Asus Zenbook S 16 (2024) Assessment: A Properly-Balanced Home windows Laptop computer

Asus’ massive push to reinvent its laptop computer tech has lastly come to fruition, and the Zenbook S 16 makes the corporate a critical contender within the midrange laptop computer area and past.

It’s maybe greatest to begin with essentially the most seen improve: the chassis. Fairly than counting on the everyday 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 small print are complicated and never fully clear, however primarily 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 seems to be like plastic however has the rigidity of steel, and it’s straightforward to see how skinny and light-weight it permits the display and lid to be.

The laptop computer is on the market in two colours: Zumaia grey and Scandinavian white. I acquired the latter, which is extra of a silvery mild grey, whereas the Zumaia possibility may be very darkish.

{Photograph}: Christopher Null

The 16-inch show supplies ample room for a spacious keyboard, although there isn’t any numeric keypad, leaving numerous lifeless area on both aspect. The half-height arrow keys are offset, positioned under the Shift button, making them extra handy to entry than these on many different laptops that cram them in amongst every part 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 person can customise. When you get the grasp of them, they will 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 stable 2,880 x 1,800 pixels. Growth ports are all side-mounted and embody 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.

{Photograph}: Christopher Null