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00:00This is the brand-new ASUS ZenBook S13 OLED. I'm not gonna say thin-credible,
00:06that was in ASUS's marketing materials, I'm not saying it, but it is pretty thin
00:10and light. Now last year's ZenBook S13 OLED was really popular, loads of you guys
00:14watched that video, and this is, well, it's a bit different. They've prioritized
00:18portability and sustainability over performance. The laptop's eco
00:22credentials are clearly a big priority for ASUS and it's the most
00:25environmentally friendly ZenBook they've ever made. From the packaging to the
00:29materials, this incredible ceramic plasma lid which has this really nice kind of
00:34like papery stone texture, and I love this design, really really cool, and also
00:39it looks bloody good as well. The two most important things for an ultrabook,
00:43thinness and lightness. I'm not sure they're words, but this checks both those boxes.
00:48We're talking just one kilogram on scales, which for my American friends is
00:522.2 pounds, and also when closed it's just 10.9 millimeters thick, which is
00:58significantly slimmer considering last year's model was 14.9 millimeters. It's
01:02around 30% thinner. And somehow they've also squeezed in a USB 3.2 Type-A, audio
01:08combo jack, and on the other side we've got two Thunderbolt 4s and an HDMI 2.1.
01:14This actually comes in two different colors. This is actually the basalt gray
01:18model, but it does also come in a very curious ponder blue version. Hmm. In terms
01:24of the specs we have a 13-inch 2.8K OLED display. It is only 60 Hertz, which
01:30is one of my main criticisms of the laptop, which is a bit of a shame, but
01:34otherwise it is an absolutely gorgeous display. HDR 500 true black certified,
01:39Dolby Vision, Pantone validated, 16 by 10 display with some really nice thin
01:44bezels. They call it their nano edge display. On the inside we've actually
01:48gone from AMD last year back to Intel. We have 13th Gen U-series chips in here.
01:53This is the i7-1355U, I believe. There's also an i5 variant, but unlike regular
02:0015 watt versions of this chip, Asus have actually been able to reduce some of the
02:04component size inside. So they've improved the thermal efficiency and so
02:08they've actually been able to boost that CPU wattage from 15 up to 20 watts. And
02:12they've doubled the RAM to 32 gigs. It's also faster and we also get up to a 1TB
02:17PCIe 4 SSD, which you can upgrade yourself. But, and there is a big but here
02:22because on the whole, performance is actually a step down versus last year,
02:26which is something we don't see very often. This new 13th Gen Intel chip does
02:30outperform last year's Ryzen 7 in single-core performance, but in multi-core
02:34and graphics it falls behind. Perhaps if they've been able to squeeze in a P-series
02:39chip like we get in the new and similarly light and super thin LG Grams,
02:43or indeed if Intel's integrated Xe chips were just a little bit more powerful,
02:47then this would have fared better. But with the new ZenBook 13 SOLED we have
02:51here, ASUS has kind of traded performance for portability. I mean this is a good
02:56quarter thinner than last year's model, so it may not be the fastest laptop in
03:00the world, but it's still plenty quick enough for everyday tasks like Chrome,
03:03Office, Netflix, photo and a bit of light video editing, even a spot of casual
03:07gaming. Plus you do always have the option of streaming games via GeForce
03:10Now or Xbox Cloud and it does support the latest Wi-Fi 6e. Also bear in mind
03:15that at this price point this goes directly up against the likes of the
03:18MacBook Air with the M2, which on the whole is more powerful and also being
03:22fanless means it's completely silent, but with this under more moderate or even
03:26intense workloads the fans do wear off. It's quite a high-pitched fan noise
03:30which can get a bit distracting. To combat the fan noise you can jump into
03:34the MyASUS app and set it to the whisper profile which caps the CPU to 12 watts
03:39versus 15 in standard up to 35 in performance mode. Now with this 2.8K
03:44resolution which is 2880 by 1800 so it's like QHD+, it's really really sharp.
03:49We're talking 255 pixels per inch which is noticeably sharper than say the
03:54MacBook Air with its 225 PPI, although if you do have this native 100% scaling
04:00everything is absolutely tiny on the Windows 11 desktop, so most of the time
04:04I've been running this at 200% scaling. This screen is absolutely gorgeous and
04:08also impressively color accurate which puts it pretty close to pro level
04:12accuracy which is ideal for your color editing. You can also switch between
04:16different color profiles and altogether this is one of the best quality OLED
04:19screens you can get, although it's still not really that much different from last
04:23year's model. But still with the 550 nits of brightness, the DisplayHCR 500 True
04:28Black and also the fantastic looking Dolby Vision it's nearly perfect. 90 or
04:33120 Hertz which is becoming more standard these days and maybe a
04:36touchscreen would have been the icing on the cake. Battery life is still excellent
04:41though and a decent step up actually over last year. Three hours of YouTube at
04:4450% brightness used 25% of the battery so we're looking at about 12 to 13 hours of
04:49video streaming and I'd say about 11 hours of general everyday use. So this
04:54will easily get you through a day and a half at the office but as always it all
04:57depends on how you use it. The ZenBook does also come bundled with this 65 watt
05:01fast charger and a half hour top-up will get you just shy of 50%. I really do
05:06appreciate how much effort Asus has gone to making this a more sustainable and
05:09eco-friendly laptop. It's not something I get to talk about very often with
05:13laptops or any tech product really and it is important so it's great they've
05:16gone the extra mile with this. The packaging is FFC mix certified which
05:20means it's from responsibly managed forests and also a hundred percent
05:23recyclable or compostable. The magnesium aluminium alloy for the keyboard cover,
05:27the chassis and the lid is all made from recycled materials. Even this fancy
05:31ceramic aluminium design for the lid is created using just water so it's a more
05:35eco-friendly manufacturing process. And this stone-like texture it leaves is
05:39actually unique to each model. But it's not just a pretty face because this is
05:43actually a more durable design as well with increased wear resistance, corrosion
05:47protection and together with the increased energy efficiency it actually
05:50gives this ZenBook a longer lifespan which of course is equally important to
05:53reducing its carbon footprint. The Ergo lift hinge makes a return so as you open
05:58it up you can see it lifts up the keyboard a little bit so we've got more
06:01room underneath for better air circulation and also it raises the
06:04typing position which I do think is a little bit more comfortable and again
06:07like last year you can push this all the way back to 180 degrees it will lie
06:11flat which gives you a little bit more flexibility for using this on your lap
06:14or perhaps on a laptop stand. Oh hi! This is actually being recorded on the webcam
06:20it's a big upgrade over last year's 720p resolution it's now 1080p and also we
06:25have some nice software improvements like 3d noise reductions and it's even
06:29more impressive that they've squeezed this webcam system into a lid that's
06:32actually 30% thinner than last year. Isn't that cool Pete? There you have it.
06:39Okay let's wrap up. Putting last year's model to one side this is still a
06:43terrific thin and light laptop. Solid performance especially single core, a
06:47lovely color accurate screen although a high refresh would have been nice, good
06:51range of ports, a much improved battery life and the headline for this year
06:54really is a much more sustainable design. Is it better than last year's model? Well
06:59no but it's kind of like a different proposition. They should have just called
07:03it the ZenBook SE Co or maybe drop the S from the naming or something because
07:06it's just a bit of a different kind of laptop. You won't be disappointed if you
07:09pick one of these up I just had hoped for a little bit more. So if you do fancy
07:13checking this out I will leave a link in the description below and if you've got
07:16any questions at all let me know in the comments. Thank you so much for watching
07:18guys. If you did enjoy this video a like and subscribe would be very much
07:22appreciated and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chat.