Intel joins the AI PC race, as Asus Zenbook S14 OLED ticks off future-proofing
Asus and Intel’s efforts face competition from Qualcomm’s ARM architecture as well as AMD’s impressive chips, but performance consistency hold them in good stead
They took their own time, but better late than never. Intel finally makes it a troika in a developing AI PC ecosystem, following Qualcomm which had the advantage of a period of exclusivity, and then AMD, to join the chip battles. Unsurprisingly, Asus, a company that has been absolutely on point throughout 2024 with their laptop line-up, is the first off the mark with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V chip for the Zenbook S14. Having had considerable experience with Qualcomm and AMD’s artificial intelligence (AI) optimised chips, how Intel’s efforts match up, provides some intrigue. The results are partly impressive.
The Zenbook S14’s Core Ultra 7 is part of what Intel calls the ‘Lunar Lake’ family. Intel claims this is the most efficient chip they have ever made. That may well be the case. In our Intel-powered Zenbook S14 tests, battery life peaked at 16 hours and 20 minutes on a single charge. That is with brightness set to match the ambient lighting in office and at home, as well as careless multi-tasking often drawing more power than we would otherwise recommend. This compares well with our experience with the AMD Ryzen AI-powered Zenbook S16, which touched 14 hours on a charge.
We have had varied experiences with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips. The HP Elite Ultra G1q, which arrived much later in this chip’s existence cycle, lasted an astonishing 25 hours when used on a work machine for three days straight. The Asus VivoBook S15 (mind you, early days and the optimisations since clearer with HP’s review data), clocked 13 hours with the same usage. There is bound to be some variation depending on display size differences, but in Asus’ case, the OLED technology remained constant.
That continues with the Zenbook S14, with the 14-inch ‘Lumina’ OLED. It is bright enough for the occasional outdoor usage, though some reflections are still noticeable. Inherent advantages of this display technology are clear—deep blacks, vivid colours and the fact that colours shine through when editing photos or consuming media. Build too, is quite on point. The mix of ceramic and aluminium (a combination that Asus refers to as Ceraluminum) does not just look but also feels quite distinct (and feels more durable; though we did not attempt dropping the laptop) in an ecosystem of laptops that often either go the polycarbonate route or flaunt the metal.
But there can be a school of thought that tells us that the Zenbook S14 does not exactly look too different from its siblings. That may well be an undeniable argument because the Zenbook S16 carried similar design themes and colour palettes. Not exactly a complaint, but Asus could do a bit more to differentiate between its laptop lines, and also perhaps to make it easier to set apart an Intel-powered machine from one with an AMD chip. More than before, processors are defining the AI PC era, and they should get their moment in the branding sunshine.
Performance from the Intel Core 7 Ultra 258V chip is decidedly upper mid-range. That makes it more than adequately powerful for most use cases. I did notice a definite snappiness with app response, be it loading new apps or switching. That being said, it is not entirely different from the previous generation of Intel chips—they were fast, and this generation brings that forward. Having said that, while the earlier chips also had some level of AI processing capabilities, it is now that Lunar Lake ticks off the minimum 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second)—in fact, it is 47 TOPS, to be precise. You may not immediately notice this working at its fullest potential, but as more on-device AI becomes the norm, this will begin to be deployed more.
The Zenbook S14 prices start at ₹1,42,990 and that puts it well in the ballpark of how much you must pay for an AI PC now. The configuration is quite future-proof as well, with 16GB RAM (or 32GB RAM as an upgrade option) and 512GB SSD (the 32GB RAM version is paired with 1TB SSD).
The advantage of Intel chip-powered machines (as do AMD ones) is there is little inconvenience of compatibility that often crops up with Qualcomm’s ARM architecture. The thing is, are you buying a new laptop today with specific AI requirements? You likely are not. As a laptop for use cases, you and I will most likely plug the new Zenbook S14 into it, this does not go wrong with keeping things constant. With Microsoft more than interested in the Windows’ AI layers, you will find the neural capabilities becoming more and more relevant in the next year or so.