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PC makers have been shrinking the size of their notebooks for years, but the new Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is still remarkable for just how thin and light it is, measuring just 0.46 inches at its thickest point and weighing just 1 kilogram (2.2) pounds.
Despite its compact size, the laptop packs a lot of power, with support for up to an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of solid state storage. And, as the name suggest, the laptop has an OLED display: it’s a 13.3 inch, 2880 x 1800 pixel screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, up to 550 nits brightness, and a 60 Hz refresh rate.
Of course, there are some tradeoffs that come with a laptop this small. The notebook’s LPDDR5 memory is soldered to the mainboard and is therefore not user upgradeable. The good news is that even entry level models will ship with 16GB of RAM though.
Battery life is also often a concern in thin and light laptops. While the fact that the Zenbook S 13 OLED comes equipped with a 63Wh battery is promising, Intel’s latest chips aren’t known for their efficiency, and neither are OLED display panels. So I’d take Asus’ claim that the laptop gets up to 14 hours of battery life with a grain of salt.
And while Asus says the laptop has been MIL-STD-810H tested for durability, some folks might find that the magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis isn’t quite as sturdy feeling as an all-aluminum body.
That said, the laptop appears to be priced pretty competitively with other premium ultralight notebooks. A top-tier model with an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage will set you back $1400 and it’s possible we could see lower-priced options eventually: the official specs for this laptop mention a Core i5-1335U processor option and as little as 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
Other features include a backlit keyboard with 1.1mm key travel, an FHD webcam with IR support for Windows Hello face recognition, support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5 and more ports than I’m used to seeing on notebooks that measure less than half an inch thick, including:
- 2 x Thunderbolt 4 ports
- 1 x HDMI 2.1 port
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port
- 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack.
The laptop comes with a 65W power supply.
The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (UX5304VA) is available now from Newegg and Abt, and you should be able to buy one soon from additional stores including Amazon and Best Buy.
