ASUS ProArt P16 2024 vs 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max: A High-Performance Laptop Showdown

ASUS ProArt P16 (2024) vs. 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max: Which premium creator laptop is king?

Is the MacBook Pro still the top creator laptop? The Asus ProArt P16 is giving it a run for its money. If you're searching for the best laptop for creators, chances are you have your eye on a MacBook -- but it might not be the best option on the market. Whether you're looking for a Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro or want to make sure you get the best creator laptop for your money, you need to consider the Asus ProArt P16. This 16-inch powerhouse is a serious rival for the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max, boasting similarly powerful specs and a stylish design. Any top creator laptop should feature a good display, powerful processor, and strong graphics performance. Both of these laptops offer that. The question is, which one is the better value for your money? Here's an in-depth look at how the Asus ProArt P16 and MacBook Pro M3 Max compare. The ASUS ProArt P16 and MacBook Pro M3 Max both boast powerful specs, but come at two very different prices. The MacBook Pro M3 Max costs almost $1,700 more than the ProArt P16. That premium does get you 16GB more RAM and a longer battery life, but it's not an easy trade-off. While it costs less, the ProArt P16 has some compelling advantages. It includes a dedicated GPU and twice as much storage. If you're a creator, those features can make a world of difference. Even the maxed-out configuration of the ProArt P16 with 64GB of RAM costs less than our review configuration for the MacBook Pro M3 Max. So, unless there's a macOS-only app or you insist on living entirely in the Apple ecosystem, the ProArt P16 is a better value. Winner: ASUS ProArt P16 Design is often a matter of personal taste, but in this case, the two designs are fairly similar. The ProArt P16 and MacBook Pro M3 Max both feature clean, minimalistic designs that are hard not to love. Both would look right at home in any office, creative studio, or coffee shop. With that said, Apple didn't do anything new with the MacBook Pro M3 Max's design. It's the same classic Mac design seen on every other MacBook released over the past few years. It looks great but doesn't evolve beyond the standard Apple aesthetic. The ProArt P16 also has a simplistic chassis design, but it includes some details that set it apart, like glossy, squared-off edges and a unique touchpad. The touchpad features Asus's DialPad, a ring set into the top left corner of the touchpad for quick, precise controls. It's designed for creative apps like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro, where shortcuts and navigation are crucial. Both laptop designs have many similarities. Both feature top-firing speakers on the keyboard deck, a full function row, and a near identical keyboard layout. So, the ProArt P16 wins this category thanks to a few creative design details. You might not use the DialPad every day, but it's a handy, unique feature specifically for creators. Winner: ASUS ProArt P16 A great display is crucial for any top creator laptop. The ProArt P16 and MacBook Pro M3 Mac each have high-resolution displays that look great in person. However, both could have fared better in our display benchmark tests. The ProArt P16 reproduced 85.5 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, only a few points more than the MacBook Pro M3 Max. While 80 percent or more is typically the minimum score we like to see in this category, I expected more from these two laptops, considering they're geared toward creators. So, it's disappointing that neither scored over 90 percent on this test. The MacBook Pro M3 Max takes the lead in the display brightness test with an average brightness of 559.8 nits. That's significantly higher than the ProArt P16's average of 356 nits, earning the MacBook Pro M3 Max a win in this category. Winner: MacBook Pro M3 Max The M3 Max is currently Apple's most powerful MacBook Pro processor, so it's a top contender if you're looking for the best performance possible for creative tasks. AMD is giving Apple some serious competition, though. The Asus ProArt P16 includes an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, which has 12 cores and 24 threads. That's similar to the M3 Max, which has 16 cores and 16 threads. More threads generally lead to better multitasking performance, although more cores can also improve multitasking. So, the MacBook Pro, with its 16-core M3 Max chip, had an edge going into our main overall performance benchmarks. The results highlight a clear winner: While it was close in a couple of tests, the MacBook Pro M3 Max outscored the ProArt P16 across the board. It scored particularly high in the Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark, outpacing the ProArt P16 by nearly 6,000 points. Most resource-intensive apps, like Photoshop or Premiere Pro, use multiple cores, so strong multi-core performance is crucial for creatives. Both laptops' scores are excellent, but if you want the best overall performance, the MacBook Pro is the front-runner. Winner: MacBook Pro M3 Max Even if you're not a gamer, graphics performance is a key metric for creatives to pay attention to since it hints at how well a laptop handles graphics-intensive tasks like graphic design, animation, or video editing. The Asus ProArt P16 and MacBook Pro M3 Max are both superbly powerful laptops, but if you want the best graphics performance possible, one has a clear edge. The ProArt P16 outscored the MacBook Pro M3 Max across the board in our main graphics benchmarks. That may not be a surprise, considering the ProArt P16 has a dedicated graphics card, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070. The 40-core GPU in the M3 Max chip may be powerful, but it's still integrated graphics. Nine times out of ten, dedicated GPUs outperform integrated graphics, and this is no exception. The ProArt P16 scored exceptionally high on the 3DMark Solar Bay benchmark. It left the MacBook Pro in the dust, outscoring it by a whopping 24,610 points. If you're a gamer or plan to use your laptop for some gaming when you're not working on creative tasks, pay special attention to the Civilization VI benchmark results. The ProArt P16 averaged 110.8 frames per second, nearly double the MacBook's score. While gaming on macOS is slowly improving with better graphics performance and more games, it still can't compete with gaming on Windows, especially on a laptop with a dedicated RTX graphics card. That, combined with much stronger overall graphics performance, earns the ProArt P16 the win in this category. Winner: ASUS ProArt P16 If there's one area where MacBooks consistently trounce the competition, it's battery life. The MacBook Pro M3 Max wins this category with flying colors thanks to its astounding 18-hour battery life. It lasted a full 18 hours and 5 minutes on our battery benchmark test, nearly twice as long as the ProArt P16, which lasted 9 hours and 32 minutes. The ProArt P16 could probably get you through a full day of work, but if you need to do resource-intensive tasks or gaming, you'll need a charger on hand. That's not the case with the MacBook Pro, so it wins this category. Winner: MacBook Pro M3 Max The competition between the Asus ProArt P16 and the MacBook Pro M3 Max is close, but when it comes to sheer value for your money, it's tough to beat the ProArt P16. It offers comparable specs to the MacBook Pro M3 Max for a much lower price, with double the storage and a dedicated GPU. That NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card supercharges the ProArt P16's graphics performance, a category that's critical for creative tasks. Of course, there's no doubt the MacBook Pro is an excellent device for creators. It performed superbly well in our overall performance and battery life benchmark tests. The cost difference is significant, though, and the MacBook Pro M3 Max scored much lower than the ProArt P16 in our graphics benchmarks. So, unless you rely on creative apps that are only available on macOS, the ProArt P16 is better value for your money. Apple may redeem itself when it launches its M4 MacBook Pro line-up. However, Asus is giving Apple some serious competition. If you're hunting for the best creator laptop right now, the Asus ProArt P16 should be your top contender.

ASUS ProArt P16 (2024) review: The power, performance, and style creatives need

Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. The ASUS ProArt P16 is a stellar example of what a creator laptop should be: powerful, reliable, and stylish. This 16-inch powerhouse is one of the latest entries in ASUS's revamped ProArt line-up, which also includes the smaller ProArt PX13. Both feature a stunning new chassis design and AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processors. The ProArt P16 pairs powerful specs with a roomy 16-inch OLED display. Many creators might go straight for a MacBook Pro when choosing a new laptop, but that could be a mistake. If you don't believe me, just take a look at how well the ASUS ProArt P16 performed in our thorough lab testing. This is a creator laptop that's well worth considering, whether you want to work on video editing, graphic design, animation, or anything in between. The ASUS ProArt P16 starts at $1,899.99 for a base configuration including an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. If you want a little more storage or power, two upgraded configurations are available. The first upgraded configuration, which we reviewed, costs $2,299.99 and includes an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage. The maxed-out version of the ProArt P16 costs $2,699.99 and includes an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage. The ASUS ProArt laptops feature one of my favorite designs. Like its little sibling, the ProArt PX13, the ProArt P16 has a minimalistic, yet classy matte black chassis. The anodized "Nano Black" colorway looks polished and sophisticated, especially with extra details like the glossy edges on the lid and the metallic ProArt logo. The keyboard deck sports a pair of top-firing speakers, which are one of my favorite features to see on any laptop. However, since they're placed on the sides of the keyboard, there's no number pad. I don't mind the trade-off, though. There's still a full-size function row, as well. The power button is also on the keyboard deck, but it's in the top right corner, separate from the main keys, which helps avoid accidentally pressing it while typing. At just over four pounds, the ProArt P16 is light for a 16-inch creator laptop, coming in just below the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra (4.1 pounds) and considerably lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max, which weighs in at 4.8 pounds. It's also worth noting that unlike the smaller ProArt PX13, the ProArt P16 is not a 2-in-1, meaning you can't flip the display around to use in tablet mode. For most users, that may not be a big deal, but it could be a deal breaker if you're an artist or graphic designer who needs tablet mode functionality, in which case the PX13 might be a better fit. The ASUS ProArt P16 has all the ports most creatives need. On the left side there's a charging port, an HDMI port, a USB Type-C port, a USB Type-A port, and a headphone jack. On the right side there's a USB Type-C port, a USB Type-A port, and a full size SD card slot, which is a rare find on laptops. That was plenty of ports for me, but if you find yourself needing more, you can add a USB Type-C hub or a docking station to your laptop setup. The ASUS ProArt P16 has an OLED display that looked great during my hands-on testing. I did some gaming on it and watched some Survivor and NWSL highlights. The 3840x2400 resolution on the P16's display means everything shows up in sharp focus with great detail. I especially loved how good No Man's Sky looked with its bright, otherworldly graphics. However, while the ProArt P16's display looks good in everyday use, it could have scored better on our display tests. The ProArt P16 reproduced 85.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and achieved an average SDR brightness of 356 nits. I usually consider 80% of the DCI-P3 color gamut a minimum for creative laptops, so the ProArt P16 just barely passes that bar. However, I would have liked to see a higher score. The ProArt P16 scored higher than a couple of similar laptops, though. The MacBook Pro M3 Max and Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra both reproduced exactly 81.8 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The MacBook Pro M3 Max had the brightest screen with an average of 559.8 nits. The ASUS ProArt P16's keyboard offers a smooth, tactile typing experience that's responsive and reliable. It was great for typing and gaming alike in my hands-on testing, although the actuation force is a bit high for my liking. Overall, though, it's a stellar keyboard. On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 102 words per minute with 99 percent accuracy on the ProArt P16, which is well above my laptop average of 90 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy. That's also close to what I scored on the smaller ProArt PX13 (104 words per minute, 98 percent accuracy), which effectively has the same keyboard. The touchpad on the ProArt P16 has a soft but satisfying amount of tactile feedback and a smooth, matte finish. I thoroughly enjoyed using it during my testing. It also features the ASUS DialPad, which is a circular area in the top left corner of the touchpad that you can use to quickly adjust settings like volume or screen brightness. You can also use it as a shortcut for different functions in compatible apps. I didn't use the DialPad much, but if you often use video editing apps, Photoshop, or similar creative tools, it will come in handy. The ProArt P16 features a pair of top-firing speakers on the keyboard deck, which makes for a stellar audio experience. The speakers are loud and clear while also capturing detail and quieter sounds well. Background ambience and music in games was rich and immersive. Dialogue in video content was clear and lifelike. Music sounds great on the P16, too. The textured, electronic tones of the No Man's Sky soundtrack sounded fantastic while I was gaming. The speakers also captured the melodic highs and deep lows of "The Void" by The Neighbourhood superbly well. The P16 also handled the punchy rock tone of Nothing But Thieves' "Welcome to the DCC" with ease, delivering crisp electronic guitar notes and smooth vocals with a good balance. The speakers are loud enough that I never found myself cranking up music past 35 or 40. Gaming and graphics performance were excellent on the ProArt P16. It has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU, so I was expecting fairly good scores and the P16 delivered. It scored a whopping 24,284 on the 3DMark Fire Strike graphics test and averaged 184.8 frames per second in our Sid Meier's Civilization VI benchmark. That's far above what both of the P16's rivals scored. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra did reasonably well on the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark with a score of 17,255 but only averaged 78.7 fps in Civilization VI, less than half of the ProArt P16's score. Unfortunately, it's hard to compare the MacBook Pro M3 Max in this category since it isn't compatible with the same graphics tests. However, we ran Civilization VI on it and saw an average of 56 fps in 1920x1200 resolution, which is significantly lower than either the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra or the ProArt P16. The ProArt P16 also performed well in my hands-on gaming tests, although the battery suffered while running games. I did a speedrun of Minecraft (Java edition, version 1.21.1) and experienced a solid 60 fps throughout. However, I had to pause to plug in the ProArt P16 after about 1 hour of gameplay. Of course, games and similarly demanding apps always drain the battery faster than web browsing or video playback, so this isn't unique to the ProArt P16. The keyboard feels great for gaming, though. It has just the right amount of tactile feedback for a satisfying gaming experience without slowing you down. It also registered quick double-taps and rapid keystrokes during my speedrun well. I played some No Man's Sky on the ProArt P16 and had a great experience with that, as well. The vibrant graphics in No Man's Sky looked great on the P16's OLED display. I experienced a consistent and smooth 30 fps, which could be better but the game was still completely playable. The ambience and music in No Man's Sky sounded phenomenal, as well, thanks to the ProArt P16's top-firing speakers. The ProArt P16 is powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, which has 12 cores and 24 threads. Its NPU is capable of up to 50 TOPS (trillion operations per second) while the CPU as a whole is capable of up to 80 TOPS. The ProArt P16 scored well on our overall performance tests, but could have done better in a couple areas. It scored 2,872 on the Geekbench 6 single-core test and 15,286 on the multi-core test. It completed the HandBrake video transcoding test in three minutes and 15 seconds. The ProArt P16's scores fell right between the scores of the MacBook Pro M3 Max and the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra across the board. One notable area where the ProArt P16 excelled was the PugetBench Photoshop benchmark, where it scored 8,279. That's well above the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra's score of 6,428. Unfortunately, we can't compare the MacBook Pro M3 Max's PugetBench scores since the test received a major update in March 2024 that significantly changed how results are calculated and the MacBook Pro M3 Max was tested before those changes went into effect. However, even without the MacBook Pro's score, the ASUS ProArt P16 is clearly a powerful contender when it comes to creative apps. Its PugetBench Photoshop score is even higher than that of the ProArt PX13 (7,948). Considering the ProArt line is designed for creators, this score is arguably the most important of the bunch. It makes a great case for choosing the ProArt P16 over most of its rivals, despite slightly lower scores in other areas. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU at the heart of the ProArt P16 includes an NPU, or neural processing unit, which means it's capable of running on-device AI tasks and apps. The NPU is capable of up to 50 TOPS (trillion operations per second) while the CPU as a whole is capable of up to 80 TOPS. The Ryzen AI 300 series processors are AMD's latest foray into the AI PC market and they have some serious competition from Intel and Qualcomm. Apple is also trying to get in on the on-device AI action on Mac, but we tested the MacBook Pro M3 Max before the Geekbench ML benchmark became one of our main tests. However, the results from the Intel-powered Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra and the Qualcomm-powered Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge still make for an interesting comparison: This data includes benchmark results for the three leading AI PC processor families: AMD Ryzen AI 9 300 series, Intel Core Ultra, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. Even at a glance, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is the clear frontrunner across the board. The ASUS ProArt P16 has the top scores in all of our main AI benchmarks, particularly the integrated graphics test where it scored more than double that of its rivals. Some users may not be interested in on-device AI capabilities, but if you are, the ASUS ProArt P16 is a top choice. It has some of the best AI performance scores we've seen so far paired with a powerful AI-ready CPU. While the ASUS ProArt P16 achieved top scores in a few areas, it fell behind the competition in battery life. It lasted nine hours and 32 minutes in our battery test, which is just enough to get through a full workday, but doesn't offer much wiggle room. In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra lasted an impressive 13 hours and 19 minutes while the MacBook Pro M3 Max blew the competition out of the water with a time of 18 hours and five minutes (almost double the ProArt P16's time). The ProArt P16 features a full HD webcam with IR functionality to use for facial recognition login with Windows Hello. Like most laptop webcams, the video quality isn't great. It would be fine for an everyday video call or Zoom meeting, but it produces a grainy image. So, if you want to record higher-quality videos for YouTube, streaming, or other video content, you would be better served with one of the best external webcams. I never felt the ASUS ProArt P16 get uncomfortably warm during my hands-on testing. The top edge of the keyboard deck got a bit hot while gaming, but not enough that I felt it throughout the keyboard deck. The ProArt P16 performed well on our thermal benchmark tests, as well. The touchpad averaged a cool 73.8 degrees and the hottest temperature we recorded was just 87.6 degrees, which is well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The ProArt P16 includes ASUS's standard one-year warranty for parts and labor. If you often travel or commute and want some extra protection, you can purchase additional coverage through ASUS Premium Care Plus. The ASUS ProArt P16 comes with Windows 11, including all of the standard pre-installed Microsoft apps such as the Xbox app, Microsoft Edge, and the Microsoft Store. You also get some pre-installed ASUS apps including the ProArt Creator Hub, MyASUS, CapCut, StoryCube, and the MuseTree AI image generator. The ASUS ProArt P16 is a superb creator laptop, boasting top graphics and AI performance, stellar audio, and a stylish design. It noticeably outperformed the competition in our Adobe Creative Cloud benchmarks, as well, making the P16 a top contender for best creator laptop. Whether you want to work on video editing, graphic design, music production, animation, or anything in between, the ProArt P16 is a laptop worth considering. There are a few areas where the P16 could have scored better. The sub-10-hour battery life isn't ideal, but it should still be enough to get you through a full workday if you aren't gaming or video editing. We would have also liked to see better display benchmark scores given the creator focus for the laptop, but you won't be disappointed with the sharp and colorful image. It's also worth noting that the ProArt P16 isn't a 2-in-1, which could be a deal breaker for some users. If that's the case for you, take a look at the ProArt PX13 instead. Despite those drawbacks, the ASUS ProArt P16 has a lot to offer, particularly when it comes to delivering the performance creative professionals need. Plus, you can't go wrong with the stylish satin black design.