Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: the MacBook Air alternative

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Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED review: the MacBook Air alternative

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At this point, if you’ve used one Asus Zenbook, you’ve used them all. They’re the closest thing Asus has to a MacBook Air competitor, with chassis that are slightly flimsier, touchpads with fancier features, and price tags that are a bit less intimidating. In recent years, they’ve also become one of the cheapest ways to get an OLED screen on a laptop.

But this particular Zenbook, the $1,299 Zenbook S 13 OLED, is also exciting because it’s one of the first devices I’ve gotten to test 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-thin laptop. That power, combined with the ultra-portability that the Zenbook line is famous for, makes the Zenbook S 13 OLED a very viable MacBook Air alternative for those who are open to Windows.

Our review of
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Verge Score

8 out of 10

Good Stuff

  • Strong CPU and integrated graphics
  • Light and portable
  • Touchpad becomes a numpad
  • High-resolution OLED screen

Bad Stuff

  • Not many ports
  • CPU can run hot
  • Looks a bit boring
Buy for $1,299.99 from B&H

The Zenbook S 13 does not look especially different from the legions of other Zenbooks out there, but that’s hardly a 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 of backpacks (and one you won’t even feel while it’s in there). While the lid and deck do have a bit of a plasticky feel, there’s very little flex in the lid or keyboard deck. Both were also fairly resistant to collecting fingerprints, which is an issue I’ve had with Zenbooks in the past.

The back right corner of the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.
Peep the new logo, by the way.

Slapping an OLED panel on an ultraportable line notoriously has the danger of making that line exorbitantly expensive and destroying its battery life. That makes this device a breath of fresh air. This OLED touch display, while not quite as vibrant as you might see from the most expensive OLEDs on the market, is still quite nice, reaching a perfectly usable 360 nits in my testing with almost no glare throughout. (And it’s 16:10, affording 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 on (and that was very consistently the time I saw across multiple trials). While I can get a few hours more out of the most recent MacBook Air, it’s still good compared to the various 12th Gen Intel machines I’ve tested this year (as well as all kinds of Intel-powered Zenbooks).

The Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED open on a blue and pink surface. The screen displays the Asus Zenbook S OLED logo overtop a stream of water on a blue background.
Covers 100 percent of sRGB, 100 percent of P3, and 97 percent of Adobe RGB.

Zenbooks are also some of my favorite multimedia machines, and this one works well for that use case. Audio was fairly good, with audible bass and percussion and no distortion at maximum volume. It sounded fairly similar to the MacBook Air in side-by-side testing, with vocals maybe slightly clearer on the Air. There’s a noticeable surround effect — it did feel like my music was surrounding me — and everything’s adjustable in the Dolby Access app. I actually thought the Game and Movie profiles (which prioritize positional accuracy) led to better-sounding and better-surrounding music than the music profile (which felt a bit muted in comparison).

The microphones, which support AI noise cancellation, also didn’t give me any trouble, and people could hear me fine over my apartment’s very loud air conditioner.

The Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED keyboard seen from above and to the left on a blue and yellow surface.
I love Asus keyboards, and this one is great.
The Asus Zenbook 13 S OLED half open, lid visible, on a yellow and blue surface.
The classic concentric swirl is also gone here.

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED specs (as reviewed)

  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
  • RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
  • Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD
  • Weight: 2.43 pounds (1.1kg)
  • Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.3 x 0.59 inches (296.2 x 210.8 x 14.99mm)
  • Battery: 67Whr
  • Display: 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED touchscreen, 0.2ms response time
  • Wi-Fi: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) 2x2 LAN

The one significant downside folks should 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 do like that there’s at least one USB-C port on each side (and they are USB-4-ready). Asus includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the Zenbook’s box, but needing to use dongles left and right is still a hassle. (There is at least a headphone jack, which some previous OLED Zenbooks have made the unfortunate decision to omit.)

The port on the left side of the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.
One USB-C on the left.
The ports on the right side of the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.
Two USB-C and headphone jack on the right.

The unit I’m testing (which is the only Zenbook 13 S configuration I’ve been able to find up for preorder) is currently listed for $1,299. It includes the eight-core Ryzen 7 6800U, 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and the 2880 x 1800 OLED display. That’s a very attractive price for those specs, especially considering the screen.

The webcam of the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.
The webcam is... fine.

Agree to Continue: Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

The mandatory policies, for which an agreement is required, are:

  • A request for your region and keyboard layout
  • Connect to Wi-Fi network
  • Microsoft Software License Terms and Asus Notice
  • Sign into a Microsoft account
  • Create a PIN

In addition, there is a slew of optional things to agree to:

  • Name your device
  • Set up Windows Hello fingerprint recognition
  • Device privacy settings: Find My Device, Inking and Typing, Advertising ID, Location, Diagnostic data, Tailored experiences
  • Customize your device for personalized tips, ads, and recommendations (you can choose between entertainment, gaming, school, creativity, business, and family)
  • Microsoft 365 free trial
  • Xbox Game Pass Ultimate free trial
  • Provide information such as name, region, email address, phone number, country, and / or serial number for Asus and its business partners to contact you. Release this information to register you for an Asus account, receive emails from Asus, and register for a McAfee account.

There are seven mandatory agreements and 15 optional ones.

The system performed just fine throughout my workday. I used a whole bunch of Chrome tabs on top of all kinds of downloads, apps, and a Zoom call on Battery Saver with no slowdown. I did occasionally feel some warmth on the bottom of the device but never felt any on the palm rests or keyboard deck. (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 pass 96 degrees Celsius (but it did spend a lot of time hovering between 85 and 95 degrees Celsius, which is certainly hot).

The system performed just fine throughout my workday

The Zenbook completed an export of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video in just over 15 minutes. That does not compare favorably to scores we’ve seen from previous machines that have completed this test, as the latest version of Premiere Pro has given slower scores across the board than previous iterations. Still, it’s worth noting for any aspiring video folks that these kinds of workloads generally aren’t AMD’s strength. The device loses to the M2 MacBook Air (as well as the M1 device) on PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which tests live playback and export time at 4K and 8K, as well as various 12th Gen Intel systems.

The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED half open on a pink and blue background. The screen displays The Verge homepage.
If this didn’t have negative seven ports, I’d consider it for occasional gaming.

Outside of those use cases, though, AMD’s integrated graphics are very impressive. I’ve been saying this for years, but there’s not much of a case to be made for buying laptops with entry-level Nvidia MX GPUs when integrated graphics are doing this well.

The system averaged 238fps on League of Legends and 114fps on Rocket League’s maximum settings (all at 1080p resolution). Overwatch was even playable at Epic settings, averaging 52fps on that preset and 83fps on Ultra. Even Shadow of the Tomb Raider was more than playable at the lowest settings, averaging 53fps. (Though it was not playable at the highest settings, averaging 25fps.)

These results are some of the best we’ve seen from integrated graphics in a 13-inch device. They edge out the M2 MacBook Air (not to mention the M1 model), and they beat the Intel 12th Gen Dell XPS 13 Plus as well. Given how much more affordable this device is than both of those laptops, that’s quite impressive (and, frankly, encouraging) to see.

AMD still makes some of the best integrated graphics you can get in a laptop of this size

That’s my biggest takeaway from the Zenbook S 13 OLED: AMD still makes some of the best integrated graphics you can get in a laptop of this size.

The eight-core Ryzen 7 chip remains a serious challenger to both Apple and Intel’s best mobile chips that you can find in the 13-inch space. While it doesn’t provide the long battery life that the M2 does, nor does it have Intel’s dominance in creative workloads, it’s still an all-around powerful chip that delivers a really excellent gaming experience without too much external heat. Maybe someday Intel will claw its way back to the top of the chip market — but not this year.

Pair this with the acceptable battery life the Zenbook gave us and the OLED touchscreen, and I’d say it’s an excellent option for anyone who finds premium ultraportables like the MacBook Air to be over budget (or just prefers Windows to macOS).

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED Accessibility

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (as reviewed)

  • The letter keys are 1.6 x 1.6 centimeters with 0.5 centimeters between them. All keys are backlit. The Caps Lock, camera, and microphone keys have indicator lights. The power button is 1.4 x 0.8 centimeters. The volume keys are 1.4 x 0.8 centimeters. The keys are dark blue with white text and take very little force to depress.
  • The speakers reached an average of 75 decibels in my testing.
  • The lid can be opened with one hand with some difficulty. It can be tilted back to 180 degrees.
  • The screen reached 360.4 nits of brightness and a 22,670:1 contrast ratio in my testing.
  • The touchpad is 12.8 x 7.3 inches and supports precision gestures.
  • Setup involves turning the device on and clicking through several menus.
  • The Zenbook supports fingerprint login but not facial login.

Windows 11

  • Windows 11 includes a dedicated accessibility menu.
  • Windows 11 includes a built-in screen reader (Narrator). It supports third-party screen readers including NVDA from NV Access and Jaws from Freedom Scientific. A full list of compatible software can be found on Microsoft’s website.
  • Windows 11 supports voice typing (accessed by Windows + H) and speech recognition (toggled with Windows + Ctrl + S).
  • Color Filters including inverted, grayscale, red-green, and blue-yellow can be toggled with Windows + Ctrl + C. Contrast themes are toggled with Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen. Standard Dark Mode and custom colors are also available under Personalization.
  • Caption color and size can be customized and appear close to the bottom of the screen.
  • The keyboard can be remapped with Microsoft’s PowerToys. Sticky Keys is supported. An on-screen keyboard is available.
  • The cursor’s size and speed can be adjusted, and gestures can be remapped in Touchpad Settings.
  • Windows 11 supports eye control with external eye trackers.
  • Windows 11 includes a Snap Layout feature, accessed by hovering over the Maximize button on any open window.

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