Asus ExpertBook P5 P5405 laptop in review: Intel's M1 moment in a business laptop

[Redaktion]

Intel Lunar Lake promises to bring the efficiency of x86 laptops to a similar level as ARM CPUs from Qualcomm and Apple. This is mostly successful, even if the maximum multicore performance is limited. For a compact and lightweight office laptop like the Asus ExpertBook P5 P5405 though, we think other aspects matter more - like the long battery life and quiet cooling fan.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ExpertBook-P5-P5405-laptop-in-review-Intel-s-M1-moment-in-a-business-laptop.910455.0.html

[an0nn]

This might have been a buy, but the shoddy build quality just ruins it. I'd pay $200 more if they made it decent. What a travesty.

[N-B]

Another proof of the complete loss of the Intel development team to the AMD team, even when comparing the outdated Zen3 with the latest Lunar Lake! And even though Zen3 is produced on "7 nm", and Lunar Lake on "3 nm" of the same TSMC company:
www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-E14-G4-AMD-laptop-review-Affordable-and-no-major-weaknesses.724985.0.html

The performance of 5825 in PL1 (= 30W!) is 1740-1750 points in CineBench R15 in a multi-threaded test. And almost the same (slightly higher) in PL2 mode.

The performance of Core Ultra 7 258V in PL1 (= 32W!, i.e. +2W to the 4-year-old AMD processor!) is 1440-1450 points (and this is not the end, judging by the graph decline). And the shameful 1630-1640 in PL2 mode.

As a result, the 4-year-old 5825U (which costs pennies now in a bunch of cheap laptops) has a performance of 20-21% higher in multi-threaded load in long-term mode and faster in pulse PL2.

Moving on to the noise level. And here again is a complete disgrace for Intel with Lunar Lake - with an average load and consumption in this mode of 43.4 W, the Asus laptop makes noise at 31 dBA.

At the same time, the Lenovo laptop with 5825U, with an average load and consumption in this mode of 41.6 W, makes noise at only 30.3 dBA. Again, Lunar Lake loses.

The consumption in minimum mode of the Asus laptop on the latest Intel platform of the end of 2024 on the latest TSMC "3nm" process technology is 3.9 W. The minimum power consumption of a 3-year-old Lenovo laptop with a 4-year-old AMD processor on "7nm" is 4.1W. Where are the advantages of "3nm" vs. "7nm"? It is only visible in the battery life according to a certain test on this site (which I have not trusted for a long time, since real use shows much smaller numbers) - the latest Asus laptop allegedly works 43% longer in the wlan test.

The only advantage is that the memory controller is about 3 times faster in terms of throughput, which is not surprising for the RAM soldered into the chiplet. At the same time, even then more than 3 years ago, you could install 64GB of RAM on laptops with Zen3. And given the performance of the 5825U, it MAKES SENSE even now - to upgrade those laptops to 64GB. But the latest Lunar Lake laptops have a maximum of 32GB of soldered memory, which sharply limits their scope of application, especially coupled with poor multi-threaded performance even against the background of AMD chips from 4 years ago.

Again, the question is - who are these Intel processors and laptops for? Hipsters in cafes? Housewives? Those who don't count money?

This is not what we expected from Lunar Lake on "3nm" TSMC - but at least 2500 points in CineBench R15 in a multi-threaded test at 30W compared to 1750 points for AMD on "7nm" from
4 years ago! Where are these points, Intel? Shame!

NikoB.

[Benjamin Herzig]

There is a lot wrong with the last post:

- Lunar Lake is much faster than Ryzen 5000 in singlecore performance (like 25 percent), so saying Intel is at a "complete loss" is simply wrong

- We are talking about a 4+4 design, so four small cores and four large cores - comparing against eight large cores. That Intel gets basically the same multicore performance with four small cores is certainly not an indicator that Lunar Lake is a bad product.

- Noise level: Cherry picking. The E14 runs much louder in max load.

- Power consumption: This laptop has a high resolution, high refresh rate screen that increases power consumption. The E14 has a lower resolution 60 Hz panel.

Who is this laptop for? For everyone who wants a quiet, long-lasting and cool device that still provides good everyday performance. Is it the fastest laptop for rendering or compiling? No. Does everyone do those tasks? Also, no.

[an0nn]

This is a laptop for those that don't mind the hinges will fail 2 days after warranty expires and the flimsy feeling throughout using it due to it being a cheap piece of ****.

[S.M]

Moving on to the noise level. And here again is a complete disgrace for Intel with Lunar Lake - with an average load and consumption in this mode of 43.4 W, the Asus laptop makes noise at 31 dBA.

You have valid points. But in practice I am yet to experience a "quiet" Lenovo machine, having used Thinkpads since the T460. For the same reasons I have given up on the brand. Even today Thinkpads use single, underpowered fans and are now outclassed on the noise front by HP. The only exception is the X1 Carbon. I will most certainly try out a Lunar Lake laptop if there is really no difference.

[Charis]

I have to say one thing. I have a Lenovo Flex 5 with a Ryzen 5700U and an Asus VivoBook S14 with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and I got a P5 because the other two were consuming a lot of power. The P5 with the 258V uses almost 55% to 61% less power than those AMD laptops. I used them in the same scenarios: SolidWorks for makers, GIMP, YouTube, web browsing, gaming with Star Trek Online, JM Studio for 3D scanning, Parsec for remote desktop, Bambu and Creality slicers, Netflix, and Disney+. Also the 258V is faster than the HX370 in most of the games I tried.

In reality, multicore performance is only needed for specific tasks that you typically wouldn't do on a thin and light laptop. I'm doing video editing with Parsec on my remote desktop, which has an NVIDIA 4080. Sure, the HX370 is faster in rendering, but at the cost of using almost double the power. Based on my experience, Intel really nailed it by creating the best APU with low power consumption and a fast GPU that 99% of users will benefit from.

Your methodology for measuring power consumption is out of touch with reality when it comes to usage with a variety of different programs. While the 5700U may appear to be only 11% less efficient in your tests, in reality, it's night and day. The same goes for the 370 HX, which has significantly higher power consumption than the 258V. As for the MacBook, it can't be compared, just like Windows on ARM, because the former can't run applications like SolidWorks and other apps that aren't available for Mac and don't run well on the X-Elite. The latter suffers from speed penalties in most applications, making it have worse battery life than the 258V, even though it's ARM-based.

I used to think of Intel as a "dead fish," and for many years, I've been buying AMD-based systems for their power efficiency, both in laptops and desktops. But with the approach that Intel has taken recently, I'm amazed that they managed to achieve this level of performance and power efficiency again.