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  • - Hey guys, this is Austin.

  • Take one look at the ASUS ZenBook S13,

  • and you will see that there is a lot going for it.

  • I want to give a real shout-out to ASUS

  • for hooking us up with the ZenBook a little bit early.

  • This won't be going on sale until around March or so,

  • so we have a slightly pre-production unit,

  • but beyond that, this thing looks dope.

  • This is a 97% screen-to-body ratio,

  • which means that you're essentially getting

  • a 14-inch screen in a 13-inch laptop size.

  • Now the way they do this

  • is with very thin bezels on the sides

  • as well as a little bit of a anti-notch?

  • A reverse notch?

  • You got a little tab, maybe.

  • Instead of moving the webcam down below the screen

  • or onto the keyboard, this actually seems to be

  • a pretty decent approach.

  • It gives you a little bit of something to grab

  • when you're opening up the laptop,

  • and it means that you still do have a decent-quality webcam.

  • Don't get me wrong, it's not amazing with a 720p resolution,

  • but this is so much better then if it was like this.

  • The other key to this is the bottom bezel.

  • It's there but you just can't see it,

  • so that's thanks to the Ergolift hinge.

  • So when you actually open up the laptop,

  • what happens is is that it slightly elevates the keyboard,

  • and that has a couple of advantages

  • including making it a little bit more comfortable

  • to type on, giving you more cooling,

  • and importantly, totally making it look like

  • there's not a bottom bezel of the screen at all.

  • It's a really clever piece of technology,

  • and engineering, and it's just smart.

  • It also helps that this is a solid display.

  • Now it's not a touchscreen, it is only 1080p resolution,

  • but honestly, I prefer that for battery life,

  • and importantly, the panel itself is very high quality.

  • It's very accurate and it's one of

  • the brightest laptop displays we've ever tested.

  • Bezel-less smartphones have kinda taken over,

  • and laptops are starting to take that trend,

  • but what's cool about this

  • is that it actually makes a big difference, right?

  • I mean, you're getting a legitimately bigger screen

  • in a chassis which is just as small

  • as a lot of the other 13-inch laptops

  • that we've been using the last few years.

  • It's one of those things where there's no real downside,

  • there's no real gimmicks here.

  • It's just some smart ideas and a cool way of making a laptop

  • just that little bit much better.

  • That brings us to the second claim to fame

  • for the ZenBook S.

  • This is the world's thinnest laptop with dedicated graphics,

  • and, yeah, that's pretty thin, 13 millimeters.

  • The NVIDIA MX150 inside

  • is hardly the most powerful GPU in the world,

  • but it is a huge step up over integrated graphics.

  • This is enough power to play most games

  • as long as you don't mind turning down

  • the settings a little bit.

  • So, for example, here in Fortnite,

  • I've got it at 720p Medium.

  • We're able to get a pretty consistent

  • 50 to 60 frames per second.

  • The only issue is is that because

  • this is so much power in such a thin light laptop,

  • it means that it does run a little bit warm

  • especially on the keyboard,

  • and the fans, they can spin up a little bit.

  • It's not crazy loud, but it's definitely much louder

  • than most Ultrabooks.

  • Open it up, and we see that's act, wow, okay.

  • So, first of all, it has a dual fan setup,

  • which does make sense considering we do have

  • not only a CPU but we also have a GPU.

  • Also, I just realized, this says Unstoppable.

  • What are they, like, trying to keep JerryRigEverything out?

  • (cheesy pop music)

  • So it does look like you can swap out the NVMe SSD,

  • but what's really impressive is just how big of a battery

  • they were able to fit.

  • This is a full 50 watt hours.

  • So usually when you add a GPU to a laptop,

  • it means that not only is it pulling more power

  • so you need that bigger battery,

  • but on top of that, there's less room for an actual battery

  • as far as the physical space.

  • You've gotta add room for the cooling, the GPU,

  • but here they've got pretty much a full size cell,

  • and you've got the power to back it up.

  • So in addition to the MX150,

  • you have a Whiskey Lake 8th-Generation Core i5 or Core i7.

  • You also have up to 16 gigs of RAM

  • and all the way up to a one terabyte PCIe SSD.

  • Build quality is solid.

  • So not only is the keyboard deck very rigid,

  • but even the screen really doesn't have any flex to it.

  • A big reason for that is because

  • unlike most other laptops out there,

  • this starts life as a single block of aluminum

  • which is then CNC milled down to get what you see here.

  • That's usually reserved for very expensive laptops

  • such as Razer as well as Apple options,

  • so it's nice to see on a ZenBook,

  • and I think it's probably part of the reason why

  • they're able to get so much power

  • into such a small and thin form factor.

  • The fundamentals are all here.

  • The keyboard feels great thanks to the Ergolift design.

  • The touchpad is a little bit on the small side,

  • but it works and it does have a fingerprint sensor,

  • and you have a decent selection of ports.

  • No Thunderbolt 3, but you do have two USB-C,

  • a micro SD card reader as well as a full-size USB-A.

  • I'm really impressed with the ZenBook S.

  • Not only is the bezel-less display nice,

  • but more importantly for me,

  • you're getting a lot of performance here

  • without sacrificing the form factor.

  • I don't have to carry around a heavier laptop

  • to have to my GPU as well as have my 14-inch screen.

  • Now the only downside here

  • is that price is not announced yet,

  • so as long as this is reasonably priced,

  • I think that they've definitely got a winner here.

- Hey guys, this is Austin.

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