The ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED is a crazy portable machine with an amazing screen,
and it’s still packing in great features and performance despite its smaller size.
ASUS have sponsored this video so I can show you all about it!
ASUS’s 13 inch Lumina OLED screen really is the star of the show here. It looks great,
the colors are stunning and it gets quite bright too. OLED just looks the best in my opinion,
always crisp and clear, as it gives us true blacks by turning off individual pixels.
Now that said, we all know that OLED isn’t perfect, we know about burn in,
but ASUS has new OLED burn-in refine technology. Basically a current driving
algorithm detects aging pixels that are subject to burn in and compensates for it,
keeping things looking good with a more accurate perceived image over time.
They're also addressing it with a number of built in features that run a screensaver,
shift the pixels, and hide the taskbar.
There’s also the target mode option, which dims everything except the active window,
as higher brightness isn’t ideal for longevity.
ASUS are even offering a free OLED screen exchange if burn in does occur
during the warranty period, so they must be confident that it’s going to be fine.
Honestly, I think it’s great that ASUS are taking this approach towards
OLED. They’re not just promoting the positives and ignoring the negatives,
but are instead actively and openly doing what they can to improve the OLED experience.
The S 13 has an ultra slim design, at just over 0.4 inches or less than 1.1cm thin.
It’s lightweight, perfect for on-the-go productivity, even if you do need the
small 65 watt Type-C charger, which is going to be less likely because battery
life is seriously impressive. It lasted for 11 hours and 16 minutes in my regular
YouTube video playback test, the longest run time of any Intel laptop I’ve ever used.
When it does come time to charge, ASUS says it can charge back up to 70% in just 49 minutes.
The interior is magnesium-aluminum with a silver finish, and it feels smooth and sturdy.
The metal lid is special, because it started off as aluminum but has been transformed into a
plasma ceramic aluminum. This is a new material for ASUS, it’s not just a coating or finish,
and it provides a longer lifespan by making it more resistant to wear. This gives the basalt
gray model I’ve got here a unique look and premium feel. The matte finish looks
textured, but it feels smooth, and ASUS describe it as a stony, porcelain touch.
The screen goes the full 180 degrees back for sharing,
and the back raises up when you open the lid,
improving cooling by allowing air in underneath, and giving a slightly better angle for typing.
The keyboard has white backlighting and feels surprisingly nice to type on. Thinner laptops
usually have less room for the keys to press down, but these still have a nice clicky feel.
The glass touchpad is smooth to the touch and works well. It’s nice and big,
even larger than a recent 17 inch laptop that I tested.
There’s a 1080p camera above the screen, and with Windows Hello face unlock,
you can wake it up from sleep and get straight back to work without delay.
The image looks quite good for a smaller laptop,
as ASUS’s 3D Noise Reduction technology sharpens and denoises the image in real time.
The Zenbook S 13 OLED is powered by a 13th gen Intel Core i7 U series processor,
offering 10 cores and 12 threads - an unheard of level of performance
in a 13 inch device until just a few months ago.
The included MyASUS software gives us three different performance profiles,
so we can choose to get more performance at the expense of more fan noise if needed. You can
also swap between the three performance modes with the function and F shortcut.
CPU performance is better in the higher modes, as expected and shown
here in Cinebench. The single core score in particular was quite impressive,
matching much thicker laptops, and this translates into a nice snappy experience
in Windows. Fan noise wasn’t even that loud either - let’s have a listen.
That was during an intensive CPU heavy workload too, an absolute worst case, most
apps don’t behave that way for extended periods. I almost never heard the fans during regular use,
and even under load it never felt hot to touch. The bottom felt a bit warmer than the keyboard,
but you don’t really notice this even if you’ve got it on your lap,
because the lift up hinge design leaves a small gap.
It was quite easy to open after removing 11 TR5 screws.
I was surprised that the cooler had two fans, most smaller laptops I’ve
used have one. I suppose that allows them to stay smaller and run slower,
and as we’ve seen they do the job well. Otherwise most of the space is taken up by the 63Wh battery.
There’s not too much in the way of upgrade options, that’s just the way
it goes with smaller machines like this, but the included PCIe Gen 4 SSD can be swapped out.
Mine came with a 1TB SSD installed,
and the speeds were excellent, some of the fastest I’ve seen from any laptop.
The speakers are on the left and right sides down the front,
and I thought they sounded great for such a small machine. I’ve had worse quality from
larger laptops. They’re still able to get loud while remaining clear, and there’s some bass too.
The S 13 has the latest Wi-Fi 6E too, and I measured transfer speeds faster than gigabit,
a good result and faster than many ethernet connections.
There’s quite a lot of connectivity considering the thinner design. The
left side somehow fits a full HDMI 2.1 output as well as two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports,
while the right has a 3.5mm audio combo jack and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port. Either Type-C
port can be used to charge the laptop, and both offer DisplayPort output for connecting screens.
So along with ASUS’s Lumina OLED screen which provides excellent visuals, excellent battery
life, a 10 core processor that brings impressive performance in such a lightweight and portable
machine, ASUS’s Zenbook S 13 OLED is perfect for using at home, in the office, or on the road.
You can get more information on it as well as more new ASUS
laptops with the link below the video, so check that out for all the details,
or otherwise check out this video next to see other new laptops that ASUS have coming in 2023!