Asus Zenbook S 14 hands-on: Another Intel laptop hits the battery life heights

It’s been a hectic start to IFA 2024 for laptop news, with the two major new processor announcements from Intel and Qualcomm and countless new laptop models. Adding to those today is the Asus Zenbook S 14, a laptop featuring the latest generation of Intel chips, and the headline is a huge boost to battery life, so much so that Qualcomm’s chip engineers must be quaking in their boots.

After a summer where we’ve all been raving about Snapdragon laptops like the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, which have consistently been delivering MacBook Air-rivalling stamina – we now have Intel-powered machines promising similar stamina, including this new Asus Zenbook S 14.

Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) hands-on: Specifications, price and release date

• 14in 120Hz 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display with 400 cd/m2 peak brightness (500cd/m2 in HDR) – touchscreen and non-touchscreen options
• Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor
• NPU with up to 48 peak TOPS of performance
• Intel Arc Graphics
• Up to 32GB of RAM
• Up to 1TB PCIe 4 SSD
• Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
• 72Wh lithium polymer battery
• Dimensions: 312 x 214 x 11.9mm (WDH)
• Weight: 1.2kg
• Price: From £1,300 inc VAT
• Availability: Preorder now from Asus.com

Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) hands-on: Key features and first impressions

If those claims are met, the Asus Zenbook S 14 should be a formidable machine. It’s a much more attractive, slim and lightweight laptop than the Snapdragon-powered Asus Vivobook S 15, and its battery life claims are more impressive, too, at up to 27 hours. In my testing, the Vivobook achieved 16hrs 53mins, so if the Zenbook S 14 gets anywhere near its claims, it will outstrip its stablemate by a massive amount.

These are certainly enticing numbers, and it’s going to be very interesting testing these new Intel Core Ultra 200V-based machines when we start receiving review samples from manufacturers. For the time being, though, we’ll have to take it on faith that the battery life claims stack up as that’s not something I can gauge from a few minutes of trying the laptop and taking photographs.

Fortunately, what is obvious from the moment you pick it up is that the Asus Zenbook S 14 is a beautifully constructed thin and light laptop. It measures a mere 12mm thin and weighs only 1.2kg and Asus’ patented Ceraluminum (fused aluminium and ceramic) finish looks and feels fantastic. It has a matte finish and is scored across with a geometric pattern that makes it look unlike any laptop (aside from other Asus machines, of course).

As with a lot of Asus machines, the underside is a bit of a mess of vents and rather ugly chassis-length rubber feet but you’re not going to be looking at that very much when you’re using it. Besides, the sight that meets your eyes when opening the lid is much more appealing.

It isn’t clad in Ceraluminum, more’s the pity, but the vents machined into the area just above the keyboard lend the whole interior a sculptural, artistic look. The keyboard itself is a chiclet affair with large square keys that, at first use, seem perfectly comfortable to type on, and there’s an absolutely enormous touchpad set into the wrist rest just below, which should be able to accommodate multitouch gestures quite comfortably.

Around the edges of the laptop the ports are at a premium, but what you do get is pretty high spec, with two 40Gbits/sec Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 1.4 output and a 3.5mm headset jack.

And, as for the rest of the specification, that looks up to scratch, too. The model I tried had an 8-core Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chip inside, but the specifications I was sent say “up to” that processor, so there should be lower-tier models available as well. This was backed up with 32GB of on-package LPDDR5x RAM that can’t be upgraded and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, while for AI applications and Microsoft CoPilot+ certification, the new Intel chip includes an NPU (neural processing unit) with a performance rating of 48 TOPS (trillions of operations per second).

It’s also worth highlighting that the integrated Intel Arc Graphics in the new Intel chips is also said to be much improved, although again I can’t pass judgement on that until I actually get my hands on one. Finally, wireless connectivity stretches to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and the laptop also comes with a 1080p IR webcam with support for Windows Hello face login.

Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) hands-on: Early verdict

As with all the Intel Core Ultra 200V series laptops I’ve seen at IFA 2024 so far, the Asus Zenbook S 14 looks to be an exciting prospect and, once again, it’s all about the battery life claims.

With Asus quoting up to 27 hours of video playback from this machine – a long way in advance of similar claims from Apple for its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and even longer than the Snapdragon laptops – this could yet be the best compact, ultra portable laptop we’ve seen this year.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is available to pre-order now from Asus.com with prices will start at an eminently reasonable £1,300, and will be followed by other Intel Core Ultra 200V series laptops, the Asus Vivobook S 14 and Flip 360 in 14in and 16in sizes.