Table of Contents
The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is a great update to one of our favorite ultrabooks from last year. It has a powerful new AMD Ryzen 7 6800 series processor and AMD Radeon 600M graphics capabilities. The Zenbook is a great buy in the Ultrabook market because it has a lot of processing power, an efficient design, and built-in features.
The Zenbook is made for computer users who are “on-the-go.” Because of this, it’s ridiculously light and can fit anywhere, like at school, on a plane, or in a coffee shop. After a lot of testing, the only problem with the Zenbook is that it can’t handle the graphics of the newest, high-end games. However, these games should be played on high-end gaming systems anyway.
Still, the Zenbook can play many of the best PC games without much trouble if you just tweak a few settings. Want to take video streaming to a new level? That’s not hard at all. Even though the Zenbook doesn’t have the 4K resolution that the best laptops on the market have, its 2880x1800p resolution is still beautiful.
The performance of this laptop is great for an Ultrabook that’s meant for both casual and business use. The Zenbook has a 13.3-inch OLED touchscreen/stylus display, 3 USB-C ports, and a 3.5-millimeter audio jack, all of which are built into a strong, military-grade Magnesium-Aluminum alloy chassis.
Dolby Atmos technology powers the Harmon/Kardon stereo speakers, which sound great but don’t have as much bass as I’d like. Because of the memory and processor, loading times were kept to a minimum. The Zenbook was fast and easy to use. Overall, we think the Asus Zenbook is one of the best Ultrabooks on the market and a great choice for most computing needs.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Design
The best place to sell any product is on the premium shelf. This is especially true for expensive 2-in-1 computers. The $1,490 Asus Zenbook S 13 Flip OLED shows how close the competition has become. It can be used as a laptop or a tablet and is light enough to be considered an ultraportable. It also has a powerful Intel 12th Generation Core i7 processor.
And that’s not even talking about the OLED screen, the built-in pen, the touchpad that can also be used as a number pad, or the magnesium alloy body, which is very strong. The Asus Zenbook S 13 Flip OLED has a lot going for it, like a battery life of almost 14 hours. However, it’s not the fastest, most durable, or best value. Even so, you shouldn’t let that stop you from getting this laptop, especially if you care a lot about the best display quality. You can buy this laptop from its official website.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: keyboard and touch pad
It’s hard to find a laptop that is both thin and solid, but Asus has done it with the Zenbook S 13 OLED. The 13.3-inch laptop weighs 1 kilogram (2.4 pounds), which is less than the MacBook Air (M1 and M2) and makes it easy just to throw in a backpack or shoulder bag.
Even though the laptop is small, Asus was able to fit a large keyboard and a touchpad that can also be used as a number pad. The OLED touch screen with 2.8K resolution is great for work, play, and creative projects. Even though OLED screens usually greatly cut battery life, the Zenbook S 13 OLED got more than 12 hours during our streaming video test.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Display
Asus’s new design style, which includes the cleaner lid and the monogram logo, is something to be praised. There is still a shiny Asus ZenBook logo under the screen, but I don’t mind. But you should take off all those tacky stickers that people have stuck on the armrest. Before we wrap up this section, I should also say that the ZenBook S 13 is not necessarily ultra-compact because it has a 16:10 screen with big top and right bezels.
This is clear from the pictures below, which show the S 13 next to my old XPS 13. Here’s how the mid-sized 2022 ZenBook 14 series, which has a similar design and 16:10 screen, compares to the smaller ZenBook S 13 model. It’s a little bit smaller, but not by much. The ZenBook 14 models have full-size connections and an even bigger battery, but they are a lot heavier (3.1 lbs) and don’t work with Ryzen 6000 processors (at least for now).
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Audio
The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED’s great connection to the modern world comes at the cost of being able to connect to older devices via cable. This laptop doesn’t have any USB Type-A ports because it’s all USB Type-C. This means that you can’t connect an older keyboard or mouse to it. (You’d need a simple adapter like this one if you wanted to.) There is no wired Ethernet and no dedicated video output through HDMI or DisplayPort. The only way for old devices to work is through the single 3.5mm audio jack.
On the plus side, all three USB-C ports can handle both Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode. This gives them an advantage over PC laptops, which only have one USB-C port that can do similar things. It also hides the fact that you added a USB-C hub for older devices.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Graphics
The Intel Core i7-1260P processor was installed in our Asus Zenbook S 13 Flip OLED (UP5302) evaluation unit. This is a 12-core CPU with four Performance cores and eight Efficient cores that can scale up to a 4.7GHz clock speed.
It also has 16GB of RAM, a 1TB solid-state drive, and Intel Iris Xe graphics that are built in. Even though our exact configuration isn’t available in the US right now, you can buy a very similar one (model UP5302ZA-DH74T) for $1,486.27 on Amazon. The only difference between this device and the one we tested is that this one has 512GB less storage space.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Performance
People also won’t notice the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED because of this. Its well-known brand name is the only thing that sets this 13-inch laptop apart from the XPS, MacBooks, and Yogas on the market. The Zenbook has a battery that lasts all day on a single charge.
It is also lighter and more stylish than its competitors. Even though it has a beautiful 2.8K OLED display, its AMD engine gives it great performance. The new Zenbook S 13 OLED looks modern in every way. It is one of the first laptops to use AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 CPUs and has a 16:10 OLED screen.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Battery life and heat
Even though the SDR brightness isn’t very high, the OLED screen’s high resolution is clear when it’s not being used, when the power consumption goes up to 10 watts. Under load, the benefit of the lower TDP values is again clear: we measured a maximum consumption of just under 50 watts in the Zenbook, which then leveled off at just under 35 watts (Balanced) or 45 watts (Performance) throughout testing. This is in contrast to current Intel laptops, which often don’t get enough power from their 65-watt power supplies and always have to briefly draw power from the battery during peak load.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Configuration options
Even though it looks like Best Buy is the only store in the U.S. that sells the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED right now, it is currently sold out online. Customers in Australia and the UK may have to wait a bit longer for this laptop to come to their countries.
The Zenbook S 13 OLED series will come in five different configurations, according to Asus. The least expensive model starts at $1,099 and comes with a Ryzen 5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and a display that doesn’t have a touchscreen.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: Conclusion
As of mid-2022, the ZenBook S 13 is one of the best ultraportables in terms of price, and it looks better than any of the 13-inch ZenBooks that came before it. That’s partly because Asus made a lot of improvements to this design, which fixed most of the problems we had with earlier models.
This upgrade for 2022 has uncompromised inputs and a beautiful OLED display. It looks better and is built better than its predecessors, and it has more power and a better thermal module design. But you have to deal with the fact that you can’t choose a screen that isn’t an OLED or that has a matte finish, and that you can only connect via USB-C and an audio jack; there are no full-size connectors.
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED Rating