3D TVs, game consoles and even smartphones have quickly become a distant memory, but not all companies have completely abandoned the technology – and I’m not just talking about the new Avatar movie.
Acer introduced a laptop with a 3D screen without glasses in 2021, and now Asus has also jumped on the bandwagon and decided to go further.
At CES, the company unveiled the first-ever 3D laptops with OLED screens (Acer opted for LCD instead): the ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED and the Vivobook Pro 16X 3D OLED. The 16-inch, 3200×2000 panels on both also boast 120Hz refresh rates and 550 nits peak brightness, making it one of the highest quality displays around.
But it’s the 3D aspect that’s most exciting here. Devices can switch between 2D and 3D modes at the touch of a button, using eye-tracking technology to make content appear to be rolling off the screen towards you.
I had the opportunity to test the ProArt Studiobook briefly before the official announcement, and it was surprisingly good. The effect works best on content produced specifically for 3D, with demo models created by Asus particularly impressive.
Asus
Of course, almost all existing video content is designed for 2D screens. Adding a 3D effect can still be effective in some scenes, but it often looks artificial and can detract from the content itself. Asus hopes that more producers and directors will return to making movies and TV shows made for 3D over the next few years, and indeed hopes that these laptops will serve double duty as tools that creators will use to produce this work in 3D.
Even in its current state, images remained smooth and transitions were nearly seamless – the Acer version struggled with both at times. The ProArt Studiobook 16 doesn’t do it all, but it looks like a step up for 3D laptops. Although I didn’t get to try it, identical specs on the Vivobook Pro 16X suggest it will be just as good.
It will take some time for your eyes to adjust to 3D mode though, especially if you’ve never experienced it on a smaller screen before. But once you do, it feels really immersive. Even as a regular 2D panel, it’s one of the best displays on any laptop. It’s rich, vibrant and offers excellent detail, making it a great content consumption device.
However, the high-end specs suggest that both devices are capable of so much more. This includes Intel’s brand new 13e-gen under the hood – specifically, the more powerful Core HX series. It’s paired with the new Nvidia RTX 40-series graphics cards, also announced at CES 2023.
Asus didn’t mention specific CPUs and GPUs, but the high-end Core i9-13950HX and RTX 4090 are likely options. Along with up to 64GB of fast DDR5 RAM and 8TB of SSD storage on both, performance should be among the best on any laptop.
So how are the two laptops actually different? Essentially, the ProArt device is billed as a mobile workstation for creators, while the Vivobook focuses on both creation and entertainment. Besides a slightly different design, that means you’ll find a few more hardware features on the Studiobook.
Asus
The most appreciable is a haptic touchpad, which also directly supports note taking thanks to its stylus support. With no convertible functionality on either device (the hinge stops at 180°), this is an easier way to quickly jot something down for later.
The physical Asus dial from other ProArt devices also makes an appearance here, allowing you to control key system settings and options in Adobe’s creative apps.
However, many other core features are consistent across both devices. This includes a sizable 90 Wh battery, a Full HD infrared camera, four microphones and an advanced cooling system called “IceCool Pro”. There’s an impressive array of ports too, with 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 2x USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack.
These extra features mean the ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED is likely to be more expensive, although we don’t have pricing for it or the Vivobook Pro 16X 3D OLED yet. Non-3D versions of the ProArt Studiobook 16 and Vivobook Pro 16X should be slightly more affordable, although they retain all the other premium features of the device.
Asus says the new devices will arrive in the UK sometime in the third quarter of 2023 (July-September), so expect similar availability elsewhere.
