qualcomm seemed really committed to bringing Linux support for their Snapdragon laptop processor, with notably Debian 12 and upstream Linux for the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. However, it doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, and over the last few years, I’ve regularly read negative comments about the status of the Snapdragon Linux port, more recently about the refusal to release the Snapdragon X’s DSP API.
On the positive side, Tom’s Hardware review of the ASUS Zenbook A16 points to excellent performance for the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme SoC, with Geekbench 6 results close to the ones of the Apple M5 in the 13-inch MacBook Air, and much better than the ones for Intel Core Ultra 7 355 and Core Ultra X7 358H laptops from Dell and Acer. While Tom’s Hardware is pleased with the performance, lightweight design, and a relatively low price for a system with 48GB of RAM, the battery life was measured at just a little over 10 hours (Intel-based Dell XPS 14 lasts over 20 hours in the same test), the chassis doesn’t feel premium, Windows still suffers from a few hiccups from (x86) emulation, and they would have wished for less preinstalled ASUS software.
Via Liliputing
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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