If you think there aren’t enough laptops available on the market then you’ll be pleased to know Asus plans to fix that. More devices are coming to its ‘Pinnacle of Performance’ event on 9 May 2022. At least two brand new devices will turn up: the Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED and the Zenbook S 13 OLED. More are likely in the offing, but this pair is confirmed for now.
If you couldn’t tell by the names, Asus is smitten with OLED. But an excellent screen doesn’t make a notebook. It’s just a part of the whole package. Here’s what we know about Asus’ collective er… packages.
Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED
The Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED is a 15.6in convertible laptop (it flips over). It’ll feature a 120Hz OLED panel with a resolution of 2,880×1,800. That’s about halfway between the industry-accepted FHD and 4K standards. Don’t be fooled by the marketing, Asus hasn’t invented a new 2.8K standard. That’s just what the company calls this odd number of pixels. If this display looks as good as we expect it will, Asus can call it whatever it wants.
The Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED will be available with either an Intel Core i5 or i7 12th-gen H-series processor. It will be one of Asus’ first machines to feature Intel’s new dedicated Arc GPUs. That’s helped along by 16GB of RAM and 512GB or 1TB of storage. You also get WiFi 6E and a couple of Thunderbolt ports.
The keyboard has received a redesign as well. By that we mean the keys look slightly bigger and take up the whole body of the laptop. The trackpad looks slightly bigger as well.
Improvements have apparently been made to the camera array. It’ll feature an IR camera for quicker facial recognition. It’ll also feature an ambient light and colour sensor that will adjust your display’s brightness and colour temperature based on surrounding conditions. We hope this is implemented correctly. If it isn’t, we foresee much irritation. Especially if you’re handling anything other than spreadsheets on your PC.
We’ll need to wait until the event for pricing and local availability, but nothing about this machine says budget. Don’t expect to get away with less than R20k for one of these.
ZenBook S 13 OLED
The Zenbook S 13 OLED’s title doesn’t give as much away as the last one did. We know it’ll have an OLED display and we’ll hazard a guess that this one… doesn’t flip over. Asus is billing it as “the world’s lightest 13.3in 2.8K OLED laptop”. That’s probably because there aren’t many 13.3in 2.8K OLED laptops around. It kinda wins that by default.
As the name suggests, this one also ships with a 13.3in OLED display. You’ll get the same resolution as the Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED (2,880×1,800) but in a 16:10 aspect ratio. You can also choose between touchscreen or non-touchscreen versions.
This machine is based on AMD’s platform, with a Ryzen 7 6800U CPU and integrated Radeon graphics. With that, you get 8 or 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB or 1TB storage options.
WiFi 6E is also featured but you’ll miss out on the fancy camera tech found in the Zenbook Pro. It’ll include what Asus calls its new ErgoSense keyboard and some models will include an integrated number pad in the touchpad.
Again, we’ll need to wait for 9 May 2022 for pricing and availability here. But that isn’t too far away, so maybe hold on upgrading for a few weeks if you can. If you want to tune into the event, go here where you can add it to your calendar. If you prefer to do that manually, keep your schedule open on 9 May 2022 and tune into Asus’ website at 18h00 SAST.