Asus Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Compact Notebook for Everyday Use

Zenbook S13 OLED: Unboxing

The Asus Zenbook S13 OLED comes in a briefcase-style cardboard box that contains-

• Zenbook S13 OLED notebook
• Adapter
• Charging cable
• Black pouch
• User guide

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Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Design

Let’s begin by talking about one of the most important aspects of a notebook, the design and form factor. Asus has taken a different-than-usual route for its Zenbook S13 OLED. The brand claims that it is the thinnest OLED laptop in the world and they are certainly right in saying so as it is just 1cm when the lied is shut close. Not only sleek, the laptop is lightweight as well, the weight being under 1kg. Being thin and lightweight makes Asus S13 OLED more utilitarian.

The top cover is no longer plain as it was last time. This time the Zenbook has a futuristic industrial design with a ceramic-like texture on the plasma ceramic aluminum lid, zig-zagged with sharp lines cutting across. The top lid feels like marble when touched and the lines running across form the Asus Monogram logo. The aluminum lid pained in plasma coating will allow easy recycling of the notebook.

The Zenbook comes with Ergo Lift tech that allows the hinge to be set at any angle for convenient typing. The hinge can go all the way up to 180 degrees.

The Notebook is available in Ponder Blue and Basalt Grey shades and Asus loaned me the Grey variant that looked and felt premium. The brand has also provided a black pouch inside the box that can help carry the laptop around easily. All in all, from a portability point of view, Asus S13 OLED is a traveler’s dream.

The lid surface doesn’t catch smudges in daily life but oily fingers are its biggest enemy. The top side of the display has a Full HD webcam for video calls and biometrics since there is no fingerprint reader. The webcam doesn’t have a physical shutter so that is one small niggle, otherwise, the Asus S13 OLED stands tall in terms of design and form factor.

Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Display & Audio

Although the design is slim and feels small, on opening the lid there is a 13.3-inch OLED display that feels bigger than the actual size as it is maximized well. The display has a 60Hz refresh rate which feels smooth while you are watching content, reading books, and more, but when it comes to gaming, the visuals don’t seem amped up.

The display has a 2880×1800 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio which is ideal when watching content but peak brightness is mere 550 nits which is not enough when the notebook is used in outdoor settings. The bezels on the display are neither too slim nor too broad and the viewing angles are also decent. It also supports 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and is Pantone Validated as well. Content like Schitt’s Creek and Bloody Daddy seemed immersive in FHD resolution.

Along with an OLED display are a set of side-firing speakers. The audio quality of the speakers is sufficient for general music and video playback, but overall, the output could have been better. The sound is loud and clear but lacks bass and character.

Zenbook S13 OLED Review: I/O Ports & Connectivity

What is amazing is the availability of ports on this sleek notebook. The brand has managed to pack a full-size HDMI 2.1 port and two USB Type-C ports with support for Thunderbolt 4 on the left. There is also a small LED light to indicate battery levels.

The right side features a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and another LED light. All the ports work well and provide high speeds for sharing of data. HDMI port allows easy sharing of presentations and multiple devices connectivity due to a plethora of ports that are available.

Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Keyboard, & Trackpad

The keyboard of the Asus S13 OLED is backlit, like other Asus laptop keyboards but what makes it different is the feel of its keys. The keys are soft and thus allow fast typing speeds within no time. The keyboard offers 3 levels of brightness for backlighting and there are also an array of shortcut keys to control volume, brightness level, webcam, and more. Almost everything is one tap away. Moreover, the keyboard deck is well-spaced and has a black background coating as well. It didn’t take me much time to get used to typing on Zenbook’s keyboard.

Panning down, there is an Ergo sense trackpad that has a decent size. The trackpad is smooth to move your finger around and is highly responsive, so much so that I had to be careful sometimes. The wide panel allows windows to multitask efficiently and the click of the buttons has good feedback as well.

Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Performance & Gaming

Asus has gone with Intel CPUs this time. The Intel Core i7-1355U processor powers the Zenbook S13 OLED. It has a total of 10 processors with 8 efficiency cores and two performance cores. The U in the name of the processor indicates that it is a power-efficient chip that takes only 15W power under regular workloads.

The notebook gets Iris XE graphics and 32GB RAM onboard. The massive RAM ensures multitasking is a breeze. I used 25-30 apps and programs simultaneously and the Zenbook did not experience any lags or hang-ups at any point in time. It also gets WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support for connectivity. The HD webcam is decent while video calls but the picture quality when clicking photos is just about average.

The S13 OLED performs well in day-to-day life. I am a writer and my job includes browsing the web, writing articles, watching videos, attending meetings, and more. I used the Zenbook S13 OLED as a primary device and the experience was good. Not only for work, but the creative side of me was also satisfied as it runs softwares like PhotoShop and more seamlessly. The results of some benchmarking tests are-

• Cinebench R23 single core-1695 and multi core-5630.
• Geekbench 6- single-core 1548 and multi-core 3344.
• The 3D Mark CPU Profile test came back with a thread score of 3322.

Thermal performance is one such area that needs some serious work as the notebook heats up when intensive tasks are performed on it. It also heated up while charging, performing benchmark Tests, and gaming. Not only did the underside get hot, but the keyboard deck also warmed up quite a bit. This led to inconvenience while working as I usually place the laptop on my lap when working for long hours.

Talking about the OS, it runs Windows 11 which comes pre-loaded and provides a good experience. The UI is user-friendly and interactive that allows loads of customizations and personalization.

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Zenbook S13 OLED Review: Battery

The Zenbook S13 OLED packs a 63Wh battery under the hood. The slim guy has a U series chip that makes the battery life better. The laptop easily lasted for over 5 hours on a single charge with moderate to heavy usage. The usage included reading articles, watching videos, typing documents, listening to music, attending video calls, and more.

Talking about charging, the S13 OLED has a 65W USB Type-C charger inside the box. It charges the laptop from 0 to 67% in about 62 minutes. The laptop takes 2 hours to charge to 100%. While the laptop is charging, the underside of the laptop warms up, which then takes a while to cool down when the charger is removed.

Zenbook S13 OLED Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

The Zenbook S13 OLED by Asus is a compact and efficient laptop that gives a desirable performance in day-to-day life. The laptop is slim, lightweight, and shiny with a good design language. The laptop performs well and is a good companion for office work. Paired with a 13-inch OLED display, it is an ideal companion for office-goers as well as content creators. The battery life is decent as well.

Although the display lacks in terms of refresh rate and peak brightness and the thermal performance is also underwhelming, these are some niggles that can be overlooked if top-class display is not your priority or you don’t have to work for long hours. The laptop is a bit pricey with the top i7 model costing 1.5 lakhs, but you can opt for the i5 model priced at around 1 lakh if you want a lightweight thin notebook that performs well. For those who want a Windows laptop, the Zenbook S13 OLED can also serve as an alternative to Apple’s Macbook Air with M1 chipset.