Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED laptop review: Subnotebook impresses with fast AMD Ryzen 7 6800U

[Qddy]

Do you known what the reference of the non-touch version is ?

I also waiting for the non-touch model. It's lighter and hopefully less reflective without the touch panel.

I fear it may not exist though. Just a paper launch so Asus can claim 1KG instead of 1.1KG. I hope I am wrong.

What is this silly trend of putting touchscreens on everything. On convertibles, 2-in-1s, it obviously makes sense but why add them to regular notebooks. I don't think I have ever seen anyone touch their screens. It's a niche scenario for ultra mobile notebooks. Apple hasn't with their MacBooks and they are selling fine. At the moment, most offer hi-res touchscreens or low-res non-touch.

Anyway, I am still waiting for the non-touch model Asus!

[Dionamuh]

Do you known what the reference of the non-touch version is ?

I also waiting for the non-touch model. It's lighter and hopefully less reflective without the touch panel.

I fear it may not exist though. Just a paper launch so Asus can claim 1KG instead of 1.1KG. I hope I am wrong.

What is this silly trend of putting touchscreens on everything. On convertibles, 2-in-1s, it obviously makes sense but why add them to regular notebooks. I don't think I have ever seen anyone touch their screens. It's a niche scenario for ultra mobile notebooks. Apple hasn't with their MacBooks and they are selling fine. At the moment, most offer hi-res touchscreens or low-res non-touch.

Anyway, I am still waiting for the non-touch model Asus!

Oh it definitely exists. It is sold in several countries in Europe. In the Netherlands it's called UM5302TA-LV067W (90NB0WA1-M004L0), sold with EU plug. In France and Germany it's also sold with no touch screen, but they both have weird keyboard layouts.

I live in Europe and actually ordered the Zenbook S13 from Amazon.com because I really wanted the touchscreen. With import fees and shipping I paid $300 extra for that. I wish Asus would make an S13 Flip with 6800U, but unfortunately they only sell that with Intel which has way worse graphics performance and battery life.

I do agree it would be very nice if we got a choice, touch or no touch. And I wish Asus would actually sell all the colours they advertise with.

[SZQ]

@Dionamuh Oh, that's good to know. Thanks! I also found some reviews on YouTube of the non-touch version from the Philippines. Display still looks fantastic even without the glossy touchscreen.

I live in Japan so I'm reluctant to import because of the drop in the value of JPY and lack of local warranty.

I visited my local electronics store to compare various laptops. Both the Thinkpad Z13 (OLED touch) and the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED (touch) were awfully reflective. I don't think I could use them. I saw a different ZenBook (maybe 14") with the OLED display non touch and that looked great, punchy colours and barely any reflections. The MacBook Air M2, although also glossy, was somewhere in the middle. It was reflective but nowhere near as bad. Which leads me to suspect that the touchscreen causes the extra reflections or maybe Apple have a better anti-reflective coating tech.

I'm going to wait a bit longer to see if the ZenBook S 13 OLED non-touch becomes available here. Otherwise I will just go for the MacBook and hope I can do everything I need in MacOS and Windows ARM VM combined. I'm not invested in the Apple ecosystem but they really make things easier (all options available everywhere, international warranty, choice of keyboard layouts).

By the way, is the USB 4 support on the Asus ZenBook official yet or still requires a beta bios?

[Gustavo]

I am an enthusiast who owns Dell XPS, Macbook Pro with M1 Pro, Macbook Air M2, Alienware m17, and Samsung Galaxy Book Pro, among several others. Based on my long term experience with these devices, I can confidently say that this Zenbook S 13 OLED belongs among the best of the best. Probably as #1 worldwide in its weight category.

I bought my Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED after very extensive research. I acquired it during the Black Friday and stocks were really low across the board. I couldn't be happier with this choice.

AMD beats Intel all too easily on performance per watt, while also delivering a much better GPU. Add that to the fantastic touch-enabled OLED screen, 67Wh battery in a ultra compact 1.1Kg magnesium alloy chassis, and amazing keyboard with 1.4mm travel and ergonomic dished key caps, and you have something that can't be beat in this time period.

The glossy panel - just like Apple - is a big plus for me. Not everybody's cup of tea, but I really dig it.

On top of that, best in class SSD and RAM speeds, and Wifi 6E. The webcam is a pretty decent 720p, but the mics are second to none.

An finally, something not mentioned in the article - Asus delivers proper Sleep and Hibernate implementation. Something that is awkwardly implemented on a number of brands, including Dell and Samsung. No waking up unpredictably. No not sleeping. No not hibernating. Just works.

This model has been universally acclaimed on every review I found so far. As a buyer, I can attest to that as well.

[RaymondBaism]

Im on the same page as Postman. I use mine in the summer here in TX, because it keeps me cool, and is really light. For long games and ops though, I stick with my JPC.

[Whats Up Asus]

So I'm guessing this "special software" to get PWM to work correctly only works in Windows?

[W M]

This laptop is giving me headache.

The reason I bought this laptop is because it is running Radeon 680M and I would like to run some machine learning using the GPU. I checked the specification and Radeon 680M support simple machine learning. However when I bought the laptop back I found that the BIOS lacks the GPU memory settings, which the settings is available on my friend's HP Laptop running the same AMD 6800U. So obviously it is BIOS missing this configuration.

Then I sent email to technical support. And they just mentioned that this is not configurable by the user that's why the BIOS has a default value and that's it. But obviosuly the GPU memory setting is missing in the BIOS (which I verified with HP's BIOS).

I really regret getting this laptop and I would like to return this laptop and get the HP laptop. It is not the AMD hardware that doesn't support but it is the Asus BIOS and the technical support team that block this feature, which is really fustrating.