After their first foray into the AI PC territory just a few months back, ASUS already rolls out an exciting follow-up, this time from their prestigious Zenbook lineup.
The ASUS Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) is the newest ultra lightweight laptop that the brand has to offer. Staying true to the Zenbook S tradition, this device is another slim and stunning powerhouse of a laptop— a harmony of design and performance.
Yet this machine also transcends tradition with superior AI features joining the exciting power-ups in its form and internals.
We recently got our hands on the Zenbook S 14 and we’re excited to share with you our experience. Here are our thoughts on this new Copilot+ PC from ASUS.
Out of The Box
Pulling the mint Zenbook S 14 out of the box, it’s unmistakable that ASUS went extra-premium with this gorgeous laptop.
For starters, this 14-inch Zenbook impressed me right away with its compact size and lightweight body.
It’s just 1.2 kg in weight and 1.1 cm thin so in true Zenbook fashion, it already aces the portability department. And yet the laptop feels sturdy enough and still boasts of military-grade durability.
As for its style, I really like its balance of simplicity and character. The Zumaia Gray color looks great and is complemented by Zenbook’s stylish kintsugi-inspired lines.
But what really makes the design feel even more special is the use of ASUS’ Ceraluminum material. Described as a special aluminum material with ceramic’s rich texture and lightweight nature, it gives the laptop a smudge-free, paper-like feel which I’ve become an instant fan of.
It also comes with the compact 65w USB-C charger and a light gray soft case, ready for on-the-go use fresh from its box.
So if we’re talking style and portability, the Zenbook S 14 easily shines as one of the best-looking lightweight laptops out there.
Stunning Display & Immersive Sound
Opening this slim notebook, the Zenbook S 14 also packs a punch with its 3K ASUS Lumina OLED touch display with up to 120Hz refresh rate.
The ASUS Lumina OLED display’s peak features already make it a stunner, providing crisp details, vivid colors, and deep blacks.
Add the 120Hz refresh rate and the Zenbook S 14 gave me a super smooth and snappy viewing experience.
It’s an immersive Dolby Vision display with 16:10 aspect ratio, 87% screen-to-body ratio, and up to 400 nits SDR and 500 nits HDR peak brightness. It has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, VESA-certified DisplayHDR 500 True Black, and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The display looks perfect in indoor settings even under bright lighting. Outdoors, the glossy screen didn’t have much glare when under enough shade, but I did have to push the brightness level up for the best experience.
As a touch display, it is also very responsive and offers stylus support. It isn’t a hybrid laptop though so a stylus would mostly just be handy for quick and precise gestures or in signing documents.
Even with just your finger, the touch screen is still very convenient and can boost your productivity especially if multitasking.
To complement this top-notch display, the Zenbook S 14 is also equipped with four Harman-Kardon certified Dolby Atmos speakers.
The volume and quality of this quad speaker setup is really good for a laptop this compact. In a quiet home office, it’s already clear and loud at 30% volume. Maxing it out and the sound travels far across the room without losing much crispness.
Overall, watching videos, playing casual games, creating content, and simply working with this device is a delight thanks to its impressive display and speakers.
Larger Touchpad, Comfortable Keyboard
The other half of this ultraportable offers a backlit keyboard paired with a large touchpad.
Typing feels comfortable with its 1.1mm key travel while the clicking is very muffled, even when I’m typing away in a flow state. You wouldn’t be bothering anyone when working in a cafe or co-working space.
Keyboard backlight has three levels of brightness in a cool white color, which makes working in darker environments much easier.
You’ll also see the dedicated Copilot Key next to the left arrow key. This will instantly pull up the Copilot AI chatbot for easy AI access.
Onto the touchpad, it offers a sizable room of 5×3” for your fingers to move around.
This works great with the laptop’s gesture controls. Simply swiping on its sides can control volume, brightness, and video playback. It’s a nice touch for added convenience.
Ports & Connectivity
As laptops get slimmer and lighter, the ports are often compromised, but not with the Zenbook S 14.
On the left side are two Thunderbolt 4 ports with display and power support, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right is a USB Type-A port with up to 10GBPS speed. Along with these ports, the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 complete the laptop’s connectivity specs.
With the Zenbook S 14, you’ll have no problem with compatibility and speed on both wired peripherals and wireless connections.
Superior Power & Performance
Another thing to love about the Zenbook S 14 is the internal power-up tailored to maximize its AI capabilities and overall performance.
It’s equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V, 32 GB LPDDR5x RAM, and 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. With up to 47 TOPS NPU performance, generative AI computing is efficient and lightning fast.
With this chipset, you don’t have to worry about app compatibility issues that often limit ARM-based devices. Casual gaming is also an excellent experience, thanks to the laptop’s Intel Arc Graphics.
To test its power, I played games like Valorant, Hades, Little Nightmares, and Honkai Star Rail. Under Performance Mode, they all ran smoothly even when set to their max quality.
That’s already impressive for a laptop this size. As you can imagine, lighter tasks such as browsing and using productivity tools are a breeze with this machine. Not to mention, the AI capabilities, smart gestures, and touch display can really accelerate your working process.
For cooling, it has dual fans with an ultra-slim vapor chamber and geometric thermal grills between the hinge and the keyboard.
Working for long hours with this device didn’t give me any significant heat-up nor did I get fan noise. Just don’t play heavy games for extended periods of time and the laptop temperature remains generally cool.
The 72Wh battery life also supports long working hours. Doing simple productivity tasks like surfing the internet and typing on Docs, the battery went down by 7% to 8% per hour. The same decrease happened when I was streaming videos (Balanced Mode, 70% brightness, 80% sound).
Meanwhile, playing fast-paced and graphics-heavy games in Performance Mode slashed the battery life by 17% to 18% every 30 minutes.
If you need to save more power when using this laptop, you can also switch to Best Power Efficiency Mode.
Charging it up, the 65w USB-C charger juiced up the laptop by about 43% after 30 minutes, completing the full charge in about 2 hours when not in use. When I was using the device, it was already able to charge about 30% on the 30-minute mark.
The Zenbook S 14 isn’t just any ultra-slim charmer, it also matches form with power and performance. Do your daily tasks and play casual games smoothly while enjoying the benefits of its AI features.
The AI Experience
With Intel’s upgraded chipset and 47 TOPS NPU, the Zenbook S 14 has plenty of power for generative AI tasks. As a Copilot+ PC packed with the bells and whistles of a flagship laptop, it didn’t disappoint.
Opening the built-in AI chatbot with the dedicated Copilot button is quick and convenient. Its responses are snappy, direct to the point, up to date, and in my experience were factually correct.
It also cites sources in its claims. I asked it to list links to articles I can read and videos I can watch, and it delivered without issues. It also works in other languages, Filipino included.
As you can expect, there are limits as to how absurd or NSFW your queries can be so the technology will not be abused.
AI image generation is also fast and efficient, whether it’s a realistic image or in a specific style. I also uploaded my own image, and the AI was able to recognize and explain what was depicted in the photo.
Expect further improvements to this service as Microsoft rolls out updates for Copilot+ starting late November this year.
There are also other built-in AI-powered tools that will make your professional and casual use of this device even more convenient.
The Live Captions feature shows real-time captions on your screen, making calls easier to keep up with and note-taking a breeze. This is also complemented by the laptop’s AI Noise Canceling capability for those dealing with disruptive environments.
The Windows Studio Effects, which can be accessed in the Quick Settings of your Taskbar, also prepares you for video calls anytime. It can blur your background and improve your lighting straight from your laptop, and the changes will automatically apply across different platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and Skype.
If you deal with a lot of photos and videos on your laptop, the ASUS StoryCube app offers a more seamless way to organize these files.
It’s a hub that compiles the files from your cloud and devices, helping you manage them with the help of AI recognition. To ensure that your files remain private, StoryCube’s privacy policy states that your photos and videos will stay on your laptop and will not be uploaded to ASUS or any servers.
Another nifty feature I like is how the Zenbook S 14 detects my presence. Whenever I leave the laptop, it goes into Sleep Mode and then wakes up when I get back, even before I touch the device. The FHD Camera’s IR Function will then let me in with its Windows Hello Support.
So, for the sophisticated users wanting to harness the power of AI in a laptop, the Zenbook S 14 delivers what you’re looking for and more.
Our Verdict: The Muse of Today’s AI PCs
The ASUS Zenbook S 14 brings together all the things one could want in a modern laptop: a luxurious look, peak portability, outstanding OLED display, and Intel’s latest chip supercharging its AI capabilities.
Some may find the price steep but for the creatives and professionals who seek the best that money can get in both design and performance, I can see why this ultraportable laptop is a worthy investment and the superior choice.
You can now get the ASUS Zenbook S 14 for P109,995 bundled with a lifetime Office Home 2024, 1-year Microsoft 365 Basic subscription, and 1-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
Your purchase also provides peace of mind with the free ASUS 4A Quality and Service Package, which includes a 2-year international warranty.
If you’re ready for the ASUS Zenbook S 14 experience, you can get your hands on one today through these stores.
Quick Specs
| Display | 3K ASUS Lumina OLED touch display |
| Processor | Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 258V |
| Graphics | Intel Arc Graphics |
| Neural Processor | Intel AI Boost NPU |
| Memory | 32GB LPDDR5X |
| Storage | 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home |
| Battery | 72WHrs, 2S2P, 4-cell Li-ion |
| Dimensions | 31.03 x 21.47 x 1.19 ~ 1.29 cm |
| Weight | 1.2 kg |
| Ports | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (up to 10 Gbps data speed) 2x Thunderbolt 4 with display and power support (up to 40 Gbps data speed) 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack |
| Material | All-metal chassis with ASUS’ Ceraluminum material |
| Bundle | Laptop sleeve Office Home 2024 (lifetime) 1-year Microsoft 365 Basic 1-month Adobe CC ASUS 4A Quality and Service Package (2-year international warranty) |
| Price | P109,995 |
