It’s something that I’ve brought up before, but it’s worth mentioning again. There used to be this great divide between what we considered “thin-and-light” laptops and the laptops that could actually be used for any sort of heavy lifting. Thanks to growing advances in technology, reasonably slender notebooks can now tackle heavier workloads, as demonstrated by the new ASUS VivoBook Pro N580.
Even though this 15.6-inch laptop is reasonably slim and lightweight, it’s very much being positioned as offering a “gaming-grade” experience. Under the hood, you’ll find a 7th-generation Intel Core i7 H-Series processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 dedicated graphics. That’s not top of the line, of course, but it’ll easily outperform anything with integrated graphics.
For storage, you get a 512GB SSD, plus room for an additional drive if you want more space. The intelligent dual-fan cooling system keeps the system cool while under load (like intense gaming sessions) thanks to a dual-copper thermal module and heat pipes.
Rounding out the highlights are the full HD touch display, Harman Kardon-certified twin speakers, integrated fingerprint reader in the touchpad with Windows Hello, support for ASIS Pen and other active stylus products, USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
The ASUS VivoBook Pro N580 is available now at an MSRP of $1,299. It measures 14.96 x 10.08 x 0.81 inches, weighs 4.85 pounds, and comes in any color you want as long as you want Icicle Gold.