Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (UX5304) Review: A Commuter's Delight

8.4/ 10
SCORE

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (UX5304)

$1,400 at Best Buy

Pros

• Extraordinarily thin and light
• Competitive performance
• Excellent OLED display

Cons

• Bottom can get warm
• No touchscreen

It isn't easy to find an ultralight laptop that still feels sturdy, but the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED does. At 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), the 13.3-inch laptop is lighter than the MacBook Air (M1 and M2) -- ideal for tossing in a backpack or shoulder bag without a second thought. Despite its compact footprint, Asus squeezed in a comfortable keyboard and a big touchpad. 

The 2.8K-resolution OLED display is exquisite for productivity and entertainment. And although OLED screens typically hurt battery life, that's not the case here. While the Zenbook S 13 OLED's performance was on target for its components, the design, extra features and its nice-looking OLED display are the big attractions. 

The Zenbook S 13 OLED comes in one configuration for $1,400. (It's not readily available in the UK or Australia, but the US price converts to £1,150 and AU$2,200, respectively.) With 32GB of memory and a 1TB solid-state drive, not to mention an OLED display, you're getting what you pay for. A similarly configured M2 MacBook Air 13, for instance, is $1,900. A Dell XPS 13 Plus is about $1,600, while a 14-inch Samsung Galaxy Book 3 with half the memory and storage of the Asus is $1,450 (though both use a faster Intel Core i7 P-series processor). The $1,550 HP Dragonfly Pro is another option, though its display doesn't compare to the Asus. Lenovo's Yoga 9i comes closest at $1,400 (and it beat the Asus by a bit on performance, but not battery life, in our tests) but again has half the RAM and storage. All of these are heavier than this Asus too. Basically, there's nothing quite like the Zenbook S 13 OLED at its price.

Performance and battery life

The Intel Core U-series processor is designed for thin ultraportables like the Zenbook S 13 OLED. It's a power-sipping chip compared with Intel's P- and H-series processors, and as such, comes up short on performance compared with competitors using the latter. The Zenbook's performance is neither disappointing nor extraordinary; it's simply in line with its specs. 

What this means is the Zenbook S 13 is plenty quick for productivity tasks -- word processing, spreadsheets, creating slide presentations -- and light photo and video edits. The best part is that it's up and ready to work almost as soon as you lift the lid. Battery life is more than respectable too, coming in at exactly 11 hours on our streaming video test. Plus, it supports quick charging that can fill the battery 70% in about 50 minutes.  

Keeping a laptop this thin from heating up isn't easy, though, and that's the biggest issue: If you're doing anything intensive, including streaming video or a long video chat, the bottom can get uncomfortably hot. 

The heat is concentrated in the center at the back, so it can be mostly avoided when it's on your lap. But for those who like to rest a laptop on bare legs while binging Netflix, this probably isn't the laptop for you. I used it daily on a train commute, and the heat, while noticeable, never bothered me. When you need the laptop's full power, use it on a desk.

Design and features

Aside from the heat, the Zenbook S 13 OLED is a perfect little travel companion. The body is thin, so it's easy to slide out of a bag in a hurry. It's so incredibly light you might forget it's in your bag when you slip it back in. 

Again, and true to Intel's Evo laptop promise, this Zenbook is up and ready for work almost immediately after you lift its lid (there's an IR camera for fast sign-ins with facial recognition). And it connects to a hotspot or other network instantly. For me, being able to quickly start and stop working is what's most important with an ultraportable like the Zenbook S 13 OLED. That, and being small, light and sturdy, which this Asus nails too. 

The laptop feels great in your hands, partly because of the ceramic-like treatment on its aluminum lid. The lid is stiff also, so flex isn't a concern, and the same can be said about the keyboard deck. The laptop is tested to meet US MIL-STD-810H military standards for durability, Asus says.  

Although there's not much key travel (the body is quite thin, after all), it's an overall comfortable typing experience. There are shortcut keys for screen captures, muting the mic and blocking the camera, as well as one for the MyAsus control center for adjusting everything from fan speed to sound modes to the display's color performance. The laptop's 1080p webcam and mics delivered a good video chat experience. There's intelligent noise cancellation for the mics and a handful of tools to improve video, such as motion tracking and lighting correction to help even out shadows. 

The OLED display is great to work on, with overall excellent color and contrast. Its max brightness tested at 375 nits, although turning on HDR drives peak brightness over 600 nits. Using a Datacolor Spyder X colorimeter for measurements, the display covered 89% of Adobe RGB and 100% DCI-P3 color gamuts. The only thing that's remotely disappointing is that it's not a touchscreen. 

For those times when you want a larger display, there's an HDMI output as well as two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports; they're both on the left side, so you're limited to charging from that side. A combo audio jack and USB-A port are on the right. The laptop's speakers can push out clear audio, aided by Dolby Atmos processing -- fine for video calls and listening to background music.

The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED UX 5304 is a delight to commute and travel with. If you want something lighter than a MacBook Air with a wide color gamut display, good performance and battery life and a smattering of convenient features, it's an easy recommendation.