We reviewed the updated Asus Zenbook S16, which is an excellent everyday laptop with a brighter OLED display. You also get the new AMD Ryzen AI 400 processor, which shows that the Zen 5 architecture has not become obsolete yet.
The Asus Zenbook S16 is a 16-inch laptop with a slim body and high-quality components. For 2026, the manufacturer has updated the processors and now uses AMD’s Ryzen AI 400 chipset. Our review unit was equipped with a fast Ryzen AI 9 465 processor with Radeon 880M integrated GPU plus 32GB of RAM, which is now faster than before. In our analysis of the new AMD Gorgon Point chip, we saw that the overall architecture with the Zen 5 cores remains unchanged and clock speeds have only increased slightly.
Asus has managed to increase the power limits, so maximum performance is better compared to the previous model, which was available with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or Ryzen AI 9 365 processor. However, when using Performance mode and really using full performance, the fan noise is noticeably louder compared to the old model. In everyday situations, this is usually a very rare scenario and other power profiles remain quieter; Silent mode, for example, emits only a gentle hum.
Intel recently launched its new Panther Lake chipsets and we’ve already tested them during our analysis. The Core Ultra X9 388H and Core Ultra The biggest difference is Intel’s new GPU. While AMD and Intel were almost equal last year, Intel was able to increase the performance of the new Arc B390 iGPU by about 70%.
This means that Intel’s new processors are especially interesting when you want to play games. If not, we can easily recommend the Zenbook S16 with Ryzen AI 400, because there are no real differences in terms of features (both processors also meet Microsoft’s Copilot+ certification requirements). Please see our comprehensive review of the new Zenbook S16 for more information.
