ASUS have unveiled their latest enterprise level laptop, announcing the ExpertBook Ultra at ASUS Next Enterprise Summit in Singapore.
Unveiled during CES earlier this year, the ExpertBook Ultra is designed for the corporate world – but also to buck the trend of the ugly box corporate laptop, with the ExpertBook Ultra promising ‘ultralight design, AI-powered performance, and uncompromising security for next-generation professionals’.
Priced starting from $4,999, the laptop is svelte, lightweight, and powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors with on-board AI processing, as well as including a 3K resolution OLED display and Dolby Atmos audio.
It’s also designed to keep your corporate network, and data safe, with PQC encryption and NIST cyber compliance.
I’ve been using the Expertbook Ultra for two weeks now, and here’s how it went.
Design
For a commercial grade laptop, the ASUS Expertbook Ultra doesn’t look the part. It looks elegant, and more along the lines of a premium grade laptop, than your traditional chunky corporate laptop.
The lightweight Aerospace Grade Magnesium Aluminum chassis in either a subtle Morn Grey in an almost white colour, or a darker Jet Fog colourway which ASUS sent over for review. Both options look great no matter which you choose.
At just 990 grams, it feels light, and at just 10.9mm thin it may look flimsy but when you get it in-hand, you can feel the sturdiness and build quality with the ASUS Nano Ceramic Technology giving it a softer feel in-hand.
The Nano Ceramic coating has a slightly matte feel to it, and it’s easy to grip and hold while you walk around.
It’s a durable build too for added peace of mind, with that ceramic coating getting a 9H on the hardness scale so you don’t have to worry about fingerprints or even scratches – a simple wipe with a lint free cloth and it’s clean and ready to go.
The laptop also passed 24 of the mil-spec (MIL-STD 810H) certification tests for drops, temperature extremes, twisting, vibrations, humidity and more.
While it’s a slim build, it has a plethora of ports including a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port and USB Type-A port on either side of the laptop. I’m a big fan of this distribution of ports so you don’t have to pull cables around. There’s also a HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack to plug in a headset if needed.
What it doesn’t have is an RJ45 jack, but it does have fast Wifi 7 and with most office workers connecting to WiFi these days that’s a better option.
Of course the action all starts when you open the laptop. The hinge is easy to open, moving with a single finger and stays in place fairly well – though can be a little wobbly when opened. The hinge doesn’t quite lay flat which is something I use regularly, but won’t be missed if you don’t.
Inside you find the gorgeous 14” 3K resolution Tandem OLED display up top, and the full-sized keyboard with haptic touchpad below.
The display has almost no bezel, with the Windows Hello compatible FullHD resolution IR web-cam barely fitting inside – yet it still includes a physical shutter to cover it when not in use.
The Windows Hello compatibility continues with a fingerprint sensor in the power button on the backlit keyboard – so you are logging in fast no matter what.
That fingerprint sensor is highlighted by ASUS’ ExpertLumi lighting notifications. There’s no RGB on this business laptop, but the ASUS ExpertLumi light bar will light up on login, logging off, or just powering on the PC. The light bar sits just below your display and is fairly unobtrusive – and I’d love to see more you can do with it.
There’s some limited functionality youc an change, or you can turn it off from the F11 Function – or through the ExpertPanel software in the system tray.
The keyboard itself is fantastic. It’s full-sized, so you don’t feel cramped when typing, with each keycap having a slight dish shape so you can rest your fingertips comfortably and a 1.5mm key travel is very comfortable when typing for long periods.
It’s spill resistant, giving you some peace of mind for life’s little accidents, and the keycaps are Excimer coated which means it has a soft-touch feel, and there’s no worry about wear resistance.
ASUS have also included highlighted multi-media keys on the F1-F4 function keys. The blue highlighting which makes it easier to find in low-light.
ASUS have also upgraded the touchpad experience on the Expertbook Ultra, bringing a 6-sensor haptic experience which improves feedback giving you finer control and an overall smoother experience. The touchpad also includes controls for brightness and volume on each side of the trackpad, givingy ou an easy way to adjust either – with the vibration motor giving you tactile feedback as you scroll through.
It’s a better, and smoother experience on the touchpad – however it can be a little overly sensitive. I found a few random touches activating clicks that would be ignored on other systems. . You can change the sensitiviy, but I haven’t managed to find a sweet spot, but the settings let you play around, so it’s a matter of time and patience on this one.
Performance and Security
The ExpertBook Ultra is powered by the latest Intel “Panther Lake” Core Ultra Processor – with ASUS supplying a Core X7 processor with Intel Arc B390 GPU for the review.
The system includes up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, as well as a 512GB Gen5 SSD, so it’s lightning fast, booting in just under 20 seconds into Windows thanks to touchless Windows Hello login.
The Core X7 model is fast, taking on all manner of office work with no issues and jumping into video editing with equal fervour.
I was loath to run games on the unit, however it does run games – albeit at a reduced resolution and frame-rate, but it WILL run them. Crimson Desert ran around 30-35fps at 1080p, but jumped to around 50 at 1280×800. Crysis Remastered kept up a little better at nearly 50fps on 1080p for a better experience.
The ExpertCool cooling system is impressive on the ExpertBook Ultra, with air intakes underneath using the rubberised feet keeping it off the desk to supply fresh, cool air to the aluminum thermal module inside. The dual fans create a small amount of noise, around 30dB in my testing – which is barely enough to register. It does ramp up to 45W in performance mode which is a little louder, but still barely registering.
As usual, I ran it through the 3DMark tests and here’s how it went.
As a corporate focused laptop, security is paramount and the ExpertBook Ultra includes a number of security features including hardware level Trusted Platform Module (TPM), as well as self-healing dual BIOS, Chassis intrusion detection, 5 years of Security updates. ASUS have also had the laptop certified for NIST SP 800-193 Cyber Security Compliance.
Display and Audio
The 14” 3K resolution OLED panel on the ExpertBook Ultra is the same excellent quality we’ve been seeing in ASUS’ consumer range for years – and in some cases it’s even better thanks to the stacked Tandem OLED panel.
The Tandem OLED panel design layers OLED layers to produce a brighter image at a reduced power draw with the benefit of extending the life of the panel.
The result is brilliant. It’s colour accurate, crisp and with the 120Hz refresh things look super smooth when scrolling and doesn’t appear to impact battery life either.
The display is also touch enabled with a matte finish and covered in Gorilla Glass Victus offering improved scratch and fall resistance. The finish is surprisingly good, offering a decent reduction in reflections.
It’s also decently bright with a 600 nits brightness – but is able to achieve up to 1400 nits peak HDR brightness. It works well indoors or out, with the matte finish helping with reflections.
On the audio side of things, ASUS have adopted the six-speaker setup from their consumer laptops where they have been producing great sound for a couple of years, it’s also tuned by Dolby Atmost for spatial audio, with the Dolby app around to help you configure it.
The ExpertBook Ultra has a six-speaker setup which includes two ‘dual magnetic woofers’ as well as two tweeters. The position of the speakers underneath the laptop make for quite a big sound as the audio reflects from the desk surface. This mix of low and higher-end speakers makes for great audio whether you’re on a video call, or just kicking back with a movie.
Battery
There’s a 70Wh 2S2P battery pack inside the ExpertBook Ultra, with a 90W USB-C charger included in the box.
70Wh isn’t the largest battery pack we’ve seen, but it does promise up to 24hrs of use – and combined with the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, it delivers.
I threw everything but the kitchen sink at the ExpertBook Ultra and it kept going. I was easily able to work all day on the Expertbook Ultra, and left overnight in standby it was ready to go the next morning.
I generally set display brightness at around 50% – but I did note a dip in battery when I added an external monitor, however I still got a solid 8 hours before the battery died – and it lasted a full flight to Singapore watching Bobs Burgers.
Charging? It’s an absolute breeze. The battery architecture is split into four cells, with parallel charging at a lower voltage – letting you get more efficient charging.
This is reflected in the charging speeds, which didn’t quite nail the 30% in 15 minutes that ASUS lists, but it came close – and was fully charged in 103 minutes.
My only gripe on charging is the bulky 90W USB-C charger. A smaller charger would be welcome, especially for business people accustomed to travelling.
Software
The Expertbook Ultra runs Windows 11 Professional out of the box with the 25H2 Windows build – which is supported until October 2027. The Windows 11 26H1 build launched earlier this year, however there’s no sign of the update.
ASUS have said that they are willing to work with Corporate IT divisions on developing custom SOE (Standard Operating Environment) builds for your company – so if you’re looking to on-board some units, it’s an option.
Apps
There are of course apps pre-installed on the ASUS ExpertBook Ultra. Microsoft’s Office trials and apps are available, and you do of course get Mcafee pre-installed along with its popups.
ASUS also include their own software, pre-installing the MyASUS app used for software updates for the CPU/GPU, BIOS, NPU,Wi-Fi and more. It can also run diagnostics, change settings and more.
The ExpertPanel is a great inclusion, giving you fast access to a number of features, including proprietary options including AI functions including Translated subtitles, Meeting Minutes and more. You can also access features including the ExpertLumi lighting, Screen Recorder and more.
There’s also ASUS MyExpert, ASUS’ AI-powered productivity suite. It’s exclusive to the ExpertBook series and brings a wealth of tools including an AI assistant, AI Writer and AI Mail Master that offers smart searches and summaries.
The downside is that it’s a paid feature, so you’ll need to unlock the Pro version to take advantage of the tools.
Final Thoughts
For a corporate laptop, there is a lot to like about the ExpertBook Ultra.
From the lightweight sub-1kg design with the Nano Ceramic coating giving it a pleasant in-hand feel – and looking very business like in the Jet Fog colourway – the ExpertBook Ultra is great.
The system has a few niggles. The touchpad is a little overly sensitive and the hinge has a little too much flex at times, but overall, this is a heck of a laptop.
The new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors and B390 GPU are excellent.
Performance is fast, and Battery life was surprisingly good with the new processor, and charging is a fast and pleasant experience as well.
While it’s still a corporate laptop, the ASUS ExpertBook Ultra is what I’d be requesting from my IT department.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
