ASUS Zenbook S 16 (UM5606W) Review – Taking AI Laptop with Balanced Performance to the point

We all do know that AI laptop has been around for quite some time in the tech space, whether this comes from AMD or the other competitors, but recently AMD has been taking AI laptop to the mainstream towards the serious manner, and the latest ASUS Zenbook S 16 is one of the review unit that we receive recently for this review.

So what is this new AMD processor in the Zenbook S 16 all about ? And who is this for ?

The Ryzen AI 300 series is one of latest AMD mobile processor line up known as ‘Strix Point’ that is pretty much targeted towards generative AI tools apps for example that could accelerate faster over the built in NPU in the processor. Apart from that it is also capable of gaming with the integrated Radeon™ 800M graphics that could drive eSports games at fast framerates. Lastly its the power efficiency that can last for over 8 hours if you are just solely using it under battery power on general tasks like spreadsheets or minor graphic editing, multimedia consumption or streaming just to name a few. Basically you can treat it as a segment that pretty much targeted to users that wanted to accomplish most task outdoors mostly and indoors with power plugged in when you needed more performance, an ideal laptop for the creative ones and the power user alike.

Design

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 marks a new fresh coat of design in terms of materials used in a laptop, and this time around they are fusing high tech ceramic and aluminum material which they called the Ceraluminum, the result is beautiful, yet subtle ceramic feel with nature-inspired colors. The laptop is pretty lightweight too at 1.5KG and slimness retains at 1.1cm only. The feel of the laptop surface remains smooth and elegant remains that does not look like a business laptop, but more of a creator’s laptop representation. Of course the ASUS Zenbook S 16 is also US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard to ensure better resistance against light drops.

Going over to the keyboard, it is a chiclet style keyboard with white LED that shines over, so no fancy RGB over there and with key travel of 1.1mm. Of course being an AI laptop, the CoPilot key is there also for easy access over to the app to execute questions or just to generate an image via AI. Now the Trackpad is large and also comfortable to tap on. The sides of the trackpad also has dedicated gesture for controlling screen brightness and volume.

Finally on the top of the screen, which is also a touchscreen (more on that later), there is a 1080P webcam that also supports Windows Hello for unlocking the login screen. Moving to the I/O, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 has a good majority of port accessibility as below.

1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
2x USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C support display / power delivery
1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS
1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
SD 4.0 card reader

To me this is also further can be expanded if you have a USB hub, and should you wanted to expand to more displays, you can do that as well turning it to a pretty nifty desktop replacement.

Display & Audio

Display wise, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 houses a high resolution at 3K, and it is a multi touch screen display that is able to reach 500nits peak brightness with HDR turned on. Despite it’s brightness, the laptop is well equipped with up to 120hz refresh rate and Pantone Validated, along with 100% DCI-P3 color gamut that gives an impressive color accurate display along with auto dimming when you are away from the screen. The display is glossy, so sometimes working with the laptop over bright shining sun may not be suitable however for indoors or area, darker areas or with proper brightness around, the display is performing exceptionally well with it.

Included is the ASUS Pen SA203H which is a stylus that supports palm rejection, features 4096-level pressure sensitivity to create the fine lines and brush strokes. There is also dedicated button for shortcuts and two side buttons for mouse click and erase which is great for graphic designers and content creators alike. The ASUS Pen is compatible and compliant with Windows Paint and Adobe Creative Suite.

Towards the Audio, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 did not disappoint either, there is actually six speakers surrounding the laptop and all of it is driven with Harmon/Kardon, along with customization and tuning that can be done via MyASUS app and Dolby app. All I can say is perhaps on a laptop that such slimness and still be able to fit in so many speakers, this is amazing and the same can be can be said over towards the audio quality with good soundstage delivery and clarity as well. If you are an audio lover, this is one portion you can definitely appreciate.

Performance and Software

Under the hood, the ASUS Zenbook S 16 comes with the latest AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 Processor with Radeon™ 890M Graphics, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM running at 7500MT/s and 1TB of NVME 4.0 storage. The only part where you can replace and expand is the NVME storage and recovery image can be downloaded by accessing the laptop UEFI interface.

It seems like there isn’t any unnecessary software installed, except for the basic Windows 11 setup, Microsoft Office 2021, MyASUS App, and GlideX. MyASUS App acts as a central hub for monitoring and managing your laptop, offering features such as checking warranty information, system details, power settings, and audio configurations. GlideX enables users to mirror or expand their screen onto a mobile device, including phones, and also allows for file transfers. Since this is a non ROG series, so there is no Armory Crate, but if you plug in any ROG based accessories, you still can install it and configure your external devices.

Based on my own experience, the 78Wh battery can provide around 8 hours of usage for tasks like work, streaming, music, and browsing. Recharging with the 65W USB C adaptor takes about 2 hours to reach full charge. When it comes to gaming on the laptop, it can run comfortably well at 60FPS or more on games like Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone, TMNT, and SOTTR. The Radeon 890M graphics card can handle all eSports and some AAA titles with reasonable framerates, just ensure to adjust your settings for optimal performance, and should you want more, enabling FSR on games that have such option will increase the framerate even further. If you are keen on some video editing, generative AI tasks, this laptop can render and do the job well.

Benchmarks result

Gaming performance benchmark (1080P low with FSR Performance) in average FPS

This time around, we will be including some of the AI based test bench on Amuse, which serve as a good case where the ASUS Zenbook S 16 is able to generate eight AI images within 40 seconds, and this is thanks to the inclusion of the NPU in the APU. Another strong point coming out of it its the gaming performance which is comfortably good on some of the current games tested.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 is one incredible AI Laptop workhorse that brings in better AI capabilities that works with several apps and this will just expand further with developers bringing their applications and games compatible with Ryzen AI. Apart from that, the Laptop design and material refresh certainly brings some great appeal to it and from the performance standpoint, this is a portable workhorse and entertainment laptop that one can carry with the mobile computing power that you can work and game on anytime. The price could be on the higher side, but if you need something that can run though everything for almost the whole day on mobility and efficient computing, this could be one laptop for you.

The ASUS Zenbook S16 is now available worldwide and in Malaysia, it will be priced at RM7999 and it is available throughout all ASUS authorized local stores and online marketplace nationwide. Click here to get more information about it.