I’m exhausted Years of reviewing laptops and I still hear Best Buy employees telling customers to buy really obscure Windows laptops or to “just stick with the MacBook and Surface.” Part of the problem is competition. Wait now, there’s no reason to start sharpening your pitchforks; I’m all for having options, something the laptop industry has in store. It’s just that finding the right device in a crowded field can be a daunting task for everyday consumers.
This is also why the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED won’t get the attention it deserves. This 13-inch laptop is, in most respects, just as capable as the industry’s XPSs, MacBooks, and Yogas, just without the household name. It’s lighter and sleeker than its rivals, its AMD engine delivers excellent performance, and despite having an impressive 2.8K OLED display, the Zenbook lasts a full day on a charge.
The Zenbook S 13 OLED is very close to the perfect laptop, so close that if I were in the market for a laptop today, this would be it.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED
WHAT IS?
An ultraportable Windows laptop
PRICE?
$1,499 ($2,081) (as reviewed)
PROS
Slim and ultralight design; Good performance (but not the fastest); Long battery life; Magnificent 2.8K OLED screen; Beautiful color options
CONS
No facial recognition, average 720p webcam, runs hot, USB-C only
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED price and configurations
This is a hard to find laptop at the time of writing. Asus says the Zenbook S 13 OLED should start around $US1,099 ($1,526) when it’s available (which was supposed to be in June). Our review unit, equipped with a Ryzen 7 6700U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, should cost $1,499 ($2,081). Asus also sells a convertible model powered by Intel 12th Gen CPUs.
As beautiful and light as a feather
Over the years, my dependence on my laptop has decreased. Picking up a smartphone to quickly check email or watch a short video is less of a burden, and as a result, my larger rectangular sandwich lies dormant until it’s time to do some serious work. However, with the Zenbook S 13 OLED, my subconscious no longer longed for the immediacy of a more mobile device: I could pick up this light wafer, open the screen, and quickly look something up online or write a quick Slack message to a co-worker
10 hours of suffocation. Fortunately, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED almost fits in my lap. (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
This change in behavior is largely due to the Zenbook S13 OLED’s small size (11.7 x 8.3 x 0.6) and 1 kg weight: carrying this laptop from room to room required no effort and Windows started immediately when the system woke up. For context, the Zenbook weighs much less than the XPS 13 (1kg) and the MacBook Air (1kg). I should also note that the Zenbook was small enough to use on a cramped Lufthansa flight, made more uncomfortable by the fully reclined individual sitting across from me.
This is also a very small thing, especially in the dark blue shade. Asus calls it Ponder Blue, but no amount of careful thought will clear that name up for me. Let’s go with “Marina”. Not a fan? The Zenbook is also offered in Aqua Celedon (pastel metallic mint), Refined White and Vestige Beige (rose gold). Apple had accessories to add two unique hues to the new Air, but Asus has always offered sophisticated color options, and I find those on the Zenbook S 13 OLED to be more attractive.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
The Zenbook S 13 solves the conundrum of portability versus durability. Where most other options give you one or the other, this magnesium-aluminum alloy laptop is surprisingly light yet surprisingly sturdy. These qualities made it the perfect laptop for me to take on a long-awaited trip to Germany. Slipping the Zenbook into the tablet pocket of my backpack didn’t seem to add any extra weight. My shoulders survived a long commute with the S 13 in tow, so I decided to take it on an eight-mile hike in the South Tyrolean Dolomites; again, the laptop saved my exhausted body, never making its presence felt.
Missing a few small touches
This laptop has an excellent chassis, but tech journalists have to and I will, starting with the lack of an IR camera. The fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable, but not as convenient as the facial recognition found on most other premium laptops. And as much as I love the Star Trek/Space Force monogram logo, the surface of the laptop collects fingerprints and some paint has rubbed off in the corners (note, this review unit has been through rigorous testing).
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
Then there are the ports: three USB 3.1 Type-C and a headphone jack. Less offensive than rivals that force you to use Bluetooth (see: Dell XPS 13) or only give you two inputs (see: MacBook Air), but just “good enough” in my book. And just to clarify, there is no Thunderbolt here; this is an Intel x Apple technology, so AMD is left out of the rain.
A powerful right hook for a featherweight
Powering the system is a Ryzen 7 6800U CPU paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. With 8 cores/16 threads and a maximum boost clock of up to 4.7GHz, this is a high-octane chip for such a compact system. Loading dozens of Chrome tabs, editing in Affinity Photo, playing music in YouTube Music, and watching YouTube videos didn’t cause any slowdown as the Zenbook juggled these tasks with vigor. Heavy workloads turned the bottom into a mini Coleman grill, but a gracefully silent one.
I’m happy with the performance of the Zenbook S 13, although it’s not up to par with the competition. On Geekbench 5’s overall performance test, the Zenbook scored 7,498, placing it behind the Acer Swift 5 (9,585), Apple MacBook Air M2 (8,975) and Lenovo Yoga 9i (9,516). That may sound bleak, but the Asus matched the MacBook Air with M1 and outperformed nearly every last-generation device we tested.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
The Zenbook also lagged behind in our video transcoding test, converting a 4K clip to 1080p in 9 minutes and 47 seconds. The Yoga 9i (9:02) and Swift 5 (8:56) were slightly faster, while the MacBook Air embarrassed the field with a time of 4:33.
The tables aced the Blender test, when the Zenbook rendered a 3D image in a respectable 4 minutes and 19 seconds, a few seconds ahead of the Swift 5 (4:36) and the MacBook Pro 13 with M2 (4:35). The Yoga 9i (6:00) needed almost two extra minutes to complete the same task.
No surprises: One thing you won’t be doing on the Zenbook is playing modern games. With integrated Radeon graphics, this thin wedge played Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (1080p, high) at 23 frames per second. No need to compare it to the competition. The bottom line is clear: less demanding games will run on medium settings at 1080p and that’s it.
Once you go to OLED
Asus committed to OLED adoption in its 2022 notebook portfolio, and the Zenbook S 13 OLED didn’t miss out. Dazzlingly rich colors emerged from the 13.3-inch, 2.8K OLED panel (16:10) as I watched Season 4 of Stranger Things and some not-so-airplane-friendly episodes of The Boys on my flight to Europe.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
Unlike mini-LED, which benefits from HDR content, you don’t need to be looking at Planet Earth to reap the benefits of OLED. Everything looks better: icons, webcam images, and those fancy new Windows 11 backgrounds. My family members (who are avid photographers) were amazed at how beautiful the mirrorless camera photos looked when were showing on the Zenbook.
An often-cited shortcoming of OLED is limited brightness. These panels just don’t shine as bright as others, and that was true with the Zenbook S 13, which peaked at 340 nits. Although it’s above my “300 nits or bust” threshold, the display is beaten by LCD or mini-LED panels in other premium laptops, which often reach up to 500 nits. Compensating for this shortcoming is an infinite contrast ratio that makes white backgrounds and colors pop and text look sharp, so nothing washes out in direct sunlight or when viewed at an angle.
Master only of some
Less noteworthy are the keyboard and touchpad. They are perfectly fine, neither enhancing nor detracting from the overall package. That’s somewhat of a relief, given the trend toward ultra-low-profile keys on laptops. There is some bounce in these and their proper size and spacing should accommodate most people. My hands felt right at home with the Zenbook’s traditional design, and I managed an above-average 117 words per minute on a standardized typing test.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
The touchpad is also standard fare. The glass-smooth surface was a comfortable cushion under my skin, though I could have done without the slight grip. Erratic scrolling was accurately tracked, and window-switching gestures were a one-take affair. A trick unique to the Asus models is the backlit numeric keypad that overlays the Zenbook’s touchpad when activated via a small icon in the top right corner. The hidden feature works amazingly and could be quite useful for number pickers.
The average speakers are one of the few faults of the Zenbook S 13 OLED. The lower-end dual drivers are fine for YouTube videos or podcasts, but struggle when playing certain genres of music. The tuning is actually quite good depending on the song, but this Zenbook calls for another set of drivers to amplify certain parts of the soundstage.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo)
Listening to Glockenbach’s “Brooklyn,” the powerful vocals took center stage while the electronic instruments took a back seat. The bass…