ASUS P-Series P2440UQ-XS71 Review

For a small-medium business or sole proprietorship, you need a business laptop that is durable, reliable, and has staying power. The ASUS P-Series P2440UQ-XS71 does exactly that, and does so, with a timeless style. This model retains the light weight, useful connectivity, durability and comfortable keyboard of the SMB-focused iteration, and adds a faster seventh-gen Intel Core i7 7500U processor, a finger print reader, and a battery that lasts just over 16 hours. It’s a top-pick among medium business-focused laptops.

Design and Features

The latest Asus notebook is identical to the ASUS P-Series P2540UA-AB51, its 15-inch SMB-focused iteration released earlier this year, though this time it gets a 14-inch display. The top lid is made of plastic rather than aluminum, the body is made of plastic too. In the business category, we rarely see an aluminum lid, but Lenovo do have a ThinkPad 13 with an aluminum cover sans a fingerprint reader. If a metallic body is a must-have, Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro is worth a look.

It measures 1 by 13.4 by 9.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.3 pounds, just an hair thicker than its 15-inch version, to accommodate the included fingerprint reader in a small body. It’s thicker and heavier than the ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH54  (0.5 inches, 2.6 pounds), but in the same ballpark with the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 (0.78 inches, 3.13 pounds).

Display

The 14-inch matte display a full HD (1920-by-1080) resolution, making it easy to show large spreadsheets with numbers and text appearing crisp clear. It can also show video in 1080p, while you’re not working, meaning you can catch a few episodes of your favorite TV show as you relax on a cross-country flight. Screen is bright enough, and comes with an anti-glare coating that subdues reflections. This is a scratch resistant TN (Twisted-Nematic) panel, so we didn’t expect it to  be crisp as an IPS panel, but it still puts on a good showing.

Like most business laptops, the P-Series is designed to withstand most work environments, whether its an office, outdoors or cross country flights. As a result, we didn’t expected the cover design to be as smooth as what you’d find on ultraportables, most with metallic bodies that pick scratches easily. The system feels sturdy and can withstand daily commute without picking scratches, and can fit in a backpack easily.

Keyboard and Touchpad

One advantage the P-Series gets over its competitors must be the keyboard. It isn’t back-lit, but is comfortable and well placed. It has a full number pad for the accounting executives, especially when you have a few spreadsheets to finish. With full size, scalloped keys, it is possible to type all day in comfort. In fact, it is one of the best I’ve typed on an SMB laptop, the other one being the Lenovo ThinkPad 13’s full size keyboard. The touchpad is well set, so it won’t be unfamiliar if you’re upgrading from a dated laptop to this millennial-ready system.

On the left side of the keyboard surface, it has a fingerprint scanner. This feature takes protection and data access authorization to another level. It uses sensors, which are less affected by the skin surface conditions such as worn, dry, oily, dirty, or calloused skin. This fingerprint scanner is compatible with Windows Hello that allows you to log into your laptop in a matter of seconds. This is also an important extra layer of protection to ensure your computer and files are secure at all times.

Connectivity

Almost all notebooks released this year have the future-looking USB Type-C port, but its dismal that we aren’t seeing it in the Asus P-Series. For connectivity all you get are three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, one HDMI port and a VGA port. Yes, they included TPM security and a fingerprint reader, but it isn’t justifiable to exclude a Type-C port, especially when even cheaper laptops are coming with up to two of those. The rest of the I/O ports include a microphone/headphone out jack, an RJ45 port for LAN, an SD card reader and a DVD drive. Wireless connectivity comes by way of dual-band 802.11A/C and Bluetooth 4.1, alongside a VGA Webcam for conference call and video chats.

Being a business laptop, it gets another layer of security via  an embedded TPM security chip that offers protection on the deep hardware level. Also, it has a service door, which is located at the bottom of the laptop that offers easy access for the repairs and improved productivity, like adding more RAM and storage.

Storage

Our review unit has 12GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which is top-tier capacity for the model. Both amounts are perfectly sufficient for a medium business or office, and you’ll be able to multitask all day. If you need more, the RAM and storage can be upgraded later. Thankfully, the SSD offers plenty of free storage: Windows 10 Pro and a few other utilities are the only pre-installed programs.

Performance

Powering the P2440UQ-XS71 is a seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7500Uprocessor, a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics card, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD. Advances in CPU technology and SSD’s throughput help the system achieve solid performance. With this configuration, the scores well in benchmark tests, making it good enough business-related 3D rendering and multitasking. You can even play  games in your down time, although you wont be getting butter-smooth graphics on modern titles. If you’re buying for your company, it stands out as one of those systems that will serve you well over four to eight years before it can depreciate its capital expense.

Battery life is excellent. The new Asus laptop will last just over 16 hours of continuous use, while its 15-inch model lasted 9 hours and 13 minutes on our rundown tests, which is several hours longer than most desktop-replacement laptops that pass off as business laptops. This is much better than pack leaders like the 2017 ThinkPad 13’s 12 hours 9 minutes, while the Apple MacBook Pro lasting 16 hours 38 minutes. With the ASUS XS71 fully charged, you’ll be able to set a trip from JFK to Nicaragua, with more minutes to spare, and can see you through a conference.

An Efficient Business Laptop You Can Buy

The ASUS P-Series P2440UQ-XS71 is a prime choice if you want a stylish, yet understated laptop for your business, or home office. It is powerful enough for office tasks (and then some), is durable, you can type all-day, it has exemplary battery life, and it won’t break the bank. It sits at the top of the Asus P-series, and costs slightly more than its previous iteration, but the price bump is justified by the additional memory, snappy SSD storage and a faster processor.

That said, the Apple MacBook Pro (2021) remains our Editors’ Choice business laptop with its timeless design, metallic construction, improved battery life and better performance than its Windows competitors. It comes with Mac OS, though. If Windows is a must-have in your checklist, the Asus XS71 is worth having at the top of your list.