Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro, Asus ProArt StudioBook One set an extremely high bar for 'pro' notebooks

Apple’s MacBook Pro series has often been the gold standard for pro notebooks. The 16-inch MacBook Pro was undoubtedly one of the best pro notebooks on the market until now.

However, fast-forward to 2020 and brands like Asus and Acer are changing the definition of what it takes to receive the title of a pro notebook. The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro and Asus ProArt StudioBook One are two serious professional notebooks that bring portability to the powerhouse workstations.

The ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro takes inspiration from the ConceptD 9 Pro and Predator Triton 900 while leaving the bulk behind. While Acer invested a considerable amount of time and effort into the hinges on the Ezel series, we want to get into the specs and why we think this is the standard for a pro laptop.

First, the Ezel Pro packs an Intel Xeon processor and mobile Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 graphics, which in terms of performance, will get you far more mileage than a MacBook Pro. The hardware inside is suitable for content creators, video game designers, 3D rendering software, basically anyone who needs a lot of processing power to complete everyday tasks.

The Asus ProArt StudioBook One is targeted towards consumers with similar requirements. Still, Asus has opted for an Intel Core i9-9980HK and the top-of-the-line Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000, which makes the ProArt StudioBook One the most powerful laptop in the world. The company has also taken inspiration for the design from ROG Mothership by shifting the components to the back of the screen, but they’ve done it in a portable form factor.

While Acer and Asus definitely have the upper hand in performance, MacBook displays are some of the best in the business.

However, the Ezel Pro is no slouch either; its 15.6-inch 4K touchscreen covers 100-percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum and has a brightness of 400 nits. Each panel on the Ezel Pro is validated by PANTONE to be within a Delta E<2. Asus, on the other hand, have matched the Acer laptop on the display front, but loses the touchscreen and gains a higher refresh rate at 120Hz.

In terms of pricing, the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro starts at little over $3,000 (Indian equivalent of Rs 2,13,021), while opting for Quadro RTX 5000 graphics can go up significantly. Asus hasn’t released pricing on the ProArt StudioBook, but the Quadro RTX 6000 GPU inside alone costs $4,000 (about Rs 2,84,028). Both notebooks will be priced much higher than Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro, but pack the power of a workstation in a portable form factor.

And, while you might think that these prices are outrageous, the primary reason for buying these mobile workhorses is work. Paying over $3,000 for a machine only meant for personal use seems like somewhat of a waste, but if you require it for work (And keep in mind that these are laptops capable of 8K rendering with performance equivalent to powerhouse desktops), and it is actually going to help you make money in the future, then the over $3,000 price tag sounds a lot less outrageous.