Asus ExpertBook P5 Review (P5405) – Sleek business oriented laptop with new ExpertMeet AI

While they are best known for their array of mainstream laptops, Asus is also a surprisingly dab hand at making business laptops too as their ExpertBook series would attest to.

Since the debut of their ExpertBook B series a few years back, they’ve expanded to the mainstream ExpertBook P series such as the recently launched Asus ExpertBook P5 in Malaysia that packs Copilot+ and that is designed for a more larger-scale corporate deployments with options for customised and off the shelf configurations.  

We got our hands on their latest model for the Malaysia market a few weeks back and after taking a whirl around the block, here’s our Asus ExpertBook P5 review aka model P5405 where we share if it’s worth acquiring for you or your organisation.

Asus ExpertBook P5 review – Build and Design

Seeing its intended audience, the laptop itself exudes understated corporate chic from top to bottom with rounded corners, beveled edges and a brushed gunmetal grey finish that fits in well everywhere from a coffee shop to the boardroom with the main distinguishing feature being the ExpertBook wordmark tastefully embossed on a silver badge attached to the top lid. 

Unlike the top of the line ExpertBook B series that use cutting edge ultralight magnesium alloys and are intended for the corporate elite who intend to travel light, the Asus ExpertBook P5 aka model P5405 is intended more for middle and upper management use with more a conventional aluminium chassis that is nonetheless rated for MIL-STD 810H grade shock proofing and modest resistance to drops. 

The ExpertBook P5 also retains the necessary security measures required for an enterprise laptop to prevent tampering including a TPM 2.0 chip with either Windows Hello or the fingerprint reader cum power button for biometric authentication.

The gunmetal grey finish on our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample resists fingerprints to a fair degree with the whole laptop feeling exceptionally well built and sturdy.

The right side of the laptop hosts a single USB Type A 3.2 Gen 2 port along with a Kensington nano lock while the left has a more comprehensive selection of ports that include two Thunderbolt 4 ports that are also able to charge the laptop, an additional USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a HDMI 2.1 port and an audio combo jack. 

Combined, this array of ports that includes both USB-A, USB-C and HDMI covers most of the bases for current enterprise use including the ability to plug in peripherals as well as stream display out to two 4K displays via the HDMI and one Thunderbolt port or to a projector for presentations. 

The underside features a series of phillips head screws securing the bottom panel which has grilles for the downward firing stereo speakers which are Dolby Atmos certified as well as an additional set for ventilation too. 

Flipping the lid of our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample open is a bit of a challenge as there’s no indent for fingers to gain purchase, making opening it a two handed affair. The hinges open smoothly and enable the laptop to open flat if so needed.

When opened, you get a premium keyboard tray finished in metal with a generously sized touchpad and a white-LED backlit keyboard that has the aforementioned power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader and which also has a dedicated Copilot key which summons Copilot+, the juiced up version of Microsoft’s AI assistant. The keyboard is also moderately spill resistant, meaning that it can survive up to 78cc of fresh water – a modest splash or two of water basically – without any undue effects.

The 14-inch matte LED display has 2,560 x 1,600 pixels resolution, a surprisingly smooth 144hz refresh rate, 400 nits peak brightness and a modest 100% sRGB which is unfortunately short of the typical 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut that content creators require for serious work. Perched up top of the display is a 1080p FHD IR webcam that has a physical privacy shield for added security.

Asus ExpertBook P5 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

Our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample for the Malaysia market only comes in one available configuration off-the-shelf though customised variants can be requested from the brand. You get the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor that is quoted to offer up to 47 TOPS for AI related tasks.

The Lunar Lake processor also features an integrated 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, packs a 1TB SSD along with Intel Arc graphics. While the RAM is integrated into the processor, the laptop does have an additional SSD slot to augment storage space down the line which is a significant bonus seeing as most ultraportables only stick with just one SSD slot. Here’s how our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample stacks up on paper:

Price	RM6,859
Display	14-inch WQXGA LED, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits peak brightness, 100% sRGB
Processor	Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (Up to 47 TOPS)
OS	Windows 11 Home
Memory	32GB LPDDR5X RAM/ 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe SSD
Graphics	Intel Arc 140V
Battery	63Wh w/ 65W USB-C adapter
Size/Weight	312 x 223.2 x 14.9mm / 1.27kg

Like prior Asus ExpertBook laptops, our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample has their baked in MyASUS app which enables users to get system diagnostics, manage battery health and also manage power settings ranging from standard to a quiet whisper mode culminating in a Performance mode that maximises fan cooling speed and processor performance though only if you plug in the laptop.

When plugged in and set to Performance mode, our Asus ExpertBook P5 review unit managed the following benchmarks:

3D Mark Speed Way	658
3D Mark Solar Bay	15,536
3D Mark Steel Nomad	804
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	3,195
3D Mark Port Royal	1,611
3D Mark Time Spy Extreme	1,392
3D Mark Time Spy	3,457
3D Mark Night Raid	16,438
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,313
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	10,411
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	29,341
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	36,315
Geekbench 6 AI (CPU, quantised, OpenVino)	5,782
Geekbench 6 AI (GPU, quantised, OpenVino)	19,232
Geekbench 6 AI (NPU, quantised, OpenVino)	15,555
Cinebench 2024 CPU (Multicore)	331
Cinebench 2024 CPU (Single core)	121 x 2.74MP ratio
PC Mark 10 Work Extended	6,895
PCMark 8 Battery Life (Work)	13 hours 17 mins

In terms of performance, it’s well within the parameters of another laptop running an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor with more than sufficient performance for enterprise use. Of note is that the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V integrates Intel AI Boost NPUs rated for up to 47 TOPS which exceeds the requirements for 40 TOPs minimum from Microsoft to run Copilot+ AI.

 

Overall performance is excellent across the board but the laptop is certainly not intended for gaming nor serious content creation duties as the 100% sRGB colour gamut doesn’t offer as much gamut coverage as what the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which precludes its usage in serious video editing or other content creation work.

If you’re requiring something with a bit of added pixel crunching punch that can handle demanding spreadsheets or extremely graphics intensive presentations, this is easily up to the task. It’s even able to get some gaming done too with Cyberpunk 2077 on the lowest settings.

Best of all, the laptop keeps heat under control and even in Performance mode, the fans managed to keep noise levels under control without any noisy whirring up or down.

The display itself is excellent for general work and is vibrant enough for casual movie viewing and Netflix binging while the paired stereo speakers do an otherwise decent job. 

Where our Asus ExpertBook P5 review sample shines though is its battery life with the PC Mark 8 battery life Work benchmark easily scoring 13 hours and 17 minutes of endurance.

In practical scenarios, it was comfortably able to last through a 9-5 workday if you stick to productivity related scenarios only though your mileage will vary if you max out the brightness and watch more video related or execute extensive localised NPU-generated tasks.

Asus ExpertBook P5 Review – Meeting the Asus AI ExpertMeet app

In keeping with the times, the laptop not only has Copilot+ baked in, it also has the brand’s own Asus AI ExpertMeet app that can perform a number of work-oriented AI tasks that are processed locally on the laptop’s NPU without any data going into the cloud for privacy and security reasons. At present, the app has three features at launch – AI Meeting Minutes, AI Translated Subtitles and Watermark.

Asus AI ExpertMeet is an AI transcription service that transcribes audio off an imported audio file or from its built-in speakers such as when it’s taking notes in a business meeting. It can only transcribe audio in English, Chinese, Italian, German and Portuguese for now though more will be added later on.

The accuracy still needs work though and it doesn’t quite get local Malaysian accents. Once transcribed, the AI transcription feature can also give you the gist of the audio.

Another novel feature of AI ExpertMeet is the addition of AI Translated Subtitles which pops up a translucent dialogue box that can parse the aforementioned five languages and output to Chinese, Italian, Portugues, German, Spanish, French and Japanese.

Transcribed dialogue has mixed results across a number of tests with conversations in English and even some recorded dialogue with American accents encountering transcription errors due to misheard words or pronunciation which compounds the problem when translated into another language.

Last but not least, the app also has a useful Watermark feature that lets you dial translucency and whatever you want to add, be it your name or company name and then project it onto your webcam or your screen which is handy especially for business Zoom calls.

While these features are mostly working, it still needs more polish and refinement. The app takes several minutes to do any audio transcriptions which leads to quite a bit of thumb twiddling if you’re reliant on the output and the accuracy of transcriptions still needs refinement which is understandable seeing as Asus AI ExpertMeet is still in beta. 

Should you buy the Asus ExpertBook P5?

The Asus ExpertBook P5 brings solid build quality and performance along with excellent battery life to the table, making it a viable choice for road warriors on the go. While the new Asus AI ExpertMeet app is unique, it still has quite a ways to go before it hits prime time and the lack of a colour accurate display is a missed opportunity here.

These quibbles aside, the Asus ExpertBook P5 is well worth a look for independents and organisations alike seeking a midtier AI-capable laptop with long battery life.

Asus ExpertBook P5 review unit courtesy of Asus Malaysia, for more details please visit https://www.asus.com/my/laptops/for-work/expertbook/expertbook-p5-p5405/techspec/