Asus

While a tablet is a good tool for a creative professional, it doesn't offer the versatility of a full-blown laptop. You could opt for a 2-in-1 laptop, but there aren't a lot of options out there that won't blow a hole in your pocket. Until now, that is. The new Asus ProArt PZ13 is a competitively priced 2-in-1 that features the new Snapdragon X Plus chipset and promises to deliver great performance with even better battery life. It's a good alternative to the Microsoft Surface Pro, especially if you want something cheaper.

Asus was one of the first laptop manufacturers to join the Snapdragon X Elite bandwagon. When Qualcomm announced the new chip for laptops and showed off all of its capabilities, Asus jumped right on board and introduced the Vivobook S15 OLED (S5507). It's the first Vivobook to come with the chipset, and Asus claims impressive performance in a sleek form factor. I spent a couple of days trying out the laptop to find out if the claims were true, and here's what I found out.

I'll start by saying that this is the most insane gaming laptop I've ever reviewed. While I've used several gaming laptops, including the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (Review), this is on a different level. The ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D is a top-of-the-line gaming laptop with an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D 16-core processor. It features AMD's exclusive 3D V-cache technology that boosts performance by at least 15 percent compared to the standard 7945HX chip. Apart from the new processor and additional Ryzen AI features, there's nothing new with the ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D compared to the non-X3D variant.