At a look
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- High-quality construct
- Gorgeous screen
- Excellent battery life
- Diverse port choice
- Competitive efficiency
Cons
- Obnoxious bloatware
- High-pitched followers
- Physical trackpad button as a substitute of a linear motor
Our Verdict
A no-compromises ultraportable that’s not simply one other fairly face.
Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (2023)
$1399.99
It was that with the intention to get a laptop computer’s profile as skinny as potential, laptop computer makers must make massive sacrifices. An ideal instance for me is the unique 2008 MacGuide Air—this ultrabook whittled its ports down to a few, one USB, one charging port, and the headphone jack and used the identical sluggish laborious drives as an iPod, making it a irritating computing expertise regardless of the way you sliced it.
Thankfully, thin-and-light computer systems have come a good distance since 2008 and Asus has put out what seems like a no-compromises gadget. It options the newest Intel Core 10-core chip and a stunning OLED screen, which is all packed into a brilliant mild body created from steel and ceramic. On paper, it looks as if it might give even Apple’s honed Airs a run for his or her cash and save for a few gripes, that’s completely the case. Asus has designed one thrilling ultrabook.
Looking for extra choices? Check out our roundup of the most effective laptops obtainable proper now.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Specs and options
Our assessment unit got here loaded with an Intel Core i7-1355U CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of NVMe PCIe SSD storage. For extra particulars, take a look at the bulleted record under:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-1355U (10 cores, 12 threads)
- Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5
- Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- Display: 13.3-inch 2880×1800 16:10 OLED, 550 nits peak HDR brightness
- Storage: 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
- Webcam: 1080p IR digicam
- Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-A 3.1 Gen , 1x HDMI 2.1, 3.5 mm headset jack
- Networking: Intel AX211 with Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
- Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition
- Battery capability: 63Wh
- Dimensions: 11.66 W x 8.52 L x 0.46 H inches
- Weight: 2.2 kilos, 2.6 kilos with AC adapter
- Price as Reviewed: $1,399
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Design and construct high quality
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
I’m not a snob about my computer systems—I’ve loved every little thing from chunky machines created from recycled plastic to the newest thin-and-light fashions. That mentioned, taking the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED out of its field for the primary time was memorable. Its skinny profile and a couple of.2 lb weight make it really feel virtually pretend at first, like a type of show mannequin computer systems you’d discover at Ikea on the present flooring. But it’s not pretend! This precise laptop crams a keyboard, all its chips, a good-sized battery, and even its signature OLED show into a brilliant tiny bundle.
All of that might be a soggy noodle of a pc if not engineered correctly. Thankfully, I discovered little or no flex or wobble right here, displaying that Asus has performed a radical engineering job. Even the skinny screen feels comparatively stout, and for all of the vigorous typing I might muster, I by no means felt the underside of the pc torque or pressure underneath the strain. Metal is the first materials at work right here, however the again of the show is a trendy ceramic materials with enticing engraved strains. It’s subtly eye-catching.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Connectivity
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
Recently, I sampled a extremely nice HP laptop, the Dragonfly Pro. Maybe the worst facet of that machine was its lack of ports, rocking solely a handful and solely the newest and best Thunderbolt or USB-C. But it’s essential to keep in mind that there are nonetheless quite a lot of equipment on the market that want devoted connectors, and that not everybody needs to switch all their completely good cables for USB-C ended ones. That’s why it’s so good to see that Asus has cut up the distinction with the Zenbook S 13 OLED. Not solely do you get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, with all their Swiss Army USB-C goodness (these are the one option to cost the pc). But that’s not all you get. There’s a headphone jack, an actual USB-A port, and an actual HDMI 2.1 port too.
While I can get by with adapters and dongles, it’s simply so good that I might plug the Zenbook S 13 OLED proper as much as a USB-A reminiscence card reader I had mendacity round. I used to be additionally capable of rapidly use my outdated Yubikey for two-factor authentication. To be trustworthy, despite the fact that I’m used to juggling new and outdated cables in my day-to-day, it’s refreshing to not have to fret if I grabbed the precise cable. Any USB cable will work!
With its Intel AX211 onboard WiFi, the Asus Zenbook S 13 supplied a dependable web expertise, with nice reception even from the corners of my home the place some units drop off. Along with WiFi 6E speeds (assuming you will have a suitable router), you’ll get trendy Bluetooth 5.3 as effectively. There’s no mobile web choice, sadly.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Keyboard and trackpad
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
The distance a key travels typically dictates the consolation and responsiveness of a keyboard. Thankfully, the short-throw keys on this Asus really feel exact and cozy. They’re somewhat clicky which I admire, leaving no query once you’ve pressed a key. The strain wanted to actuate every button solely wants a light-weight contact. Even for longer typing classes, my fingers by no means obtained fatigued and there wasn’t any sort of studying curve—I obtained my palms on the house row and away I went.
If I needed to level out any weak level with the Asus Zenbook, it may be the trackpad. Although I had a tremendous time with it, its use of a bodily clicker made it really feel somewhat old-school when in comparison with some trendy competitors. The MacGuide and even competing HP fashions might use a linear induction motor to supply a click on which I’d want in a skinny laptop like this. But hey, I’ve completely used worse trackpads on current PCs, so perhaps mediocre isn’t a horrible destiny. At least it’s responsive sufficient, appropriately ignored my palms whereas typing, and has a smooth-feeling glass materials as its contact floor.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Display, audio system, webcam
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
Not solely is the Zenbook S 13 OLED skinny as a finely-honed sword, this laptop computer sports activities an superior, high-res OLED panel. We’ll get into this a bit later however in my expertise, massive OLED laptop computer screens was costly and have an enormous battery life penalty. Thankfully, neither of these appear to be a problem at this level, and the advantages outweigh any drawbacks.
The advantages are beautiful colours and extremely darkish blacks, making for a screen with an general wealthy and practical look. The peak brightness on this screen is 500 nits when watching HDR content material. The excessive decision of the panel, 2880×1800, is largely an asset to the Zenbook, however I nonetheless bumped into some dialogue bins in Windows that didn’t scale correctly, wanting tiny on the screen. Maybe the one draw back to this screen is the shortage of a contact layer, one thing I missed simply since I take advantage of so many touch-enabled computer systems in my every day life. For lots of people this is removed from a deal breaker, and I’m right here to say that the vivid, constrast-y OLED screen is an enormous improve from no matter LCDs you’ve tried prior to now.
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
Perched atop the OLED screen is a so-so webcam that’s a 1080p decision. I discovered that it made my pores and skin look washed out in direct mild, and that it wasn’t very detailed general, however your mileage might range. Thankfully, the digicam has Windows Hello integration, so you possibly can a minimum of log in hands-free, even should you don’t look your greatest on Zoom calls.
In the premium laptop computer house, we count on punchy speaker methods. While the Zenbook S 13 OLED misses the mark on deep bass sounds and maybe has much less quantity than competing machines, the midrange is satisfyingly detailed. If you have been hoping to get room-filling sound, you’ll be disillusioned. But should you occasionally use your laptop computer’s audio system or have a tendency in direction of spoken phrase content material, you’ll admire the audio system within the Zenbook S 13 OLED.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Performance
At this level in 2023, you’re going to see extra laptops like this Asus with the newest Intel thirteenth gen chips inside. While it’s not an enormous leap above the earlier technology of processor, there’s nonetheless rather a lot to love right here. In our battery of exams, the i7-1355U, with its two efficiency cores and eight effectivity cores, offers this skinny laptop computer numerous muscle. But there’s undoubtedly a penalty for smooshing such a complicated processor right into a small house—fan noise. If you’re delicate to high-pitched noises, you’ll discover the followers as quickly as you begin one thing that taxes the processor. I assumed it was considerably akin to a mosquito flying in my ear—it’s that skull-shatteringly piercing.
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
We benchmark each laptop computer with the PCMark 10 suite. This software program offers us an excellent baseline, utilizing on a regular basis duties to gauge a pc’s true efficiency. Unlike the AMD-powered rivals (just like the HP Dragonfly Pro on this chart), you’ll solely get a pair of high-powered cores, which places the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED behind these fashions. All that mentioned, the i7-1355U held its personal towards older Intel chips, with its efficiency coming in solely barely behind performance-focused P-spec Intel chips from the earlier technology. Those laptops tended to run hotter and have worse battery life, so it’s good to see that there is a significant efficiency improve year-over-year.
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
In this efficiency check, we use Cinebench R15 to get a way for a way effectively all a laptop computer’s processors work collectively to render 3D graphics. The lack of high-performance cores didn’t assist the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED out right here because it’s bested by most different laptops in its class, however we’d guess that individuals aren’t shopping for these ultraportable units for heavy 3D rendering classes.
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
We’ve seen Intel’s built-in Iris Xe Graphics enhance considerably over time, and at this level you may get ok efficiency for easy duties. The 3DMark Time Spy benchmark we use is a torture check for these sort of laptops, however when in comparison with different related Intel-based machines you possibly can count on it to be aggressive. It’s nonetheless a far cry from AMD-based laptops with their stronger Radeon built-in graphics, however we weren’t anticipating this technology of Intel chips to enhance the graphics by a lot anyway.
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
We check each laptop computer by reencoding a high-res video file right into a small file meant for a pill gadget. It looks as if Intel’s put in a bit of labor into its QuickSync video expertise, as a result of the i7-1355U within the Zenbook S 13 OLED managed to match the extra highly effective AMD-based Dragonfly Pro on this check.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Battery life
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
As we talked about earlier, OLED screens in laptops was unhealthy information for battery life. But not right here—the Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED lasted greater than 10 hours in our 4K video looping check. That makes it aggressive with different current laptops we’ve seen on this class, just like the HP Dragonfly Pro, whereas being virtually a full pound lighter. It looks as if a extremely spectacular feat that this laptop computer will be so mild, lots highly effective, but additionally final most of a day with no cost. Anecdotally, I misplaced round 9% over a half hour whereas utilizing this machine fairly intensely, with a YouTube video taking part in, the screen brightness cranked up, and loads of tabs open in Microsoft Edge.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Bloatware
IDG / Brendan Nystedt
Although Asus comes near matching the MacGuide Air expertise with the Zenbook S 13 OLED, there’s one factor that the Mac does higher: you’re sure to get a clear set up of the working system. The Zenbook S 13 OLED got here preloaded with some actually annoying utilities, one that would even mess with the long-term operation of this laptop’s superior OLED screen.
As all the time, the worst offender was the included antivirus software program. McAfee wasted no time bullying me about “Early Bird” offers so I can get a low price locked in as soon as my trial expires. I perceive that the PC enterprise depends on kickbacks from these software program distributors, however for a premium laptop computer this is ridiculous. Putting scary messages, spinning clocks, and ticking countdown timers on the screen merely leaves a nasty style in my mouth, and I really feel unhealthy for anybody who has to cope with this type of manipulative advertising.
Then there are the built-in Asus utilities. There’s a utility named GlideX that ought to allow you to prolong the Zenbook’s show to a pill, nevertheless it makes customers subscribe for further options and to take away show advertisements. Strangely, there’s additionally an app included known as ScreenXprt, which so far as I can inform builds on Windows 11’s already fairly nice window managing system, duplicates the digicam and microphone off buttons from the keyboard, and lets customers add shortcuts to screen snipping (which already has a keyboard command as effectively). The worst a part of this is that is sticks a clear emblem within the nook. As it’s possible you’ll know, OLED screens will be notably delicate to static graphics, which may burn in over time and this app might just do that. The MyASUS app, meant to present customers help, despatched a notification telling me of some nice spring offers…no thanks!
Although the Asus {hardware} workforce has put in nice work, the individuals choosing out the software program actually need to consider how these little issues can kill somebody’s buzz.
Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED: Should you purchase it?
2023 has been an excellent yr for PC laptops, even when individuals aren’t shopping for them as ravenously as throughout earlier years. If you’ve been holding off a purchase order ready for improved chips, nicer screens, and nice battery life earlier than you improve, then Asus has put all of these items into a tool that has few compromises—the Zenbook S 13 OLED even has a, helpful choice of ports. If energy isn’t your precedence, this laptop computer might cowl all of the bases for typical sorts of labor, and its vivid OLED screen is merely beautiful for watching your favourite motion pictures or streaming exhibits.
Even the negatives listed here are fairly negligible…if I all I can complain about are the trackpad being a clicky button as a substitute of a motor (that’s a primary world downside for certain!), a slight whine from the followers, and a few bloatware that you could simply and rapidly uninstall, then that claims rather a lot. Even for the $1,399 value, you get loads of storage, a future-proof quantity of RAM, and a really competent processor. The M2 MacGuide Air or Dell XPS 13 Plus, optioned out to an analogous tier, each value greater than $2,000. Simply put, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is a no brainer purchase.
…. to be continued
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