Geekom X16 Pro review: lightweight 16-inch Windows laptop for about $1,300

ZDNET reviewed the Geekom Geekbook X16 Pro, a 16-inch Windows laptop available from Geekom for just over $1,300, and found it to be a lightweight device the reviewer considered a strong alternative to a MacBook Pro. The reviewer noted the X16 Pro is offered with Intel Core U9-185H or U5-125H processors, Arc graphics and an integrated NPU.

The 16:10 IPS display has a 2.5K resolution, 100% sRGB coverage, a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 400 nits of brightness. The unit weighed 2.87 pounds compared with the reviewer’s MacBook Pro M1 at 3.0 pounds. On input and everyday performance, the reviewer praised the keyboard’s feedback (while noting a right-pinky spacing issue between Shift and the arrow keys) and called the touchpad large and slick, though not on par with a MacBook Pro.

For performance tests the reviewer ran Ollama locally, downloaded the roughly 16GB qwen-coder:3b model in under five minutes, and had Qwen-coder:30b generate a small Python GUI in about two minutes. Media, browsing and apps performed well in the reviewer’s tests: YouTube looked and sounded good, GIMP opened slower than on a more powerful machine but worked, Opera performed better than Edge, LibreOffice was slow on first run then quick thereafter, and the lightweight game Eternium ran without lag.

The reviewer did report that Windows 11 took over an hour to reach the login prompt during setup and produced many purchase prompts, a frustration attributed to Windows rather than Geekom.

Key Topics

Tech, Intel Arc, Ollama, Qwen-coder, Arc Graphics