There has already been considerable excitement at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in Las Vegas, with leading computer manufacturers proudly showing off their shiny new wares for day-to-day use, grueling work pursuits, and gaming. ASUS has also dived right into the opportunity with the ASUS StudioBook S W700, one of the sleekest laptops to offer NVIDIA Quadro graphics or the gospel for creative professionals.
It is one among the slew of contemporary laptops that ASUS has announced at the CES 2019, but we daresay it deserves to hog the limelight. ASUS has targeted the StudioBook at designers, architects, animators and programmers—or anyone who needs to run a specialized set of design tools on a computer that is both responsive and has the display to match the brilliance of ideas.
Table of Contents
Design & Display: Compact Dazzle
The StudioBook S, decked up in rose gold and turquoise grey, comes across as a remarkably compact and stylish machine. Its 17” build is comparable to some 15” laptops. With a weight of 5.27lbs and dimensions to the tune of 15.03 x 11.25 x 0.72”, this computer is touted to fit easily into backpacks. It has a 180-degree hinge to enable the screen to be laid out flat, thereby facilitating sharing and collaboration. That said, the exterior is also highly durable, adhering to military standards (MIL-STD 810G) and having passed operational tests in extreme temperate, humidity, altitudes, and vibrations.
The compactness of the design makes it even more enchanting to discover NVIDIA Quadro P3200 graphics (professional-grade graphics compatible with DirectX 12 and competent at rendering, simulation and playback). Indeed, the StudioBook is one of the thinnest laptops available to feature such superior graphics in a NanoEdge, high screen-to-body-ratio (84%) construction. The screen is FHD with a wide color gamut—97% DCI-P3 and 129% sRGB. The color accuracy is sharp (Delta E < 2), and the screen has a matte finish to repel glares. Plus, since the aspect ratio is 16:10 and the bezel is ultra-thin at 5.3mm (0.20”), ASUS claims that professionals will get much more space to house their applications.
Desktop-Class Power & Performance
Creative professionals demand fluid, efficient performance, and ASUS has invigorated its most recent launch with the power to deliver just that. It runs an eighth-gen Intel Xeon or Core i7 CPU on Windows 
ASUS has invested in a superior cooling system to ensure that nothing comes in the way of seamless performance. The laptop is equipped with a cooling fin (liquid-crystal-polymer) to boost the internal airflow and keep the innards cool even when the CPU and the GPU are running at their highest settings. The entire system is placed within a 3D-curved aerodynamic shroud made from aluminum alloy. ASUS claims that the noise produced by the machine is also wonderfully low at below 35dB.
| Processor | Intel Xeon E-2176M processor Intel Core i7-8750H processor |
| Graphics | NVIDIA Quadro P3200 6GB GDDR5 VRAM |
| RAM | Up to 64GB DDR4 |
| Storage | Up to 4TB SSD |
| Display | 17-inch LED-backlit FHD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro Workstation Windows 10 Pro |
Professional Software to Boot
The ASUS StudioBook is built to run top-quality design software comfortably, thus streamlining things for creative professionals. For instance, designers can avail of CAD and 3D design tools, while architects can avail of BIM software (Building Information Modelling).
All the software goes through the ISV—an Independent Software Vendor certification process that ensures things run smoothly on the machine.
Ease of Accessibility: Dual-Function Touchpad
A particularly notable triumph of the ASUS StudioBook is its unique touchpad with an illuminated numeric keypad and dedicated hotkeys. This does away with a limitation that compact laptops have faced historically—the lack of a dedicated numeric keypad and, as a result, slow calculations/data entry.
Interestingly, the touchpad continues to be available as a cursor even when the number-pad is activated.
Staying Connected to the World
Sharing is caring, as goes the saying, and design professionals understand it like no one else. The new ASUS StudioBook comes fitted with a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port to enable rapid data transfer (40 Gbps) and easy plug-in to devices or peripherals. There are also three USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, an SD card reader, an HD webcam, and an HDMI to connect to external displays.
Users can connect to the internet through the integrated Wi-Fi 6 (gigabit-class). One of the first computers to offer Wi-Fi 6, it claims to deliver speeds almost equivalent to wired connections, i.e., in the vicinity of 2.4 Gbps. Here’s a straightforward metric to get the picture: it is three times as fast as 802.11ac, which is saying something.
The Verdict
The CES 2019 famously sets the technological trends for the year, and the ASUS StudioBook S W700 looks eager to capture the imagination. To its merit, it is a laptop that indeed seems to deliver what it promises—sheer computing power and brilliance, especially for the creative at heart (and by profession). It packs a fantastic display and immense processing prowess in a compact but durable frame.
There are many customer delights that it renders possible—NVIDIA Quadro graphics in a machine this thin, Wi-Fi 6, and vast storage. It also pushes the boundaries of computing and design through the innovative keypad, high-speed internet, and an uber-efficient cooling system. The only things that are now left to be seen are the price tag that ASUS ties to its latest launch and the on-field performance it delivers to first-time users.
