Asus Zenbook 15 OLED (2023) review: Gorgeous, light, and packed with ports

Price When Reviewed

From $1,299.99

Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook 15 OLED (2023)

$1,299.99

$1495.82

The Asus Zenbook 15 OLED (UM3504) is a strong laptop computer that’s nice for fundamental workplace and photograph work, watching content material, and even a spot of sunshine gaming. 

While it doesn’t have devoted GPU, the USB4 port means which you could hook up with an exterior GPU if you happen to want further grunt in that division. Asus says the 15in OLED show covers the complete sRGB and DCI-P3 colour areas, so for budding creators trying to get began with content material creation, this may very well be the one. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

While not a budget laptop, the Zenbook 15 OLED isn’t priced exorbitantly both. But how does it stack as much as the competitors?

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops accessible at present.

Design & construct

• Thin and light-weight chassis
• Still feels sturdy and sturdy
• Attractive darkish blue end

Picking up the Zenbook 15 OLED for the primary time, you’ll discover how skinny it each appears to be like and feels. Thin body, skinny bezel, skinny keycaps. 

You would anticipate a 15in laptop computer to be a bit unwieldy, however, at 3.1 kilos, the Zenbook 15 OLED is fairly light-weight. There are much less heavy ultrabooks on the market – a lot of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 variants are a contact lighter at round 2.86 kilos – however this doesn’t really feel prefer it’s going to interrupt your again carrying it between conferences. 

It feels sturdy as effectively, with hardly any flex wherever within the chassis. The show does wobble while you tilt it, which is the one factor that spoils the in any other case high-end feel and look. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

While this shade of darkish blue has been the norm for Asus Zenbooks for some time, in a sea of bland black ‘n silver laptop conformity, it’s refreshing to see one thing a bit completely different.

It follows on from the design reboot of final 12 months’s Zenbook 14 (UX3402) in that the Asus ‘A’ emblem is etched into the again, however whereas the 180° hinge is barely raised, the show isn’t lifted off the desk as a lot as earlier fashions.

Ports & connectivity

• Two USB-C (one USB4), one USB-A
• USB4 port could be mixed with Ethernet adapter
• HDMI 2.1 helps 4K video as much as 120fps
• Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2

Despite the super-slim dimensions, Asus has been capable of pack in additional than simply a few ports right here. There’s an old-school Type-A USB 3.2 port, plus two Type-C USBs (one USB 3.2, one USB4) and an HDMI 2.1 port. 

While you additionally get a 3.5mm audio jack, there’s no devoted port for the mains adapter, however each of these Type-C USBs help energy supply. In case you should develop storage, there are many docks and hubs (and cables) on the market, so you’ll be able to put that USB4 port to good use. 

Neither of the USB-C ports help Thunderbolt 4 although, so hold that in thoughts if you happen to’re additionally wanting to connect with Thunderbolt screens or exterior GPUs.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

A key level in regards to the USB4 port is that it will probably, with an Ethernet adapter, help wired web connections. For occasions while you’re nowhere close to a wired entry level, you’ve bought a Wi-Fi 6E unit sitting beneath the hood, permitting you to get pleasure from a few of the quickest Wi-Fi speeds presently going. 

Finally, you may have an HDMI 2.1 port, a pleasant uptick from the HDMI 2.0b port from final 12 months’s Zenbook 14. It means you’ll be able to hook up with a monitor and play 4K video at 120fps or 8K video at 60fps.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Keyboard & trackpad

• Good keyboard total
• Some of the important thing positions and sizes really feel awkward
• Trackpad is giant and super-responsive

The typing expertise is spectacular, with every letter key offering good springy suggestions and exhibiting journey of slightly below 2mm. It feels rather a lot deeper than you may anticipate, given the laptop computer’s dimensions.

That mentioned, the row of quantity keys require a bit extra pressure to motion than the letter keys do, making for a barely inconsistent really feel. The keycaps additionally really feel somewhat skinny, which might impression their effectiveness long run.

A quantity pad has been included, however whether or not this can be a good factor or not is subjective. Generally, I don’t like having quantity pads on laptop computer keyboards. I don’t really feel like they’re a very good use of house and have a tendency to really feel cramped, as is the case right here.

But I’ve pretty bigger arms, so it may not be a difficulty for some folks. But the operate keys on the very high are too small, to the extent that I’d typically discover myself by accident elevating the amount as a substitute of dimming the brightness.

I’d additionally favor it if navigation keys (dwelling, web page up, web page down, finish) weren’t mapped onto the arrow keys, requiring you to carry the Fn key to motion these instructions. But this isn’t distinctive to the Zenbook by any means.

The trackpad is a pleasant measurement (measuring 5.8in) and really responsive, permitting you to simply sweep by way of menus and execute exact gestures. Asus has executed away with its ScreenPad right here, a cool-but-confusing function which noticed a secondary show integrated into the trackpad. Here, the trackpad is only a trackpad. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Display & audio system 

• 2.8K (2880 x 1620) 16:9 120Hz 15.6in OLED 
• Full protection of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color house
• Almost full protection of DCI-P3 house 

There are two show variations of the Asus Zenbook 15 accessible this 12 months, one with an OLED display screen and one other with the extra widespread IPS LCD panel.

The mannequin I’m testing right here is the OLED model, which has a decision of 2880 x 1620. Asus calls this unusual decision 2.8K, however you may see shows with this decision listed elsewhere as 3K. 

We’re promised peak brightness of 550 nits, full protection of the usual RGB (sRGB) colour house, and the DCI-P3 house. That, mixed with the wealthy distinction accessible from the OLED show signifies that web sites, images, video games, and video content material all look fairly improbable. 

While true, testing with a colorimeter isn’t fairly as spectacular. The max recorded brightness is simply 376 nits, which is sufficient to snug work in most lighting situations, however effectively in need of Asus’ claims.

An OLED display screen means any black areas are primarily unlit pixels – issues don’t get a lot darker than that.

Recorded colour temperatures have been near 6500 Kelvin – the colour temperature that mimics pure daylight. At 25% and 50% brightness, the colour temperature was 6600Okay, whereas at 75% and 100% brightness, it was 6500Okay.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

DCI-P3 protection hit 99% in testing, which isn’t fairly what was marketed however superb nonetheless. It means colours on web sites and video games look vibrant and wealthy, however are nonetheless brimming with element.

Laptop audio system usually aren’t value writing dwelling about, however the two Harman Kardon-certified ones right here aren’t unhealthy. Bass and treble are each respectable, whereas there’s good separation on songs resembling Radiohead’s The National Anthem, which has a number of layers to the sound.

However, each audio system are downward-firing, so your desktop will inevitably take in a whole lot of that noise. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Specs & efficiency

• Capable for normal computing duties and a few gaming
• Loud fan noise
• Around 8-10 hours of battery life

The Asus Zenbook 15 OLED fashions include both the AMD Ryzen 5 7535U or AMD Ryzen  7 7735U processors, 16- or 32GB of RAM, and 512GB or 1TB of storage.

The model I used to be despatched for testing featured the extra highly effective Ryzen 7 7735U chip, 16GB of RAM (15.2GB of which is usable), and a 512GB SSD (475GB of which is usable). 

As anticipated, for each day pc use resembling writing, emailing and looking the online, the Zenbook 15 OLED virtually sailed by way of the whole lot. It took simply over two minutes (2:15) to open 500MB value of images in picture modifying device GIMP, which is fairly speedy. Mundane duties resembling firing off emails to colleagues and contacts felt barely decadent.

While the Zenbook 15 OLED isn’t a gaming laptop computer, I used to be happy to have the ability to run a complete sport of Civ 6 on this (albeit on the bottom settings) with out encountering any slowdown or crashes – not unhealthy for a laptop computer with out devoted graphics. Then once more, Civ 6 isn’t precisely a brand new sport, so don’t anticipate to be enjoying any current titles with shading and texture settings cranked up. 

Sadly, the followers generally tend to kick in if you end up doing something extra superior than looking the online, and so they’re actually not quiet. Luckily, there are many nice noise-cancelling headphones on the market.

Compared with the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, which makes use of an Intel Core i7-13700H processor, the Zenbook 15 OLED isn’t pretty much as good in terms of Geekbench 6 – 9469 vs 12024 on multi-core.

Looking at PC Mark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world PC duties, it’s a special story, with the Zenbook 15 beating its counterpart. The Zenbook 15 OLED has the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 overwhelmed on this regard.

The Zenbook 15 OLED additionally fared higher when working the 3DMark Night Raid graphics check, returning a mean rating of 22560 – the Zenbook 14X OLED and Surface Laptop 5 scored 14151 and 16031 respectively. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

For context, the Asus TUF Gaming A15 2023, geared up with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 devoted graphics scored 47569 in the identical check. 

Battery life is common. Running a looped 720p video with the show at 120 nits brightness noticed it final 10 hours and 3 minutes.

Day to day, I might anticipate to get 8-10 hours off of the battery, doing easy workplace duties, and having YouTube on within the background. For easy PC duties, that’ll get you thru, however for something extra demanding, overlook about it.

After an hour of Civ 6, I used to be left with 41% within the tank. In different phrases, don’t anticipate MacBook Air ranges of battery longevity.

It prices again up rapidly, or not less than, as fast as most different laptops on this class do. Expect 30% from empty after half an hour, an 65% after an hour, and 95% after two hours.

Price & availability

The Asus Zenbook 15 OLED is in the stores now within the US, UK, and plenty of different nations all over the world, though a full breakdown of which fashions have been accessible during which markets isn’t presently accessible.

At the time of writing, it’s not doable to purchase the Zenbook 15 OLED straight from Asus in the UK or the Asus in the US. 

Buyers within the US can snap up Zenbook 15 OLED with the Ryzen 7 processor, 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM from Amazon for $1299.99. Microcenter has the identical mannequin on for $1299.99, as do Newegg, for a bit extra at $1495.82.

In the UK, AO has each the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 variations of the Zenbook 15 OLED with 512GB storage and 16GB of RAM on for £929 and £1029.  Elsewhere, Scan is promoting the Ryzen 7 512+16GB version of the Zenbook 15 OLED for £1198.99.

While this can be a premium system, there are actually extra expensive laptops on the market.

Verdict

The Asus Zenbook 15 OLED is improbable in just about each method, with battery life the one actual exception. Consider investing in a spare charger, simply in case you allow your major one at dwelling. 

Think of this as an even bigger model of the corporate’s Zenbook 14X OLED, simply with an AMD processor as a substitute of an Intel one and USB4 slightly than Thunderbolt 4 help. If any of these are necessary to you, your resolution between the 2 is made.

It’s a worthwhile different to the Surface Laptop 5, however the 15in MacBook Air is likely to be extra to your liking if you are able to do with out Windows.

Specs

• Display: 15.6in 16:9 2.8K (2880 x 1620) 120Hz OLED / 15.6in 16:9 Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7535U / Ryzen 7 7735U processor
• Graphics: AMD Radeon graphics
• Memory:  16, 32GB LPDDR5 6400 MHz
• Storage: 512, 1TB SSD PCIe 4.0 x4
• Ports: 2 x Type-C USB with USB4, USB 3.2 (Gen 1), 1 x Type-A USB 3.2 (Gen 1), HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack 
• Camera: 1080p webcam
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Battery: 67Whr
• Operating system: Windows 11 Home 
• Dimensions: 354.8 x 226.6 x 14.9 mm
• Weight: 1.4kg