Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED review: A stunning OLED laptop with incredible battery life

Until recently, if you were shopping for a Windows laptop, you could either pick a thin-and-light laptop or one with great battery life. It was only with the Qualcomm X Elite chip that Windows laptops started to rival M-series-sporting Macs on both counts. Not to be outdone, Intel’s response is in the form of the Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) chips, and the Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED is among the first to be powered by Intel’s latest. 

Crafted out of what Asus calls ceraluminum (a portmanteau for ceramic aluminum), the paper-like texture on the lid is meant to withstand scratches and still look slick, while the chassis exhibits minimal flex and wobble and meets the demanding MIL-STD 810H military standard for durability and reliability. Despite weighing just 1.2kg and coming in at a 1.2cm thickness, Asus has managed to add an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack, plus you get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity.

The highlight is the gorgeous edge-to-edge 14-inch OLED touchscreen with a 3K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Expectedly, you get deep contrast levels, vivid colors and buttery smooth action, and support for HDR and Dolby Vision but the average 400 nits brightness levels and glossy screen means that working outdoors is not ideal. Used indoors and in conjunction with the rather impressive four speaker setup, the S14 is great for watching streaming content. If anything, the only knock on the design is the chicklet-style keyboard, which feels a wee bit cramped and offers lesser travel, one of the tradeoffs of having such a slim chassis. The touchpad offers a satisfyingly tactile click along with gesture support.

With Lunar Lake, Intel has rethought its laptop CPU approach, fusing in the memory directly into the package to better communicate with the processor, graphics and neural processing unit (for AI tasks) – however, this does mean that you’ll need to pick between the 16GB and 32GB variant (Rs. 1,49,990) at purchase, with no possibility of upgrading RAM later.

Performance-wise, the chipset delivers adequately for everyday tasks, only running hot during gaming or while running benchmark tests. Where it truly impresses is the strides in longevity – you can easily manage a 10-12 workday (if not more) on the included 72Wh cell, with none of the battery anxiety that plagued Intel chips of the past. Also, almost zero battery drain with the lid closed. Charging via the bundled 65W fast charger is speedy too. 

Slick design, gorgeous audio and visuals, acceptable everyday performance and exceptional battery life, all in a thin-and-light package - Intel ultrabooks have a new champ in the Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED.

Rating:8/10 Price: Rs. 1,34,990 onwards