ASUS ZenBook Review: The Slimmest Ultrabook Laptop of All Time!

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ASUS ZenBook: At First Glance

Since the inception of ZenBook in 2011, ASUS has been producing less bulky, high-performance ultrabooks. The ASUS ZenBook S13, which was released in 2019, is nothing short of this ZenBook legacy.

This Ultrabook is a good definition of getting value for your money. The highlight of ASUS ZenBook S13 is the fact that it is the slimmest ultrabook yet.

In addition to its compact build, it has two GPU and CPU configuration options to chose from.

I will be reviewing the newest model of the ASUS ZenBook which is the S13 UX392. This model has a starting price of $799.99 at the time of publishing this review in August 2021.

Can this laptop live up to all the hype I have built so far? Only one way to find out – read on!

ASUS ZenBook: Design, Dimension & Weight

Of all the specifications of the ASUS ZenBook, this aspect is probably the most unique. Starting with the design, the ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 is made with an aluminum chassis and a smooth metal finish.

The aluminum surface design is so eye-catching. Most especially its lid as it shimmers when the surface comes in contact with light.

If you’ve been looking for a laptop you can flaunt, the ASUS ZenBook will make you proud.

In addition to the surface, is the “ASUS” text logo sits broadly at the center of the laptop’s lid. Another place you’ll find the logo is behind the hinges where you’ll see the “ZenBook series” text logo.

The ZenBook 13 inch silver aluminum chassis laptop has only one beautiful utopia blue color variant. In their promotional material, ASUS referred to the product as “power and beauty evolved”, I definitely agree with the latter.

A major highlight of this laptop is its slimness. The ASUS ZenBook is 12.5% smaller than its predecessor – the ZenBook 3 Deluxe.

More precisely, this laptop has a dimension of 316 x 195 x 12.9 mm and weighs 1100g. When compared with its competitors, the ZenBook 13 is lighter than the HP Envy 13 and Apple MacBook Pro M1.

The HP Envy 13 weighs 1315g and has a dimension of 307 x 195.5 x 17.8 mm. On the other hand, the Apple MacBook Pro M1 weighs 1406g and dimension of 304 x 210 x 15.2 mm

Still on its design, when you open the lid, you’ll see the slimmest bezels and highest screen-to-body ratio you’ve ever seen on a laptop.

The ASUS ZenBook S13 has a 97% screen-to-body ratio with 2.5mm bezels.

This unique feature makes it the world’s slimmest laptop yet. It beats the Dell XPS 17 which has a 93.7% screen-to-body ratio.

With such slimness, you’ll probably be wondering where the camera is positioned. Well, ASUS was able to achieve such slimness because of the “reverse notch” camera.

This is basically putting all the camera hardware above the display which extends out a bit. This feature also acts as a latch to easily open the lid of the laptop.

Speaking of the camera, the 720p resolution on the camera is far from the best. It makes images look greeny so if you need a really good camera for video calls, this will not do you proud.

As for opening the lid, the laptop can be opened with just one hand. This doesn’t mean the hinges are flimsy, instead, the latch on the lid aids the easy opening.

Regarding the hinges, as I expected, ASUS included their ErgoLift feature. In case you’re hearing about this feature for the first time, the ErgoLift hinge lifts the keyboard to a 3-degree angle.

The essence of this feature is to provide convenient use of the keyboard when typing on this laptop. It also increases the effect of the cooling fan when the laptop is being used on a hard surface.

ErgoLift hinges can also be found in similar products such as the ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 and – Dell Inspiron 15 5000 I reviewed earlier.

Also on the hinges, there are tiny rubber strips to prevent it from having scratches when opening it on a surface.

Moving on to the display, this laptop is a Full HD non-touch screen resolution display. It is also an IPS panel display that provides clear viewing angles.

Also, its matte display makes it good but not great for outdoor use under direct sunlight. In terms of color accuracy, the display has 465 nits and 100% sRGB which makes it excellent for creative professionals.

On the lower deck of the laptop, there’s the backlit keyboard with its stunning light-brown keys. This keyboard has good key spacing and 1.1mm key travel which serves well for smooth typing.

Below the keyboard layout is the touchpad. Gestures on the touchpad work pretty well but the responsiveness of the ClickPad is quite shallow.

Also on the touchpad is the fingerprint sensor. This fingerprint sensor is built into the touchpad, located at the top right corner of the touchpad.

Regarding ports, the port offering of this laptop is okay but not exceptional. There are two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C and a microSD card reader on the left side of the laptop.

While on the left, there’s one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and a headphone jack. There is no Thunderbolt port and HDMI port which I find disappointing for a premium laptop.

On turning the laptop over, you won’t see any visible cooling fans. That’s nothing to worry about, there are two cooling fans under the aluminum build, but are not visible.

What you see instead are the downward-facing speakers.

With that being said, if you’ll be using this laptop for media and sound activities, you might want to use headphones. This is because its downward-facing speakers make it difficult to hear while the fans are working at the same time.

Above all, the ASUS ZenBook S13 provides near-perfect features in this section. However, its big flaw is the absence of a thunderbolt slot. For that reason, I will be giving it an eight out of ten.

ASUS ZenBook: Processor (CPU) Performance

Like most modern laptops, the ASUS ZenBook S13 has multiple CPU configurations to chose from. More precisely, ASUS offers this laptop with either Intel Core i5-8265U or Intel Core i7-8565U.

The Intel Core i5-8265U is a quad-core processor with a 6 MB cache. This processor also has a 1.60 GHz base frequency and 3.90 GHz boost frequency.

The Intel Core i7-8565U is also a quad-core processor with an 8 MB cache. It features a 1.80 GHz base frequency, and 4.60 GHz boost frequency.

Certainly, the above specs won’t make much sense if we don’t know its capability. In that light, I put the CPU to a performance test using the Geekbench 4 test.

The Geekbench is a benchmark test used to measure a laptop’s CPU, to know how advance or slow your laptop is. Before proceeding, it’s important I mention that the processor of our review model is the Intel Core i7-8565U.

Having said that, the result of the test shows that ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 scored 15106 points. When compared with its competitors, we saw the Dell XPS 13 following it closely with a score of 15336 points.

Apple MacBook Pro 13 2018 is another competitor that scored 17350 on the same test.

The ASUS ZenBook S13 CPU performance is in good shape when compared with its competitors. I find it impressive and for that, I will be rating it a nine.

ASUS ZenBook: Memory (RAM) Processor

The ASUS ZenBook S13 has an 8GB standard memory size and a 16GB maximum memory size.

More precisely, the Intel Core i5-8265U model has the single slot 8 GB RAM memory while the Intel Core i7-8565U has a single slot 16 GB RAM memory.

Even though ASUS has done pretty well with this laptop until this point, unfortunately, I am disappointed by the number of memory slots it offers. Instead of two memory slots which I expected for such a premium device, this laptop has only one.

In addition to the single memory slot limitation, this memory is soldered into the motherboard. This means upgradability will be difficult or nearly impossible.

Apparently, you only get a good memory size when you go for the more expensive model. This is a big down point for the ASUS ZenBook S13.

Despite the above con, the laptop multitasks well without hitches. I noticed this when I carried out some tasks.

This included surfing the web with eleven web tabs on Chrome and thirteen web tabs on Microsoft Edge. I also edited a high-resolution image and streamed Netflix and Audiomack simultaneously.

Notably, I carried out these tasks using the 16 GB memory of our review model. Apparently, the ASUS ZenBook S13 provides good memory performance with its ability to handle multitasking.

However, not having memory upgradability can be annoying with the price point of this device. For this reason, I will be giving it a six.

ASUS ZenBook: Storage Options & Performance

The ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 features a 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

Like the memory, ASUS does not provide upgradability to its storage option. The SSD storage on this device is soldered to the motherboard.

This means that upgradability will be difficult or almost impossible. You only get good storage options depending on the model you purchase.

However, for expandable storage, ASUS included a micro SD card option.

To know what this storage is capable of, I conducted a storage performance test using Crystaldiskmark. The Crystaldiskmark is a benchmark test used for testing the performance of a storage drive by reading and writing through the filesystem.

At the end of this test, the ASUS ZenBook S13 had a score of 1713 MB/s for its read speed. It also had 1455 MB/s for its write speed.

If you are wondering what read and write speeds represent, when you open a file, your computer performs a read. On the contrary, when you save the file, the computer performs a write.

When compared with its competitors, we saw the Dell XPS 13 having a read speed of 2034 MB/s. In addition to that, it had a write speed of 657 MB/s.

Despite the performance of the ASUS ZenBook S13, not having more storage options is a big disadvantage. So, for that reason, I will be rating it a six.

ASUS ZenBook: Graphics Card Performance

ASUS delivered a good graphics product for a non-gaming laptop. The ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 has two graphics options to chose from.

There’s obviously the integrated Intel UHD Graphics which is what we often find in Intel CPUs of such laptops. With that on one side, ASUS offers the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics as well.

In terms of features, the Intel UHD Graphics 620 specs the 300 MHz base frequency and 1150 MHz boost frequency.

This is an integrated graphics card, which means it is a slow performer and not excellent for gaming. The reason for that is because it can only perform tasks with the help of the CPU’s shared memory.

The NVIDIA GeForce MX150 on the other hand is a dedicated graphics card with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM. In addition to that, it has a base frequency of 937 MHz and boosts the frequency of 1038 MHz.

Unlike the Intel UHD, the NVIDIA GeForce is a dedicated graphics card that performs tasks independent of the system memory. This is because it uses its own memory without sharing the system’s memory with the CPU.

Speaking of performance, these numbers are simply theories till we put the laptop to some tests. To test the performance of the GPU, I used the 3D Mark test.

The 3D Mark is a benchmark test that evaluates and compares the gaming performance of a computer.

On this graphics benchmark test, the ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 had a score of 2561. When compared with its competitors, the ASUS outperformed the Dell XPS 13 9380 which had a score of 1220 points.

Still on the same test, the HP Envy 13t (2019) scored 1210 points.

Apparently, the ASUS ZenBook S13 outperforms the graphics performance of both close competitors. Asides from the benchmark test, I decided to play some games.

To start with, Overwatch was playable in 1080p, with 40 and 50 fps. When I adjusted the graphics settings to a lower quality of 720p, the frame rate moved up to between 60 and 70 fps.

For more complex games like Forza Horizon 4, it played at 24 to 30 fps at 720p setting. In Destiny 2, it was more playable, reaching 35 to 50 fps in the same setting.

Although the laptop could play overwatch; a 2016 game fairly, it may struggle to play more recent games like the Shadow of the tomb raider (2018) and Valorant (2020).

Above all, the ASUS ZenBook S13 has good graphics performance for a non-gaming laptop and will do justice to your creative tasks. Based on its graphics performance in the benchmark and gaming test, I will be rating it a nine.

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ASUS ZenBook: Battery Life & Performance

The ASUS ZenBook S13 is powered by a 3-cell, 50 WHrs Li-ion battery. In terms of battery life, ASUS advertised this laptop to last 15 hours.

To test ASUS’s claim, I did a video playback test by playing a YouTube video repeatedly until the computer gave up.

At the start of this test, the laptop was fully charged at 100% with WiFi turned on and brightness set at 50%. At the end of this test, the laptop lasted 9 hours 48 minutes.

With the very low battery point of the laptop after the test, I decided to check how long it takes to get a full charge. This laptop charged fully within the space of two hours.

In addition to that, I did another test for less battery-intensive tasks, such as web surfing using multiple web tabs and data entry. For this, WiFi was turned on, with brightness at 70% and the laptop lasted for 11 hours 18 minutes.

The Dell XPS 13 (2019) on the other hand lasted 12 hours 23 minutes on this same test.

Actually, battery life is usually the common con of powerful ultraportables, but the ASUS ZenBook S13 did rather well. So, I will be rating it an eight for battery performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The ASUS ZenBook S13 has a lot of pros than cons with its slimness being the highlight. Not forgetting that it also delivers good performance.

With that being said, if you need a slim laptop with mid-level performance then this is for you. However, if you can’t do without the Thunderbolt option, and touchscreen option then you should probably look elsewhere.

If you also care about RAM upgradability or webcam quality for your video conferences, you should also consider another laptop.

But all-in-all, this is an excellent laptop at a great price compared to its competitors.

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