The ASUS ProArt P16 equipped with NVIDIA’s new RTX Spark platform is a powerful, sleek laptop designed primarily for AI professionals and enthusiasts. With impressive graphics performance, a stunning OLED display and support for up to 128GB of unified memory, it offers substantial computing power in a relatively lightweight design.

However, its high price, potential software compatibility issues and less-than-impressive battery life make it a specialized purchase rather than a laptop for everyone.

The starting price is $2,800, while the review model, configured with 128GB of RAM, costs a hefty $7,000. For that amount, buyers need a clear reason to choose RTX Spark over more established laptop platforms.

Design and Features: Premium Looks, Powerful Hardware

ASUS has delivered a polished design with the ProArt P16. Its sturdy aluminum chassis, spacious keyboard and expansive haptic touchpad give it a premium feel reminiscent of Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup.

Despite its 16-inch display, the laptop weighs just 3.9 pounds, making it lighter than Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro, which weighs 4.7 pounds.

The standout feature is NVIDIA’s RTX Spark system-on-a-chip. It combines a 20-core Arm processor, a Blackwell-based GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory, bringing CPU, graphics and memory resources together in a configuration similar in principle to Apple’s M-series chips.

The platform is designed particularly for AI workloads, including running large language models locally. It is not intended to replace traditional Intel- and AMD-powered PCs across the board, but rather to offer a new option for AI developers, researchers and enthusiasts.

Connectivity is also generous. The ProArt P16 includes three USB-C ports, USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader. An Ethernet port would have been welcome, but its absence is common among thin premium laptops.

Performance: Built for AI and Graphics-Intensive Work

In everyday use, the ProArt P16 feels exceptionally responsive. Large downloads, demanding applications and multitasking were handled smoothly during testing.

Its CPU performance, however, was not always class-leading. The laptop scored lower than a previously tested ASUS A16 powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite in PCMark 10’s Applications benchmark, and it also trailed slightly in Geekbench 6’s single-core CPU test.

The picture changed when graphics and AI workloads entered the equation.

In Geekbench 6’s GPU benchmark, the ProArt P16 scored approximately 4,700 points more than a MacBook Pro equipped with Apple’s M5 Max. It also recorded 3,895 points in UL Procyon’s AI Computer Vision 2 test, compared with 3,267 for the MacBook. In Procyon’s AI Image Generation test, ASUS’s laptop led by roughly 600 points.

These results highlight the RTX Spark platform’s central advantage: substantial graphics and AI-processing capabilities combined with a large pool of unified memory.

The laptop also successfully ran OpenClaw and the Qwen3.8 27B model, which reportedly requires around 42GB of RAM, while leaving memory available for other tasks.

For people who want to experiment with large AI models locally rather than rely entirely on cloud services, this combination could be particularly attractive.

Gaming: Impressive Results, With Compatibility Caveats

Although AI is the platform’s primary focus, the ProArt P16 can also deliver strong gaming performance.

During testing, Control: Resonant ran at around 70 frames per second at 1440p with ultra graphics settings, medium ray tracing and 4x frame generation. Lowering the graphics settings pushed performance to approximately 120fps.

Other tested games, including Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Gears of War: E-Day, also ran successfully.

NVIDIA has said the RTX Spark’s graphics performance is broadly comparable to a mobile RTX 5070 GPU while consuming less power. The review’s results generally supported that positioning.

However, gaming on an Arm-based Windows system comes with an important limitation. Many titles must run through Microsoft’s Prism emulation layer, which can reduce performance and introduce compatibility problems.

Some popular games already have native Arm64 versions, but support remains uneven. Multiplayer titles that depend on particular anti-cheat systems may also present challenges.

For gamers who want dependable compatibility across a broad library of Windows titles, a conventional Intel- or AMD-powered gaming laptop remains the safer choice.

A Stunning OLED Display

The ProArt P16’s 16-inch Lumina Pro OLED display is one of its strongest features.

With peak brightness reaching 1,600 nits, the screen delivers deep blacks, rich contrast and excellent visibility in bright environments. It performed particularly well in darker game scenes, while its high brightness also made outdoor work easier.

The display competes with Apple’s premium MacBook Pro screens in peak brightness, although buyers should consider their preferred refresh rate and gaming needs when comparing systems.

The keyboard and touchpad also impressed during testing. The keyboard offers comfortable spacing and generous key travel, while the haptic touchpad ranks among the reviewer’s favorite Windows laptop touchpads.

The dual speakers deliver solid audio with Dolby Atmos support, although a four-speaker system would have been a welcome addition.

Battery Life and Everyday Drawbacks

Battery life is respectable but not exceptional for a premium laptop. The ProArt P16 lasted 10 hours and 51 minutes in the PCMark 10 Applications battery test, falling short of the 15-hour-plus results achieved by some competing premium systems.