Presented by ASUS

ASUS Zenbook S 16 review – A masterclass in style and performance

Partner

 ·5 Sep 2024

The new ASUS Zenbook S 16 is a sleek 16-inch laptop that combines sophisticated style with incredible performance.

It boasts a powerful 12-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor, Radeon 890M graphics, and 32GB RAM – which easily handles everything from intense multitasking across three displays, to after-hours gaming.

This was MyBroadband’s finding after ASUS sent us the Zenbook S 16 to review – which is set to launch in South Africa soon.

• Click here to learn more about the ASUS Zenbook S 16.

Sophistication meets durability

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 is the most stylish laptop we’ve ever reviewed.

It has a slim 1.1cm form factor and a lightweight 1.5kg chassis with a sleek ASUS monogram engraved on the lid – available in Zumaia Gray or a lighter-coloured Scandinavian White.

It is also incredibly durable thanks to its all-metal aluminium chassis and Ceraluminum lid – perfect for on-the-go working.

Ceraluminum is a high-tech material that is revered in the aerospace and luxury watch industries. It fuses aluminium and ceramic to enhance wear resistance, corrosion protection, hardness, and lifespan.

As a result, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 offers MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability, exceptional longevity, and prolonged reliability.

Watch our review of the ASUS Zenbook S 16 below.

The beauty of OLED

This durable chassis houses a stunning 3K ASUS Lumina touchscreen OLED display that offers an exceptional visual experience.

Its 16:10 HDR NanoEdge design provides superior real estate for working, while a 120Hz refresh rate and impressive 0.2ms response time ensured it was smooth and easy on the eye.

When we needed even more screen space, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 supported up to three external displays for next-level multitasking.

Rounding out the impressive display technologies is the high-end ASUS Pen 2.0, PANTONE Validation, VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black certification, and Dolby Vision support.

Performance to the max

Powering the new ASUS Zenbook S 16 is one of AMD’s most powerful laptop CPUs – the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

This CPU offers an impressive 12 cores, 24 threads, power-efficient clock speeds as low as 2.0GHz, and performance clock speeds as high as 5.1GHz.

When paired with its impressive integrated Radeon 890M graphics and 32GB, 7,500MHz RAM, we had no problems running multiple applications and software suites at once.

We also put the hardware to the test with intensive tasks including content creation and rendering – and the Zenbook S 16 breezed through.

It was equally capable of producing smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p on the games we tested –Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, and XDefiant – which is extremely impressive for integrated graphics.

2TB of SSD storage then ensured we had extensive storage space for everything we needed.

Complementing the hardware is AMD’s AI Engine that features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) capable of up to 50 Trillion Operations Per Second.

This supports cutting-edge AI technologies such as Windows Copilot, the AiSense webcam that reduces background noise, and its powerful media manager – ASUS StoryCube.

Finishing touches

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 features a large 78Wh battery to keep its powerful hardware running – and in our test of non-stop YouTube video streaming, the battery lasted 10 hours and 25 minutes without a charge.

Battery performance in the S 16 is boosted by a high-tech cooling system in the chassis, too, to ensure optimal performance at all times.

Rounding out the finishing touches on the Zenbook S 16 is a Harmon Kardon-certified six-speaker sound system.

Whether you are a business user, content creator, or anyone looking for a stylish and powerful laptop, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 is a perfect choice.

• Click here to learn more about the ASUS Zenbook S 16.

The specs of the ASUS Zenbook S 16 can be seen below.

Click here to learn more about the ASUS Zenbook S 16.