Asus ZenBook 13 OLED: Affordable ultrabook, outstanding display. Asus zenbook 13 oled

Asus ZenBook 13 OLED: Affordable ultrabook, outstanding display

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Basic information

” data-auto-index=”off” data-searching-settings=”” data-currency-format=”1,000.00″ data-head=”” data-head-rows-count=”1″ data-foot=”” data-responsive-mode=”0″ data-from-history=”0″>

Parameters	Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UM325U
Dimensions	304 × 203 × 13,9 mm
Weight	1,14 kg
Display	13,3″, 16:9 Full HD 1920 × 1080 px, OLED, 60 Hz, glossy, 400 nit, 2,5 mm okraje, 88 % BTS
Procesor	AMD Ryzen 5 5500U, 6C/12T, 15W, 7nm
Graphics card	AMD Vega 7
Memory	8 GB LPDDR4X (3733 MHz)
Storage	512 GB SSD PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe (SK Hynix HFM512GD3JX013N)
Ports	2× 10 Gb USB-C (charging and DisplayPort), 1×5 Gb USB 3.2 Gen 1 typ A, 1× HDMI 2.0, 1× microSD reader
Battery size	67 Wh
Camera resolution	720p 3D IR Windows Hello
Speakers	Harman Kardon (stereo)
Approximate price	€ 960

/ Here you can add custom CSS for the current table / / Lean more about CSS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets / / To prevent the use of styles to other tables use “#supsystic-table-969” as a base selector for example: #supsystic-table-969 #supsystic-table-969 tbody #supsystic-table-969 tbody tr /

Details

Compared to its predecessor, the novelty basically only brings new components and display, so the introductory part of the article will be shorter than usual. The package is practically identical to the previously tested laptops.

In addition to the laptop, the package includes an adapter from USB-C to audio jack and a protective cover, similar to what we saw in previous tests.

On the outside, the UM325U is identical to the UX325E, which is no surprise. The external dimensions and weight remained the same, it is still very compact and with a weight of 1.1 kg (2.43 lb), a very light laptop.

Improvements have taken place mainly below the surface, namely the change in display technology. We will talk about the display in a separate chapter. Briefly, it is worth mentioning that the laptop got an OLED instead of a classic IPS panel, which is unprecedented in this price category. ZenBook OLED refresh applies to several models, not just the tested 13.

The tested laptop is labeled UM325UA-KG022T and is the most affordable ticket to the world of OLED in this model line. Inside the laptop you will find the new Ryzen 5 5500U, 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. There are also 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake models available, and we have already tested such a model. At that time, however, it still had an IPS display and not OLED. On the manufacturer’s website you will also find information about Ryzen 7 models, but these are less available here. In practice, you have a choice of Ryzen 5, Core i5 and i7.

The individual models are then distinguished by the size of the operating memory—8 or 16 GB and also the size of the SSD—512 GB or 1 TB. According to the manufacturer’s website, the Intel platform also offers 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage, but the availability of such a configuration is questionable in our country. are around EUR 960 for a Ryzen 5 version, 1,050 for Ryzen 7, 1,080 for Core i5 and 1,200 for Core i7.

All other aspects remained unchanged. You will still find a metal body, premium build quality and relatively rich port selection. There are two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, a slot for microSD cards or full HDMI are a rarity for ultrabooks, so I always praise the port selection on ZenBooks. The 14-inch model also offers a separate 3.5 mm audio jack, with the 13-inch model you will have to do with an adapter. It is worth mentioning the fact that Intel configurations offer Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connectors, while AMD only common 10 Gb ports. In both cases, however, both charging and video output are supported.

Other features such as IR camera for Windows Hello, increased durability with MIL-STD 810G certification and an above-average battery have also been retained.

The front edge of the notebook without a cutout remains unchanged, however, the display lid can be easily touched and opened. You can also open the notebook with one hand, which is not a matter of course, especially with such light devices. The rear covers all ventilation openings and the cooling system.

The top view again shows the lid with the Asus logo and the concentric-circle theme of its surface. The lower part has four rubber feet and a ventilation grille in the upper part. After removing the bottom cover, you will get to the components. You’ll need a T5 screwdriver to remove it. Attention should be paid to a pair of screws hidden under the rubber feet.

The layout is not surprising, the deep blue motherboard is interesting, similar to the ZenBook 14 and 13. The whole lower part is occupied by a large battery and next to it we can see the speakers. The interior is practically identical to the last tested Intel version.

Cooling is provided by a large heatpipe run from the processor to the heatsink, through which the fan blows air. We will look at the efficiency of this cooling later in the tests.

Other aspects such as the keyboard, touchpad, camera, Ergo Lift hinge and so on remained unchanged, so we recommend that you look at previous reviews if you are interested in these areas.

The battery has the same 67 Wh capacity in the new model, which is still above average among 13-inch laptops. Charging takes place via the USB-C charger in the package, which charges the battery to approx. 75% in one hour and takes almost two hours to charge fully. The predecessor with the 11th generation Intel is the king of our YouTube battery test, the new OLED is 40 minutes behind, which is still a very good value with a total value of almost 9 hours.

Let us look at the test results.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Test methodology

We tested the notebook at home, not in a laboratory environment. Nevertheless, the effort was made for the most accurate results. These are therefore the average of the measured values from repeated tests.

The tests include synthetic benchmarks to compare the performance of both the processor and the graphics card. We also measure storage speed, battery life, charging speed and in-game performance. The goal is to test laptops and desktops in various scenarios and get a comprehensive overview of their performance and operating characteristics.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Gamut, brightness and color difference

We measured the image properties of the display using the Datacolor Spyder5Elite color analyzer. As it is an ultrabook and not a gaming notebook, you will not find a high refresh rate or image anti-tearing technology here. Therefore, we will be more interested in brightness and color reproduction.

The new ZenBook 13 impresses with the use of an OLED display, and this technology has so far only been available in a few top laptop models. It can therefore be said that this is the first laptop with an OLED display available for masses. How is OLED different from IPS? Every single pixel is able to emit light, so the display does not have the traditional backlight, as is customary with LED displays. As a result, OLED offers true black, high contrast and true colors. We have dedicated a separate article to the implementation of OLED technology in Asus products, where you can learn more about this solution.

According to the manufacturer’s website, the display should offer 100% DCI-P3 spectrum, brightness up to 400 nits and HDR support. It is a 13.3-inch Full HD panel with the classic 16:9 aspect ratio, while the side frames are relatively thin, thanks to which the display occupies up to 88% of the body. Unlike older IPS models, the OLED version is glossy and not matte.

The specifications given by the manufacturer have been confirmed in our tests. 100% DCI-P3 is also complemented by 100% sRGB and 99% AdobeRGB, gamma with a completely accurate value of 2.2 without any deviation, maximum brightness of 389 nits and a great average Delta-E color difference of 1.02. The uniformity of the display is also excellent. It can be said that this is the best tested display in a laptop that we have had here.

With the use of OLED, there are questions about the lifespan and burning of pixels, which, of course, the manufacturer thought of and offers various protection mechanisms, either directly in Windows or using the MyAsus application.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Rendering, Geekbench

The OLED version of the ZenBook 13 surprisingly got the new Ryzen 5500U. We will compare the recently tested ZenBook 13 UX325E with the 11th generation Intel and also the ZenBook 14 with the 10th generation. It is interesting to watch how Asus switches between Intel and AMD intergenerationally, it is quite unusual.

Let’s start traditionally with Cinebench R15 for a first glance at the raw performance of the processor. The single-core performance is dominated by Intel with both 11th and 10th generation ahead of Ryzen, which offers similar performance as the Acer Swift 3 with 4700U. Compared to ZenBook 13 with i7-1165G7, the 5500U loses by up to 24%. On the contrary, the multi-core performance is fully in the hands of Ryzen. It has a 36% lead over its predecessor with Intel and the ZenBook 14 with the 10th generation Intel gets whooped and loses by 75%. Interestingly, the 5500U with 6 cores has a higher performance than the 4700U with 8. The reason is the difference in threads, as the 5500U offers SMT and therefore 12 threads instead of only 8 in the 4700U without SMT.

Cinebench R20 shows a slight improvement in single-core performance, where the 5500U is just 19% behind the i7-1165G7 and 4% ahead of the i7-1065G7. On the contrary, the differences in multi-core have increased and the piece with OLED offers 41% higher performance than the Intel version and beat the older bigger brother by up to 94%.

In the new 10-minute R23 test we can see similar results as in the older versions, i.e. a 23% loss in single-core and a 41% lead in multi-core, we do not yet have enough data to draw conclusions.

Blender and POV-Ray hands-on tests were a piece of cake for the new ZenBook, and beat the older version with Intel by 64 and 60%. It also overtook the Swift 3 by 5 and 16% with the last generation Ryzen 7. Interestingly, thanks to 12 threads, it reached the level and even beat the 8th and 9th generation Intel 45 W processors.

Single-core results in Geekbench 3–5 also show the loss of the ZenBook 13 OLED over the Intel 13 (-18/-35/-37%), the old 14 (14/-17/-13%) and the relatively balanced values with Swift 3 (18/0/-3%). We also see differences in multi-core, although this time the novelty is beating the competition—Intel 13 by (30/4/7%), the old 14 by (52/22/32%) and Swift 3 by (6/14/14%).

Compute graphic test shows that the Intel version 13 is 15/8% faster, while last-generation ZenBook 14 lags behind by.22/-33% and the Swift 3 with 4700U by.2/-11% behind the OLED version of ZenBook with 5500U. We will see if these results will be confirmed in other graphic tests.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

D/PC Mark and Unigine Heaven/Superposition

The combined PCMark test continues the trend we saw in rendering. The new ZenBook 13 with 5500U is 5% faster than the 11th generation Intel version, and Swift with Ryzen is only 1% slower.

The game changes in 3DMark Firestrike, Time Spy and Sky Diver, where Intel’s version of ZenBook 13 with Xe graphics beats the new 5500U by 50/44/13%, which are quite large differences.

New tests have been added to 3DMark, one of which is Wild Life, where I only have little data to this date. However, we see that the Intel version is almost twice as powerful as the new 5500U, and laptops and PCs with dedicated graphics are several times faster.

The Unigine Heaven game test shows Intel winning by 67%. The novelty with OLED was just behind the Swift 3, so we don’t see any increase in graphics performance between generations.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Gaming tests – integrated graphics

Let’s start with CS:GO, which is one of the most popular games ever. The assumptions from the synthetic tests have been fulfilled and the new 5500U offers performance at the level of the Swift 3 with 4700U and it significantly loses against the predecessor with Intel by 32–47%.

GTA V is one of the most popular games on the market and offers complex and demanding graphics. Therefore, we see slightly different results than in CS:GO. The new ZenBook is surprisingly 14% faster than the Intel version. It looks like the GTA suits the integrated Vega graphics more than the Iris, as the Swift 3 also achieves even better results than the tested novelty.

In contrast, Intel’s version of the ZenBook 13 is at the top again in Dirt Rally, and the new 5500U lags behind by 16%. So it really depends on the title whether the novelty can beat its sibling with Intel, which in general offers better graphics performance.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Encryption, encoding

In both encryption and decryption, the novelty offers significantly better values than the Intel version and also the compared Swift 3. Compared to the 11th generation Intel, we see a difference of 35–41%. Again, we can see that the 5500U can match an older 45 W Intel in gaming laptops or even desktops.

Video editing test is one of the longer ones and again we see similar results as in rendering. The 5500U offers significantly higher performance than the Intel laptops, and the Swift 3 with the 4700U is a few percent slower. A specific comparison with the UX325E shows a 45–47% lead of the UM325U. In practice, the difference is at the level of tens of seconds to minutes. Also, the novelty in this test can be compared to the 10th generation of gaming 45 W Intel processors, which is a small miracle.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Memory and storage tests

The novelty with Ryzen has traditionally been slightly slower in memory tests, which is again due to slower 3733 MHz memory compared to 4266 MHz on the Intel platform.

The area where I often criticize Asus is SSD speeds. The manufacturer tends to save costs in this area and uses cheaper and slower SSDs. However, it looks like Asus has already abandoned this trend, and the relatively affordable configuration of the new ZenBook 13 OLED offers speed at the level of the top Flip S model, i.e. over 3 GB/s in both read and write. This is a step in the right direction compared to the older ZenBook 14 and the recently tested ZenBook 13 UX325E.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Temperatures and battery life

Unfortunately, Intel’s 10th and 11th generations have not brought any temperature improvements, so we are still looking at values attacking 100 degrees Celsius. Ryzen is better off, the maximum temperatures are almost 10 degrees lower and usually in temperature tests it was somewhere around 75–85 °C depending on the test. In addition to the maximum temperatures, the performance and temperature curve in time is also important, which we will look at in the run charts, in which we also compare the effects of performance modes.

The ZenBook 13 UM325U performs slightly worse than its sibling with the 11th generation Intel processor in a 40-minute battery life test, which is not significant with nearly 9 hours of stamina, but definitely measurable. Due to the significantly better display, the decrease in battery life is more than acceptable.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Blender

Just as we started to monitor the progress of clock speed, power consumption and temperatures in Blender and 3DMark for gaming laptops, we will also address these areas for non-gaming laptops. In this case, we are mainly interested in the visualization of the performance trend for individual performance modes and CPU load, but also combined CPU GPU load.

The Blender test is one of the long ones. It shows large differences between the clock speed of the individual modes. While Performance is hovering around 3.1 GHz, Standard drops to 2.7 GHz and Whisper is only around 1.5 GHz. We also see a big difference in the lengths of the test itself.

Power consumption shows even greater differences than with the clock speed, with an interesting difference between Performance and Standard, where both modes initially jump to 30 W and then Performance tries to stick to 25 W, while Standard drops to 15 W. Whisper stays under 10 W throughout the whole test.

The temperature trend during the test is similar to the power draw graph, where the difference between Standard and Performance is nicely demonstrated. The first mode decreases from 80 degrees to 65 after the initial jump, and conversely the second mode, due to higher power consumption, continues to grow until it reaches a maximum of 85 degrees and then begins to decline. Whisper slowly rises from 50 to 55 degrees during the test.

Last year, Asus introduced new ZenBooks, which are gradually improving, and in addition to new gen CPUs, we have also seen a change in display technology, which we have written about in a separate article. We got the cheapest model with an OLED display for the test. In addition to the 13-inch body, it also has a revamped Ryzen 5500U. We have only recently tested a configuration with Intel, so an interesting comparison is awaiting us.

Conclusion

Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UM325UA-KG022T is the second enhancement of the new generation of ZenBooks that Asus introduced last year. This time, the biggest change is the new OLED display, which offers great colors, high brightness, deep black and an enchanting experience with HDR content.

In addition, the tested configuration received the new Ryzen 5 5500U, which proved to be a great tool for computing tasks that literally whoop the 11th generation of Intel. However, it is slightly slower in single-core performance and the graphics performance is also higher on Intel with Iris Xe. Intel also has an advantage in the Thunderbolt 4 connectors, which are absent on the AMD version. However, you will pay extra for the additional features in the case of Intel versions. But I am very proud that Asus gives us a choice and offers both AMD and Intel versions, while the rest of the device is more or less the same.

In addition to the new display and AMD processor, it is as great a device as its previous versions. For me personally, it is definitely a GO-TO Windows ultrabook, as the pricing policy is more than favorable, especially in the case of the AMD version.

Great build quality, large battery with a good battery life, convenient keyboard, large touchpad, number of ports and a 3D IR camera make this notebook a very good candidate for any customer looking for a light but capable ultrabook. Perhaps the only competition is the new MacBook Air, which does not offer as much flexibility as the ZenBook, but has other powerful weapons such as excellent battery life or passive cooling.

Due to the great results across the tests, lacking negatives and the favorable price, I’m giving the ZenBook 13 our ”Top Notch” award.

” data-auto-index=”off” data-searching-settings=”” data-currency-format=”1,000.00″ data-head=”” data-head-rows-count=”1″ data-foot=”” data-responsive-mode=”0″ data-from-history=”0″>

Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UM325UA-KG022T

all the benefits of its predecessors

high multi-core performance of the 12-thread Ryzen 5500U

amazing OLED display

both AMD and Intel versions

– nothing significant

/ Here you can add custom CSS for the current table / / Lean more about CSS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets / / To prevent the use of styles to other tables use “#supsystic-table-970” as a base selector for example: #supsystic-table-970 #supsystic-table-970 tbody #supsystic-table-970 tbody tr /

We’ve got games for our test from Jama levova

• Contents
• Specifications and details
• Test methodology
• Display tests
• Rendering and Geekbench
• 3D/PC Mark and Unigine Heaven/Superposition
• Gaming tests – integrated graphics
• Encryption, encoding
• Memory and storage tests
• Temperatures and battery life
• Analysis of clock rate, power consumption and temperatures
• Conclusion

Asus Zenbook 13 OLED UX325: Vibrance and power in portability

Asus is known for making their mark by leading with state-of-the-art innovation in everything they do, especially when it comes to laptops.

They consistently stand out in the crowd by rendering powerful performance and stunning visuals through their Zenbook series, and they definitely didn’t pull any punches with their best ultraportable yet – the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325.

Vivid visuals you’ve never experienced

As someone who greatly relies on her laptop’s display for creative outputs, I was thrilled when I got my hands on the ZenBook 13 OLED since this has a 13.3-inch FHD OLED HDR NanoEdge Display with 400 nits of brightness. Its 88% screen-to-body ratio and thin bezel design makes work and play very immersive.

These features are a ccompanied with a 100 percent cinema-grade DCI-P3 color gamut and Pantone validation, making it tick off all the boxes as to what I would prefer for my multimedia consumption.

Since most of us are used to LCD displays on most of our laptops, visuals on this OLED display, however, felt more realistic. Clear and detailed even at low brightness. And its color accuracy made it easy for me to assess and review photos that I had to work on.

A quick research on OLED displays tells us that an OLED display doesn’t use backlight but instead, its millions of LEDs emit its own light. So if an image or a scene in a video to be produced is black, the pixels turn off, resulting in true and deep black and would then turn on when it needs to produce colors.

This feature really helps make you feel like you’re watching live scenes in movies and video projects you’re working on with its true black and extreme contrast ratio.

Also after a long and gruelling day at work, eye strain wouldn’t be a concern since the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325 is certified with TÜV Rheinland’s certification under low blue light reduction standard. This ensures that this display emits 70% less harmful blue light and protects you from visual discomfort and disrupted sleep quality.

All these features rolled into this laptop’s OLED display definitely improves its image quality, viewing angles and eye comfort while consuming less battery power.

Power that pushes through

If you’re someone who usually multitasks or someone who wears multiple hats at work, you’ll definitely have the #PowerOf with the ZenBook 13 OLED. You can accomplish more tasks with this laptop as it is powered by the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processor complemented with Iris Xe integrated graphics for superb all-around performance.

Also under this laptop’s hood is 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD, more than enough for everyday activities like web browsing, video watching and getting some tasks done to work without a hitch.

Work light, work Smart

I am a big fan of compact and portable laptops since I like working at different spots. While I can’t frequent my favorite coffee shops and open spaces these days, I’m still able to work in different rooms and areas at home due to the UX325’s ultraportability.

Measuring only 13.9mm and weighs 1.14kg, it is just a tad bit bigger than your usual notebook. It doesn’t take up much space and is so light that you can just put it in your bag and carry it around when you have to.

Though this laptop is light, thin and has narrow bezels, Asus still managed to put an IR camera positioned at the top part of the screen.

This is very efficient because aside from using it for your day-to-day Zoom meeting or catch-ups, this IR camera also has the technology and large sensor which allows ultrafast face logins with the help of Windows Hello. I was even surprised when I tried to unlock the laptop with the lights turned off, the IR camera was still able to recognize my face in the dark.

Versatile battery

I usually work long hours on a day-to-day basis and I have limited power outlets at home so I mostly rely on battery power. The ZenBook 13 OLED UX325 has been very convenient being powered by a big 67Wh lithium polymer battery.

Asus claims that this laptop can provide up to 15 hours of battery life but this was proven wrong in a good way. I was actually able to use it for 16 hours for my daily work, a side job and some Netflix series marathon until it reached power-saving mode. Then to fully charge it just takes less than 2 hours. Talk about extreme convenience.

All set to connect

In most ultrathin laptops, they usually sacrifice ports for portability. The Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325 definitely redefines the possibilities without sacrificing connectivity. This is the world’s slimmest laptop with full I/O ports – you’ll find a full-sized HDMI, two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports with support for fast charging and up to 40Gbps data transfer speed, a USB Type-A port, and a microSD card reader on the sides of this laptop’s chassis.

If you’re still using wired earphones, you don’t have to fret since Asus provides a USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack adaptor in the package. They also provide a standard USB to LAN adaptor if you’d have to connect to a wired network.

Also, still adding up to this laptop’s connectivity is the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6. This new generation of Wi-Fi technology gives you access to more Wi-Fi frequency ranges which results in a more stable and faster connection.

Lift to your liking

Typing can be pretty wearisome especially if you’ve been working for quite a while. The ZenBook 13 OLED has a precision-engineered ErgoLift hinge which automatically lifts the rear of the laptop as it is opened, tilting the keyboard for a more comfortable typing experience.

This lift also optimizes ventilation at the bottom part of the laptop while adding resonance to the sound that’s coming from the Harman Kardon down-firing speakers.

Designed for comfort and convenience

Despite being compact, the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED is actually easy to type on. This is thanks to the stunning edge-to-edge ergonomic keyboard and its large chiclet keys with hefty key travel which provides us with that satisfying typing feedback and a more comfortable experience.

Some people still prefer to have a dedicated number pad on their laptops. To solve the lack of a number pad caused by the small size of the ZenBook’s body, Asus implemented the innovative NumberPad 2.0 on the UX325. This NumberPad 2.0 is a dual function touchpad with an integrated LED-illuminated numeric keypad.

The NumberPad 2.0 can be accessed by pressing on the icon on the upper right side of the touchpad while its brightness can be adjusted through long presses on the icon found on its upper left. With the NumberPad 2.0 activated, the touchpad can still be used as cursor thanks to its integrated software.

Built to last

Durability has always been a concern for many when deciding on which laptop to purchase. When it comes to this laptop’s toughness however, the ZenBook 13 OLED is tested with the Military Grade MIL-STD-810G U.S. Standard for reliability and durability. These tests consist of different levels of stress examinations to ensure survival in harsh environments.

This includes power-on drop tests and operation at extremes of altitude and temperature. Along with this, the UX325 also endured Asus’s stress assessment which far exceeds the standards set by the industry.

Is the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325 your GadgetMatch?

It’s amazing how such a compact laptop could handle the demands of my tasks while offering more with its true-to-life colors on visuals, amazing battery life, fast charging, ultraportability and excellent performance.

So if these features tickle your fancy in a laptop, then your search for Incredible is here with the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325. Safe to say, this amazing piece of machinery is definitely your Gadgetmatch.

The Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UX325 retails for PhP 59,995 and is available in Pine Grey and Lilac mist variants.

This feature is a collaboration between GadgetMatch and Asus Philippines.

How well do Playstation games run on the ROG Ally?

The ROG Ally has caused quite a buzz in the gaming community at large. Personally, I’m thrilled at the prospect of owning a handheld gaming PC/console to play games I otherwise would not have access to. I mainly play on my Playstation 5 (PS5). Naturally, I was curious how some of my favorite games will run on the ROG Ally.

Things are promising on paper. The ROG Ally is built to be able to run AAA titles. Here’s a quick look at the specs of the unit we had for recap:

• 4nm
• Zen 4/ 8 core 16 threads
• 24M cache
• CPU Clock: up to 5.10 Ghz
• TDP: 9 – 30 watts
• AMD Radeon Graphics
• RDNA3 4G RAM capacity / 8.6 TFlops
• 12 CU
• GPU Clock: 2.7GHz

Playstation Studios on PC

Playstation, in the past couple of years, has decided to spread the love and let PC players experience some of the best they have to offer. Currently, there are 12 Playstation exclusive titles playable on PC. And they’re available on either Steam or the Epic Games Store.

In case you’re curious the available games are as follows:

• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• God of War (2018)
• Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Returnal
• Days Gone
• HELLDIVERS
• Predator Hunting Grounds
• Sackboy: A big Adventure
• The Last of Us Part 1

Playstation Asia was kind enough to give us codes for three of the 12 titles now available on PC. Here’s how they ran on the ROG Ally.

Quick note: I played on Performance mode with brightness hovering at around 50-55% indoors in an air conditioned room.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

Marvel’s Spider-Man, along with NBA 2K, is my comfort game. Whenever I feel frustrated or just having a bad day, I fire up either game. On Spider-Man, I just swing aimlessly around the digital Manhattan that Insomniac built.

It was such a delight to learn that I can do this on the go now too with Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered playing pretty darn well on the ROG Ally.

I had the framerate limiter turned on, maxing out at 60. Despite that, I only reached a max of 31 fps with dips to as low as 15. It looks bad on paper, but is much more tolerable during actual gameplay. The dips usually happened during cutscenes. Majority of the gameplay hovered around 25-30 fps.

I knew it was never gonna reach the level of detail and smoothness that I get on the PS5 and LG C2 combo that I usually play on. There was plenty of noticeable stuttering especially during the busier sections of the game. But I didn’t think any of it was game breaking.

Audio wasn’t as loud as I hoped it would be despite me playing in a pretty quiet room. I opted to pair it with Bluetooth earbuds (OnePlus Buds Pro 2) to get the most of the audio. There were no audio delays whatsoever which was a very welcome development.

My average play time was about one hour and 20 minutes. That’s with the battery going from 100% to 20% each time.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Coming from the same Studio and pretty much being essentially the same game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales didn’t run too differently from Spider-Man Remastered.

I played in the exact same conditions: Indoor room, AC on, started at 100%, performance mode, and medium brightness settings. Curiously, the frame dips happened more during open-world swinging and not as much during cutscenes. This could be because of the busier version of New York due to the events of the game being set during the Christmas season.

But the numbers weren’t too different. I still maxed at 31 fps, with most of the gameplay hovering around 25-30 fps, and the lowest dip coming in at 16fps.

Again, nothing game breaking and it is much more tolerable during gameplay. Naturally, you have to have your expectations set properly. The ROG Ally is, after all, a handheld gaming PC.

Average play time is around one hour and 25 minutes with about 75% to 80% of the battery life being consumed.

Returnal

Returnal is one of the titles I was most excited to try. I was curious about how the audio and controller rumble would translate to the ROG Ally. On the PS5, Audio and DualSense implementation are two of the game’s many strengths.

Due to audio cues on enemies’ locations, this game is best played with earbuds/headphones on. The experience on the ROG Ally isn’t quite 3D Audio on PS5 levels, but it’s as close as it gets.

The same can be said for the controller rumble. It’s not as precise nor finely implemented as the DualSense – that’s a unique feature after all. However, I was still thoroughly impressed with how the ROG Ally implemented rumble in certain sections of the game. The rumble effect is also a testament to how well-built the Ally is. Despite the internals shaking, the Ally never felt brittle nor that it would suddenly come apart.

Knowing this is a shooter game, I turned the framerate limiter off and reached highs of 115 fps. The framerate did dip to as low as 15 fps which is about the widest variance I got from any game I played using the Ally. This did affect gameplay especially during sections where I had to deal with multiple enemies.

I did experience plenty of crashes which isn’t ideal for a game like Returnal whose progress relies on you surviving as long as you can on a single run through. But this only happened during the first few minutes. After a while, it seemed like the ROG Ally had adjusted to the performance-demands of the game.

It took about an hour and 10 minutes before I had to plug-in the Ally to not lose a playthrough.

Remote Play?

Since the ROG Ally is essentially a handheld gaming PC, you can certainly install the Remote Play app on it. However, you can’t just immediately use the gamepad. To play Horizon: Forbidden West. and generally just run the app, I had to pair the Ally with my DualSense controller. You can map the gamepad so that it works but mapping isn’t an activity I enjoy nor did I have the time (I had to return the review unit) to do it. Other reviewers pointed to using a third-party app called Chiaki. But again, I didn’t have time to test it. I did see gameplay of it though so it seems to be working just fine.

Knowing that you can do all these on the Ally actually makes you question the upcoming Playstation Q handheld. Sure, the integration will likely be seamless. But its core function can already be replicated on other handhelds and handheld-like devices. I digress.

It’s worth noting that the relatively smooth experience I had with the ROG Ally was also aided by an internet connection that constantly hovers in the 250 mbps range along with a Wi-Fi 6 router.

The ROG Ally is Playstation friendly

If you want to know what it’s like playing Playstation 5 games on a handheld device, the ROG Ally is easily one of the best devices to play with. The gameplay isn’t quite as smooth but you shouldn’t expect it to be. And yes, you’ll find yourself reaching for the power adapter after a little over an hour of playthrough. But being able to play AAA titles on a handheld device still feels crazy to me.

Having started gaming on a family computer and covering tech for a living, it’s still mind-blowing to me how far technology has come. The stuff I only dreamed of as a little fat gamer is coming true thanks to the ROG Ally and its contemporaries.

The ROG Ally Z1 Extreme retails for US 699. The ROG Ally Z1 variant retails for US 599. Pre-orders begin on May 11. It will be available for sale worldwide on June 13, 2023.

Asus ZenBook 13 OLED

Ultrabooks had never been cheap. Its portability gives it a premium. Not only are they built lightweight, but they’re built to perform more than your average laptops. Asus took that as a challenge and gave consumers not only an affordable machine in its segment, but gave it a crowning glory never heard in its price point, an OLED screen.

Design

The latest iteration of the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED gave it a smaller, lighter footprint. It’s only 13.9mm at its thickest point and you can literally slide it inside a brown envelope. The ZenBook 13 OLED is only 1.14kg, making it one of the lightest OLED laptops available right now.

There’s little flex on the lid and keyboard thanks to its all-metal design. My only gripe is the tension on the lid. It’s easy enough to open up, but when you have it at a certain angle, the lid sometimes flop all the way to the back when you lift the laptop.

The keyboard is what Asus calls an edge-to-edge design, having a complete set of F keys and editing keys on the right side. I find the editing keys useful, but the alpha keys are a bit cramped and small, and I have medium-sized hands.

The power key is also at an awkward space as you can accidentally press it if you’re keen on using the Delete or Backspace keys. The keys on the ZenBook 13 OLED has a very good travel at 1.4mm and feels good to type on. The keys are backlit with white LED and the characters are big and legible.

Despite its size, the trackpad on the ZenBook 13 OLED is huge and doubles as a numpad. Just hold the top-right icon to activate the numpad. The icon on the top left adjusts the brightness of the numpad. You can also launch the calculator instantly by swiping from the top-left icon to the numbers.

Obviously, you can’t use it as a trackpad while the numpad is on. Overall, the trackpad is one of the best trackpads I’ve used in any laptops. It’s smooth and responsive and the left and right clicks feels good to press.

The ports on the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED is plenty enough for your accessories. On the right side, you have a microSD card reader and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port.

On the other side, you have a full-sized HDMI port and 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C. The Type-C ports supports a wide range of USB-C chargers. This is pretty useful if you can’t find any power outlets when you’re travelling. This also means that you can bring a single powerbank for all your devices.

For a laptop that focuses on people on the go, I’m surprised that Asus didn’t include a 3.5mm port for headphones. It wouldn’t be much of a problem as they have provided a USB-C to 3.5mm cable in the package but it’ll automatically take up 1 of your 2 USB-C port. Then again, I realized, it’s 2022 and you can get wireless headsets and/or USB headsets for cheap. There’s also an included USB Type-A to LAN port if you ever needed a wired connection.

Performance

Big things come in small packages and the ZenBook OLED 13 is no exception. It’s powered by the latest 8-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 5700U. The ZenBook OLED 13’s CPU is perfect for everyday work as it can run the most commonly used office apps, even heavy video and photo editing. The variant available in the Philippines might get a little shorthanded as it only comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM.

The ZenBook OLED 13 can also handle a little bit of gaming if you need to take a break from work. It handles most esports titles flawlessly thanks to its integrated Vega 8 GPU. Do take note that it gets a wee bit hot when using it for gaming.

The main highlight of the ZenBook OLED 13 is in its namesake, its OLED screen. The moment you boot it up and get to your Windows login screen, the colors are just unbelievable. I’ve only used OLED screens from my smartphone and seeing it in a 13” machine, the colors just pop and looks so alive. The OLED screen runs at 1080p, which gives the ZenBook 13 OLED its amazing battery life compares to its competitors running at 4K resolution. It’s also Pantone-validated, making it ready for content creators right out of the box and saves you moolah from buying a color calibration device. However, with this one being an AMD system, you won’t have support for Thunderbolt, which some content creators need the bandwidth of.

The display in the ZenBook OLED 13 also supports 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut which is widely used in the film industry to standardize the colors across devices. The DCI-P3 space is 25% wider than sRGB, which is the common space in use today across PCs and video games.

And with that, we come to the battery life. The ZenBook OLED 13 has a 67Wh 4-cell LiPo battery, enough for its intended functions and will last you the whole day without needing to find a power outlet. Like I mentioned above, power outlets are not an issue as you can charge the ZenBook OLED 13 with any power source, even a car charger port!

Verdict

The Asus ZenBook 13 OLED is one nifty machine that will breeze through anything you throw at it, sans AAA games. It has more than power than most office desktops and gives you great battery life. The ZenBook 13 OLED’s form factor and weight makes it the perfect travel companion for people on the go.

Priced aggressively at ₱54,995, the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED is pretty much the best machine in its price range given everything it offers plus its OLED screen. Whether you’re consuming or creating content, the ZenBook 13 OLED got your back anywhere, anytime.

You can check the microsite too to know more details.

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED Review: System, Graphics And Game Benchmarks

Before running any of our benchmarks, we apply all of the latest Windows and driver updates to the system we are testing. Our Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED sample shipped with Windows 11 Home and did have one firmware update that needed to be installed, along with an AMD Radeon Software update. Other than applying any available Windows updates (like most consumers would) though, we run all of our tests with out-of-the-box settings.

By default, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is configured to use its Balanced power profile, but its Performance profile, which boosts clocks and fan speeds and allows for slightly higher sustained power limit (15w vs. 17w) is only a couple of clicks away. As such, we decided to test both profiles throughout our benchmarks.

ATTO Disk Benchmarks

ATTO disk benchmark is a fairly quick and dirty test that measures sequential read/write bandwidth across a range of different data sizes. While we don’t typically compare these results across multiple machines, it’s useful to gauge whether a particular notebook’s storage subsystem is up to snuff.

The 1TB Samsung NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD in the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is nice and speedy. We say read speeds peak over 6.2GB/s with writes in the 4.6GB/s range. Not earth-shattering performance, but plenty fast for this class of notebook.

Since this machine is also USB 4-enabled, we also did some transfer tests with a USB 4 external SSD. For these tests, we installed a Samsung SSD 980 Pro NVMe SSD into this USB 4 enclosure.

As you can see, read performance using USB 4, which peaked at over 2.6GB/s, blew the USB 3 out of the water, but writes actually took a bit of a hit. Although AMD is still in the early stages of qualifying USB 4 and enabling the ecosystem on its platforms with the help of its partners, we can say with certainty this reduced write speed is inherent to the enclosure we used. Plugging the same drive into an Intel-based system shows nearly identical performance.

BrowserBench Speedometer Web App Benchmarks

We use BrowserBench.org’s Speedometer test to gauge mixed internet usage experience, which takes a holistic look at web application performance. This test automatically loads and runs several sample web apps from ToDoMVC.com using the most popular web development frameworks around, including React, Angular, Ember.js, and vanilla JavaScript. This test is a better example of how systems cope with real web applications, as opposed to a pure JavaScript compute test like JetStream.

In our first set of benchmarks, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED leaps ahead of all of the other AMD-based systems we tested, except for the higher clocked, Ryzen 9 6900HS-powered Zephyrus G14. Intel’s 12th Gen Core Alder Lake platform has a clear advantage here though, thanks to the high IPC and frequencies afforded by its latest P-cores.

Cinebench R23 Rendering Tests

This is the latest 3D rendering benchmark from Maxon, based on the Cinema 4D R23 rendering engine. We tested both single-threaded and multi-threaded tests on all of the notebooks represented here.

The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED outpaces all of the other thin-and-light notebooks in Cinebench R23, and ends up trailing only the bigger, higher-powered Asus Zephyrus G14. Technically speaking, the Zephyrus G14 is a completely different class of system, but since it was also based on Ryzen 6000, we’ve included its results solely for an additional frame of reference.

UL PCMark 10 Testing

PCMark 10 uses a mix of real-world applications and simulated workloads to establish how well a given system performs productivity tasks, including image and video editing, web browsing, and OpenOffice document editing. While these scores appear to be all over the place, the systems are sorted by their overall PCMark score, which is the third (gray) bar in each cluster.

The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED finishes in the same position in PCMark, at the top of the chart behind only the Zephyrus G14. The combination of fast RAM, Gen 4 PCIe NVMe storage, speedy iGPU and 8-core processor make this system well suited to the type of workloads that comprise this benchmark.

3DMark Graphics GPU Tests

3DMark has several different graphics tests which FOCUS on different types of systems. We start with Night Raid, which is 3DMark’s targeted benchmark for laptops with integrated graphics. This test presents a solid challenge for the system’s CPU and GPU engines using DirectX 12’s API. We’ll then move on to the even more taxing 3DMark Fire Strike.

To put it simply, the Radeon 680M is the most powerful integrated GPU of the bunch according to both 3DMark tests we ran. Also note, that despite having a similar 12-CU configuration to the Ryzen 9 6900HS in the Zephyrus G14, the reduced power and thermal envelope in the thinner and lighter Zenbook S 13 OLED shaves a few percentage points off the Radeon 680M’s performance. Still, it has enough oomph to beat out anything in Intel’s camp currently.

Middle Earth: Shadow Of War Gear Tactics Game Tests

Middle Earth: Shadow of War is a fun and and beautiful title set in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe. To test the game’s performance relative to other systems, we set the resolution to 1920×1080 and turned the visuals up to the High preset. For Gears Tactics, we used a similar resolution, but tested the game with its Low, Medium, and High presets to see how it scales. The frame rates here are the averages reported by each game’s built-in benchmark utilities.

The Radeon 680M in the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED offers relatively strong performance in both of these games. In Shadow Of War, the Radeon 680M even hangs with some previous-gen discrete GPUs. And in Gears Tactics, which is also heavily influenced by CPU performance, the Radeon 680M is right in the mix with Intel’s latest.