Asus ExpertBook P5 shows Lunar Lake advantage

Asus gave the workhorse ExpertBook a glow up that transformed it into a title contender for the enterprise crown.

Up until the end of last year, the answer to the question “I need a Windows laptop for work” was simply: “Get the latest Huawei MateBook, or MateBook X Pro if you can afford it.”

Why? Because that advice would get you the latest Intel silicon and a really good display, wrapped in a full metal chassis with a reasonable price tag.

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Unfortunately, the Chinese firm fell victim to additional sanctions and don’t have access to Intel’s second bite at the System-on-Chip (SoC) cherry – which has turned out to be a great generation.

But don’t worry, Asus has upgraded its Dell-fighting office workhorse thin and light laptop package to now include more premium (and durable) aluminium cladding.

Work laptops can be nice

Hell, the ExpertBook glow up now even offers more value than the 2024 MateBook 14 that I use as my daily driver – yes, I do actually take my own advice.

Excellent port selection in an increasingly minimalist PC age.

Asus delivers the latest Intel SoC, 32GB RAM (MateBook has 16GB), two Thunderbolt 4 ports (opposed to one USB-C), two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (vs two USB 3.1 Gen 1), a similar full-sized HDMI and even a Windows Hello IR camera for the same R25,000 price.

You have to reach up an extra R15,000 to get the same number of Thunderbolt ports and IR camera in the MateBook X Pro 2024 and lose a headphone jack, legacy USB and HDMI in the process.

The only points the MateBook 14 can score is a really nice OLED display over the not as crisp Asus LCD - to be fair even previous Huawei LCDs were better.

IR cameras are underrated

Windows Hello secure face recognition is an underrated feature.

Yes, the mechanical trackpad and compressed keyboard are not at all class leading at the price point, but the security benefits of secure face recognition cannot be overstated.

Mate these advanced biometrics to the AI capabilities unlocked on the Lunar Lake SoC, and sprinkle some of the Asus in-house ExpertGuardian security features on top, and you have a happy CIO.

The attention awareness and intelligent account login became second nature and I really miss it now that the review period is over.

Login in with only fingerprint biometrics seems oddly primitive, and I am fully aware of how privileged I sound saying that.

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The fundamentals of personal computing

I’m just happy to have a different answer to the “what laptop should I get” question than “MacBook Air.”

Finally we have generation Windows laptops that are well priced, have actually useful features, and, most importantly, can actually last a full workday without crying out for a charger.

Even a cramped keyboard can't break the Asus ExpertBook P5 deal.

Haters will say we got there with Windows on ARM and the Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, but a starting price of R25,000 for a plastic build and a messy driver/emulation situation still leaves too many question marks on that false revolution.

Until Microsoft fulfils its ARM promise, X86 laptops will still dominate the workplace and the Asus ExpertBook P5 is a near perfect representation of that.