ASUS Zenbook A16 Undercuts Apple’s MacBook Pro Lineup With Its $1,600 Price That Includes Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, Tons Of RAM & Adequate Storage

Notebooks powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite were in a tough position ever since the DRAM shortage began, making Apple’s portable Mac series a far more salivating option for the price. However, ASUS has bucked the ongoing trend where computers are listed at inflated figures because its Zenbook A16, which is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest silicon, is not just available for $1,599.99, but it undercuts the MacBook Pro family by sporting a whopping 48GB RAM and a 1TB SSD as part of its specifications.

Zenbook A16 utilizes ASUS’ patented Ceraluminum technology to make the chassis more durable and lighter, but it remains to be seen if it outmatches the MacBook Pro

Where all the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models rely on mini-LED technology, ASUS takes it one step further by incorporating a 16-inch 3K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 0.2ms response time, and 1,100 nits of peak brightness. With its Ceraluminum technology, ASUS claims that its portable Windows-powered machine is not just lighter at 2.87 pounds, but it is also more scratch and shock-resistant, while keeping fingerprints and smudges at bay.

Despite its bigger 16-inch frame, the Zenbook A16 only sports a 70WHr battery, but the company claims that you can get up to 21 hours of battery life. However, independent testing should provide more insight into this runtime. Other than that, you’re getting an 18-core CPU belonging to the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, followed by a whopping 48GB of on-package LPDDR5X RAM, plus a 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 SSD that can be upgraded.

As for the ports, you get two USB-C ports that support the USB 4.0 Gen 3 protocol and can reach a bandwidth of 40Gbps, plus an additional USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port with a throughput of 10Gbps. The package also includes a single 3.5mm audio/combo jack, one HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader. There’s also Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support. On paper, if you want an Apple Silicon alternative to a Windows notebook, we see no reason why you shouldn’t get ASUS’ Zenbook A16.

At a lower price, you’re getting double the base RAM as the M5 Pro, with the option to upgrade the SSD at any time. We’ll be including various benchmarks and comparisons to see how well the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs in a number of tests, but if you want to jump right into the action, you can grab Zenbook A16 from Best Buy, with the smaller Zenbook A14 sporting the Snapdragon X2 Elite, 2K OLED screen, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 512GB SSD available for $1,149.99.

As a reminder, Amazon continues to discount various M5 Pro MacBook Pro configurations by $150 off, so if you’re still not convinced that Windows is the correct platform for you, these machines start from $2,049 and ship with 24GB of unified memory paired with a 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen 5 SSD.

About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech’s mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.

Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.