00:00:00
Intel are back and so what Asus this is
00:00:02
the brand new Zenbook s114 and this is a
00:00:05
big one not literally it's actually very
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small 14in laptop and we'll talk about
00:00:09
the design and everything else in a
00:00:10
second but the reason why this is a big
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deal and actually bit of a special video
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This is the first laptop out of the gate
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or at least the first one that I've
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tested with one of these the brand new
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Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chip so this
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is like the uh update to meia Lake that
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we had beginning of this year now we're
00:00:29
on L Lake that was the code name but for
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everyone going into stores or buying one
00:00:33
of these new laptops you will see it as
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the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 and Intel
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is making some big claims about
00:00:40
performance about Ai and also crucially
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battery life so I'm putting this up
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against Rivals from AMD qualcom and also
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the previous generation Intel chips to
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see if this really is as good as we're
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all hoping it is so big thank you to
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Asus for setting this out for me to test
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and I'm going to show you a ton of my
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own results benchmarking this later in
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the video and the results are actually
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very surprising
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but also full disclosure this video is
00:01:02
made in partnership with Asus no input
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on script no input on the tests I run
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and no input on the competing devices
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I'm using bottom line all my results are
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my own but before we dive into
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performance and Battery tests let me
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give you a bit of context because about
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a month or so ago I reviewed the Zenbook
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s16 the bigger brother to this Zenbook
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S14 which was available in both Intel
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and AMD configurations although the one
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I tested was the AMD however this S14 is
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all in on Intel it's only coming with
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the new core Ultra Series 2 processors
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well I say processors I should really
00:01:34
say system on a chip because it's more
00:01:36
than just the CPU you've got the
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integrated Graphics the uh second
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generation Intel xe2 arc graphics we've
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got the mpu a much more powerful neural
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engine we've also got the memory
00:01:47
actually on the chip now so that doesn't
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mean you can't upgrade it yourself you
00:01:50
either get 16 or 32 gigs uh but it's
00:01:52
much more responsive much more efficient
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and we'll dive into that stuff in a
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second so you got the CPU the GPU the
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mpu the memory all the Med encoder stuff
00:02:01
there is a lot on this little chip and
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it's probably the most radical redesign
00:02:04
of Intel's mobile architecture in years
00:02:08
and with these new chips in these new
00:02:10
laptops it is all about efficiency it's
00:02:12
about maintaining performance while also
00:02:13
boosting your battery life because these
00:02:15
are designed for these kind of Premium
00:02:17
thin light laptops and hopefully finally
00:02:20
give some proper competition to the
00:02:21
MacBooks so right now with these new
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processors there are nine different
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versions in Ultra 5 Ultra 7 and Ultra 9
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skus I've got the top dog here the 288 V
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along with the 140v uh integrated
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graphics and this Ultra 9 has a 28 wat
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TDP which is significantly lower than
00:02:39
last year's Ultra 9 which was around 45
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Watts but also appreciably higher than
00:02:43
the 17 Watts that you'll get on an ultra
00:02:45
7 however on the face of it it doesn't
00:02:47
all appear to be good news because
00:02:48
Intel's actually dropped the number of
00:02:50
cores down to eight cores from 16
00:02:52
they've halved the number of CES and
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they've removed hyperthreading so on
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this Ultra 9288 V which is the top end
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chip it it is an 8 core 8 thread
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processor which compared to amd's 12
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core or as I say even Intel's previous
00:03:05
16 core chips it's fair to say this new
00:03:07
architecture needs to be pretty
00:03:09
incredible to actually make up for that
00:03:11
drop in core count then there's the
00:03:13
faster integrated Graphics the xe2 as
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well as a much beefier mpu the neural
00:03:17
processing unit with 48 tops of AI
00:03:20
compute power meaning this does meet
00:03:22
Microsoft spec for a co-al plus aipc so
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you'll get co-creator and live
00:03:26
translations and when they eventually
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release it recall but before we no out
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about the benchmarks first we need to
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talk about Ser aluminum Ser aluminium
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Ser aluminum ceramic aluminium Ser
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aluminum I bet the marketing team over
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at isusa very happy with that one it's
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ausa's new lightweight high-tech
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material for the chassis of the S14 and
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it comes in either Scandinavian white or
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this zumaya gray I mean it looks and
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feels like aluminium which is great and
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very very lightweight but it also has
00:03:56
this sort of extra hardness toughness
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because of this ceramic process material
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I don't know how it all works but anyway
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it's very nice looking it doesn't pick
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up any fingerprints barely any screen
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wobble it can go that far back would
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have been nice if it could go flat but
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there we are very comfortable back leg
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keyboard huge touchpad they could not
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squeeze a bigger one in there which is
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really nice and responsive uh and also
00:04:18
has gesture support So if you scroll
00:04:19
your finger up and down the left side it
00:04:21
changes the volume on the right side is
00:04:23
the brightness it's actually quite a
00:04:25
nice shortcut rather than having to find
00:04:27
the F key and you can customize what
00:04:29
this does or or even turn it off if you
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prefer plus we have dual mics for AI
00:04:32
noise cancellation and also quad Harmon
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Card and tuned Dolby Atmos speakers and
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as for ports we get Ultra fast USB c's
00:04:39
with Thunderbolt 4 a single USB 3.2 Gen
00:04:42
2 type A an HDMI 2.1 and an audio combo
00:04:46
Jack and obviously we get Wi-Fi 7 and
00:04:48
Bluetooth 5.4 as well very nice and just
00:04:51
look how thin these bezels are it's
00:04:53
pretty nuts actually and they've
00:04:54
squeezed in a 1080p webcam up there with
00:04:57
Windows face lock support as for the
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quality see well you be the judge this
00:05:01
is the TTP webcam up here I've got my
00:05:03
studio lighting there but if I spin
00:05:05
around give you a little bit of a tour
00:05:08
of what I'm looking at behind the scenes
00:05:10
there so this also supports uh face
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unlocking Windows face unlocking and
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it's got a uh 3D IR sensor so it works
00:05:16
well in low light we've got 3D noise
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reduction as well and because it's a
00:05:20
copal plus PC I can turn on all the
00:05:21
fancy Windows Studio Effects like Auto
00:05:24
framing eye contact so I can actually
00:05:26
look at the screen but then it juts my
00:05:28
eyes up to make it like I'm looking at
00:05:29
you
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also background effects and all this is
00:05:31
run on the mpu so actually it uses a lot
00:05:34
less battery life than it would on other
00:05:36
laptops using these kind of features
00:05:38
running on the GPU or CPUs and this S14
00:05:41
weighs just 1.2 kg and it's slightly
00:05:44
lighter and a touch thinner than a
00:05:46
MacBook Air 13 despite this having a
00:05:48
bigger screen in fact if I pop that
00:05:51
there let me show you the difference
00:05:52
between the 14 and the 16 here's what I
00:05:55
made earlier this is the AMD powered
00:05:57
Zenbook s16 this is the new Intel power
00:05:59
zenok 14 and except for the chip inside
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and also the different color we've got
00:06:04
the Zaya gray and Scandinavian white and
00:06:06
also the screen size they are brothers
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essentially although I'm curious if you
00:06:10
were going to pick one of these up would
00:06:12
you go for the 14 or the 16 and also
00:06:14
which color would you go for let me know
00:06:16
in the comments below my only complaint
00:06:18
and we need to have a serious talk about
00:06:19
this is whoever puts the stickers on
00:06:22
these laptops but look how wonky that
00:06:25
HDMI sticker is I tell you what though
00:06:27
this assus Lumina OLED 16x 10 3K 120 HZ
00:06:31
touchcreen more than makes up for a
00:06:33
wonky sticker brightness tops out at 400
00:06:36
nits in SDR or 500 nits in Peak HDR
00:06:39
which is good although not class leading
00:06:41
plus we get Doby Vision support and
00:06:43
because it's OLED and because it hits
00:06:44
the 500 nits this meets the display HDR
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500 true black spec in my tests this hit
00:06:50
100% of the srgb and the P3 color gamuts
00:06:53
so I would be more than happy to use
00:06:54
this for editing my photos and videos
00:06:56
for everyday office tasks and maybe even
00:06:58
playing a couple of games games now
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specs wise this test sample I've got
00:07:02
from Asus has the top end Ultra 9 288 V
00:07:05
with 32 GB of integrated lpddr 5x Ram
00:07:09
we've also got 1 tby of storage and a
00:07:11
72w hour battery with a 65 W power
00:07:14
adapter I think you can probably tell I
00:07:16
really like this laptop but it's all
00:07:17
going to come down to how fast is it how
00:07:19
long does it last and also how much is
00:07:21
it well let's talk about battery life
00:07:23
and I put this up against last gen Intel
00:07:25
chips and most of its main competition
00:07:27
right now in a fullcreen YouTube
00:07:29
streaming test running at 200 nits of
00:07:31
brightness in their most power efficient
00:07:32
settings and unsurprisingly it was the
00:07:35
previous first gen Intel Core Ultra 9
00:07:37
that conked out first after 8 hours and
00:07:39
11 minutes then we had the AMD powered
00:07:41
zenok s16 which went on to 9 hours 44
00:07:44
the screen is bigger but then so is the
00:07:46
battery but this is all just to give you
00:07:47
a rough idea and then the MacBook Air 13
00:07:50
with the M3 chip dropped out at 10 hours
00:07:52
and 39 minutes making it a two horsse
00:07:54
race and then after a frankly amazing 13
00:07:57
hours 23 minutes it was the new Zenbook
00:08:00
S4's turn followed by the Microsoft
00:08:02
Surface laptop 7th edition with its
00:08:04
Snapdragon X Elite at a very impressive
00:08:06
14 hours 41 so the Snapdragon still won
00:08:10
in that battery test but this represents
00:08:12
a 64% increase in battery life over the
00:08:15
previous gen Intel chips but it gets
00:08:17
even better switching over to PC Mark 10
00:08:20
the new Zenbook S14 lost 2% of its
00:08:23
battery during The Benchmark versus 9%
00:08:25
loss with the first gen core Ultra and
00:08:28
when I left this for 15 hours overnight
00:08:29
for a bit of a standby test it will
00:08:31
still on 100% when I work up the next
00:08:33
day okay so it's not entirely surprising
00:08:36
that a processor with half the number of
00:08:38
cores without happy threading and also a
00:08:40
lower relative TDP lasts longer than the
00:08:44
older model but how does that translate
00:08:46
to Performance are we giving up some
00:08:47
power in favor of efficiency in battery
00:08:50
well in my geekbench 6 test this new
00:08:52
top-end chip beats out its predecessor
00:08:54
in single core by 7% and matches or gets
00:08:57
close to his Rivals however multi-core
00:08:59
is a different story that drop down to
00:09:01
eight cores has definitely had an effect
00:09:03
here in cinebench single core was up 18%
00:09:05
gen on gen and beat everything except
00:09:07
the Apple M3 great downside multicore
00:09:10
was down nearly a third and it was a
00:09:13
similar story in my blender render test
00:09:15
going back to PC Mark 10 which is more
00:09:17
of an everyday productivity based test
00:09:20
these new Intel chips actually matched
00:09:22
the last genam performance which
00:09:23
actually is impressive given this has a
00:09:25
much longer battery life so it's kind of
00:09:27
like Intel has rior przed what we'd want
00:09:30
out of a thin and light laptop like this
00:09:33
and so I think higher single core
00:09:34
performance and much longer battery life
00:09:36
Mak sense in exchange for lower
00:09:39
multi-core performance but what do you
00:09:41
think and it is also worth remembering
00:09:43
compared to its Snapdragon Rivals that
00:09:44
being x86 this has no app compatibility
00:09:48
issues this will run everything but what
00:09:51
about Graphics well in my 3D Mark
00:09:53
Benchmark Suite the ark 140v was around
00:09:56
17% faster than last gen Intel in
00:09:58
Wildlife extreme 11% faster in time spy
00:10:00
and 8% faster in steel Nomad
00:10:04
light and while I don't know how many
00:10:06
people are necessarily playing games on
00:10:08
these kind of laptops the optic and
00:10:10
gaming performance was a lot more
00:10:12
significant and in my test I was aiming
00:10:14
for 1080p medium settings with xcss
00:10:16
turned on that's Intel's AI upscaling
00:10:18
where supported and cyberpunk ran a
00:10:21
third faster on the new chip averaging
00:10:23
52 FPS which is by far the highest frame
00:10:26
rate of any machine on test here and
00:10:27
it's kind of hard to believe this is
00:10:29
running on integrated Graphics
00:10:31
Spider-Man remastered is 23% faster than
00:10:34
last gen Again by far the highest of any
00:10:36
of the Alternatives and it was the same
00:10:38
in Shadow of the Tomb Raider which felt
00:10:39
like I was actually playing on a
00:10:41
discrete GPU Siege was 21% faster as
00:10:44
well easily beating out the others one
00:10:46
thing that is clear though is that the
00:10:48
Snapdragon X Elite counterparts while
00:10:50
impressive in single core multicore and
00:10:52
battery life definitely fall behind in
00:10:54
gaming with the adreno graphics and also
00:10:56
of course as I mentioned have some app
00:10:58
compatibility issues because they're
00:11:00
based on an arm rather than x86
00:11:01
architecture but what about performance
00:11:03
on battery well my results were pretty
00:11:06
similar using performance and full speed
00:11:08
modes though I've seen some of Intel's
00:11:09
own numbers where this can drop anywhere
00:11:11
from a couple of percent to more than a
00:11:13
third when using the more balanced speed
00:11:16
profiles and wouldn't you know it just
00:11:18
as I was finishing this video once your
00:11:19
turn up but an identical Zenbook for
00:11:21
this one with a core Ultra 7 instead of
00:11:24
the ultra 9 so while I'll dig into the
00:11:26
differences more in my upcoming Roundup
00:11:28
video I ran a couple of Quick Test just
00:11:29
to give you an idea of the difference
00:11:31
and again in full speed mode the CRA 9
00:11:34
was about 2% faster in geekbench 6's
00:11:36
single core around 2 and 1 half% in
00:11:38
multicore and just 1% faster in PC Mark
00:11:41
10 nothing to really write home about
00:11:44
then perhaps the ultra 7 is The Sweet
00:11:46
Spot and I actually got a couple of FPS
00:11:48
more in cyberpunk so I think more
00:11:50
testing needs to be done but so far the
00:11:52
difference is with the ultra 9 don't
00:11:53
seem particularly significant so we've
00:11:56
talked about CPU we've talked about GPU
00:11:58
then of course we've got the MP pu which
00:11:59
is apparently four times faster uh than
00:12:02
the previous gen now ai is all a bit
00:12:04
fluffy yes we have some co-creator tools
00:12:06
but I don't really use them every day I
00:12:08
think live translations actually to the
00:12:09
most useful and of course we are going
00:12:10
to have recall I'm sure we'll get more
00:12:12
over time and there are a handful of
00:12:13
programs and apps that have in some way
00:12:15
utilized uh for the mpu like uh autom
00:12:18
masking IND ventually resolve there's
00:12:20
some Audio Apps but most of the time
00:12:22
you're not really taking advantage of
00:12:23
the mpu it's much more about future
00:12:25
proofing over time as developers
00:12:27
optimize their programs more tasks will
00:12:29
be offloaded from the CPU and the GPU
00:12:30
onto the mpu and then either doing it
00:12:32
faster or more efficiently so you save
00:12:34
more batteries you should be absolutely
00:12:36
fine with this as more AI features come
00:12:39
out but one other advantage of having
00:12:41
this more efficient lower TDP chip is it
00:12:43
runs cooler and it runs more quietly the
00:12:45
S14 stays considerably cooler and also a
00:12:48
little bit quieter than older Intel
00:12:50
laptops I've tested even after an hour
00:12:52
of gaming and while you can hear the
00:12:54
fans if you're pushing it in games
00:12:55
they're still pretty quiet and most of
00:12:57
the time when you're using this laptop
00:12:59
you don't hear a thing and it's not just
00:13:00
the more efficient chip we've also got
00:13:02
this cooling Grill here which I believe
00:13:03
actually is
00:13:05
2715 drilled vents drilled Grill along
00:13:08
with a dual fan Vapor chamber cooling
00:13:10
system in here so the actual Hardware
00:13:12
that Asus have built around the new chip
00:13:15
also does a really good job keeping it
00:13:16
running cool and quiet internally in my
00:13:18
tests the CPU tops out at around 92
00:13:21
Celsius in more Graphics heavy tasks and
00:13:23
games and around the mid 80s in CPU
00:13:25
Focus apps a lot better than the
00:13:27
previous gen which I would often see
00:13:29
around the 100° C Mark and that is the
00:13:32
new Asus Zenbook S14 what do you think
00:13:35
in terms of being the first Intel Core
00:13:38
Ultra Series 2 processor I hate that
00:13:40
name I wouldn't say the new chip is like
00:13:41
a complete knock out the park home run
00:13:43
and everything else is absolute garbage
00:13:45
compared to this but it does make Intel
00:13:47
competitive again I think it really does
00:13:49
take away a lot of the USPS from going
00:13:52
over a snam dragon chip unless you can
00:13:54
get a much more affordable laptop these
00:13:56
uh new chips are likely to be in more
00:13:58
premium like laptops of you know over
00:14:00
,000 maybe sort of, 15500 is so this is
00:14:03
quite expensive and it is just this form
00:14:05
factor but certainly no app
00:14:07
compatibility issues fantastic battery
00:14:09
life not far behind at all the
00:14:12
Snapdragon Rivals more AI tops than you
00:14:14
could shake a stick at Fantastic
00:14:15
integrated GPU performance and decently
00:14:17
faster single core will be it with that
00:14:20
trade-off of lower multi-core
00:14:21
performance but I think that is the
00:14:23
right reprioritization of performance
00:14:25
and battery and efficiency for a laptop
00:14:27
like this as for the pricing well it
00:14:29
will vary based on region currency and
00:14:31
also obviously the model you go for uh
00:14:32
but I will put confirmed final pricing
00:14:35
in the description below and also pin a
00:14:36
comment and also leave a link if you're
00:14:38
fancy checking this out for yourself
00:14:39
thank you so much for watching guys I
00:14:40
hope you enjoyed the video and if you
00:14:42
did a cheeky little like And subscribe
00:14:44
would be fantastic and I'll see you next
00:14:46
time right here on the tech chat
