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Asus ZenBook S (UX391UA)

 & Eric Grevstad Contributing Editor

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

Meet the Asus ZenBook S

The Asus Zenbook S's slimness, screen, and keyboard are all impressive. It looks gorgeous, and it's fairly priced, too.

Ultra-Slim Stunner

With its radiant "Deep Dive Blue" color and rose-gold accents, the ZenBook S exudes understated class. Asus bundles a nifty carry sleeve with the machine.

All the Trimmings

The Asus logo centered in the lid, a thin stripe around the edges, and the keyboard lettering are all tastefully done in gold. The key backlighting matches the gold hue, too.

The ErgoLift Hinge

What Asus calls an "ErgoLift hinge" is slightly forward of the rear edge. I thought the tilted keyboard would be a gimmick when I first opened the ZenBook S, but soon pronounced it, perhaps, the best in the ultrabook segment.

A Comfortable Type

The hinge enables the keyboard to tilt at a 5.5-degree angle for comfortable typing. The touchpad glides and taps smoothly and has a fingerprint reader in the corner for Windows Hello logins.

The Speakers

The speakers on the laptop's bottom front produce accurate sound complete with a small thump of bass, but they aren't loud enough to fill a room. Even with the volume turned up to 100, they're weaker than other laptops' outputs.

Lacks Standard Ports

On the right side, you'll find two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports, plus an audio jack. (The body just doesn't have the thickness for the usual port fare.)

Same Deal on the Left Side

On the left side, you'll find one USB Type-C port, which you'll use for charging the laptop with the supplied AC adapter. You can also use it (or the other Type-Cs) with USB Type-A and HDMI dongles Asus bundles in the box.

About Our Expert

Eric Grevstad

Eric Grevstad

Contributing Editor

My Experience

I was picked to write PCMag's 40th Anniversary "Most Influential PCs" feature because I'm the geezer who remembers them all—I worked on TRS-80 and Apple II monthlies starting in 1982 and served as editor of Computer Shopper when it was a 700-page monthly rivaled only by Brides as America's fattest magazine. I was later the editor in chief of Home Office Computing, a magazine about using tech to work from home two decades before a pandemic made it standard practice. Even in semi-retirement, I can't stop playing with toys and telling people what gear to buy.

The Technology I Use

I wish I still had my TRS-80 Model 4P, Laser 128 (educational toymaker VTech's Apple IIc clone), Psion Series 5, and ThinkPad 701C with the fold-out "butterfly" keyboard.

My main machine is a Lenovo Yoga 9i all-in-one desktop with a 13th Gen Core i9 and 32-inch 4K display running Windows 11 Home, Microsoft 365 Family, and Norton 360 with LifeLock. My wife and I get 400Mbps Spectrum internet as part of our homeowners' association fee, but I pay a fortune for streaming services.

I also have a Google Pixel 7 Android phone and pay Mint Mobile $15 a month. We share a Volvo XC60 Recharge plug-in hybrid; I'd have a car of my own, but it seems wasteful to buy a Corvette E-Ray to drive 10 miles a week.

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