Review: ASUS Expertbook P5 (P5405)

ASUS has added the recent Intel Lunar Lake chips to its Expertbook lineup. This means the lightweight and portable notebooks now pack the AI chips from Intel along with all the advantages the company hopes to get from them. Lunar Lake boasts impressive battery life over the previous generation CPUs and decent performance. Sure, these chips aren’t performance hogs like the latest Intel Core Ultra lineup but they’re meant to provide that all-day battery life while delivering the performance you need.

The model I am reviewing here is the ASUS Expertbook P5405. It retails for R25,999 and comes with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, 1 TB SSD and a 14-inch 16:10 2560 x 1600 LED display. This display is also 144Hz which is kind of a surprise to see on a notebook like this. Perhaps ASUS wants to make 144Hz a standard for all users.

Sure, there are definitely much more specced-out ASUS notebooks on the market. The Zenbooks come with OLED touch screens, for example, but the Expertbook range focuses more on your business and day-to-day life than productivity. This notebook caters to students and those who travel a lot. It is more affordable too compared to the higher-up notebook products from ASUS.

The ASUS Expertbook P5 comes with one empty SSD slot inside the notebook so you can expand the storage here. However, RAM is stuck at 32GB due to the unified design of the Lunar Lake CPU.

When it comes to the ports, the ASUS ExpertBook P5 has everything you need. It includes 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, one HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm audio jack combo port. From a network point of view, it includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

The notebook includes a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support, a fairly loud and clear speaker system with Dolby Atmos support and a half-sized chiclet keyboard with white LED backlights.

The battery in this ASUS Expertbook P5 is a 63Wh cell. It is charged with the 65W adapter included in the box. The adapter is USB-C and you can use either of the two ports on the side to charge the unit.

As for the dimensions, the P5 weighs only 1.27 kg. It is 31cm long and 22cm wide. At its thickest point, the notebook is 1.6cm. Generally speaking, the device is incredibly lightweight. You can hold it in between a few fingers and the 14-inch display means it can be slapped into most cases and sleeves.

The lid on the notebook does open up to 180 degrees. I struggled to open the notebook with one hand not because the bottom would rise from the table but because there was very little room to grip the lid and lift it up. I found I needed two hands to prevent the device from sliding across the table while I was trying to pull the lid open. But this isn’t the end of the world.

When typing, the ASUS Expertbook P5 does wobbly. The hinges aren’t the best on the notebook and if anything, it makes the lid feel quite flimsy. The notebook is very thin and light so there’s no way to really defy the laws of physics here. But it wobbled a bit more than I expected.

With that being said, the keyboard felt good to use and the trackpad was a good size too. I do struggle with 14-inch notebooks because of my large hands and long fingers. I would struggle on this daily if I were to use it but for anyone that doesn’t have sasquatch hands like me, you’ll be okay.

The backlight keys here are okay. They aren’t the brightest around but in darker areas, the keys will be fully visible. The F1 to F4 keys include some blue trimmings for easy shortcuts and there’s the Copilot button here too for quick access to AI tools.

The touchpad is also glass so it won’t wear down over time and go shiny. This is a huge deal for those looking for a notebook that will last a few years and also maintain its quality.

The ASUS Expertbook P5 is designed from an aluminium shell and feels cold to the touch. The top lid includes the logo in a brushed rectangular box. The bottom has some rubber feet and air vents which help with cooling.

You’ll find the one USB Type-A port on the right-hand side of the notebook. On the left-hand side, there’s the HDMI port, another USB Type-A port, the two USB-C ports, and the audio jack combo port.

The display on this ASUS Expertbook P5 was one of the best parts of the notebook. While it isn’t an OLED, the bright panel at over 430 nits of measured brightness, does perform quite well in every environment. It is also quite bright for an LED panel. The 144Hz refresh rate is a bit overkill here but it does help with the reaction time of the panel. Do you need 144Hz here? I don’t think so.

Overall, the design of the ASUS Expertbook P5 is okay. It doesn’t hit that premium checkbox as much as ASUS’ other lineups but I don’t think the company wants that to be the case. The ExpertBook is designed more on the idea of having a notebook around the entire day rather than having a cool-looking and stylish notebook around all day.

On the performance side, the ASUS Expertbook P5 holds up quite well. Scores show that for everyday use, the notebook has no issues handling multiple tasks, some light video editing and even some gaming. I ran some benchmarks across a number of tests and got the following scores. Keep in mind that these scores were obtained on the Performance mode PL2 setting.

You can see from the scores that this notebook offers some of the best performance you can get from the new Lunar Lake chips. It shows no signs of thermal throttling and productivity scores were quite impressive.

I was also impressed by the gaming score on the Steel Nomad test. granted, this was still running at the QHD resolution, but you could likely lower games to 1080p and get away with 30FPS on most modern games while keeping graphical settings on low or medium.

The notebook fans don’t get too loud. I measured 31dBa while benchmarking. This is a decent noise level. Fans sometimes came on while browsing the web and the noise hit 27dBa. Again, nothing too loud. There’s also no coil whine on this notebook.

During the tests, the notebook can get warm. I measured 60C on the bottom. It was very hot where I stay at the moment so that doesn’t help but it can get warm where you might want to avoid using it on your lap during hot weather. The CPU itself also gets quite hot. It reached 83C during benchmarks. The thermal system does do a decent job cooling the notebook down, however.

As for the speakers, they are quite loud on this ASUS Expertbook P5. They also pack a little bit of bass while at the same time, clear sound. They are more than ample for music and video playback.

Last off, the battery. The Lunar Lake chip does offer substantially better battery life compared to the last generation. With 50% screen brightness, I measured 16 hours during a websurfing test. Leaving the screen on maximum brightness resulted in just under 9 hours. it is incredibly versatile for day-to-day use.

Overall, the ASUS Expertbook P5 is an efficient notebook. It provides decent performance and stellar battery life. The display is also bright and responsive. Given its price tag, it will be difficult to find a notebook that ticks all these boxes and costs the same or less. It makes the Expertbook P5 a fantastic option if you’re looking for a device that simply does everything.

Original review on GLITCHED

Written by Marco Cocomello