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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So Asus makes the ZenBook line. They have big ones,
00:07they have small ones, and this is their latest thin and light ultrabook. It's the S13, and
00:12what makes this device special is the very thin bezels. So this device has what I think
00:18are the thinnest bezels on an ultrabook like this, and they've done it to fit a relatively
00:22large screen on a smaller chassis. So this is a 13.9 inch screen on a chassis that would
00:27traditionally only hold a 13 inch screen, so it's a bigger screen for a smaller footprint.
00:31And in doing so, they've been forced to make this notch or hump thing at the top of the
00:36screen. Now for most people, they're going to look at this notch or hump and it looks
00:40weird, right? This is not how normal laptops are built. So when I first saw this thing
00:44in pictures at CS, I was like, that's weird, right? I don't know if I love this design,
00:48but having used this for a little while, I don't find it that offensive. Like when you
00:51have it closed, it serves as a little grip or some kind of tab to lift the screen and
00:56it works, but it's weird because there's a protrusion on the device and it's just most
01:01devices like most laptops don't have protrusions like this, but I appreciate what they're trying
01:05to do. Now, the reason why they have this protrusion is because they had to house the
01:09camera at the top of the screen and they've done it in a way that looks reasonably nice,
01:13but it is strange to have a protrusion at the top of a laptop screen. Now the display
01:17itself is quite nice. It's a 1080p screen, color accurate, very bright, 400 nits. It's
01:22brighter than a lot of other 1080p screens I've used in the ultrabook market. And because
01:26of the hinge, it almost hides the bottom bezel completely and it gives you a very clean
01:29looking visual. The port selection is okay. There's two USB-C, one USB-A. The USB-Cs do
01:35not support Thunderbolt 3, which is a bit of a shame. There's micro SD and a headphone
01:39jack. There's one thing that I like about this Zenbook, which other older Zenbooks don't
01:43have. It's the fact that they include a USB-C charger. All the older Zenbooks have used
01:48their barrel plugs, which I honestly hate for 2018 and 2019. They finally switched over
01:52to a regular USB-C, like universal charging, and that's pretty nice. Okay, keyboard trackpad.
02:00It lifts the back of the device. They call it Ergolift. Like when you lift it up, it's
02:04got this tilt. Some people hate this. Some people really like it. Personally, I find
02:08it enjoyable, the tilt. It's very slight. I know a lot of people are like, hey, you
02:12know, when you have tilted keyboards, it's super annoying. It gives you carpal tunnel.
02:15It's such a slight tilt. It's probably like two, three degrees. It's very slight and I
02:20think for most people, they will enjoy it, but it's something that you should probably
02:22try in a store if you can before you kind of commit to this keyboard, but the actual
02:26typing experience is good. Good layout, nice and spacious. The keystrokes are a little
02:31bit softer, like the mechanism that they're using to bounce the key back up could be a
02:35little bit stiffer, but I think most people get used to this really easily. Now, the trackpad
02:40has Windows Precision Drivers. It's a nice trackpad, but they have this option where
02:44you can get a illuminated keypad on the trackpad. Now, it looks really cool in pictures and
02:50videos, but having used it on other devices that they make, it's not as useful as you
02:55might think. So the reason why you would want a number pad in the first place is for speed
02:59of numerical inputs, right? You'd think that by pressing the numbers, it'd be easier than
03:03using the numbers at the top of the keyboard. And in theory, it would be. The problem is
03:08that there's no tactile feedback when you press the numbers on the trackpad and there's
03:12a bit of input lag when you press it. So it's cool in theory, but in its current state,
03:18at least the last version that I tried, it's pretty mediocre. It's really cool looking,
03:22but like I said in the previous video, don't purchase this device just for that numerical
03:27light-up pad. Okay, performance. The CPU on this thing is the 8th Gen Whiskey Lake. It
03:32turbos a little bit faster than the previous generation, but it's still an 8th Gen CPU
03:35and it's still a 4-core CPU. The GPU in here is an MX150. Now, this particular unit, I
03:41believe, is running a 25-watt version. It clocks pretty fast and the 3DMark scores are
03:45in line with the 25-watt version, but this is an engineering sample, so I'm not sure
03:49how the retail units will play out. But despite the MX150 with a pretty powerful CPU, there
03:56is a relatively large problem on this device and it's the thermals. So, this device has
04:02two fans and when it's idle, it's pretty much silent, which is great, but even when it's
04:06running benchmarks, it's still very quiet and it shouldn't be because the processor
04:10in here, both the CPU and the GPU, are capable of pushing out a lot of performance and a
04:15lot of heat. The thing is, I ran some fan control on this, so I ran some manual fan
04:19control software, and the fans can get quite loud, and when they do, thermals are great.
04:24The problem is, in its current state, there's no way to control those fans through Asus's
04:28software suite. They actually don't have any kind of manual fan control. And I get it,
04:32it's a ZenBook, it's not like a gaming device, but it's capable of pushing out decent frame
04:36rates in games. But because of the thermal situation this is put in, it can't. Now, I'm
04:41not sure if Asus is doing this because they don't want it to be too loud for the user
04:44or they don't want it too complicated to have the user switch between fan profiles
04:48and stuff, but there are a lot of users, and I know some of you guys are like, you would
04:52use something like this. You want a device that has an MX150 and a quad-core CPU that
04:57can play games a little bit on the side, but this is so gimped because of the fans. Inside
05:02there, you're also seeing a replaceable NVMe, but the RAM and the Wi-Fi card are built on
05:07board. It's a 50 watt-hour battery, got a little bit less than 7 hours of battery life
05:11with the screen at 250 nits. Now, this is an engineering sample, I feel like the retail
05:15version will probably tweak that a little bit better, but in its current state, a little
05:19bit less than 7 hours. Speakers are good, they're not amazingly positioned, they're
05:23on the bottom, and because of the Ergolift, there's this chamber of emptiness underneath
05:27that the sound kind of reverbs a little bit. It's reasonably loud, but it's not super clean
05:31audio. Now, a device like this, if you're interested in buying one, the pricing I'm
05:35not sure yet. I'm imagining it's going to be around $1000 for base, like that's always
05:39where the Zenbooks, the 13 and 14-inch Zenbooks kind of start. If you're interested in buying
05:44this, you're probably looking at stuff like the XPS 13 or the Razer Blade Stealth, and
05:48those are all great devices. The advantage here is, without a doubt, the aesthetic. Like
05:53that super thin bezel is something that's quite unique to this, but it's hard to recommend
05:57one of these over another. They're all really good. This hump, I think most people just
06:02kind of get used to it. I don't think that this is like, it may look strange at first,
06:05but once you own it, I think most people will be like, it looks fine. The device on
06:09the whole, great hardware. I just wish there was some kind of software for fan control
06:13so that for users who really want that extra kick out of their system, that they could
06:16get it, but in its current form, you can't. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs
06:21if you liked it, subs if you loved it. See you guys next time.