A showpiece for Intel’s Lunar Lake AI PC chips

A beautiful ultraportable

Once I reviewed the Zenbook 14 OLED a yr in the past, I could not assist however level out how dated it seemed. It was virtually the identical as ASUS’ laptops from a decade ago (albeit with slimmer display bezels). Not so with the Zenbook S14. It is spectacular the second you open it up and really feel its lid, which is constructed with a cloth ASUS calls “Ceraluminum.” Because the title implies, it is a combination of ceramic and aluminum, and it feels nearly uncanny, like one thing between high-end plastic and easy metallic. It is nonetheless premium, but it surely’s additionally distinctly completely different from most different laptops.

Combining ceramics and aluminum is not precisely new — ASUS notes that it is a standard choice for aerospace and watch designs — however we have not but seen it deployed in laptops. It is not only for appears to be like, both. The fabric also needs to be extra sturdy than customary metallic. The remainder of the Zenbook 14 S’s physique is made out of a strong block of metallic, however ASUS added some distinctive tweaks there as nicely. The decrease a part of the case incorporates a geometric grille above the keyboard, consisting of two,715 round cooling vents. ASUS claims this design enhances airflow whereas additionally maintaining grime and mud out.

ASUS 14-inch 3K “Lumina” OLED show dominates the Zenbook S14, and it delivers all the pieces I need from a contemporary laptop computer display. It sports activities a quick 120Hz refresh charge and 500 nits of peak brightness. Whereas its bezels are comparatively skinny in comparison with older ASUS programs, they’re nonetheless noticeably chunkier than Dell’s newest InfinityEdge screens on the XPS 13 and 14. The system would look a lot sleeker if ASUS might shave off extra of its backside and aspect bezels. Most significantly, although, the OLED show appears to be like superb, with deliciously darkish black ranges and colours that pop off the display.

The Zenbook S14 is surprisingly sturdy for a 14-inch laptop computer that weighs 2.65 kilos and measures 0.47 inches skinny. It is barely lighter and a hair thicker than the most recent 13-inch MacBook Air, and feels equally polished. Notably, it additionally presents many extra helpful ports than Apple’s ultraportable. The S14 consists of two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections, a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone jack and even an old-school USB Kind-A port. The one factor it is lacking is Ethernet and an SD card slot.

Sadly, ASUS could not get all the pieces proper with the Zenbook S14. Its quad-speaker audio system is serviceable, however the sound loses any type of depth and element as you ramp up the amount. And whereas it is good to have a Home windows Whats up-compatible webcam for quick logins, the 1080p sensor appears to be like far grainier and fewer detailed than Dell’s XPS line and the MacBook Air.

Its keyboard additionally feels merely serviceable, with little responsive suggestions whereas typing. That’s a selected disgrace, since that’s been a relentless grievance we’ve had with ASUS keyboards. At the very least the touchpad is giant and conscious of swipes and multi-finger gestures. You can too regulate the amount and different settings by sliding your finger alongside the edges of the touchpad.

In use: Succesful, however do not stress it

Due to Intel’s Core Extremely 7 258V chip, the Zenbook S14 felt impressively zippy from the beginning. I breezed by means of the Home windows setup course of, downloaded the most recent updates and put in my traditional testing applications in only a few minutes. It did not sweat at any time when I wanted to leap between apps like Spotify, Slack and Evernote, and I did not discover any of the lag I usually see on Home windows notebooks slowed down by third-party bloatware. It was all the time able to get work completed.

In PCMark 10, the Zenbook S14 scored nearly precisely the identical because the Floor Laptop computer 7 for Enterprise, which makes use of the last-gen Core Extremely 7 165H. It additionally matched the XPS 13 Copilot+ version, which had a Snapdragon X Elite chip, within the PCMark 10 Purposes benchmark. The Zenbook’s multithreaded efficiency was noticeably worse than both of these machines in Geekbench 6, possible as a result of decreased core rely this era.

The massive promoting level for Intel’s Lunar Lake chips is their dramatically improved NPU (neural processing unit), which might attain as much as 47 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI efficiency. As compared, the earlier Core Extremely chips had a considerably much less highly effective 11 TOPS NPU, whereas AMD’s new Ryzen AI chips attain as much as 50 TOPS. (Extra highly effective Lunar Lake chips can hit as much as 48 TOPS.) Increased TOPS figures means Copilot+ PCs just like the Zenbook S14 will have the ability to deal with demanding AI workloads extra shortly, with out impacting total CPU efficiency.

Sadly, there nonetheless aren’t a ton of AI options to check on the time of this evaluation. Microsoft’s Copilot+ Home windows 11 replace for Intel and AMD programs is not arriving till November, and even that can solely embody a beta model of the controversial Recall function. It is also laborious to seek out apps that benefit from an area NPU — most entries within the Home windows Retailer “AI Hub” depend on cloud AI processing.

At the very least there’s Audacity’s OpenVino plugin, which Intel developed to point out off its AI PC {hardware}. It presents NPU-powered options like noise suppression and transcription, but it surely additionally requires an concerned setup course of which may be complicated to Audacity novices. I used to be capable of utterly take away incessant jackhammering from a five-minute clip in a single minute and eight seconds utilizing the NPU alone. That is not very quick on this planet of audio modifying (CPU rendering can deal with a noise-filled 90 minute file in three minutes and thirty seconds), however what’s key’s that the NPU handles the identical work utilizing little or no energy. That might be vital for those who’re caught modifying on battery in a aircraft or distant location.

I used to be additionally impressed by Intel’s newest Arc 140V GPU, which let me play Halo Infinite between 35 fps and 45 fps in 1080p with low high quality graphics settings. That is removed from a easy expertise, but it surely’s fascinating to see it from a built-in GPU. Intel’s graphics additionally scored nicely above the Snapdragon X Elite throughout the board, particularly within the Geekbench 6 GPU take a look at.

Pricing and the competitors

ASUS launched the Zenbook S14 with a beginning value of $1,500, but it surely’s already barely discounted at Greatest Purchase for $1,400. That configuration will get you a Core Extremely 7 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. That’s not too shabby, contemplating the XPS 13 Copilot+ system with a Snapdragon X Elite prices $1,800 when outfitted with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an OLED show. The Zenbook additionally doesn’t have the compatibility points inherent with Snapdragon programs, which must emulate older Home windows apps and may’t run many standard video games in any respect.

As traditional, ASUS additionally delivers much more worth than Apple. A MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD prices $1,700, and that’s additionally caught with a 60Hz LCD display.

Wrap-up

The Zenbook S14 leans extra on effectivity than uncooked energy, but it surely’s nonetheless an unimaginable achievement for Intel, an organization that was once notorious for energy-devouring cell chips. Whereas the Lunar Lake chip’s NPU makes the Zenbook prepared for Copilot+ and AI options, its true promoting factors are its wonderful battery life, slick ASUS design and beautiful OLED show.