0:00The ASUS ZenBook lineup has been around
0:02for more than a decade, and it’s no
0:04doubt a household name for Windows
0:06laptops at this point. It often caters
0:08to those who need something for work or
0:10school, assuming you’re still a student,
0:12but want something with a bit more
0:14features and maybe even power. Today,
0:16we’re looking at the 2026 ASUS ZenBook S
0:2016. If you still remember our review of
0:22the ZenBook S 14 last year, there are
0:24quite a few noticeable differences both
0:26inside and out. However, the big
0:29question remains. Is the ZenBook S 16,
0:31well, at least the ZenBook lineup, still
0:34the go-to for users who want more than
0:36an average everyday laptop? Let’s find
0:39out in this review.
0:46The first thing I notice about the 2026
0:49[music] ASUS ZenBook S 16 is the design
0:51of the lid. Gone are the long lines,
0:54instead we find a much more cleaner
0:56look. Somewhat miss the unique design
0:58cue, but we find that the cleaner look
1:00lends to a more premium and professional
1:03feel, especially in this Scandinavian
1:06white color. The only downside is that
1:07it looks a lot more basic. The only
1:09design cue now is just a small ASUS
1:11ZenBook block lettering at the center.
1:13Despite the redesigned lid though, ASUS
1:15still uses the same Ceramic material as
1:18before. Not only is it light, but it
1:21also makes the laptop premium to the
1:23touch. And it’s also quite
1:25resistant. Speaking of resistant, we
1:27also like how smudge resistant the lid
1:29is even when we had sweaty hands. We
1:32didn’t leave any fingerprints when
1:33opening or closing the lid, or even
1:36right now. Although it’s a bit more
1:37subtle, the 2026 ASUS ZenBook S 16 is
1:40also a lot slimmer than before. It only
1:42measures 1.1 cm thick, making it easy to
1:45fit in any kind of bag. Well, assuming
1:48the large dimensions fit the bag. Do
1:50remember it’s still a 16-in laptop.
1:52Still, it’s quite a lightweight laptop
1:54for something that’s 16 in, weighing
1:56only 1.5 kg. For reference, the entire
1:59laptop is made out of metal. No cheap
2:01plastics here. With that, your back will
2:04thank you for carrying a lighter laptop
2:06around should you choose to work
2:09outdoors and touch grass at the same
2:10time. Open up the ZenBook S 16 and we’ll
2:13find the large display, which we’ll get
2:15to in a bit. Instead, let’s focus on the
2:17keyboard and trackpad. It’s not a
2:20full-size keyboard and I find that this
2:22is a missed opportunity from ASUS.
2:24There’s still a lot on the sides of the
2:26keyboard. In our opinion, they could
2:27have added at least a numpad. However,
2:29the upside to this layout is that the
2:31keys don’t feel cramped and there’s a
2:33lot of space where you can rest your
2:34hand and palms. As for the keyboard
2:36itself, it’s soft to the touch. The
2:38chiclet keys themselves are quiet to
2:40barely making a sound when I hit them,
2:42which is great for a quiet, crowded
2:44environment. There’s also decent travel,
2:46which helps improve comfort. I didn’t
2:48have any problems typing up some of the
2:49reviews I’m working on using this
2:51laptop. Even after hours of typing, my
2:53fingers never felt tired. And like most
2:56modern ASUS laptops, the glass trackpad
2:59itself is huge, starting from the bottom
3:01of the keyboard and extending up to the
3:03lower edge of the laptop. It’s smooth to
3:06touch and relatively smudge-resistant,
3:08too, which is perfect for those who are
3:11OC. Not to mention, it features
3:12multi-touch gestures, allowing users to
3:14quickly adjust settings such as
3:16brightness, volume, and media playback.
3:18But yes, no issues with Windows trackpad
3:20gestures here, either, so you can still
3:22use those. Now, despite its large size,
3:25the trackpad has good palm rejection.
3:27Even if users rest their palms on the
3:29trackpad, it won’t interfere when typing
3:31on the keyboard. [music] And what we
3:33like about the ZenBook S 16 is that even
3:35with a slimmer body, there are still a
3:37bunch of ports available for users.
3:39There are two USB Type-C 4.0 Gen 3 ports
3:42on the left side that feature power
3:44delivery and display out, along with an
3:46HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5 mm audio port.
3:50On the right side, there’s a USB A 3.0
3:52port, and thankfully, a full-size SD
3:55card reader, which is slowly
3:57disappearing from most laptops, sadly.
3:59That means creatives no longer need to
4:01bring a separate SD card dongle around
4:03with them should they want to edit
4:04photos on the go. Unfortunately, the
4:06same can’t be said for microSD card
4:08users, but there are adapters. And we’d
4:10rather have a full-size over a micro
4:12anyway. Now, some of you still might
4:15find the slots lacking, especially since
4:17the charging is done via either of the
4:19USB C ports. If that’s the case, we
4:21recommend bringing a USB hub just in
4:23case. Now, moving on to the part of the
4:26laptop we look at the most,
4:28the display. The 16-in screen is
4:30probably one of our favorite features of
4:32the Zenbook S [music] 16 since it uses
4:35ASUS Lumina OLED panel that supports a
4:373K resolution along with a 120 Hz
4:39refresh rate. Oh, did I mention that
4:41this is also a touchscreen, by the way?
4:43It’s a glossy display, but thankfully,
4:45there’s not a lot of glare even when
4:47you’re using it in places with a lot of
4:48light and reflections. But, if there’s
4:50still a lot of light, you will still get
4:52reflections. In addition, ASUS says the
4:54panel has a maximum HDR peak brightness
4:56of 1,000 nits, making it more than
4:58usable outdoors. Since it’s an OLED, the
5:01colors are beautiful, and the blacks are
5:03very deep. This made it perfect for
5:05watching movies on Netflix or other
5:06streaming apps, allowing users to fully
5:09utilize a 3K resolution panel. With the
5:11120 Hz refresh rate, there’s smooth and
5:13fluid animations, too, which is
5:15noticeable even when we’re just playing
5:16with the mouse on the desktop. It’s the
5:18gamers who will benefit from the 120 Hz
5:20display the [music] most. And yes, this
5:22laptop can be used for gaming, but we’ll
5:25delve into that a bit later. As expected
5:27from OLED display, the viewing angles
5:29are great. There is practically no color
5:31shift even when watching from extreme
5:33angles. It also helps that the bezels
5:36are quite thin, giving users more screen
5:38real estate. Users can also adjust
5:40display settings via Dolby settings to
5:43match the mood of whatever they’re
5:44watching. Together with the six-speaker
5:47sound system, watching shows in the
5:49Zenbook S 16 is very enjoyable. Not only
5:52is it loud, but the quality is better
5:54than most laptop speakers we’ve tried.
5:56There’s decent bass while the mids and
5:59highs have clear separations. The
6:01clarity is great, too, and there’s a
6:02decent sound stage assuming you’re
6:04sitting in front of the laptop directly.
6:06The speakers can also be fine-tuned via
6:08the Dolby settings app, but for those
6:10who aren’t audiophiles, you can just
6:12leave it in dynamic and Dolby Atmos will
6:14automatically adjust the EQ for you.
6:16Powering our specific unit of the 2026
6:18ASUS Zenbook S 16 is an AMD Ryzen 9 465
6:23AI processor with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB
6:27of SSD storage. There’s also an AMD XDNA
6:30NPU up to 50 tops. Unfortunately, ASUS
6:33RAM is not upgradeable, meaning it’s
6:35soldered, but 32 GB is more than enough
6:37for most users anyway. There’s no
6:39dedicated GPU, instead there’s only an
6:41AMD Radeon 880M integrated GPU. With
6:44that, users should manage their
6:45expectations when it comes to gaming
6:47performance on this laptop. The Zenbook
6:49isn’t a gaming laptop after all. I mean,
6:52ASUS has their entire ROG lineup for
6:54that, but I digress. Now, for getting
6:56work done, the specs are more than
6:58capable. The Ryzen 9 processor is very
7:00capable for virtually any task we threw
7:02at it. It can handle most of our
7:03productivity apps without any issues.
7:06Multitasking is great on the Zenbook S
7:0816. You could run Chrome with multiple
7:10tabs open along with Photoshop and
7:12Lightroom all at the same time. You
7:14could even throw in Spotify and Discord
7:16and it still runs well. Editing on
7:17Lightroom, Photoshop, or Premiere is a
7:19breeze, too. It didn’t take long to
7:21export photos or 4K videos. And together
7:24with the beautiful OLED display, it was
7:26a pleasure working on the go, especially
7:28as someone who is a creative. Now, while
7:30the Zenbook is made for productivity, we
7:32also tested it to see how it could
7:34handle some games. We started with
7:35Genshin Impact and it was able to run
7:37the game relatively smooth on medium
7:39graphics when just exploring the map.
7:41However, we noticed that there are some
7:42occasional frame rate drops when getting
7:44into battles like running spiral abyss.
7:46Now, for a more graphic intensive
7:47titles, we also ran the new Neverness to
7:50Everness game, and it had a hard time
7:52with this. Even on the lowest settings,
7:54we needed to play in windowed mode in
7:55order for the game to run somewhat
7:57smoothly. Then again, this is expected
7:59considering there’s no dGPU, but that is
8:01best to play lighter titles on this
8:03laptop. At the same time, the Zenbook S
8:0516 has a tendency to heat up when
8:07playing games. We felt it on the sides
8:09of the keyboard and the top portion near
8:11the exhaust. Fortunately, it’s limited
8:13to those areas alone. Of course, we also
8:15ran our usual benchmarks, and you can
8:17check out our scores on the screen right
8:19now.
8:372026 ASUS Zenbook S 16 comes with
8:41Windows 11 out of the box. This being a
8:43Copilot Plus laptop, there’s also
8:45Microsoft Copilot pre-installed. There’s
8:47even a dedicated Copilot button on the
8:49keyboard quickly launch the AI
8:51assistant. There’s also a bunch of
8:52pre-installed ASUS apps that can make
8:54work life easier like MyASUS, Screen
8:56Expert, StoryCube, and GlideX. The one
8:59we use the most is Screen Expert since
9:01it’s always active on the bottom right
9:03corner of the screen. We can quickly
9:05adjust parameters of the Zenbook without
9:07having to fiddle around with the
9:08settings. There’s also the option to
9:10quickly launch apps side by side, which
9:12some users might find useful depending
9:14on their productivity workflow. Not to
9:16mention Microsoft Office Home 2024 comes
9:18pre-installed, too. Powering the 2026
9:21Zenbook S 16 [music] is a large 82 W
9:23hour battery pack, which is huge for a
9:25laptop of this segment. And it’s not
9:28just a brochure figure, too. It actually
9:30lasts quite a long time, more than
9:31[music] enough for an entire day of use.
9:33ASUS claims it has a battery life of 23
9:36hours, and from our experience, they’re
9:38not too far off. For reference, I
9:40started the day using the Zenbook S16
9:42with around 90% battery before arriving
9:44at the UGeek HQ at around 3:00 p.m.
9:47Given how busy we were that day, we
9:49spent the entire afternoon finishing up
9:50written reviews, [music] editing photos,
9:52and doing some web research for future
9:54projects. And by the time I arrived home
9:56at 9:00 p.m., I still had around 69 to
10:0070% battery life left. At first, I was
10:02quite concerned because I forgot to
10:04bring the 68 W charger since I left it
10:06at home. But considering that the
10:07battery barely drained after everything
10:09I did, I was confident battery life
10:11wouldn’t be a big issue with this
10:13laptop. Best of all, it charges via any
10:15of the USB-C ports. [music] So, for
10:17those who don’t want to bring the
10:18charger with them, it’s possible to
10:20charge it via a capable power bank and a
10:22USB-C cable. Charging speeds may vary
10:25due to the max 68 W charging rate
10:27though, so do keep that in mind. Now,
10:28for connectivity, the Zenbook S16
10:30features Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
10:33Overall, there’s a lot of changes ASUS
10:35made to the Zenbook S16 to make
10:38productivity life easier, but it still
10:40remains the familiar feel we’ve come to
10:42love from the Zenbook line. The lid
10:44might have been redesigned, but style is
10:46subjective. What we enjoyed though is
10:48the slimmer design and a relatively
10:50lighter chassis. If anything, our only
10:52concern about the 2026 ASUS Zenbook S16
10:55is the price. We’re not surprised by the
10:57price jump given how expensive computer
10:59parts have become though. But for
11:01reference, at the time we recorded this
11:02video, this laptop retails for 130 4,995
11:06pesos on the ASUS Philippines website.
11:08So, if you’re still using a relatively
11:10new laptop, we wouldn’t recommend
11:12upgrading just yet. But for those who
11:14need to get work done fast and want a
11:16capable laptop for productivity,
11:18creative work, and light gaming, you
11:21definitely can’t go wrong with the 2026
11:23[music] ASUS Zenbook S16. But so far,
11:25what do you guys think of the new ASUS
11:27Zenbook S16? Would you consider
11:29upgrading to this or would you choose a
11:31different laptop entirely? Whatever the
11:33case, share your thoughts in the
11:34comments [music]
11:35below. And of course, if you enjoyed
11:37this video, found it informative, please
11:38do drop a like and subscribe to watch
11:41more. Don’t forget to follow us on our
11:42social media platforms such as Facebook,
11:43Instagram, X, and TikTok. And of course,
11:45visit yugatech.com for the latest tech
11:47news and reviews. Once again, this has
11:49been a say. I’ll see you guys next
11:51review. See?
11:53It’s light. I’ve been holding it for the
11:55entirety of this video.
⚠️ This transcription is auto-generated from YouTube captions. Some text may not be 100% accurate.
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