Asus ZenBook S14 review: Stylish design, good performance

Asus is back with a new offering, the Intel-powered Asus ZenBook S14. It is a premium ultra-thin laptop that aims to deliver both style and performance for users who need a sleek, lightweight device for daily tasks. Priced at Rs 1,42,990 in India, it comes with a 3K OLED display, an option for an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, a quad-speaker system, an ultra-slim form factor, and more. Sounds good on paper, but is it really worth the money? Let’s find out in this review.
The Asus ZenBook S14 stands out with its premium design, which has become a hallmark of the ZenBook series. The laptop’s minimalistic and silver paint job (along with its aluminium and ceramic build) adds a sophisticated touch to its aesthetics.
It is not just about looks, though. The Asus ZenBook S14 is lightweight at just 1.2kg, making it highly portable and good for users on the go. The build quality is solid, and the fact that you can open the lid with one hand speaks to the well-thought-out design. Despite its thinness, the laptop feels sturdy with minimal lid wobble.
Asus has included a decent selection of ports, such as 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS, and a 3.5mm audio jack. However, one downside is the absence of a fingerprint biometrics sensor for easy unlocking. This means you have to type in the password each time to access the laptop.
The 14-inch 3K OLED 120Hz touchscreen of the new Asus laptop is a visual treat, offering vibrant colours and minimal bezels. With a brightness of 400nits (peaking at 500nits in HDR mode), the display looks attractive when indoors. However, its glossy finish makes it highly reflective in bright environments or outdoors. It would be great to see companies offering higher brightness support for a better viewing experience.
Typing on the ZenBook S14 is a pleasant experience. Despite its ultra-thin profile, the keyboard deck remains solid, with little to no flex under pressure. The keys themselves offer shallow travel but provide snappy feedback, making for a comfortable typing experience. I found that I could type quickly and accurately on the ZenBook S14, thanks to its well-designed keyboard. Just like all the recent Asus laptops, you will see a Copilot key on this device as well. This helped me in accessing the service to quickly create AI images.
The unit that we got for review is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 chip, coupled with 32GB RAM. It is priced at Rs 1,49,990. While it performs well in the real world, it falls behind some competitors in benchmark tests. It scored 10,676 on Geekbench and 477 on Cinebench. These numbers are lower than what you would expect from rivals like the MacBook Air M3 or HP Spectre x360 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H). Even laptops using Snapdragon X chips, such as the Asus VivoBook 14 OLED and Dell Latitude 7455, outperformed this Intel-based model on both benchmarking platforms.
However, in real-world usage, the ZenBook S14 is smooth and capable. Even with 40 tabs open on Chrome, there were no crashes. The laptop does not heat up even after long usage hours. You can also edit heavy images without any issue. That said, it is not a gaming machine by any means, but it can handle casual gaming. The laptop performs well in everyday tasks like browsing, photo editing, and content creation, though its multi-core performance leaves room for improvement.
Additionally, its battery life is decent. In my experience, the laptop lost 50 per cent of its battery in 5 hours of use, which included writing, image editing, browsing, and watching a few videos. This translates to around 10 hours of battery life with average usage, but expect it to drain faster if you’re doing more intensive tasks like watching movies. Overall, it offers a respectable battery for a workday.
The 1080p camera does a decent job for video calls with passable quality. It is a bit disappointing that Asus didn’t include a privacy shutter, a feature many users now expect.
The audio system, however, is more impressive. The ZenBook S14 features four built-in speakers, certified by Harman Kardon and supporting Dolby Atmos. Despite the laptop’s compact size, the sound quality is surprisingly good. It can produce a clear and full sound, with a bit of bass.
The Asus ZenBook S14 is a great option for those who need a stylish laptop with solid display quality and good general performance. However, the lack of fingerprint biometrics and an average camera may also be drawbacks for some users. Overall, you are getting a good laptop, but I would recommend you buy it during festive sales when its price is lower. If you want faster performance and solid battery life, you can consider buying the Snapdragon X Elite-powered Asus VivoBook 15 OLED laptop (Rs 1,24,990) or MacBook Air M3 (Rs 1,14,900).