Asus's new Zenbook and Vivobook AI laptops promise a serious performance boost

As part of IFA 2024 – a huge tech event taking place in Berlin as we’re writing this – Asus has unveiled a trio of AI-enhanced laptops for its popular Zenbook, Vivobook and ExpertBook lines.

Let’s start with the Zenbook S 14, which starts at $1,399.99 / £1,299.99 (Australian pricing to be confirmed), and boasts some very solid specs that means it’s worth paying attention even if you aren’t convinced AI is the next big thing.

It has a 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display, a solid battery life of 27 hours (based on an offline video test conducted by Asus), and is clad in a Ceralumium casing – a deceptively tricky word to say, which blends ceramic and aluminum to deliver a more durable yet lighter design. We can’t yet speak for those durability promises without testing it ourselves, but the Ceralumium-clad Zenbook certainly looks cool is easy to pick up and carry around, and isn't as prone to fingerprint smudges as some notebooks.

The star of the show is the new Intel Core Ultra 9 200 Series processor (known as Lunar Lake) which promises significant power and efficiency upgrades over the 100 Series processor. Per Asus’s test stats, a Zenbook S 14 using the new processor running at 35W, compared to a Zenbook S 14 using the old 100 Series CPU running at 45W, boasts a 25% improvement in daily productivity performance (per Geekbench V6 Single-Core CPU Score), a 53% higher gaming performance (in Cyberpunk 2077) and a 173% better AI performance (per UL Procyon).

That AI performance boost will be thanks to the Intel Core Ultra 9 200 Series’ new NPU (neural processing unit for AI) being able to perform 48 trillion operations per second (TOPS). For context, Qualcomm’s competing Snapdragon X Elite chip only offers 45 TOPS. This extra speed will lend a helping hand completing on-device AI processes when using services like Microsoft CoPilot+, MuseTree (Asus’s image generation tool), and Adaptive Lock, which automatically secures your PC if you walk away with it unlocked.

Couple all of this with the Zenbook’s lightweight and thin design – coming in at 1,5kg, and 1.1cm thick – and Asus’ new laptop is looking pretty great. Though, obviously, before we issue our final Zenbook S 14 verdict we’ll need to run our own tests to verify Asus’s bold promises.

Not all about the Zenbook

Asus’s other new consumer productivity laptop is the Vivobook S 14.

It’s a slight downgrade on the Zenbook S 14  but still boasts a 3K OLED, an Ultra 7 Series 200 Intel processor, and it’s a little thicker and heavy at 1.39cm thickness and weighing 1.3kg. It also misses out on Ceralumium, but does have an RGB-lit keyboard.

It also costs a little less, starting at $899.99 / £999.99 (we’re waiting for the Australian price), which makes it a more accessible way to access Asus’s latest AI PC offerings.

Last but not least were the new P5 ExpertBooks. The P-series machines are aimed at experts who might need a powerful laptop that’s also long lasting – which is why Asus has put the new P5 through its paces several US military grade tests.

If you want to learn more about these business-focused devices you'll soon be able to read our coverage of the Asus P5 announcement over on TechRadar Pro.

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