Hands-on: The Zenbook S 13 is a practical ultraportable

Whenever you go for the thinnest, lightest laptop computer you may, you make sure sacrifices. Take the darling of the class, the Dell XPS 13, for instance. In case you purchase one, you may as effectively purchase a USB-C dock as effectively, as a result of two C ports are all you’re getting for I/O. The most recent Asus Zenbook is making an attempt to buck that pattern. The S 13 (UX5304 for the 2023 mannequin) combines high-end specs, together with a beautiful OLED display screen and a particular design, with sufficient ports to make you permit your dongles behind.

On the left facet of the laptop computer, you’ll discover two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, plus a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, the latter of which is a hair’s breadth from the underside of the alloy chassis. On the opposite facet, you get a typical USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port (additionally scraping the facet of the case) and a headphone jack. That may not sound like a lot for those who’re used to a extra chunky mannequin, however this laptop computer is simply 10.9mm skinny—thinner than my Pixel 7 cellphone. It’s a stunning and really welcome combination of practicality and interesting design.

Asus

Talking of design, Asus was fast to spotlight its new methodology of adorning the Zenbook with each colour and texture. The magnesium-aluminum alloy physique’s lid has a tough however interesting stone-like texture on its graphic (which jogs my memory a little bit of the Starfleet badge), created utilizing what Asus calls “plasma ceramic aluminum.” In a substitute for the same old anodizing course of, this end has elevated put on resistance and hardness with far fewer byproducts going into the atmosphere. It’s arduous to explain how good the lid relies on photographs alone, however as somebody who’s sick to loss of life of rubbing fingerprints off of his ThinkPad, belief me once I say it’s extraordinarily interesting.

Each a part of the Zenbook S 13 is designed to be thinner and extra compact, however razor-thinness isn’t the one profit. Due to fewer motherboard part layers and a rearrangement of the display screen panel, there’s room for a thicker battery and a brand new IR digital camera for Home windows Hey. The display screen is a 16:10 OLED panel at 2880×1800 decision, which Asus says that this panel covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. It’s additionally rocking 550 nits, surprisingly excessive for an OLED display screen. On the opposite facet of the case is a 63-watt hour battery (once more, very spectacular for the shape issue) that Asus clocks at 14 hours of streaming video. It may additionally cost as much as 70% capability in 49 minutes.

Michael Crider/Foundry

Throughout my transient time utilizing the laptop computer, the keyboard was a low level. Asus says that this, too, has been redesigned for extra thinness and I may inform with little or no key journey. It wasn’t dangerous, simply not as satisfying as different premium laptops I’ve used. The touchpad was one other matter. It options glorious texture with loads of room and response. The hinge forces the keyboard deck up barely, however can nonetheless lay flat at 180 levels, which Asus appears notably happy with.

The heart of the Zenbook S 13 are predictably high-end. The only real configuration on the Asus retailer makes use of a Core i7-1355U processor with Xe built-in graphics, 32GB of DDR5 reminiscence, and a terabyte of PCIe. 4.0 NVMe storage. It goes for $1,399.99, which is a good bit greater than among the competitors. The laptop computer is delivery now and different configurations could also be obtainable later.