OLED with few compromises
At this level, in case you’ve used one Asus Zenbook, you’ve used all of them. They’re the closest factor Asus has to a MacBook Air competitor, with chassis which might be barely flimsier, touchpads with fancier options, and value tags which might be a bit much less intimidating. In latest years, they’ve additionally turn out to be one in all the least expensive methods to get an OLED display on a laptop computer.
But this explicit Zenbook, the $1,299 Zenbook S 13 OLED, can also be thrilling as a result of it’s one in all the first units I’ve gotten to check with AMD’s long-awaited Ryzen 6000 sequence inside. And whereas the Zenbook’s chassis is in any other case unremarkable, the chip inside delivers each CPU efficiency and built-in graphics which might be, as soon as once more, a few of the finest you may get in an ultra-thin laptop computer. That energy, mixed with the ultra-portability that the Zenbook line is known for, makes the Zenbook S 13 OLED a really viable MacBook Air alternative for individuals who are open to Windows.
The Zenbook S 13 doesn’t look particularly totally different from the legions of different Zenbooks on the market, however that’s hardly a nasty factor. At 2.43 kilos and 0.59 inches thick, it’s a type of units you may squeeze into even the most packed of backpacks (and one you gained’t even really feel whereas it’s in there). While the lid and deck do have a little bit of a plasticky really feel, there’s little or no flex in the lid or keyboard deck. Both have been additionally pretty immune to amassing fingerprints, which is a matter I’ve had with Zenbooks in the previous.
Slapping an OLED panel on an ultraportable line notoriously has the hazard of constructing that line exorbitantly costly and destroying its battery life. That makes this system a breath of contemporary air. This OLED contact show, whereas not fairly as vibrant as you would possibly see from the costliest OLEDs on the market, remains to be fairly good, reaching a wonderfully usable 360 nits in my testing with nearly no glare all through. (And it’s 16:10, affording extra vertical house.)
And I nonetheless averaged seven hours and 45 minutes of workplace work on this system with the display at medium brightness and Battery Saver on (and that was very persistently the time I noticed throughout a number of trials). While I can get just a few hours extra out of the most up-to-date MacBook Air, it’s nonetheless good in comparison with the varied twelfth Gen Intel machines I’ve examined this yr (in addition to every kind of Intel-powered Zenbooks).
Zenbooks are additionally a few of my favourite multimedia machines, and this one works nicely for that use case. Audio was pretty good, with audible bass and percussion and no distortion at most quantity. It sounded pretty just like the MacBook Air in side-by-side testing, with vocals perhaps barely clearer on the Air. There’s a noticeable encompass impact — it did really feel like my music was surrounding me — and every little thing’s adjustable in the Dolby Access app. I really thought the Game and Movie profiles (which prioritize positional accuracy) led to better-sounding and better-surrounding music than the music profile (which felt a bit muted as compared).
The microphones, which assist AI noise cancellation, additionally didn’t give me any hassle, and other people might hear me positive over my house’s very loud air conditioner.
The one important draw back people ought to concentrate on is port choice. The Zenbook is near MacBook ranges of connectivity now — all you get are three USB-C ports and a headphone jack. I do like that there’s a minimum of one USB-C port on both sides (and they’re USB-4-ready). Asus features a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the Zenbook’s field, however needing to make use of dongles left and proper remains to be a problem. (There is a minimum of a headphone jack, which some earlier OLED Zenbooks have made the unlucky resolution to omit.)
The unit I’m testing (which is the solely Zenbook 13 S configuration I’ve been capable of finding up for preorder) is at the moment listed for $1,299. It consists of the eight-core Ryzen 7 6800U, 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and the 2880 x 1800 OLED show. That’s a really engaging value for these specs, particularly contemplating the display.
The system carried out simply positive all through my workday. I used a complete bunch of Chrome tabs on high of every kind of downloads, apps, and a Zoom name on Battery Saver with no slowdown. I did sometimes really feel some heat on the backside of the system however by no means felt any on the palm rests or keyboard deck. (And I didn’t hear the followers except I had the Performance profile on, and even then, they weren’t obnoxious.) During intense testing, the CPU didn’t go 96 levels Celsius (however it did spend a number of time hovering between 85 and 95 levels Celsius, which is definitely sizzling).
The Zenbook accomplished an export of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video in simply over quarter-hour. That doesn’t examine favorably to scores we’ve seen from earlier machines which have accomplished this take a look at, as the latest model of Premiere Pro has given slower scores throughout the board than earlier iterations. Still, it’s value noting for any aspiring video people that these sorts of workloads usually aren’t AMD’s power. The system loses to the M2 MacBook Air (in addition to the M1 system) on (*13*), which assessments reside playback and export time at 4K and 8K, in addition to varied twelfth Gen Intel techniques.
Outside of these use instances, although, AMD’s built-in graphics are very spectacular. I’ve been saying this for years, however there’s not a lot of a case to be made for purchasing laptops with entry-level Nvidia MX GPUs when built-in graphics are doing this nicely.
The system averaged 238fps on League of Legends and 114fps on Rocket League’s most settings (all at 1080p decision). Overwatch was even playable at Epic settings, averaging 52fps on that preset and 83fps on Ultra. Even Shadow of the Tomb Raider was greater than playable at the lowest settings, averaging 53fps. (Though it was not playable at the highest settings, averaging 25fps.)
These outcomes are a few of the finest we’ve seen from built-in graphics in a 13-inch system. They edge out the M2 MacBook Air (to not point out the M1 mannequin), they usually beat the Intel twelfth Gen Dell XPS 13 Plus as nicely. Given how far more inexpensive this system is than both of those laptops, that’s fairly spectacular (and, frankly, encouraging) to see.
That’s my largest takeaway from the Zenbook S 13 OLED: AMD nonetheless makes a few of the finest built-in graphics you may get in a laptop computer of this size.
The eight-core Ryzen 7 chip stays a critical challenger to each Apple and Intel’s finest cellular chips that you will discover in the 13-inch house. While it doesn’t present the lengthy battery life that the M2 does, nor does it have Intel’s dominance in inventive workloads, it’s nonetheless an all-around highly effective chip that delivers a very wonderful gaming expertise without an excessive amount of exterior warmth. Maybe sometime Intel will claw its manner again to the high of the chip market — however not this yr.
Pair this with the acceptable battery life the Zenbook gave us and the OLED touchscreen, and I’d say it’s a wonderful possibility for anybody who finds premium ultraportables like the MacBook Air to be over finances (or simply prefers Windows to macOS).