a pleasant Home windows laptop computer that packs a punch

Asus’ Zenbook laptop computer lineup has a storied historical past with its selection of thin-and-light Windows 11 PCs. Now, the Asus Zenbook S 14, the latest member of the product household, has hit the cabinets.

Windows 11 performed a task in reinvigorating the considerably stagnant PC market, and in 2024, competition from the likes of Dell, HP, Surface, and others is fierce. The query right here is whether or not Asus’ new 14-inch pocket book, mixed with a brand-new Intel chip, is worthy of standing alongside the most effective of the most effective. I took the Zenbook S 14 out for a spin to search out out.

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Editor’s Selection

Asus Zenbook S 14

A skinny-and-light Home windows 11 laptop computer that ships with the most recent Intel Core Extremely 7 (Sequence 2) processor and a 14-inch 3K OLED show.

Professionals

• Bodily effectively constructed
• One-handed lid operation
• Consists of Home windows Whats up and Presence Sensing

Cons

• No haptic trackpad
• The USB-C ports are each on the one facet
• AI-ready processor, however not a lot AI to talk of

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Value, availability, and specs

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is a 14-inch laptop computer, however its footprint would have you ever consider it is packing a 13-inch panel. The machine is available in at 12.26 x 8.42 x 0.47 ~ 0.51-inches (31.15 x 21.39 x 1.19 ~ 1.29cm) dimensions throughout the board. The wedge-shaped design makes it such that the laptop computer tapers down barely, from 0.51-inches at its thickest, to 0.47-inches at its thinnest. This, together with its 2.65lbs (1.20kg) weight, makes the pocket book svelte and straightforward to maneuver.

The star of any trendy laptop computer is its show, and the Zenbook S 14 does not disappoint — Asus has outfitted the machine with a 14-inch 2880 x 1800 pixel decision OLED panel, full with a quick 120Hz refresh charge, 500nits of peak HDR brightness, and a contact display configuration with assist for each pen and inking.

Underneath the hood you will discover one in every of Intel’s newest chips, upwardly configurable to the Intel Core Extremely 7 (Sequence 2). That is an x86 processor, which implies it presents full compatibility with the breadth of Home windows functions and legacy packages. That is in distinction to the ARM architecture-based Snapdragon X processor present in choices like Asus’ personal ProArt PZ13 hybrid PC.

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On the subject of port choice, the Zenbook presents an honest assortment of choices. The twin Thunderbolt 4 USB Kind-C sockets are naturally welcome, as is the extra USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-A port for interfacing with legacy peripherals. An HDMI 2.1 port is right here for straightforward exterior show connectivity, and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack on board as effectively.

With an MSRP of $1,500, the Zenbook S 14 is on the market in Zumaia grey and Scandinavian white colorways, and ships with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

What I appreciated concerning the Asus Zenbook S 14

The laptop computer’s ‘Ceraluminum’ lid materials lives as much as the hype

From an exterior perspective, the Zenbook S 14 is a stunner. The clear traces, steel chassis, and design language minimalism are all proper up my alley, and I admire that Asus has tried to craft one thing visually distinct from Apple’s MacBook and Microsoft’s Floor. The highest lid is fabricated from a ceramic materials that Asus affectionately refers to as ‘Ceraluminum,’ and it feels each bit as nice because it appears.

The corporate describes the hybrid materials as providing each the resilience of ceramic and the lightness of steel, and the delicate geometric sample provides a splash of persona into the combo with out coming throughout as gaudy. I examined the Zumaia grey model, which I discovered collected fingerprints fairly simply. If you happen to’re trying to keep away from the necessity to wipe down the machine with a microfiber material to maintain it wanting pristine, the Scandinavian white mannequin would possibly fare higher.

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The laptop computer passes the lid-opening take a look at with flying colours, as effectively. Time and time once more, I used to be in a position to elevate open the lid with a single finger, with out the remainder of the pocket book shifting or stopping simple hinge motion. The military-grade US MIL-STD 810H commonplace certification signifies that that is additionally a reasonably ruggedly designed PC, having undergone stress checks below excessive and low temperatures, extra humidity, vibration and shock, in addition to excessive perspective situations.

As soon as I satisfyingly swung open the lid, I used to be greeted by a brilliant and exquisite OLED show panel. The display might be my favourite side of the Zenbook S 14 — colours pop, brightness is passable even in brightly lit environments, and the 120Hz refresh charge makes Home windows 11 feel and look fluid. I am completely satisfied to report that Asus opted for a 16:10 side ratio right here, versus a extra commonplace (and cheaper) 16:9 widescreen panel. The added vertical actual property is indispensable relating to workplace work, which I do a whole lot of in my day by day life.

Asus has matched the engaging OLED show panel with a fairly respectable speaker setup, incorporating 2 tweeters and a pair of woofers for immersion, in addition to each Harman Kardon and Dolby Atmos certifications. The previous is a stamp of approval from audio specialists to make sure the standard of audio loudness and depth, whereas the latter is meant to develop the digital encompass sound expertise. I discovered the audio output to be fairly loud and clear by thin-and-light laptop computer requirements, through which area constraints are inclined to make it difficult to embed a high-quality speaker system in.

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I am a giant fan of Windows Hello facial security recognition, which the Zenbook S 14 manages to squeeze into its small prime show bezel. The inclusion of Presence Sensing {hardware} is one other optimistic, which permits for the display to dynamically activate and off primarily based on whether or not I am sitting at my desk. Home windows 11 presents native assist for the characteristic, and I hope to see it develop into commonplace throughout the PC {industry} sooner relatively than later.

The brand new Intel Core Extremely 9 (Sequence 2) processor carried out effectively in my testing, maintaining with all of the duties I recurrently threw at it. For reference, the machine achieved a Geekbench 6 rating of 1,384 in single-core and seven,536 in multi-core. As is the case with different skinny shopper laptops, the Zenbook S 14 is not finest fitted to graphically intensive gaming classes or hardcore video modifying. It will carry out simply effective for lighter video games and modifying wants, however actually, it is not constructed with these duties in thoughts.

The laptop computer runs quietly below basic workloads — Asus quotes below 25dB throughout mild workloads. There is a vapor chamber below the hood, in addition to a novel geometric fan grill design donning the area instantly above the keyboard deck. In addition to wanting visually distinct, the cooling vent design guarantees enhanced air movement effectivity. Even throughout extra reasonable workloads, with loads of Google Chrome tabs open and media streaming within the background, the twin followers remained barely audible to me.

For workplace work, together with phrase and spreadsheet processing, the Zenbook S 14’s keyboard presents a nice typing expertise. The 1.1mm journey distance of the keys was comfy for longer typing classes, and I discovered the stability between clickiness and springiness to be a great one.

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What I did not like concerning the Asus Zenbook S 14

The trackpad is ok, nevertheless it considerably lets down the in any other case premium consumer expertise

Whereas the keyboard could also be fairly nice general, the Zenbook S 14’s trackpad is extra of a blended bag. It is good and enormous, and completely correct relating to gesture efficiency, however I am unable to assist however want it was powered by haptics as a substitute of a bodily diving board mechanism. Haptic suggestions actually elevates the laptop computer expertise in my eyes, and I really feel it will have been well-suited on a tool of this caliber. The prevailing click on sensation is sort of good by conventional trackpad requirements, however it will possibly’t maintain a candle to what ships on a post-2015 Macbook or on a Floor Laptop computer 7, for instance.

The port choice is fairly nice on the Zenbook S 14, and the Thunderbolt 4 ports are able to a formidable 40Gbps of knowledge bandwidth. In actual phrases, this implies the laptop computer may be hooked as much as 2 exterior 4k screens on the identical time with out placing up a fuss. A minor quibble, however one price noting regardless: as with many different PCs, each USB-C ports are positioned on the identical facet of the machine. On the subject of handy charging and peripheral enlargement, having one port on both facet is just much more perfect.

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The laptop computer ships with a 65W USB-C charging adapter, and the unit is powered by a 72Wh energy pack. Asus says the machine presents all-day battery life, and I discovered that for my private work movement, this was typically the case. Intel’s newest chips are considerably extra power-efficient than earlier generations, however they nonetheless aren’t fairly on the identical degree as ARM-based processors. Battery life and top-up speeds had been each good, however actually not industry-leading.

After which there’s synthetic intelligence — the Intel chip inside the pocket book touts a neural processing unit (NPU) able to as much as 47 trillion operations per second (TOPS), which is in the identical ballpark because the 45 TOPS output of the competing Snapdragon X processor platform. That being stated, Home windows 11 does not leverage this newfound AI energy in lots of significant methods, even when accounting for Microsoft’s latest Copilot+ AI PC initiatives.

The Zenbook S 14 will ultimately be receiving the upcoming Windows Timeline feature for AI-based snapshot indexing, and at launch it presents some fundamental Windows Studio camera tools for blurring out backgrounds and the like. The NPU does future-proof the machine to a level, and it is good to know that the {hardware} is able to domestically accelerated AI efficiency for functions and new options down the street.

Outdoors of AI, the pocket book presents a reasonably commonplace Home windows 11 expertise. Asus ships the product with a lot of its built-in apps, together with StoryCube (a photograph and video gallery app), GlideX (a subscription-based display sharing app), in addition to the PC-management MyASUS and ScreenXpert utility packages. Relying in your mindset, you might discover these inclusions helpful, or you might really feel that they merely add litter to the consumer expertise. Fortunately, it is easy sufficient to easily delete these apps when you’re like me, and don’t need them taking on any area.

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Must you purchase the Asus Zenbook S 14?

If you need a thin-and-light Home windows 11 PC that is constructed effectively and natively helps Intel x86 apps, then the Zenbook S 14 is worthy of consideration

Total, Asus’ new Zenbook S 14 is a very strong 14-inch thin-and-light Home windows 11 laptop computer. The construct high quality and aesthetic design is arguably top-notch, the port choice is pretty beneficiant, and it presents additional quality-of-life additions like Home windows Whats up and Presense Sensing know-how.

The OLED show is engaging, and it is bordered by skinny bezels that make the machine really feel modern and high-end. Whereas the keyboard was a pleasure to kind away on, I discovered myself eager for a haptic trackpad all through my whole time with the pocket book.

New Intel-based PCs together with the Zenbook S 14 take a giant step-up when it comes to energy effectivity, and I by no means discovered myself sad with battery life throughout common use. Nonetheless, when it comes to sheer effectivity, ARM-based Snapdragon X-based choices have Intel barely crushed.

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If you happen to’re available in the market for a premium Home windows laptop computer, and do not thoughts (or also have a desire for) Intel x86-based computing structure and its associated app compatibilities, then the Asus Zenbook S 14 is totally worthy of consideration.

This machine was offered to Pocket-lint by Asus.

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Editor’s Selection

Asus Zenbook S 14