ASUS Vivobook Pro series laptops now available, priced

 ASUS announced two new high-performance creator laptops in the Vivobook Pro series for young aspiring creators: the 16-inch Vivobook Pro 16X OLED (N7601) and the 15.6-inch Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M6500)

These feature-packed laptops are composed of creator-focused components, including visually precise OLED displays, the latest Intel and AMD processors, studio-grade NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics, and an innovative thermal system.

Power and performance like a pro

Create works that wow with Vivobook Pro 16X OLED’s 4K OLED HDR Dolby Vision 16:10 display.

a bigger screen, creators have more real estate for larger projects. At the same time, it helps designers and editors pay more attention to every intricate detail of their visual work. This world-leading 600-nit NanoEdge slim-bezel display is PANTONE Validated, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certified, and has a cinema-grade 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. Advanced young creators are guaranteed to get only the best-in-class true-to-life visuals, ideal for color-demanding tasks.

The OLED HDR Dolby Vision on the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED enhances the finest nuances of a creation to deliver a premium viewing experience. As creators are known to spend long hours and late nights, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is equipped to enhance eye care with its TÜV Rheinland certification for low blue-light emissions.

The Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is decked with an exclusive ASUS DialPad — a virtual rotary control on the mega-sized touchpad that lets creators fully control parameter adjustments in compatible Adobe creative software or custom functions in any other apps.

It can be customized via the ProArt Creator Hub, giving users access to different creator-related settings and features, including performance modes and screen calibration.

Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comprises high-performance components to ensure a smooth-flowing content creation process. The Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes with a 12th Generation Intel Core i9 H-series processor, 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, and an ultrafast 512 GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. There are additional slots for memory and storage expansion for heavy users. As excellent graphics performance is critical for content creation, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU.

This power combination enhances any creative workflow and allows users to edit, render or stream their creations faster and more precisely. Users can also access advanced graphics capabilities, such as ray-tracing, VR, or AI-powered video editing. And with the exclusive free NVIDIA Studio drivers, they get the best out of all their creative apps.

To keep all the industry-leading display and flagship-level performance working at its optimum capacity, the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED has the ASUS IceCool Pro thermal technology under its hood. This proprietary thermal technology features a dual-fan design with four external exhaust vents that lets users choose the ideal acoustic balance for the task. This ultra-efficient cooling system allows sustained peak CPU performance to 140-watt thermal design power (TDP).

Vivobook Pro 16X OLED is primed for productivity with a complete set of high-speed I/O ports. It includes a 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, full-function USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Gen 1 Type-A, and HDMI 2.1, along with a microSD Express 7.1 card reader and a 2.5 Gbps LAN port. Users can easily connect to their latest peripherals, displays, or projectors to help import, export, share or display content faster and more conveniently than ever. In addition, Vivobook Pro 16X OLED packs a long-lasting high-capacity 90 Wh battery for endless creativity and productivity.

Creator’s ideal machine

For newbie creators who plan to break through the industry or still building their portfolio, the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is the ideal machine for that. Donning a beautiful and world’s first 2.8K 120 Hz OLED HDR 16:9 600-nit display, it’s perfect for creative activities, with refresh rates up to 120 Hz and 0.2 ms response times. Having the same ASUS OLED display benefits, users can dive deeper into their visual world

To complement the stunning display, Vivobook Pro 15 OLED features an up to AMD Ryzen 7 5800H Mobile Processor with studio-grade of up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and 512 GB PCIe 3.0 SSD. Vivobook Pro 15 OLED makes for the perfect laptop for those just starting their creative journey, as it provides plenty of ultrafast storage for projects and loads apps in the blink of an eye.

Whether for entry-level 3D tasks, high-resolution videos, or live streaming, this creator’s must-have brings out the best of the user’s creativity thanks to the advanced GPU features. For always-cool performance, the ASUS IceCool Plus thermal technology uses upgraded 8 mm and 6 mm heat pipes with dual fans that efficiently accelerate heat transfer and increase airflow by up to 16%.

This also allows the CPU and GPU to run comfortably at a blistering 85 W combined TDP in Performance mode — with no throttling.

A smooth workflow requires fast connectivity, and there’s no shortage of I/O ports in Vivobook Pro 15 OLED. It includes a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, microSD card reader, HDMI 1.4, and USB 2.0 ports.

To keep Vivobook Pro 15 OLED hygienic, it is protected by ASUS Antibacterial Guard. This surface treatment keeps thousands of potentially harmful bacteria at bay. Antibacterial Guard has been scientifically proven to inhibit the growth of bacteria by more than 99% over 24 hours.

This ensures the laptop surfaces stay clean and sanitary for longer and reduces the spread of bacteria via contact.

Smart features designed for creators

The all-new Vivobook Pro series comes with a free three-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, providing access to over 20 world-class creative apps and allowing users more time to be inspired and create.

Both Creator laptops can lay flat to 180 degrees for collaborative works thanks to their ErgoLift Hinge. The ErgoSense keyboards, partnered with larger touchpads, promise an intuitive typing experience.

The Vivobook Pro series features a fingerprint sensor on the power button and a physical webcam shield to enhance security and privacy.

For unrivaled audio quality, Vivobook Pro 16X OLED and Vivobook Pro 15 OLED have the stereo sound system certified by the audio experts at Harman Kardon. It delivers powerful, immersive crystal-clear sound, providing superbly immersive entertainment and communications. The immersive multi-dimensional sound of Dolby Atmos indulges users in their favorite entertainment with sound that moves all around them for breathtaking realism in music, movies, and TV.

Pricing and availability

ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X OLED and ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED laptops come with a free lifetime license to Microsoft Office applications.

Vivobook Pro 16X OLED comes in 0° black color clad in a premium all-metal design. Get it today for only PhP 159,995.00.

Vivobook Pro 15 OLED comes in Quiet Blue color and is now available for a starting price of only PhP 67,995.00.

Both laptops are available in ASUS Concept Stores and authorized resellers today. Check out the complete list of where to buy here https://ph.asus.click/PRWTB. Users can also score their ASUS Creator laptop with up to 12 months of 0% installment via Home Credit.

Search
-

Days Gone for PC quick review: Definitely more immersive

06/25/2021

Sony’s 2019 title Days Gone has been an overall well-received survival game and was once exclusive to the PlayStation 4.

When the news of it being ported to PC was announced, even more gamers looked forward to its release and that’s understandable as it now comes with an array of new features that should further enhance the experience.

I have been playing it on PC for a while now in between gaming on different consoles and for this review, we take a look at the game itself as well as the fresh additions incorporated in this version.

Plot, environment, and the open world

Quickly going over its premise, you play as Deacon St. John — a biker who is on a quest to find his missing wife after they got separated due to the craziness of the outbreak. He is accompanied by his trusted friend, Boozer, who is the deuteragonist in the game.

Together (and sometimes alone), you ride through the post-apocalyptic setting of Oregon, slithering your way through busted vehicles and rundown houses in search of tools to help you survive as well as gasoline for your thirsty bike.

Apart from running, flesh-eating zombies (called Freakers) that come after you in hordes, you are also presented with a dangerous group of survivors that are more than dedicated to hunt you down and do nasty things to you. Fun, right?

All these dangers make Days Gone a game that will keep you at the edge of your seat. There are times that you’re peacefully looting old vehicles and a sneaky Freaker will freakin’ jump at you from behind and simply make your heart rate spike in real life. Again, fun, right?

And when the undead are not trying to eat you alive, leave it to wild animals to get you running for your life again.

The open-world aspect is also interesting as you’re left to explore a rather large map and with your trusty steed, you can easily ride from one point of interest to the next — just as long as you have enough gas.

Speaking of your gas-guzzling bike, the gameplay involves you taking care of your only means of transportation and making sure it’s in tip-top shape. It has its durability meter that gets damaged when you land from high places, ride through Freakers, or simply hit a tree head-on. You can repair your bike by looting spare parts from broken-down vehicles.

This kind of gameplay kind of limits you from continuously exploring the map — but not in a bad way. This means the game makes you work for the convenience of having a bike to go around on, and it does feel kind of rewarding and could satisfy those who are really looking for role-playing elements in a game.

Missions and combat system

While the plot, environment, and open-world are all interesting and immersive, I would say that the missions are generally repetitive. I felt like I’ve been doing the same routine of clearing out Freaker nests, chasing down leads, hunting bounties, and looting items throughout the story.

It’s actually fun at first since I was still high on immersing myself in its graphics with a higher frame rate, appreciating small details, and enjoying the novelty of running from swarms of zombies that really gets your heart pumping.

But it feels like when you’ve sobered up after the first few hours of playing, you just realized you’re doing the same things in a pattern. And this was enough to make me stop and quit my gaming session for the day.

Its combat system is really enjoyable, though, and feels right at home especially if you’re used to playing shooter games on PC. The way you can modify your weapons from looting the place around you satisfies the fan in me that has seen tons of zombie films and TV shows.

To add to that, you’re not only limited to just shooting them and slashing your way with melee weapons, but they also take you down, pin you to the ground, and you’re left struggling for your life which, for me, adds realism and dynamics to its combat system.

Days Gone as a PC game

A PS4 could only churn out so much processing power so it’s a bit limited in terms of visual representation.

And as mentioned earlier, the PC version comes with a host of new features that aim to make gameplay more enjoyable. One of the main features is its unlocked framerate. This means, depending on the specs of your gaming rig, you can achieve higher frame rates and smoother movements that enhance visuals greatly.

I was also able to see detailed foliage even from far away distances — adding further to the game’s immersion. And more importantly, the system requirements for PC aren’t that high so the game is fairly accessible to a wider range of gamers and will be able to enjoy the full potential of the game.

I’m just running on an NVIDIA GTX 1060 GPU and was able to get stable framerates during my playthrough.

Apart from better visuals, you also enjoy hardware benefits like more input support for the game (official or third-party controllers) as well as its support for 21:9 ultra-wide monitor.

I’m currently using one — hence the wide screenshots in this article — and I personally prefer it over the usual 16:9 aspect ratio since you can see more elements in one frame and it simply makes the game look cinematic to me.

Final thoughts

Days Gone for PC is definitely a more visually pleasing way to experience the game if you have the opportunity. It’s simply more immersive than its console counterpart and you’re offered flexibility when it comes to graphics output, specs requirements, and even hardware support.

The game itself is not perfect and comes with a repetitive formula throughout its story, but that’s easy to look past if you just enjoy riding through a post-apocalyptic scenery while looting and dodging Freakers on the side.

Days Gone for PC is now available for PhP 2,490 over at Steam.

REVIEWS