ASUS Zenbook S 16 Review – The Laptop That Does It All

Plenty of laptops are available on the market to meet any budget requirement. But 2024 has added a new category of laptops into the mix – a selection of AI-ready or AI-supported laptops. With the added computational power and improved efficiency, these new laptops will add a unique dimension to the future of laptops. ASUS has developed significantly in this area, providing potential buyers plenty of options. One of those that stands out from the crowd is the recently launched ASUS Zenbook S 16. 

The laptop certainly has the looks and packs some of the best hardware under the hood. How does this AI-enabled laptop provide any advantages over conventional laptops, and is the Zenbook S 16 more than just looks? 

ASUS Zenbook S 16 Build and Design

Although it’s not the end all of a laptop’s worth, the aesthetics of the Zenbook S 16 go a long way. Although I’m not entirely on board with the name, ASUS has developed a new Ceraluminum material crafted from a mix of ceramic aluminium. However, there’s no doubting the result. It looks and feels fantastic. 

The material is available in two colourways, Scandanavian White and Zumaia Gray. I was enthralled with the aesthetic after receiving the former variant for review. It looks and feels like a premium-grade tile, and with the addition of its diagonal lines in the form of the ASUS “A” logo, it looks even more like a tiled kitchen counter of the highest quality. 

With its ultrabook status, the unit is extremely thin and lightweight. It measures 11.9mm thick, making it one of the thinnest laptops from the ASUS stables. Its full dimensions are 353.6x243x11.9mm, weighing in at just 1.5KG. There are quite a number of laptops that weigh closer to the 1KG mark, but those don’t showcase the same level of design or even internal hardware. 

One of the biggest gripes I’ve had in the past regarding ultrabooks was its lack of ports. The migration to the Type-C standard in recent years has added much more value in fitting more ports onto smaller devices. The Zenbook S 16 has x1 USB 3.2 Type-A with data speeds up to 10Gbps. There are an additional x2 Type-C ports with speeds up to 40Gbps. The unit also includes a full HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. However, another notable inclusion is the SD 4.0 card reader, often overlooked on such laptops. 

ASUS Zenbook S 16 Screen and Display

The Zenbook S 16 has an impressive 16” screen. It features an OLED panel with a 3K resolution at 2,880×1,800px native. Additionally, it has a 0.2ms response time and a 120Hz refresh rate, 400 nits on standard viewing and 500 nits using HDR support. 

It ticks all the boxes for the modern laptop without being too overboard and running away in affordability. Its OLED panel is the standout feature, making for crisp imagery and beautifully bold colours. 

With its colour certifications, it also makes for accurate visuals. This includes a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, VESA CERTIFIED Display HDR True Black 500 and PANTONE Validation. 

Several safety standards for its display include reducing harmful blue light (70% less), TÜV Rheinland-certified and SGS Eye Care Display. 

The screen is also touch-enabled, and support for a Stylus is included with the purchase. With a 90% screen-to-body ratio, its borders are also very thin, maximising the screen dimensions on the laptop. 

Overall, the visuals are beautiful. With all its certification and support, the colours can also be highly customised for your preference. This is especially useful for content creators and editors who need accurate visuals for their designs, videos and more. 

Hardware and Specifications

The unit is fitted with the best of AMD’s hardware. This includes the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, which has a 2.0GHz clock speed and 36MB Cache, up to 5.1GHz when overclocked, 12 cores and 24 Threads. Coupled with the CPU is the new integration AMD XDNA™ NPU with performance up to 50TOPS. Lastly, it features the AMD Radeon 890M integrated mobile graphics. 

It also includes 32GB LPDDR5X onboard RAM and a 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD internal storage. It connects with Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) (Tri-band)2×2 and Bluetooth 5.4. 

Powering the Zenbook S 16 is a 78WHrs battery, a 2S2P, 4-cell Li-ion battery. Additionally, it has a 65W AC adapter with fast-charging support via the Type-C port. 

Performance and Battery Life

With a device as packed as the ASUS Zenbook S 16, you won’t be left wanting when it comes to getting the job done. The AMD chipset can tackle the most complex tasks in the most efficient manner possible. The standard load tests were a breeze, switching between multiple tasks and plenty of open tabs on the browser to push its limits. There was no lag or jitter to speak of – it worked with the same level of smoothness as when the testing commenced. 

Although it utilises an integrated mobile GPU, it could still play a few games. I reviewed one of the latest games using the Zenbook S 16. While it may not be the most resource-hungry game, it still qualifies as an AAA title, making it a good test benchmark. 

Regarding the NPU, minimal testing can be done on third-party applications. Many onboard usage comes from integrated tasks like CPU management of completing tasks and computations. Most of this is to regulate usage, which is significant. However, anything beyond this is relatively minimal and works more towards future-proofing the laptop than solving an immediate problem. 

One aspect often overlooked by many, unless it becomes an issue, is the silent running of their laptops. ASUS has always offered cutting-edge designs regarding its cooling system, and that’s no different from the Zenbook S 16. It’s slated to operate at 25dB using its Silent Mode, one of three operating modes. 

A lot goes into the ASUS cooling system, including a geometric grille design, a bi-layer graphite sheet, a dual-fan module, an ultra-slim vapour chamber and a bi-layer graphite sheet. Each of these contributes to keeping the device as cool as possible under operating loads, which, in turn, keeps the noise levels at a minimum while in use. 

As stated earlier, the Zenbook S 16 features a 78WHr battery. It isn’t as much as some others, including 90WHr batteries, but with the device’s NPU for intelligent use, it offers excellent battery efficiency. Using the basic 1080p video playback test, the battery lasted more than 12 hours before recharging. With several layers of software optimisation also at play, you’ll have to deactivate quite a few of these before running the 12-hour test without it being put back into idle or suspended modes – a lot of which is tied into the NPU use. 

For more conventional testing, I tested the laptop running as a daily drive at the office without connecting the charger. More often than not, I could complete the standard eight-hour day without issue, using Excel, Word, Adobe software, multiple Chrome browser tabs and more. There were no issues with multitasking and keeping everything open while switching to the next task. 

When it comes time to recharge, when you finally need to, the 65W charger also makes for a quick turnaround. I could power the laptop for another eight-hour shift with just an hour of charging, and it takes less than two hours to recharge from zero.

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Is the ASUS Zenbook S 16 the Next Generation of Laptop?

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 is an outstanding laptop at its most basic. It has all the modern hardware with excellent specifications for any task. Additionally, it’s a sleek laptop that’s lightweight and thin, making it highly portable. 

With its added NPU, the laptop is also AI-ready and future-proof from this perspective. However, few tasks are available for native use to fully utilise the NPU as an AI laptop, with most AI services still being server-side offerings. It offers some level of efficiency in overall performance, which can quickly be confirmed with the extended battery life and completion of specific tasks compared to more conventional builds. 

The unit retails for R40,999, which is expensive for most common users. South Africa still has a decent market for this type of ultrabook, and the ASUS Zenbook S 16 is currently among the best in the world. You can access the laptop online via the ASUS eStore or Computer Mania and Incredible stores.