ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (2024) Review: The World's Thinnest OLED Laptop

Summary

• The ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED features a slim, lightweight build, making it highly portable and ideal for on-the-go use.
• Featured with a 13.3-inch 3K OLED display, supporting Dolby Vision and covering 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, it offers vibrant colors and deep blacks.
• While it boasts the powerful Intel Core 7 Ultra, the same found in the more expensive Zenbook 14, the S 13 struggles with thermal management in its slimmer profile and doesn't perform as well as its bigger brother.

When I reviewed the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED, it was evident that the Windows laptop was the closest matching equivalent to Apple’s incredibly well-rounded MacBook Air. With the Zenbook S 13 OLED—the little brother of the Zenbook 14—I would argue that this slightly smaller and slimmer laptop may be the best portable productivity Windows laptop from its larger brother.

If you already read my Zenbook 14 review, the Zenbook S 13 will sound very familiar. In many ways, it is the same laptop. Nevertheless, it offers one key differentiation that sets it apart: unmatched portability.

Price and Availability

The ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED is available directly through ASUS' website and major retailers, including Best Buy and Amazon. It is available with either the Intel Core Ultra 7 or Intel Core i7-1355U processors and in either the Basalt Grey or Ponder Blue color variants.

A Portability Master

Starting with design, the Zenbook S 13 feels very familiar to many other ASUS laptops launched this year, which is to say, it is very well-made. The Zenbook S takes many of the best traits of the larger Zenbook 14 and puts them into a very portable body; this laptop weighs just 1 kg and is just 1 cm thick, making it the thinnest OLED laptop in the world, according to ASUS.

To the company’s credit, despite its weight and slim profile, the Zenbook S doesn’t feel flimsy; the laptop is made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy all around, with only the keycaps on the keyboard deck made of plastic. That said, compared to the regular Zenbook 14, there’s definitely more keyboard and display flex.

I really like that ASUS maintains these more premium finishes on what is meant to be a cheaper and smaller Zenbook; the laptop lid is a perfect example. For the first time, ASUS used a special process to create the aluminum lid, which they call “Plasma Ceramic Aluminum."

This process is environmentally friendly and uses pure water without any organic compounds, strong acids, or heavy metals. It ultimately produces a physical and chemical transformation of the aluminum that results in increased wear resistance, corrosion protection, thermal management, hardness, and lifespan.

In terms of actually feeling the lid and using the laptop, I must say the finish feels like nothing else and always looks nearly fingerprint-free. I’d say it’s a mix of the feeling of a chalkboard and fine sandpaper, which might sound unpleasant to the touch but works well together.

Standout OLED Display

The Zenbook S 13 OLED design's standout feature is undoubtedly its display. Featuring a 13.3-inch 3K ASUS Lumina OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, this screen delivers stunning visuals with vibrant colors and deep blacks.

The screen supports Dolby Vision, is Pantone-validated, and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which makes it excellent for consuming content or getting work done.

Compared to other laptop displays within its price range, I doubt you’re going to really find a better panel than this one. I do wish it got a bit brighter, coming in at 600 nits peak brightness, but even the MacBook Air 13-inch with M3 tops out at 500 nits, so the price-to-quality ratio of the Zenbook’s display remains unmatched.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The Zenbook S 13 OLED's keyboard and trackpad are pretty standard ASUS hardware at this point, which is to say, very good. The keyboard offers a relatively satisfying typing experience with decent key travel, though some might find it a bit mushy compared to other competing laptops like Apple’s MacBooks or Microsoft’s Surface devices.

The trackpad is a 9.5% larger ASUS ErgoSense Touchpad, which is quite spacious for a 13-inch Windows laptop. However, it does lose ASUS’ digital numpad and quick settings features from the larger Zenbook 14 and Vivobooks.

Decent but Loud Performance

Equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, Intel Arc Graphics, up to 32 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and a 1 TB SSD, the Zenbook S 13 OLED on paper is built for performance on the go…with a couple of caveats.

Before getting into the raw performance, I want to credit ASUS for still including a decent selection of ports on the S 13 OLED, especially given that the entire point of the Zenbook S line is to make the device as thin and light as possible. Though it may not be the most decked out I/O offering, the S 13 OLED still has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-A port with USB 3.2 speeds, a headphone jack, and an HDMI port, while still maintaining a sleek form factor.

Now, performance: In terms of day-to-day usage, the laptop handles multitasking, web browsing, content consumption, and even programming very well. I had very few issues with any of the mentioned tasks throughout my usage of the device, and that remains consistent even when the laptop is strictly running on battery power.

However, once you start pushing it with more demanding tasks like benchmarks, games, and content creation, you’ll start to see the limits of such a thin and light design. The ultra-thin form factor means that the cooling system has to work much harder, which can make the laptop quite noisy under heavy loads.

This was more or less the same case with the regular Zenbook 14, and it's more exacerbated with this thinner chassis of the S 13 OLED. On Geekbench, the S 13 OLED scores 1,770 on single core and 5,948 on multicore, both of which aren't great. For reference, the Zenbook 14 yielded scores of 2,194 for single-core and 11,121 for multicore, with the same chipset.

"Gets Through the Day" Battery Life

With a 63 Wh battery, the Zenbook S 13 OLED offers adequate battery life for a slim, thin, and light device. It comfortably lasts a full workday with typical usage, including tasks like web browsing, photo editing, and media consumption. The Intel Core Ultra 7 tends to run a lot warmer in this form factor, which does weigh down the battery, though the OLED display contributes to extended battery performance, making it a reliable companion for on-the-go professionals.

Should You Buy the ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED?

The ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED is a solid ultraportable laptop that combines a stunning OLED display with impressive performance in an incredibly slim and lightweight package. Its eco-friendly design, robust build quality, and advanced features make it an excellent choice for anyone needing a high-performance, portable laptop. While it may get a bit noisy under heavy load, the overall experience for everyday tasks is still satisfactory for most cases.

If you’re looking for a laptop that offers both portability and power, the Zenbook S 13 OLED is a compelling option.