Asus’ huge push to reinvent its laptop tech has lastly come to fruition, and the Zenbook S 16 makes the corporate a severe contender within the midrange laptop space and past.
It’s maybe finest to begin with probably the most seen improve: the chassis. Moderately than counting on the standard design of steel or plastic, Asus has invented a brand new materials known as Ceraluminum, which it says is the results of 4 years of labor to mix aluminum and a kind of ceramic into a brand new compound.
The main points are advanced and never totally clear, however basically it bonds the 2 supplies into one thing that, in idea, is stronger, lighter, and extra proof against put on and corrosion. Ceraluminum is used solely on the higher lid of the brand new Zenbook S, however you’ll discover it instantly. It appears to be like like plastic however has the rigidity of steel, and it’s straightforward to see how skinny and light-weight it permits the display screen and lid to be.
The laptop computer is on the market in two colours: Zumaia grey and Scandinavian white. I obtained the latter, which is extra of a silvery mild grey, whereas the Zumaia choice could be very darkish.
{Photograph}: Christopher Null
The 16-inch show supplies ample room for a spacious keyboard, although there is no numeric keypad, leaving numerous useless house on both aspect. The half-height arrow keys are offset, positioned beneath the Shift button, making them extra handy to entry than these on many different laptops that cram them in amongst every little thing else. I did discover the keyboard motion to be a bit mushy, nonetheless. The keyboard backlighting is extraordinarily shiny, and albeit too intense at full energy. Lastly, the big touchpad contains Sensible Gesture help, which helps three-finger and four-finger shortcuts the consumer can customise. When you get the cling of them, they’ll actually pace up your work.
Underneath the hood, Asus has outfitted the Zenbook S 16 with the brand new AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU (paired with a Radeon 880M GPU), 24 GB of RAM, and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive. The touchscreen’s decision is a strong 2,880 x 1,800 pixels. Growth ports are all side-mounted and embrace two USB-C connectors supporting USB4 (one is required for charging), a USB-A port, HDMI output (full-size), and a full-size SD card reader.
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{Photograph}: Christopher Null
