Given that comparison is the thief of joy, a critic should avoid imagining an ideal version of a product. If I were to write up a wish list for my dream smartphone and then compare new releases to it, it would be unfair to both the manufacturers and my readers. For instance, the Pixel 9 Pro wouldn’t meet those dream specs, but from using it, as I wrote in my review, the Pixel 9 Pro is my favorite phone on the market.I mention this because the Zenbook S 16 is not a perfect laptop, but it comes close to my dream specs. It’s ultra-thin, has a premium all-aluminum build, a solid keyboard, a top-quality screen, enough performance to handle some taxing work, long battery life, and comes in a stylish white colorway. It’s a great device.Asus Zenbook S 16. Courtesy of AsusDespite its thin and relatively small size, the laptop features a 16-inch, 3K resolution, 120Hz, 16:10 OLED screen with thin bezels, and it’s one of the most impressive screens I’ve seen on a laptop, especially for watching videos while traveling. It doesn’t entirely overcome the compromises of OLED screens—namely, it doesn’t get exceptionally bright, and power usage is higher than expected—but the unmatched contrast and true blacks are worth it. Watching YouTube videos, there’s no hint of brightness in the black bars, no light bleed, and no difference between the black of the bezels and the black of the screen. It’s a subtle effect, but it makes other screens look bad by comparison. It’s also a touchscreen, which, while not often used, is a delight for highlighting text and swiping through articles. Going back to a MacBook feels limiting by comparison.The keyboard is among the best I’ve tried on a laptop. There’s nothing revolutionary here—it’s a standard short-throw laptop keyboard—but it has a satisfying feel, a quiet but pleasant sound, and a comfortable layout. It’s placed toward the center of the deck with large spaces on the sides, and the laptop’s thin and light design makes it feel like you’re typing on a 14-inch laptop rather than a 16-inch one. My only issue is the power button, which is on the keyboard rather than at the top, giving it a sleeker look but increasing the risk of mistypes.Asus Zenbook S 16. Courtesy of AsusThe speaker grill is at the top rather than the side of the keyboard, and though I worried this would compromise the sound, the six speakers are great. The bass is a bit muddled, and it doesn’t match the unbeatable speakers on Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro, but it’s still excellent for ambient music or watching TV.This layout also allows Asus to fit the Zenbook S with a large, central trackpad. It’s fine, but it should have been a haptic touchpad rather than an old-school capacitive one. For the unfamiliar, a capacitive touchpad clicks through physically moving down on a hinge at the top, meaning the bottom clicks easier than the top. By contrast, a haptic touchpad—found on MacBook Pros and some Lenovo and Microsoft laptops—clicks by buzzing against your finger, providing a more uniform, satisfying click experience. While not essential, on an otherwise premium laptop, it feels like a slight letdown.Asus tries to enhance the trackpad with custom swipe gestures along its left, top, and right edges, allowing you to control volume, video playback, and brightness, respectively. While interesting, the solid mistouch prevention on the laptop means these gestures require precise swipes in the exact spot, making them cumbersome. I usually set a custom three-finger swipe to control volume instead. These features aren’t harmful to have, though, and more customization in this area would be welcome.Asus Zenbook S 16. Courtesy of AsusAsus also promotes the AI features of the laptop because, of course, they do. However, like most AI features on a laptop, there isn’t much to write home about. AI video features like background blur are already possible, and eye-contact correction is done better elsewhere. Asus’s StoryCube app is essentially the Windows Photos app with some AI sorting features, but it’s still behind Google Photos. The native Windows co-pilot isn’t very useful—I’d rather just open ChatGPT in a browser—so I remapped the dedicated co-pilot key to do nothing. In time, AI tools will improve, and having a dedicated NPU chip is a good future-proofing move, but right now, it feels too early.In the meantime, this laptop handles all the essentials well and is worth the $1,700 price. The Windows Hello face unlock is reliable and secure, as are the smart screen dimming and locking features. I wish it had USB-C ports on both sides for easier charging, but the port selection is excellent for a laptop that’s barely over a centimeter thick. It includes a USB 3.2 Type-A port on the right, along with an SD card slot, and two USB4 Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an audio combo jack on the left. It supports Wi-Fi 7, has a solid Bluetooth chip, and comes without annoying quirks.It’s worth noting that the Zenbook S runs a traditional x86 build of Windows rather than the new platform powered by Snapdragon chips, meaning you don’t get the incredible battery life of those laptops. With the screen at full brightness, the Zenbook will last through a full workday, depending on workload, which is decent but not ground-breaking. However, the x86 platform ensures no software compatibility issues, and the laptop is powerful enough for video editing or gaming if needed. At this point, I’m happy to make that trade-off.
