Windows laptop and the words ‘light’, ‘powerful’, ‘compact’ don’t go hand in hand but there’s finally a good option — Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (2023). It’s among the thinnest and lightest Windows laptop that I have ever used. At the same time, Asus hasn’t compromised on the build. Plus, sustainability has been kept in mind while designing the machine.
No compromises
Out of the box, the lid of the laptop will hit you with its freshness. The laptop’s eco credentials are clearly a big priority here. The company used a special process to transform the aluminum lid into a plasma ceramic aluminum; it has a papery-stone texture, which feels brilliant to hold.
We’re talking of a laptop that’s just one kilogram on the scales and, when closed, it’s just 10.9 millimeters thick, a significant reduction from last year’s 14.9 millimetres. Thinness could have easily meant making compromises, especially on the ports. Asus hasn’t done that. There is a full-size Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone-microphone combo port, HDMI 2.1 and then there are two Thunderbolt 4s.
Asus has my heart each time I see the screen. There is a beautiful 2.8K OLED display. The 13.3-inch screen has Dolby Vision, 16:10 aspect ratio and some really slim bezels. The only drawback on this laptop is the 60Hz refresh rate on the screen; I was expecting at least 90Hz. Apart from that drawback, the 2,880x1,800 display is very sharp, sharper than on most laptops. It’s a gorgeous screen that’s also colour accurate, putting it in the same category as pro-level devices. You can get away with editing photos on the machine.
Plus, there’s no wobble on the lid, which can be opened up with one finger (though it’s not something worth looking at while purchasing a laptop) and there is the famous ErgoLift hinge. On Asus laptops, as you push the screen back, the hinge sort of pushes the machine up, ensuring there is better heat distribution as well as giving you more flexibility if you are using it on your lap or on a stand. You can push the screen all the way back to 180 degrees. Did we say this one boasts of 550 nits of brightness, enough to make me work under any kind of lighting?
In case you are worried about pixel burn-in, Asus has a number of solutions to protect the machine, like pixel refresh and pixel shift.
Since you will be using this computer often to stream movies and music, there is a set of premium dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support and they have been tuned by Harmon Kardon. You will not be disappointed by the soundstage or instrument separation.
All-round champ
What a beautiful keyboard this machine comes with. It almost matches the quality of a MacBook. You get accurate key response, excellent key actuation and there is none of that irritating sound when you type at a high speed. Asus has also delivered a premium, large glass trackpad and gestures on it didn’t fail.
On the inside, there is 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U, which offers thermal efficiency. Ensuring that work doesn’t get hampered, there is 32GB RAM and a fast 1TB SSD. The chipset may not be the fastest in the world but it’s still quick enough for everyday tasks, like Chrome, Microsoft 365, Netflix, light photo and video editing, casual gaming… the works. There is support for the latest Wi-Fi 6E. Also bear in mind that this goes directly up against the likes of the MacBook Air with the M2 which on the whole is more powerful and the Apple computer is fanless. Here, under intense workloads, the fan speeds up. You can check the MyAsus app and then decide on the mode you want to work on — Performance, Standard and Whisper.
The webcam is 1080p and it also has some software improvements to tackle noise, especially under bad lighting.
Should you buy it?
Battery life is excellent and it’s a good step up over last year. You can look at about 12 to 13 hours of video streaming and I’d say about 10-11 hours of general everyday use.
I appreciate how far Asus has gone to make a sustainable laptop, which is not something most tech companies are doing. At the same time, there is solid performance, especially single core, a brilliant colour-accurate screen and improved battery life. Well, we finally have a Windows laptop with enough lap appeal — the extremely thin and light Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.
Mathures Paul
At a glance
Device: Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED
Price: Rs 149,990
High notes
Thin and light laptop
Excellent OLED screen
One of the best keyboards on a laptop
Powerful for everyday work
Muffled note
60Hz display refresh rate