One of the first laptops to use AMD’s flagship Ryzen AI CPU, which is anticipated to outperform Intel and Qualcomm in terms of gaming, content production, and AI, is the Asus Zenbook S 16. AMD claims that this processor fits inside a notebook that is lighter and thinner than the MacBook Air. It sounds like everything you could want in a Windows laptop for all-around use.
However, Asus needs to persuade consumers to purchase an AMD-powered laptop immediately, given that devices equipped with Qualcomm’s new chips can do all the functions that the majority of people require and have battery lives that greatly exceed those of conventional CPUs. Asus would need to surpass all of the Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops that were released a few months ago in terms of not only speed but also quality, comfort, battery life, apps, features, and pricing in order to become the summer’s biggest laptop sensation. That is the peak that AMD and Asus need to reach.
There is always a trade-off with laptops, be it performance, battery life, or something else entirely. I’ve discovered that the Zenbook S 16 isn’t the ideal all-purpose laptop. However, compared to most productivity laptops, it strikes a far better mix between daily activities and power-user features, making it one of the best I’ve used.
Doesn’t feel like a 16-inch laptop
The $1,400 Zenbook S 16 is a thin 16-inch laptop that comes with AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, 24GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD as standard features. It also features a quite large 78Wh battery and a 2880 x 1800 (3K) touchscreen OLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. I put the faster Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and 32GB of RAM in the $1,700 configuration to the test.
It’s amazing that Asus managed to squeeze a sizable battery into the 0.47-inch thick Zenbook chassis while keeping the laptop’s total weight under 3.31 pounds. Larger laptops might be more cumbersome to transport, partly due to battery issues. However, the Zenbook has a more 13- or 14-inch laptop-like feel, so I
The laptop also feels smaller because of where the keyboard is located. It’s easier for me to type on the Asus laptop since it places the speaker grille in back and keeps the trackpad at a reasonable size, pushing the keyboard closer to the front of the device. I don’t have to take my hands off of the palm rests in order to reach the function row. I end myself typing with my wrists floating up in the air, looking like The Addams Family’s Thing, on most 16-inch laptops.
Without making a clacking or pinging noise, the keys also approximate the full, gratifying press of a low-profile desktop keyboard.
It’s also attractive. The outside body is subjected to a unique process that covers the aluminum chassis with a strong ceramic oxide coating, giving it a beautiful texture that is both smooth and rough. The stunning geometric lines that Asus used to sparsely embellish the lid of its prior Zenbooks have also been retained.
A 3K, 120Hz OLED is becoming more and more common on devices priced similarly to the Zenbook S 16. This laptop looks even more gorgeous thanks to the display, which has rich colors and striking contrasts.
Better performance than Qualcomm
This laptop outperforms computers with Qualcomm Snapdragons in terms of performance. Both AMD’s Ryzen AI chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon CPUs are as responsive as I would expect from processors of their class when it comes to video conversations, music streaming, and other common chores. However, AMD sets itself apart with better graphics performance, which surprisingly enables gaming and content production on the Zenbook S 16 possible for a compact device.
Since the Zenbook runs on the x86 Windows platform, the majority of games are limited to that platform. If I try to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider on my laptop with an Arm-based Snapdragon graphics card at a resolution greater than 1080p, it will crash. On the other hand, I can run the same game on the Zenbook S 16 at the same resolution on high performance, and it will run smoothly with an additional 20 frames per second.
Though AMD’s FSR 2.1 upscaling technology can help make Cyberpunk 2077 playable, the integrated GPU is still not powerful enough to run the game natively on such a high-resolution laptop. Cyberpunk ran for me an average of 77 frames per second with it turned on, the resolution at 1080p, and the upscaling at ultra performance. The only upscaler for games currently operating on laptops powered by Qualcomm is called Auto Super Resolution, and although it isn’t exclusive to those laptops, utilizing it causes a lot of fine line flickering. I wouldn’t use that strategy in this game.
I’ve tested a lot of Snapdragon laptops, and the Zenbook S 16 is hands down faster for creative jobs like creating 3D pictures in Blender. Even though there is a native Arm64 version of Blender that is still in alpha, it does not currently support Qualcomm’s integrated Adreno graphics on its Snapdragon chips. The AMD-powered Zenbook S 16 operates more quickly since the software makes use of both the CPU and the GPU.
In my tests, AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor proved to be slower than Apple’s M3 Pro in the MacBook Pro, despite AMD’s claims to the contrary. Although the top-tier Ryzen AI chip is actually slower than the MacBook Pro by several full minutes in a real-world Blender test, the Zenbook S 16 didn’t feel any slower in typical programs.
Insufficient video RAM can cause Blender to crash on any laptop, including AMD Zenbooks from earlier generations. However, with the Zenbook S 16, I didn’t experience that problem. It contains a large amount of memory, of which AMD now permits the GPU to receive up to 75% of it directly. Blender operated smoothly and didn’t crash when I used 16GB of RAM for graphics and ran the Agent 327: Operation Barbershop demo, a scene with intricate lighting that I typically only run when testing gaming or workstation laptops. Although it didn’t render as quickly, it completed the task without any problems.
Battery life comes up short
Usually, laptop manufacturers have to give up something in order to create the lightest and thinnest laptops. Usually, that means sacrificing performance; however, Asus appears to have made a trade-off by sacrificing some battery life in order to get as much performance as possible from AMD’s CPU.
My disappointment with the Zenbook S 16’s battery life was not that it wasn’t long-lasting; rather, it was that its big, 78Wh battery only lasted for 11 hours. The primary rival of Asus’ Qualcomm Snapdragon device, the 16-inch Galaxy Book4 Edge from Samsung, is almost weight and size comparable, and its battery lasts for 14 hours while being 23% smaller. However, since I could use the Zenbook S 16 as my main laptop for writing articles, editing high-resolution images, and light gaming, I’m willing to make this trade-off.
Additionally, the Zenbook S 16 estimates its own battery life remarkably poorly. The battery symbol in the taskbar would indicate that there was 95% of the power left, with an expected runtime of 8.5 hours. A few minutes later, it would have dropped to 87 percent, with an anticipated runtime of 12.5 hours. Hours passed during this. Granted, battery estimates are subject to change, but on this laptop, they were erratic and ping-ponged, making it impossible for me to gauge how much juice was left.
AI is a big no-show
StoryCube is the only AI software that comes with Asus’ new Zenbook S 16. Its purpose is to assist you in transferring all of your cloud-based images and movies onto your laptop, using on-device artificial intelligence to automatically arrange and classify everything. Given my horrible habit of disorganizing the photographs I upload to the cloud, it sounded like something I could use. Unfortunately, Asus was unable to provide me with an explanation for why it didn’t work at all. According to Asus, creating an AI album for each gigabyte of data should only take 24 minutes, however I left the application running for a full day and nothing happened.
The most recent iteration of the AI image creation program Amuse is also compatible with the Zenbook S 16. It functions, albeit it runs slower—rather than faster—when combined with AMD’s NPU. With the NPU turned on, which is turned on by default when you initially launch the software, it took twice as long to generate photos.
Microsoft has also made a lot of noise this summer about Copilot Plus PCs, but the Zenbook S 16 isn’t included in that program out of the box, so it lacks AI-powered services like Cocreator and Live Translation. These are only available on Snapdragon laptops right now, but by the end of 2024, AMD Ryzen AI laptops should have them as well.
I would advise against purchasing this laptop if your only motivation is its AI capabilities. I’m still trying to figure out how the majority of people can benefit from AMD’s 50 TOPS NPU on a daily basis.
The competition
The Zenbook S 16 is an excellent all-around laptop if you’re searching for something big, strong, lightweight, and reasonably thin. I’ve tested nearly every new laptop made by Qualcomm, and none of them compares to its overall performance or native app support. It feels smaller than most laptops made by Qualcomm, despite being larger. A few hours of battery life is all that you have to give up, and in my opinion, the size and performance are more significant.
If you’re feeling differently, though, I tested a lot of Qualcomm devices this summer, and for size and battery life, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge was the best. And there’s always Apple: in my tests, Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air outperformed the Zenbook in terms of both performance and battery life, in contrast to AMD’s audacious claims.
Right now, I can’t think of any other Intel laptops that strike the same sweet spot as the Zenbook S 16. The four to six hours of additional battery life on the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo are something I liked, but it’s not nearly as attractive or convenient for me to tote around or type on. Although the 2024 Dell XPS 14 is another option, the improved battery life you’ll get will only amount to an hour or two at a cost of roughly $500.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a better choice for gaming or creative work laptops than the Zenbook S 16, as it isn’t really one. In my experiments, it renders my Blender scene in a matter of seconds and achieves two to three times higher 1080p gaming performance without the need for upscaling. Even with its slim and light design, it manages to last for six and a half hours on a single charge.
Although the Zenbook S 16 fell short of AMD’s high expectations regarding performance, it nevertheless pleased me greatly. Remarkably good at all three tasks, this 16-inch work, gaming, and video creation device is surprisingly portable. In exchange, all you have to give up are those couple of hours of.