When it comes to editing on location, particularly video, the biggest challenge is finding laptops with enough grunt to really let you get the performance you need to work through things quickly. And while there are some great laptops out there for this kind of work, you do start to feel those bottlenecks after a while.
ASUS has a response to that, though, with the new ASUS StudioBook S W700, a laptop offering an Intel Xeon CPU, up to 64GB RAM, up to 4TB M.2 storage and an Nvidia Quadro GPU. DIYP spoke with ASUS at NAB 2019 about the new StudioBook S laptop and its capabilities.
This thing is an absolute beast of a laptop and features some very cool tech for editing. It’s an ultra-thin mobile workstation with a 17″ NanoEdge display in a package about the same size as the 15.6″ ZenBook Pro. I use a 15.6″ ZenBook Pro and it easily fits into the laptop compartment of all of my usual bags (Lowepro PhotoStream SP200, LowePro ProTactic BP 450 AWII, Tamrac Cyberpack 6, etc).
- Intel i7-8750H or Intel Xeon E-2176M CPU
- Nvidia Quadro P3200 GPU with 6GB RAM
- 17″ Backlit FHD (1920×1200) NanoEdge display (84% screen-to-body ratio)
- Up to 64GB DDR4 2666MHz (SO-DIMM x 2, supports ECC)
- Up to 4TB (PCIe® NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD x 2)
Supports CPU-attached RAID 0/1 (up to 48Gbps) - Dimensions: 382 x 286 x 18.4mm (H x W x D)
- Weight: 2.39kg
The operating system is Windows 10 Pro if you get the i7 processor, or Windows 10 Pro for Workstations if you get the Xeon processor. The display on the StudioBook S, while only 1920×1200 resolution offers 97% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB and 100% AdobeRGB coverage with a 179-degree viewing angle.
To get this level of performance, and probably not even get quite this level, you’re typically looking at gaming laptops. And gaming laptops aren’t exactly lightweight. The StudioBook S, on the other hand, only weighs a few hundred grams more than my ZenBook Pro. So easily portable for working on location.
Also suited particularly to photographers and video editors is a built-in UHS-II SD card slot, negating the need to carry around external SD card readers to utilise the full speed of those fast UHS-II cards. Other connectivity includes 1x Thunderbolt 3.0 USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 (40Gbps), 3x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A (10Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x combi audio jack and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
To keep the size of the laptop small, the numeric keypad doesn’t sit off to the side of the regular keypad, as it does with the VivoBook Pro, but is actually integrated into the touchpad. So, sorry, there’s no screenpad on this model, but the numeric keypad will be a valuable tool for those bouncing through timecodes in Premiere Pro and Resolve timelines.
The ASUS StudioBook S W700 is expected to arrive at some point during Q3 2019, although the spec hasn’t been completely finalised yet. Prices will come later.
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