But this particular Zenbook, the $1,299 Zenbook S 13 OLED, is also exciting because it’s one of the first devices I’ve tested with AMD’s long-awaited Ryzen 6000 series inside. And while the Zenbook’s chassis is otherwise unremarkable, the chip inside delivers both CPU performance and integrated graphics that are, once again, some of the best you can get in an ultra-slim laptop. This power, combined with the ultra-portability for which the Zenbook series is renowned, makes the Zenbook S 13 OLED a very viable MacBook Air alternative for those open to Windows.

Good stuff

Powerful CPU and integrated graphics Lightweight and portable Touchpad becomes numpad High resolution OLED display

Bad things

Not many ports The CPU can run hot It seems a bit boring

The Zenbook S 13 doesn’t look particularly different from the legions of other Zenbooks out there, but that’s no bad thing. At 2.43 pounds and 0.59 inches thick, it’s one of those devices you can squeeze into even the most packed backpacks (and one you won’t even feel it’s in there). While the lid and bridge have a bit of a plastic feel, there’s very little spring to the lid or keyboard. Both were also quite resistant to fingerprint collection, something I’ve had with Zenbooks in the past. By the way, check out the new logo. Slamming an OLED panel into an ultraportable line has a notorious risk of making that line too expensive and ruining its battery life. This makes this device a breath of fresh air. This OLED touchscreen, while not as vibrant as you can see from the more expensive OLEDs on the market, is still very nice, reaching a perfectly usable 360 ​​nits in my tests with almost no glare. (And it’s 16:10, offering more vertical space.) And I still averaged seven hours and 45 minutes of office work on this device with the screen at medium brightness and Battery Saver enabled (and that was pretty consistent time I saw across multiple tests). While I can get a few more hours out of the latest MacBook Air, it’s still good compared to the various 12th gen Intel machines I’ve tested this year (as well as all sorts of Intel-powered Zenbooks). It covers 100 percent of sRGB, 100 percent of P3 and 97 percent of Adobe RGB. Zenbooks are also some of my favorite media machines, and that works well for this use case. The sound was quite good, with resonant bass and percussion and no distortion at maximum volume. It sounded pretty similar to the MacBook Air in side-by-side tests, with vocals perhaps slightly clearer on the Air. There’s a noticeable surround effect — I felt like my music surrounded me — and it’s all adjustable in the Dolby Access app. I thought the Game and Movie profiles (which prioritize positional accuracy) resulted in better-sounding music and better ambience than the Music profile (which felt a bit muted in comparison). The microphones, which support AI noise cancellation, also gave me no problems, and people could hear me well through the very loud air conditioner in my apartment.
I love Asus keyboards and this is great. The classical concentric vortex is also lost here. The one major drawback to be aware of is port selection. The Zenbook is close to MacBook levels of connectivity now — all you get are three USB-C ports and a headphone jack. I like that there’s at least one USB-C port on each side (and they’re USB-4 ready). Asus includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the Zenbook box, but having to use dongles left and right is still a pain. (There is at least one headphone jack, which some previous OLED Zenbooks made the unfortunate decision to omit.) A USB-C on the left. Two USB-C and a headphone jack on the right. The unit I’m testing (which is the only configuration of the Zenbook 13 S I could find available for pre-order) currently lists for $1,299. It includes the Ryzen 7 6800U octa-core, 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM and the 2880 x 1800 OLED display. That’s a very attractive price for these specs, especially considering the display. The camera is… fine. The system performed fine throughout my workday. I used a whole bunch of Chrome tabs on top of all sorts of downloads, apps, and a Zoom call on Battery Saver with no lag. I occasionally felt a bit of warmth on the bottom of the device, but I never felt any warmth on the palm rests or keyboard. (And I didn’t hear the fans unless I had the Performance profile on, and even then, they weren’t obnoxious.) During intense testing, the CPU didn’t go above 96 degrees Celsius (but spent a lot of time hovering between 85 and 95 degrees Celsius, which is definitely hot). The system performed fine throughout my workday The Zenbook finished exporting a five-minute, 33-second 4K video in just 15 minutes. This doesn’t compare favorably with the scores we’ve seen from previous machines that have completed this test, as the latest version of Premiere Pro has slower scores across the board than previous iterations. However, it’s worth noting for any aspiring video folk that these kinds of workloads are generally not AMD’s forte. The device loses to the M2 MacBook Air (as well as the M1 device) in PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which tests live playback and export time at 4K and 8K, as well as various 12th Gen Intel systems.
If this didn’t have negative seven ports, I’d consider it for casual gaming. Outside of these use cases, though, AMD’s integrated graphics are very impressive. I’ve been saying this for years, but there’s no way you can buy laptops with entry-level Nvidia MX GPUs when the integrated graphics do well. The system averaged 238 fps in League of Legends and 114 fps at maximum Rocket League settings (all at 1080p). Overwatch was playable even on Epic settings, averaging 52 fps on that preset and 83 fps on Ultra. Even Shadow of the Tomb Raider was more than capable of playing on the lowest settings, averaging 53 fps. (Though it wasn’t playable at the highest settings, averaging 25 fps.) These results are some of the best we’ve seen from integrated graphics on a 13-inch device. They beat the M2 MacBook Air (not to mention the M1 model) and also beat the Intel 12th Gen Dell XPS 13 Plus. Given how much more affordable this device is than those two laptops, that’s pretty impressive (and, frankly, encouraging) to see. AMD still produces some of the best integrated graphics you can get in a laptop this size This is my biggest takeaway from the Zenbook S 13 OLED: AMD still produces some of the best integrated graphics you can get in a laptop this size. The Ryzen 7 octa-core chip remains a serious challenger to both Apple and Intel’s best mobile chips to be found in the 13-inch space. While it doesn’t offer the long battery life that the M2 offers, nor does it have Intel’s dominance in creative workloads, it’s still a powerful chip that delivers a truly great gaming experience without excessive external heat. Maybe someday Intel will return to the top of the chip market — but not this year. Combine that with the acceptable battery life that the Zenbook gave us and the OLED touchscreen, and I’d say it’s a great choice for anyone who finds premium ultraportables like the MacBook Air out of their budget (or just prefers Windows to macOS ).