Asus ExpertBook P1 Review: A Reliable Business Laptop That Checks All the Boxes-wps journal

Similar to other categories like gaming, business laptops have specific features that business owners look for. There are plenty of brands that offer this niche business laptop, specially targeted for business users, and Asus is one of them with their business ExpertBook series.

I have used the Asus ExpertBook P1 (P1403) for over 15 days as my primary work device. I spent all my work-related tasks carrying it while travelling to determine whether it meets the business need it has been claiming.

The variant I am using comes with an Intel i7 processor with 32 GB of RAM and an Intel Raptor Lake processor priced at Rs 72,999/-. It also comes with Intel i3 and i5 processors if you prefer the lower-end versions. Here are the detailed models and pricing of the ExpertBook P1.

Asus ExpertBook P1 might not be a definite looker; it checks all the boxes to be reliable for all business needs. Let’s dive deeper and check the detailed review of the Asus ExpertBook P1.

Asus ExpertBook (P1403) Specifications:

Before going to the review, here are the specifications of the Asus ExpertBook P1 to give a preview of this laptop’s capabilities.

• Display: 14-inch Full HD IPS, Anti-glare, 300 nits brightness. There is also a 15.6-inch variant.
• Processor: Intel Core i7 (Raptor Lake SoC)
• RAM: 16GB and 32GB, and can be upgradable to 64GB
• Storage: Up to 2TB Dual NVMe SSD (1TB on your unit)
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Battery: 50Wh, up to 8 hours of usage, USB-C fast charging
• Build: Plastic chassis with metal reinforcement, MIL-STD 810H certified
• Weight: 1.4 kg
• Software: Windows Home out of the box with free Office 2024
• Keyboard: Spill-resistant, backlit, 66cc protection
• Touchpad: Smooth glass with integrated fingerprint sensor
• Ports: 2x USB-A, 2x USB-C (PD + DP), HDMI 1.4, RJ45, 3.5mm jack
• Security: TPM 2.0, BIOS protection, intrusion detection, fingerprint login
• Camera & Mic: AI webcam with privacy shutter, AI noise-cancelling mic
• Warranty: 3-year warranty (including battery), 5-year BIOS/security updates

Unboxing

Build Quality and Durability: Solid Plastic Chassis

If you are looking for a premium experience, you will be disappointed right from the unboxing of this laptop. This is because Asus has used a hard-plastic chassis all over the body with a minimal design. While the design is subjective, I didn’t like this design as someone who is used to the MacBook metal chassis and has experience using other premium Asus laptops. Unlike the aluminum build of HP Envy or MacBook Air at this price, this one feels closer to entry-level laptops in terms of build quality.

Durability is one of the biggest factors in a business laptop; business laptops are often exposed to environments such as the office and home during travel, meetings, remote work, and usage, making them prone to wear and tear.

Asus claims they have used a thicker plastic exterior chassis all over the laptop and an internal reinforced metal chassis for better durability.

The laptop held up well during the two weeks of usage, thanks to its US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard certification. It included traveling to different places, using the laptop in my workstation setup, on the cafe table, and even on my bike.

There are no significant scratches, and the texture and light color don’t attract fingerprints either, but there is a noticeable flex from the lid. The lid is stiff enough to hold the laptop steady while typing on the desktop or while using it on the lap, but with a little force, you can make it completely bend over. The lid can be bent over 180 degrees, but doesn’t have a touchscreen.

Due to the plastic chassis, the laptop also weighs less; it comes with a 1.4 kg weight. The laptop feels sturdy enough to put your hand on while typing. The keyboard feels sturdy, and the trackpad is smooth and responsive.

The touchpad also holds the fingerprint sensor on the top, which I am not a big fan of this placement. This design makes it hard to access while typing, especially when approving web login and authorizing web payments.

I never exposed this laptop to spills. If you work long side the beach while relaxing, Asus comes with 66cc spill resistance, which can withstand minor spills up to minor spills, so it should be fine to use beside the pools, relaxing on your business trips.

Overall, the Asus ExpertBook P1 feels sturdy but not as stylish as other military-grade laptops we generally find in the business niche, and the plastic chassis not only looks cheaper but also feels less premium; unlike the other Asus laptops, the Asus ExpertBook P1 is not a looker.

Portability and Form Factor: Portable and Easy To Carry

Portability is another important factor, especially for business professionals, as it involves a lot of travel and attending meetings while commuting, sometimes working in the middle of traffic. So, the laptop should be easy to carry in your bag, hold, and use.

This is where the Asus Expertbook P1’s lightweight plastic chassis helps keep the laptop’s weight low, around 1.4 kg. The laptop is not as lightweight as other thin, lightweight laptops or as heavy as the gaming laptops. For comparison, the MacBook Air weighs about the same as the metal chassis (1.30 kgs), and the weight is equally distributed. The heavy base of the Asus ExpertBook P1 holds laptops ergonomically and hosts them securely while on your lap.

With a 1.63 mm thickness, the laptop can easily fit into your backpack and is easy to carry. The 14-inch is enough for easy portability and your daily meeting commute. The laptop also comes with a 15.6-inch display variant.

Display Quality: Unreliable in Outdoors

Asus ExpertBook P1 comes with a 14-inch Full HD IPS panel. It is a proper size for business laptops, not too small, like 13.6 inches, or too wide, like 15.6 (It also comes with a 15.6 variant if you prefer a large display). The 14.6 on my device feels like a sweet spot and is a tiny bit bigger than my MacBook Air 13-inch, which doesn’t feel any different but offers a slightly bigger screen for productivity and multitasking.

Although Asus claims the laptop has an 87% screen-to-body ratio, the big bezels are very noticeable from the front and back, which is not ideal for a laptop costing this much.

The full HD display is sharp and bright enough to work indoors, and the anti-glare coating on the screen does a good job of eliminating reflections when directly sitting under the office lights. However, because it only comes with a maximum brightness of 300 nits combined, the display is much less visible outdoors, making it hard to see.

Even if you sit under the shade of the tree, you keep pressing the brightness button, wanting more brightness, to find that your laptop is already at the max. If you work outdoors, despite boosting the display quality to the max, you will still struggle to find the content on the screen. I won’t say it is completely not visible, but enough to make you look closely to read screen contents on the screen.

Since it is an IPS panel, the viewing angles are good. The screen won’t look washed or distorted while viewed from the side, which can come in handy while you are sharing the presentation, and it comes with the standard 16:9 aspect ratio, perfect for media consumption and multiple-tasking side-by-side apps.

The laptop comes with 45% NTSC, equal to 62% sRGB, which is considered for basic color accuracy. The laptop is generally good for general use, such as browsing, docs, and watching, but it is still not ideal for photo editing or even for color-accurate work. Overall, the display is also one of the media core elements of this laptop, especially Asus’ own Vivobook, which offers stunning OLED displays for this price.

Performance and Specifications: Powerful Raptor Lake Processor

Buying a laptop is not as straightforward; we have too many options with similar processors, confusing model names, and varying features. On top of that, the recent announcement of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Raptor Lake processors has brought even more confusion for people who are on the run to buy a new laptop.

While business professionals are not as hardcore users as gamers or do highly resource-intensive tasks, these laptops still need good performance for multiple tasks, especially using resource-intensive apps like Microsoft Office, Zoom, emai,l meetings, and browsers.

Depending on your business workload, Asus ExpertBook P1 comes in all three major Intel Raptor Lake processor variants, from the Intel i3 to the Intel i7.

Based on your workload, you can choose any variants. Suppose your work often involves tasks like email or document editing for a presentation. In that case, the i3 variant is fine, or if your work involves a heavy workload, data analysis, video calls, or multitasking, you need to go higher than the i5 or i7 variants. My variant comes with the i7 core processor with 16 GB of RAM, which is more than enough for day-to-day tasks.

Here are the benchmarks that I have tested on our model:

Translating these benchmark numbers into my real-world experience? I spend most of my time analyzing browser data, switching between apps, taking notes, and using Notion, which closely matches any professional business day filled with client work and multitasking. Thanks to this laptop’s powerful Intel i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, my daily work life is mostly smooth without any hiccups, and even great at a little gaming while doing some multiple-tasking.

Business laptops aren’t meant for gaming. It can perform day-to-day tasks like opening apps and switching between them, and it feels smooth and fluid without breaking a sweat. With this usage pattern, you can usually stay on a laptop for a full working day without worrying about performance.

While the exceptional performance in single-threaded and multi-threaded performance across various applications, the Raptor Lake processors based on the Intel hybrid architecture demand substantial power, leading to increased energy usage. It also supports SO-DIMM slots with up to 64GB DDR5 RAM expansion if you want to upgrade the RAM, and the ExpertBook P1 supports up to 2TB via dual NVMe SSDs (M.2 2280 + M.2 2230).

As per the GPU, it comes with an Intel iris xe integrated GPU. At the same time, the GPU is unsuitable for high-end gaming; it can handle everyday tasks, media consumption, and light gaming without any issues.

Because of this, the thermals are the biggest concern on this laptop. While the thermals don’t directly affect the performance, since it has a large heat dissipation sink at the bottom, using them on the lap feels uncomfortable even for non-intensive tasks like browsing. You will instantly feel the heat dissipation on your laptop and want to take this laptop from your lap as soon as possible.

Battery Life: Decent

Battery life is decent on this laptop; despite the power-hungry processors, the laptop offers decent battery life for business professionals who need to work on the go, during travel in meetings, or even in places without power outlets. You don’t need to worry about when your client or boss schedules a meeting, even if you are at a cafe and on a trip.

Asus claims the battery on the ExpertBook P1 can last up to 8 hours, a significant upgrade from the previous business laptops. As expected and in my experience, the laptop lasted for me up to 7-7.5 hours on average with a single charge with typically typical usage that includes surfing browsers, the internet, downloading files, attending meetings, and more,e and thanks to the 60w fast charging USB C input support you can quickly juice up the drive in less than 1 hour enough to use it for the whole day without requiring your power outlet.

Inputs (Keyboard/Trackpad)

Both the keyboard and touchpad have no issues; the keys are large and have good space between them, making them easy to type without any issues. If you have small hands, the keyboard is perfect for your task, but if you use a big keyboard, the usual mechanical keyboard has many key gaps. You might find it uncomfortable to type for the first few days.

The touchpad is perfectly centered right below the keyboard. It is a small trackpad and perfect for navigation if you’re using it as a mouse; it does not come with any digital number pad like other Asus Zenbook series, but does come with the fingerprint sensor, which I already said is in a slightly uncomfortable position for my usage.

If you are someone who uses external peripherals, there are no issues with this laptop since it also has plenty of ports that you can use to connect an external keyboard and mouse for better usage. The keyboard is also backlight-supported, so you can adjust the lighting setup at night, and the white steps are visible without any issues.

Connectivity and Ports: Plenty of Connectivity

The connectivity and port section is important when choosing a business laptop since it often involves presentation, data transfers, external displays for multiple tasking, and input devices like a keyboard or mouse.

Asus ExpertBook P1 comes with all the required ports, including RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, most commonly used by IT admins and professionals handling data transfers. 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A that can support speeds up to 5 Gbps. In our testing, the maximum speeds we got while transferring files are 4.5 Gbps and 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (with Display & Power Delivery support), very useful for a docking station and connecting your SSD for faster file transfer, 1 x HDMI 1.4 that supports full display up to at 60Hz and even 4K external display that can support max up to 30Hz, 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack to connect wired headphones.

However, it does not have an SD card reader for photographers (Which is rare in modern laptops) to quickly access the media or Thunderbolt, which can offer transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps. However, the current port setup is already very good for most business day-to-day use cases.

Software: Windows Home out of the Box and Recommends Pro

Asus bundles Windows 11 Home with Microsoft Office 365 Home for free out of the box. To activate Office, you need to buy and link your Microsoft account separately, where Microsoft mails you a product with that account linked to your email.

You get all the perks of Windows 11. The device runs out of the box on the Windows 11 H3 update and supports Microsoft CoPilot PC. You get full access to CoPilot features and a dedicated button for the Microsoft CoPilot to access all CoPilot features.

Using the Pro version out of the box makes sense if you are a business person who handles sensitive information. On the other hand, I have seen plenty of business professionals using unactivated Windows. You can choose depending on which case you are in.

If you have been a long-time Windows user, you get all the perks of using a Windows laptop with Office 365 workflow, contact Windows updates, support for more software, and useful AI features like co-pilot and native AI features. If you are coming from Mac or Linux, you must deal with the constant interruptions and updates, and watch features Microsoft wants you to use.

Also, there is the MyAsus app, Asus bundles, and the out-of-box experience. It lets you configure deep, important settings for a better experience. This is the usual customization software every manufacturer bundles with their laptop.

The best part is that it makes the system’s minute-level configuration easy and most accessible, instead of going to Windows settings and juggling between plenty of options. For instance, I have always been a fan of the ability to change the display colour tone. With the MyAsus app, you can easily change it without manually adjusting display tones.

Other useful settings include setting the maximum battery life up to 80% to increase the longevity of the battery and maintaining the battery at 80%. And there are sound and audio adjustments for your meetings. Following the trend, Asus also bundled a few useful AI features, especially useful for business professionals who attend meetings.

A noise-cancelling microphone filters out ambient noise while you’re in meetings and allows the voices of multiple people to be heard more clearly while you are at the same level.

AI’s clear voice eliminates background noise and allows a clearer voice during meetings. The useful Asus AI Sense camera has several options, such as lighting optimization, automatically adjusting the light, background blurring, gaze correction, and more. These on-device AI features run locally on your device without your data being transferred to the cloud, which can be a concern, especially for business privacy issues.

Security: The Standard Security Features

Asus ExpertBook P1 offers the standard enterprise security features to protect your laptop, one of the primary factors for business laptops. Compared to mainstream Windows laptops, Asus ExpertBook P1 offers enhanced security features like biometric protection and physical intrusion monitoring. Still, there aren’t the top-level security features that we generally get from top-tier business laptops like the Lenovo ThinkPad X Carbon series.

Asus ExpertBook P1 comes with the standard Windows. It also recommends upgrading to Windows Pro, which doesn’t come by default. Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro costs you money on top of your spending on this laptop. This is often recommended because, compared to Windows, Windows Pro offers better security features by default. This is a full comparison table to help you understand more.

It also comes with the TPM 2.0, which is found on most regular laptops, and for security, it comes with a fingerprint sensor. Windows Hello Support, secure boot bit encryption, Kensington lock slot, BIOS password protection, and Windows 11 Secure Core PC are also available.

Along with the standard security features, Asus ExpertBook P1 also comes with chassis intrusion detection, which notifies if the laptop’s chassis is opened; similar to another business laptop, it also comes with self-healing BIOS, which is built in. It also comes with automatic BIOS downgrade protection. Physical fingerprint sensor. It also has a webcam privacy shield that can block the camera for more privacy. A microphone usage indicator is also on the button to help you quickly see if the microphone is turned on.

Support and Warranty

Regarding support and warranty, Asus offers a three-year warranty, including a battery on the P1 series. It also offers a battery guarantee to maintain 80% health for three years, which can vary depending on the usage. Asus also owns a lot of local service centers, which might not be an issue for the hardware service whenever you require it.

Asus ExpertBook P1 Review Verdict

Asus ExpertBook P1 is a decent business laptop that checks all the basic features to be a reliable device for all your business tasks. While the laptop doesn’t have a flashy design, it is portable to carry, powerful enough to run all your business tasks, has decent battery life, and has plenty of ports to connect external devices.

However, the dull display, the plastic chassis, and the weak battery life disappointed me during the 15 days of my time with it. For the asking price of around Rs 73,000/-, this laptop can be a decent pick if those cons are not a deal breaker for you.

Here is what I like about this laptop:

• Intel i7 with 16 GB of RAM makes daily multitasking effortless without breaking a sweat. It also offers incredible battery life for my daily usage. It can last around 7-7.5 hours with regular usage and charge faster with USB charging.
• While Asus has used a plastic chassis on the outside, on the inside, it comes in a metal chassis. It is highly durable and certified, which can ensure reliability for travel.
• The 14-inch laptop is a sweet spot between the smaller 13.6-inch and bigger 15.6-inch, especially for portability.
• It also has useful enterprise security, including TPM 2.0, fingerprint sensor, self-healing BIOS, chassis detector, and more.
• Asus Book P1 also has plenty of I/O ports, including USB, USB-C, PD, SD, PC, and Ethernet, which is generally rare in the modern slim laptop.
• It is also lightweight, portable, and easy to carry daily.

The laptop also has downsides, which can be a dealbreaker for some people. These include:

• The plastic build feels less premium and doesn’t match, especially when comparing it to another laptop with a metal chassis in this price range.
• That dim display output, which comes to only 300 nits, and anti-glare is usable indoors but struggles in bright outdoor environments.
• While the Raptor Lake Intel processor offers incredible performance, it draws more power, thus draining the battery quickly.
• The laptop with Windows Home is out of the box for better security, so upgrading to Windows Pro is recommended.

Review Overview