Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Business laptops are often practical machines that focus more on reliability than excitement. They are usually designed to get work done without trying too hard to impress. But every once in a while, a company attempts to build something that blends premium design, strong performance, portability, and long battery life into one package. That is exactly what Asus is trying to achieve with the new ExpertBook Ultra (2026).
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Starting at Rs 2,39,990 and going all the way up to Rs 3,49,990 for the top-end variant, the Asus ExpertBook Ultra clearly sits in the ultra-premium business laptop category. It is designed for professionals who want a sleek and lightweight machine without compromising on power. Over the past few weeks, I used the laptop as my primary work machine for writing stories, attending events, handling multiple browser tabs, editing images, and consuming content during travel. While the laptop gets a lot right, there are also a few quirks worth mentioning.
Design and build: Surprisingly light, impressively premium
Asus has always been good at making slim and lightweight laptops, especially in its ultrabook lineup, and now the same design philosophy has clearly made its way to the ExpertBook series. The moment I took it out of the box, the lightweight design immediately stood out. Despite being easy to carry around every day, the laptop doesn’t feel cheap or delicate in hand. It manages to give that premium and sturdy feel while still staying highly portable.
Over the past few weeks, I carried the laptop daily in my office bag alongside the charger, and the setup never felt heavy. Since the ExpertBook Ultra supports USB Type-C charging, I also ended up using the same charger for my phone during travel, which reduced the need to carry an additional adapter in my bag. The charging speed for smartphones is not extremely fast, but it is practical enough for top-ups during work hours.
Asus has used a magnesium-aluminium alloy body here to keep the overall weight low. Even after regular travel and usage for nearly three weeks, the machine remained clean without picking up visible scratches. The hinge quality is also solid, and the lid can comfortably be opened with one hand, which is always useful during quick meetings or while working on the move. That said, a few things could have been better. I noticed slight flex around the keyboard deck and some movement on the lid when pressure was applied. There was also an occasional creaky sound near the palm-rest area while typing. Given the premium pricing of the device, these discrepancies could have been avoided.
One practical addition that I appreciated was the bundled Ethernet dongle. Asus is clearly trying to maintain the slim profile of the laptop while still offering flexibility for office users who may require a wired internet connection. Small additions like this make the overall package feel more business-focused.
In terms of connectivity, the ExpertBook Ultra offers a good mix of ports despite its slim chassis. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Asus has also smartly positioned the Thunderbolt ports on opposite sides toward the rear, which helps keep charging and display cables out of the way during desk use. Both ports support charging and external display output as well.
The speaker grille placement above the keyboard is another thoughtful touch, as the sound is directed toward the user instead of firing downward from the bottom panel. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the keyboard design now because I have so many things to say.
Keyboard and trackpad: Excellent typing experience with one catch
The typing experience on the ExpertBook Ultra is mostly excellent. Asus has gone with a spacious keyboard layout and a slightly textured matte finish around the palm-rest area, which feels comfortable during long typing sessions. The keys themselves have a different smooth matte finish that makes them feel distinct and pleasant under the fingers.
Key travel is impressive for a thin ultrabook. Asus says the keyboard offers 1.5mm key travel with a 0.1mm dish design for fingertip comfort, and the result is a satisfying typing experience that works well for long-form writing. I comfortably wrote multiple news stories and lengthy drafts on this laptop without fatigue. The keyboard supports three-level backlighting, which proved useful while working in dimly lit environments or during late-night office work.
I am happy to see the fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button and it works reliably. In my experience, it unlocks the laptop almost instantly. It is convenient for users who do not want to repeatedly enter passwords. However, unlike MacBooks, Windows does not automatically lock the device properly by simply closing the lid unless you manually change some settings. After enabling the “Sleep” option under “When I close the lid” and adjusting the sign-in settings to require authentication every time, the experience becomes much closer to what Mac users are familiar with.
The trackpad is where things become a little mixed.
Asus has expanded the trackpad significantly and stretched it edge-to-edge beneath the keyboard. Visually, it looks modern and futuristic, but in practical usage, the implementation does not always work smoothly. This is because there is no separation beneath the trackpad area, and I accidentally triggered touches several times while typing. In one instance, while writing a story, the cursor accidentally switched tabs, closed one of my important tabs, and opened an image on Chrome, interrupting my workflow.
Outside of that issue, the trackpad itself is excellent. It is large, made of glass, smooth, and responsive. The gestures work reliably for the most part. Three-finger swipes for multitasking, desktop switching, and app navigation all function smoothly, although the swipe-down gesture occasionally showed a little lag. The haptic feedback is decent too, but the left and right click areas could have benefited from slightly stronger tactile feedback.
Display: Gorgeous OLED panel built for productivity first
The ExpertBook Ultra features a 14-inch tandem OLED touchscreen display with a 3K resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, and peak HDR brightness of up to 1400 nits. It is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and also comes with Corning’s Gorilla Matte finish to reduce glare.
This is one of those displays that immediately feels premium the moment you start using it. Colours look vibrant, contrast levels are excellent, and the 120Hz refresh rate keeps animations and scrolling smooth. Watching videos and editing photos is genuinely enjoyable here.
But Asus has clearly prioritised productivity over cinematic appeal. Instead of using a glossy OLED finish that usually makes colours and blacks appear more dramatic, Asus has gone with a matte coating. The advantage is obvious during real-world usage. Reflections are reduced significantly, making the laptop much easier to use near windows, inside bright cafes, or under office lighting. Since this is primarily a business laptop, the decision makes practical sense.
The downside is that blacks do not look as inky as they would on a glossy OLED panel. They lean slightly toward dark grey under certain conditions. It is subtle, but users who prioritise movie watching or cinematic visuals may notice the difference.
Brightness is another area where the laptop performs well indoors but falls slightly short outdoors. Asus claims up to 600 nits in standard mode, and while indoor visibility is perfectly fine, I occasionally wanted more brightness while working inside a car or under direct sunlight. The screen remains visible, but a little extra brightness would have improved the experience further.
One interesting thing about this laptop is that despite having a touchscreen, it does not feature a 360-degree hinge. A convertible design would have made more sense for presentations, collaborative meetings, or tent-mode viewing. Considering the premium positioning of the ExpertBook Ultra, that feels like a missed opportunity.
Still, for productivity-focused users, this is among the best laptop displays available in this category.
Performance: Powerful enough for serious work, but not flawless
Under the hood, the ExpertBook Ultra is powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra X7 358H processor from the Panther Lake lineup. The review unit paired the chip with up to 64GB RAM and a fast 2TB SSD, which immediately places this laptop above typical office ultrabooks. The processor features 16 CPU cores, including four performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and four low-power efficiency cores, with turbo frequencies reaching up to 4.8GHz.
In real-world usage, the laptop handled productivity tasks comfortably. For instance, multiple Chrome tabs, document editing, video streaming, background applications, and office work all ran smoothly most of the time. The system feels fast and responsive during regular usage.
However, my experience was not completely bug-free. After around two weeks of usage, the keyboard shortcut for adjusting display brightness suddenly stopped working, forcing me to manually adjust brightness through Windows settings. I also occasionally noticed screen flickering while waking the laptop from sleep. App switching sometimes showed slight lag, especially while changing desktop windows or reopening apps running in the background. But these things were not that frequent.
Thankfully, these issues feel software-related rather than hardware limitations, so future updates could potentially fix them. But for a premium business machine, such bugs do affect the overall polish.
The laptop only started struggling when I pushed it heavily with around 49 Chrome tabs opened simultaneously while editing a high resolution photo online. At that point, the system briefly hung before recovering. For most professionals though, the ExpertBook Ultra has more than enough power.
The benchmark scores support this as well. The laptop scored 13,745 on Geekbench 6 and 682 in Cinebench multi-core testing in line with what you can expect from a laptop of this class.
More importantly, the performance feels sustainable instead of relying purely on short bursts. The chip balances efficiency, thermals, and battery life well while still delivering enough horsepower for demanding multitasking, large spreadsheets, video calls, and light creative workloads.
Camera and speakers: Functional, not exceptional
Asus has equipped the ExpertBook Ultra with a 1080p webcam, which is definitely better than the old 720p cameras many laptops used to offer. But while the resolution sounds promising on paper, the actual quality still feels average.
Video calls are perfectly usable with decent clarity, but there is visible grain and some softness in the image. Good lighting becomes important if you want clean video quality. Users who frequently attend professional meetings will get the job done, but those expecting premium webcam performance may still prefer using an external camera.
The speakers are also fine rather than impressive. They get loud enough for everyday use, online meetings, YouTube videos, and casual content consumption. However, audio distortion becomes noticeable near maximum volume. For movies, music, or richer audio experiences, external speakers or headphones remain the better option.
Battery life: One of the strongest highlights
Battery life is easily one of the biggest strengths of the ExpertBook Ultra. Asus has packed a 70Wh battery inside the laptop, and combined with Intel’s efficient processor, the results are genuinely impressive. With regular productivity usage, brightness set around 65 percent, and occasional video playback, I consistently managed around 13 to 14 hours of battery life. What stood out even more was the battery optimisation. Even with just 21 percent battery remaining, the laptop still managed to survive for around four more hours during lighter workloads.
This makes the ExpertBook Ultra an excellent travel companion. It is the kind of machine you can confidently carry for an entire workday without constantly worrying about charging points. Even during heavier workloads, battery endurance remained better than many laptops in this category.
The included 90W charger is also compact and easy to carry. Since the laptop supports charging through either Thunderbolt 4 port, charging flexibility is excellent.
Verdict: A premium business ultrabook that gets most things right
The Asus ExpertBook Ultra (2026) feels like a serious attempt at building a no-compromise business ultrabook. It combines an extremely lightweight design, premium build quality, excellent battery life, strong productivity performance, and a beautiful OLED display into one sleek package.
The laptop particularly shines as a travel-friendly work machine. The portability is outstanding, battery life is dependable, the keyboard is excellent for long typing sessions, and the performance is more than enough for demanding office workloads.
But at the same time, the laptop does not feel completely flawless. Minor software bugs, accidental trackpad touches, average webcam quality, and the lack of a convertible hinge hold it back from feeling truly perfect at this price point.
Still, for professionals who prioritise portability, productivity, battery life, and premium design over gaming-level power or entertainment-focused features, the ExpertBook Ultra delivers a strong overall experience. It may not completely redefine business laptops, but it certainly proves that work-focused machines no longer need to feel boring.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
