The review about Asus Zenbook S in 2023

The review about Asus Zenbook S in 2023. The Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED attempts to go above and beyond the standard with a fantastic OLED display and a lightweight design. Little laptops are hard to come by.

There is more to enjoy besides the sleek body and eye-searing screen. The ZenBook uses an AMD Ryzen processor that is brand new out of the box and has a strong battery life. The pricing is also not ridiculous, starting at $1,299 in the US and £1,299 in the UK.

It sounds fantastic, but the ZenBook S needs to be effective if it hopes to beat the competition, which includes the powerful Apple MacBook Air with its upgraded M2 processor and the outstanding Dell XPS 13 and XPS 13 Plus.

Design & Build:

• Slim, light, and sturdy design
• Lots of USB-C connectivity, but little else
• No facial recognition, but you do get a fingerprint reader

Physically, the ZenBook S 13 OLED is stunning. This laptop weighs 1.09kg, which is less than all of its competitors despite the MacBook Air and ordinary XPS 13 being somewhat slimmer.

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The magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis of the Asus laptop is pleasingly strong throughout and has good build quality. A laptop that can easily handle daily commuter life may be had when you combine that with its MIL-STD 810H certification. With a matte metal chassis and a shiny chrome hinge, it also has a nice appearance.

The Aqua Celadon type, which has a faint hint of green and is also offered in blue, white, and beige, is the one I’ve evaluated. Its four color options surpass those of both rivals in this regard.

Two USB-C ports with power delivery are located on the ZenBook’s right edge, and a third is located on the left. A full-size USB adaptor is also provided by Asus, and one of those powers the laptop. Although AMD internals is used, these laptops lack Thunderbolt 4 capability, which is available on Apple and Dell models.

Screen & Speakers:

• High-quality 16:10 OLED display
• The ideal resolution for creative workloads
• Stylus included
• Great color performance in all gamuts

The specifications of the display are excellent. It has a 13.3-inch OLED screen with a 2880 x 1800 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. Unless you pay for its costly 4K option, which has more pixels than the MacBook Air and a higher resolution than the XPS 13. The touchscreen display of the ZenBook also comes with a stylus, which is useful for creative work.

As expected, the Asus displays spectacular contrast. Thanks to OLED technology, dark areas have incredible depth, and the panel’s colors stand out with impressive vibrancy.

The colors also have a lot to recommend them. The screen delivers 92.8% of the Adobe RGB gamut and 97.9% of the DCI-P3 space with volumes above 100%, while it renders 100% of the sRGB gamut at a monstrous 161.7% volume. Wow.

These are significant numbers, which indicate that practically all of the colors required for creative work, including those requiring Adobe RGB and HDR spaces, are produced by this screen. The Delta E of 3.12 could be a little bit better, and if you’re a very serious creative, you’ll need it to be more exact, but it’s still sufficient to guarantee accuracy in the majority of workloads.

The brightness is the only notable area of concern. While this panel has a maximum brightness of 550 nits in HDR mode, it only reaches 357 nits in SDR mode, which is adequate for indoor use but insufficient for prolonged outside use.

Specs & Performance:

• AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor with integrated graphics
• 16GB LPDDR5 memory
• 512GB SSD

With the ZenBook S 13 OLED, AMD’s latest Ryzen 7 6800U is prominently displayed. This low-power processor, which employs a revised Zen 3 architecture that has been in use since 2021, has eight multi-threaded cores and a respectable top speed of 4.7GHz.

Together with the CPU cores, the system includes a quick 512GB SSD, 16GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 memory, and AMD Radeon integrated graphics. That’s excellent, and users can access the SSD on the inside, but since the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, memory upgrades are not allowed. While Bluetooth 5.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi 6E provide connectivity, there is no Ethernet for wired internet, unlike the majority of contemporary laptops.

The upgraded AMD processor helps Asus stand out from its competitors. The ZenBook’s multi-core test result from Geekbench was 7,714. That’s a respectable result, and it’s twice as good as the Intel Core i7-1250U found inside the Dell XPS 13, but it still trails the Apple M2 CPU found inside the most recent MacBook Air by 1,000 points.

The XPS 13 Plus from Dell’s lineup is yet another option to take into account. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800U inside the ZenBook will be outperformed by a Core i7-1260P CPU if you set up the system with such a processor.

There is some proof that the Ryzen chip doesn’t operate at its maximum potential, which is expected from a thin laptop. In demanding work tests, the CPU rarely achieved speeds of 2.7GHz, and after extended work benchmarks, the metal above the keyboard and on the underside grew extremely warm.

Price & Availability:

At the time this article was written, the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED, model number UM5302T, hadn’t yet been made available in the US or the UK. But when it does, expect to pay between £1,299 and $1,299 for it. Only B&H currently has a listing page.

That alluring figure holds up well against competitors. With a 256GB SSD, the Apple MacBook Air M2 costs $1,119 and £1,249, or $1,499 and £1,549 with a 512GB SSD and a more powerful M2 chip.

The model we’re reviewing today has the highest specifications, but there’s also a model with a Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. We still don’t have a price for this from Asus.

The Dell side of the situation is similar. The new XPS 13 is priced at $1,449 or £1,279 if you choose a configuration that is similar to the Asus. The XPS 13 Plus starts at $1,349 or £1,349, but if you add the OLED option, the price jumps significantly.

Verdict:

The OLED display of the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED comes up to its name; it is gorgeous and has incredible quality and clarity. Beyond that, this laptop features a superb keyboard and is both thin and light. It has an impressive battery life and the power to multitask and perform common creative tasks. Even the majority of competitors are overpriced.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the Apple MacBook Air M2, Dell XPS 13, and other competitors are without appeal. The Apple device is quicker. The XPS 13 Plus is available with faster processors and OLED displays, while the Dell XPS 13 is thinner than the Asus and features Thunderbolt.

But there’s no denying that the ZenBook is a strong rival, easily capable of competing with those other laptops. This is a superb ultraportable because of its excellent screen, reliable internals, and long battery life.

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Specs:

• Model tested: UM5302T
• OS: Windows 11 Home
• Display: 13.3in OLED, 2880x 1800, 60Hz
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
• Memory: 16GB onboard
• Graphics: AMD Radeon integrated
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p
• Connectivity: 3 x USB Type-C, combo audio jack.
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Battery capacity: 67Wh
• Dimensions: 11.65 x 8.26 x 0.58 inches
• Measured weight: 1.09kg