I will update this section if and when more configurations become available via ASUS or its approved retailers.
This review was made possible with a review unit provided by ASUS.
The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
The Zenbook S 16 looks great in white, showing off its gigantic Precision touchpad.
While technically unremarkable, the chiclet keyboard feels decent for typing with its 1.1mm travel distance.
and rests alongside, frustratingly, squashed arrow keys.
They are at least all uniformly sized but rest in between unused gaps on the keyboard.
A 6-speaker array designed by Harman Kardon sounds great and supportsDolby Atmoswhere available.
I would prefer one USB-C port on each side, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Enabling HDR boosts the top end slightly to 385 nits and leaves the bottom end unchanged.
It’s a decent result but not entirely capable of ranking among thebest laptops with bright screensexceeding 400-600 nits.
)However, these initial tests disregardAMD’s XDNA 2 NPUand highlight the raw performance of the CPU chiplet.
After four iterations, the Zenbook S generated the image in 2.8 seconds with the Radeon 890M GPU.
Otherwise, it sticks around a whispered 34.5 dBA while streaming a 4K video.
For the most part, this laptop is barely audible when browsing the web, significantly so when idle.
Even at its loudest, it’s not that extreme.
The touchpad is excellent, but invisible brightness and volume slider shortcuts can be annoying.
Depending on your preferences, ASUS could even trump Dell’s divisive capacitative touchpad.
Zenbook S 16: Scorecard
Zenbook S 16: Should you buy it?
Anything over 12 hours is reliable for working on the go.
Tall rubber feet elevate the Zenbook S 16 from a flat desktop rather than a low-hanging screen hinge.
The competition for locally-processed AI workloads is getting fierce with every new generation of processors.
As more apps open up to cross-platform NPUs, AMD could pull ahead of its rivals.
40Gb/s USB-C ports are undoubtedly great to have, but I’d rather they weren’t stuck together.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
A 10Gb/s USB-A port on the right side sits alongside the relic of an SD card reader.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
The screen hinge is stiff, but you can still open the Zenbook S 16 with a single finger.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Slices of a giant Zenbook logo adorn the lid with secondary badging written in text.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
ASUS Zenbook S 16 screen scored 100% of sRGB, 94% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of P3 with a Datacolor Spyder X Pro colorimeter.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Datacolor SpyderX Pro tone response test results for the Zenbook S 16 (gamma 2.6)(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Datacolor SpyderX Pro gray ramp test results for the Zenbook S 16(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Geekbench 6 tests the burst performance of CPUs.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Cinebench 2024 records a sustained stress test on CPUs.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
PCMark 10 simulates productivity app usage in its benchmark.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
CrossMark is a system-wide score that ranks overall device performance.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
CrystalDiskMark checks read and write performance of storage drives.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
3DMark Time Spy benchmarks integrated and/or discrete GPUs.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Generating images uses only the Radeon 890M GPU in Amuse, leaving AMD’s NPU with AI upscaling.
Sticking with ‘EZ mode’ on Amuse is extremely similar to prompting Microsoft’s Copilot for images.
PCMark 10 simulates real-world productivity app usage until the battery is emptied.
The only exposed hot spots on the Zenbook S 16 remain along the vents and hinge.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
The touchpad always stays cool, but the underside feels the worst of the heat under stress.(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Testing the Zenbook S 16 in idle operation (left) and under extreme stress (right.)
Dell’s XPS 16 (9640) has a similarly classy design with a white theme and customizable components.
The Zenbook S 16 is a good-looking white laptop, but the 16-inch 3K OLED screen performs best indoors.
