Latest news with #AsusZenbookS16
Hindustan Times
12-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Asus Zenbook S16's flagship credentials give AMD footing in an AI PC juggernaut
There is a clear direction the PC market is taking, and if you're spending top money now on something that isn't truly artificial intelligence (AI) capable, you'll be making a mistake. We have the AI PC decoded, illustrating fine differences that dictate the specifics of a Copilot+ PC, Copilot PC, Next-Gen AI PC, and AI Enabled PC. The focus, and it is safe to say this is still stage one of the process, seems to be on setting the top-line. The theoretical performance benchmark, a flex of what PC makers can do with chips from AMD, Intel as well as Qualcomm, as well as AI solutions built into Microsoft Windows 11 and indeed the one's they develop on their own. The Asus Zenbook S16 (2025), with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, is one more premium AI laptop that has a very distinct undercurrent — AMD's comeback, as it turns out, with quite some style. The 2025 edition of the Zenbook S16 is priced at ₹149,990 and the headline specs make for impressive reading. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 has a 50 TOPS (or trillion operations per second; that makes this a Copilot+ PC) neural processing unit (or NPU) for AI compute, 24GB of memory, and a 16-inch 3K resolution OLED display that belies the compact form factor. The specs are exactly as you'd expect at this price, but then again, there is an urgent need to widen portfolios of the four AI PC classifications, at lower price points too. The Zenbook S16, may well be another impressive example of what's possible. Also Read: HP EliteBook X G1a review: AI in PCs finally gets definitive meaning and purpose Asus has the design elements spot on, and that's another way of saying there is continuity with a few things. That's to be expected, as the portfolio and options widen to include similarly spec-ed (and priced) machines with Intel, Qualcomm and now AMD chips. The Ceraluminum material on the lid has been around since last year, as has the broader aesthetic of the pattern. This is a slim machine, and yet isn't falling short on connectivity, including an HDMI port. Whatever choice you make between Scandinavian White and Zumaia Gray, this laptop is certainly a looker. Tipping the scales at 1.5kg for a 16-inch display, credit is due for the teams that pieced this combination. The 16-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate, is one of the finest displays in laptops, at this point in time. It can be very bright and equally subdued, and delivers very balanced as well as accurate colours at default settings — there is of course a 'vivid' option, if you prefer over-saturated colours, but even then, separation is still handled fairly well. Deep blacks do make everything look better, be it documents, webpages or media. Asus' display management smarts, such as the automatic refresh to keep an OLED display in good health, have successfully withstood the test of time. Also Read: PC market finds its edge driven by AI push With the sort of specs that form the core of this Asus Zenbook S16, performance is never a doubt. Our experience, as a primary work laptop, testifies to an ability to not just hold performance well even under the sort of multitasking load we could send its way, bit also fairly robust battery life of close to 12 hours for most usage, and around 14.5 hours if you're careful with elements such as display brightness and memory usage. One could argue that Qualcomm chips get close to 20 hours and upwards with similar workloads, and that does hold weight. There is some fan noise that becomes apparent as the machine heats up on the underside when stressed with multi-tasking (it is very cool, rest of the time), and that is something which can perhaps be improved with a firmware update — the question then will be, will it compromise raw performance? Anyone buying the Zenbook S16 that is priced at ₹149,990 is undoubtedly paying top money for a laptop that should have longevity and promise — and the Zenbook S16 is well equipped on both fronts. It delivers what one would expect, and a bit more, with performance, battery stamina as well as that gorgeous display. It is therefore perplexing why Asus have left a few things to chance, such as a fairly middling webcam experience (though that's layered with AI too). On a Zoom call, it is unlikely the other side of the table would get a whiff of the premium laptop you may have just parted with a lot of money for. That is perhaps the only real niggle, in an otherwise well thought through package.
Telegraph
14-04-2025
- Telegraph
Asus Zenbook A14 review: This Windows laptop is gunning for the MacBook Air 13
This article contains affiliate links. The products or services listed have been selected independently by journalists after hands-on testing or sourcing expert opinions. We may earn a commission when you click a link, buy a product or subscribe to a service. Our Rating: 9/10 We like: Light and compact Colourful OLED display All-day battery life We don't like: Unimpressive speakers 60Hz display Webcam could be better £1,099.99 Buy now Price at Asus What is the Asus Zenbook A14? In my view, the Asus Zenbook S16 is one of the most attractive and capable laptops currently on sale in the UK. It's also great value but of course, that's not the same as saying that it's affordable. In the Zenbook A14, Asus has attempted to distil the essence of the S16 into a laptop with a price that's closer to £1,000. Asus clearly had the latest M4 13.6-inch MacBook Air in its sights when it designed and priced the A14. In size, they are almost identical and the MacBook only has the edge in terms of pricing if you are prepared to put up with a small 256GB hard drive. Specify a basic M4 MacBook Air with the Zenbook A14's 1TB SSD and the price jumps from £999 up to £1,399. JUMP TO: How we test laptops I have been a technology journalist for over 15 years, testing everything from laptops and electric cars to tablets and audio systems. Over the years, I've used and tested devices running all of the major operating systems, settling these days with Windows, Linux and Android. When I test laptops here at the Telegraph, I focus on five testing metrics: design and usability, keyboard and touchpad, display and audio, performance and configurations and battery life. However, I don't just look at scores on a spreadsheet. I use the laptops I'm testing as my primary device, which in my case means a lot of typing, using them on the go, general web browsing, emails and other basic productivity, as well as gaming – the latter especially if the laptop has a graphics card. This gives me a good idea of what the laptop is capable of, how long the battery lasts and how it can handle intense tasks. Why you can trust Telegraph Recommended Our tech experts continuously conduct in-depth, independent, real-world tests, scoring devices against pre-set testing metrics and industry benchmarks, so we can deliver definitive and comprehensive buying advice. Telegraph Recommended reviews are never shared with product manufacturers before publication, we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews, nor do we allow brands to pay for placement in our articles. Visit our Who We Are page to learn more. Design and usability Score: 8/10 The Zenbook A14 is impressively light and compact, even for a 14-inch laptop. At 860g, it makes the 1.24Kg MacBook Air feel almost leaden. It measures 311 x 214 x 13mm, which makes it a similar size to the Apple machine. Yet despite the low weight, the A14 doesn't feel flimsy or bendy. The body is made from Asus' bespoke 'Ceraluminium' material like the Zenbook S16, though it lacks the slightly matte-effect finish and chrome pinstriping that makes the more expensive machine such a design classic. There are two colours available: Zabriskie Beige and Iceland Gray. I wouldn't dare say that the A14 is an ugly machine but it's obviously been designed to be just a little less pretty than than the S16. The good news is that the A14's shell is equally good at keeping fingerprints at bay and it still meets the US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard for resistance to particle ingress, shock and extreme temperatures. For a skinny compact laptop, the A14 has a decent range of ports with two USB-C 4.0 data/video sockets on the left, along with an HDMI 2.1 video output and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right, you'll find a solitary 10Gbps USB-A port. Unlike the MacBook Air, which has two Type-C ports and a MagSafe charge port, you'll need to use one of the A14's Type-C ports to connect the 65W power supply. Wireless communications are handled by a Qualcomm 6900 card that supports 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Removing the base panel from the A14 is a straightforward job but there's little point because once inside, all you can do is swap out the battery and the 2280 M.2 SSD. Speaking of the SSD, the 1TB Crucial card in the A14 proved to be nippy, recording impressive sequential read and write speeds of 4,700MB/s and 2,250MB/s respectively. Keyboard and touchpad Score: 9/10 I can't imagine anyone finding fault with the A14's keyboard. The slightly rubberised keys are pleasant to the touch and their action is nigh on perfect, the 1.3mm of travel ending in a precise but well-cushioned end-stop. The white-on-grey keycap graphics are easy to read with or without the three-position white backlight turned on. The keyboard deck is unusually solid for a slim and compact laptop, with even hard presses on the central keys only causing a small amount of movement in the keyboard base. At 130 x 80mm, the touchpad is on the larger side for a 14-inch laptop and it feels smooth. The mechanical click-action that works across the lower 80 per cent of the pad is perfectly calibrated and also quiet. You can use it in a library with no fear of getting disapproving looks from other patrons. Early samples of the A14 were criticised for having a webcam that misbehaved when a strong light source was in shot, but Asus seems to have fixed the problem because it wasn't something I could replicate. Generally speaking, the A14's 1080p camera does a decent job. Video looks sharp and colourful even in less-than-ideal lighting conditions and there is support for Windows Hello facial security along with the usual raft of Windows Studio Effects image enhancements. That said, the 1440p webcams that Acer currently fits to some of its compact laptops and the 12MP Center Stage camera Apple uses on the MacBook Air are better. Display and audio Score: 8/10 The Zenbook A14's 14-inch display is a detuned version of what you'll find on the S14, so you have to make do with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 rather than 2.8K, a 60Hz refresh rate rather than 120Hz and no touch interface. Otherwise, it's every bit as good as the S14. The difference in resolution is hard to detect in everyday use unless you have your nose pressed right up against the screen or have the eyesight of an eagle. The drop in pixel density from the Zenbook S4's 237dpi and MacBook Air's 224dpi to the A14's 161dpi sounds more precipitous than it looks. Peak brightness is a good 395 nits and that jumps to 610 nits when displaying HDR (High Dynamic Range) content. Asus makes some of the most colour-accurate displays on the market and the A14 is no exception, with Delta E variances of 0.63 versus the DCI-P3 profile and 0.89 against sRGB. Here, a number less than 1 indicates excellent levels of colour performance. The screen has a high-gloss finish that gives on-screen proceedings a sumptuous and limpid quality, though slightly at the expense of increased reflections, so I wouldn't describe it as ideal for use outdoors in direct sunlight. The speaker system is a basic stereo affair without the Harmon/Kardon branding of more expensive Zenbooks. There's plenty of volume on tap, but at higher volumes, the sound is overly brittle and forward. Performance and configurations Score: 7/10 The Zenbook A14 comes with two processor options; the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 and the 12-core X Elite X1E-78-100. With all else being equal, I'd suggest the everyday performance difference isn't worth the extra £200 the Elite machine will set you back. In the CineBench R24 rendering test, the A14 scored 704 points in multi-core and 95 in single-core. The M4 MacBook Air has the A14 handily beat in the single-core test, but when it comes to multi-core, there's not much in it: the Apple machine only enjoys a seven per cent advantage. Apple's M4 is the better choice when it comes to graphics work because the GPU in the X1-26-100 is simply less powerful. The A14 scored 9,610 in the Geekbench 6 OpenCL test, which is less than a third of what you can expect from an M4-powered MacBook Air. The dry numbers aside, the Zenbook A14 never feels anything less than quick and in 95 per cent of usage scenarios, you simply won't notice the performance giveaway to nominally more powerful machines like the M4 MacBook Air or Intel Core Ultra S2-powered Zenbook S14. Where you will notice the difference between the A14 and the MacBook Air is noise, since the latter is fanless and the former is not. Even when under severe stress, the A14's fans are not loud or intrusive, but it's not as deathly quiet as the MacBook Air. Battery life Score: 9/10 Qualcomm's Windows-on-ARM chipsets continue to impress with their balance between efficiency and performance. A full charge of the A14's 3-cell 70Wh battery kept the lights on for 19 hours and 10 minutes in our battery test. That's around four hours more than you'll get from a MacBook Air. This time last year, the MacBook Air was the acknowledged master of laptop battery life but how times have changed. Technical specifications The Zenbook A14's primary competition with regards to both internal specifications and price comes from Apple's corner. The new MacBook Air 13 (M4) is £100 less but this is only for the entry-level model with 256GB of storage. If you want to match the Zenbook's 512GB SSD, you'll have to pay an additional £200 £1,199). Should you buy the Asus Zenbook A14? The Asus Zenbook A14 is the closest thing to a Windows MacBook Air killer that I've seen. Compared to the MacBook, the A14 is better value once you've factored in a matching SSD, has a more colourful and larger albeit lower-resolution display, a better keyboard and more ports. It's also lighter and has better battery life. The MacBook counters this with more power, especially when it comes to graphics and a better camera and speakers. Picking between the two is difficult because it's not so much a damned close-run thing as a dead-heat. It simply comes down to whether you prefer using a Windows or Mac machine. Yes, if You want an ultralight laptop You want a highly accurate OLED display You want all-day battery life No, if You want a touchscreen You want a screen refresh rate higher than 60Hz You want a great rather than good webcam FAQs What is the price of the Asus Zenbook A14? The entry-level model with the 8-core Snapdragon X processor and 16GB of RAM is £1,099, while the version with the 12-core Snapdragon X-Elite processor and 32GB of RAM is £200 more at £1,299. The cheaper version is the one to go for because, chipset and memory aside, they are identical and the performance differences are minor. Is the Zenbook A14 better value than the MacBook Air? In its cheapest form, the MacBook Air is £100 less but that comes with a 256GB SSD. Doubling the storage capacity costs £200 and quadrupling it costs £400. An M4 MacBook Air with a 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM will cost £1,799 compared to £1,299 for the equivalent Zenbook A14. What is the software compatibility for Windows-on-ARM? The vast majority of users needn't worry about the A14 being an ARM machine. The majority of popular software will run natively on ARM chipsets, or under Microsoft's Prism emulation tool. The Google Drive desktop sync tool was a notable holdout but even that is now available in ARM form. If you need to run a piece of unusually old or esoteric software, you may encounter issues, but most don't need to worry.
Telegraph
31-03-2025
- Telegraph
Asus Zenbook S16 review: The greatest ultrabook of them all
This article contains affiliate links. The products or services listed have been selected independently by journalists after hands-on testing or sourcing expert opinions. We may earn a commission when you click a link, buy a product or subscribe to a service. Our Rating: 9/10 We like: Sumptuous OLED touchscreen Potent yet efficient AMD chipset Long battery life We don't like: Can get warm when stressed Limited upgrade options The webcam should be better What is the Asus Zenbook S16? The phrase 'ultrabook' was first coined by Intel back in 2011 to denote a thin and light laptop that met an exacting list of features set by Intel, including using a modern Intel CPU. Since then, it's become a generic term taken to mean any high-end thin and light laptop with a screen size above 15 inches, which is why I'm here using it to apply to a laptop with an AMD processor – an Intel rival. The new Asus Zenbook S16 is far more than just another thin and light laptop though. Thanks to the latest generation of AMD's processors and the company's design, this is a Windows laptop that can match or better the best that Apple can offer with its MacBook Air and Pro machines in terms of performance, quality, design and value. How we test laptops I have been a technology journalist for over 15 years, testing everything from laptops and electric cars, to tablets and audio systems. Over the years, I've used all the operating systems, though these days I've settled down to Windows, Linux and Android. As the saying goes, 'the best operating system is the one you're most familiar with'. When we test laptops here at The Telegraph, we focus on five testing metrics: design and usability, keyboard and touchpad, display and audio, performance and configurations, and battery life. However, we don't just look at scores on a spreadsheet. We use the laptops we're testing as our main laptops and in my case, that means lots of typing, using them on the go, general web browsing, emails and other basic productivity tasks, as well as gaming – the latter especially if the laptop has a graphics card. This gives us a good idea of what they are capable of, how long the battery lasts and how they handle intense tasks. Design and usability: 10/10 The Zenbook S16 is made from something that Asus calls Ceraluminium, a substance that combines the strength of aluminium and the tactile finesse of ceramic. Such made-up substances are usually more marketing flannel than fact but this new finish from Asus is impressive. With its engraved lid and drilled vent panel, I'd say the Zenbook S16 is the most visually interesting and attractive laptop on the market. The Ceraluminium finish also resists greasy fingerprints so the Zenbook S16 looks good even after a day at the office. The S16 weighs just 1.35kg, which is 200g lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro and measures up at 353.6 x 243 x 12.9mm (WDH). Despite the lightness, it feels solid and meets the US MIL-STD 810H standard for resistance to shocks, vibration and particle ingress, so it will withstand a little abuse too. There are two colours available: Scandinavian White and Zumaia Gray. My review machine looks stunning in the former, showing off the angular design and Asus trademark chrome strips on the lid. Asus has found room for plenty of ports too so you get two USB-C ports, a HDMI 2.1 video output, 3.5mm audio socket, USB-A port and an SD card reader. The USB-C ports may not carry Thunderbolt 4 branding but they perform the same, transmitting data at 40Gbps and supplying video in DisplayPort Alt Mode. If I had to criticise the design, it would be that the lid hinge is just a little too stiff to be opened with just one hand and both the USB-C ports are on the same side and next to each other so things can get a bit crowded. Wireless communications are fully up to date with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Getting inside the Zenbook S16 is an easy job but there's no room for a second SSD and the RAM and wireless modules are all soldered in place so there's no opportunity for upgrades. The Zenbook S16 is fully compliant with Microsoft's Copilot+ AI service thanks to the Ryzen 9 AI's powerful XDNA neural processing unit (or NPU). The mileage general users get from services like Copilot is certainly increasing. I often find myself using it to upscale images rather than doing it manually, but Copilot is still a relatively new evolution of Microsoft's software. Keyboard and touchpad: 9/10 The keyboard is a model of clarity and solidity on the Zenbook S16. The graphics are easy to read with or without the three-stage white backlight turned on, while the keycaps themselves have a slightly rough, rubberised feel to them and are pleasant to type on. The large white keys don't have the greatest amount of travel at just over 1mm but the typing action is positive, nicely damped and quiet, easily passing the 'can you use it in a library without getting tutted-at' test. The 150 x 100mm touchpad is one of the largest you'll encounter on any laptop. The plastic surface is smooth and its mechanical clicks are positive and quiet. Asus has installed some bespoke swipe gestures on the touchpad, including display brightness on the right edge, volume on the left edge and media controls along the top. Given the size of the touchpad, these can be used with surprising delicacy. The webcam is a rather basic 1080p affair so the images it generates appear a little noisy and drab, though it does include support for Windows Hello IR facial recognition and Windows Studio Effects AI enhancements. It's not a bad camera per se, but given the standard of the rest of the Zenbook S16, I expected better. Display and audio: 9/10 The Zenbook S16 uses a 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It's one of the finest laptop displays I've ever encountered. The brightness is great and it's lovely and colourful too. Asus laptops have a reputation for excellent colour accuracy and the Zenbook S16 is no exception. In Vivid mode, the colour palette is deliberately over-saturated to deliver a supernatural look which is great for watching movies. Dune 2 proved to be a stunning visual feast. The panel also carries the VESA-certified DisplayHDR True Black 500 seal of approval so you're getting a proper HDR (high dynamic range) show. The combination of a 120Hz refresh rate and OLED per-pixel lighting makes for superb levels of motion fidelity; better than the IPS panels on the vast majority of thoroughbred gaming laptops, with not even a suggestion of ghosting or smearing. The Harman Kardon six-speaker system doesn't boast a massive amount of volume but the sound is well balanced and detailed with a solid bass underpinning the soundscape. It's easy on the ear no matter what you listen to. Performance and configurations: 8/10 The Zenbook S16 is available in three configurations. The base model runs on an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor with basic Radeon graphics and 16GB of RAM. Next is a Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 model with Radeon 880M graphics and 24GB of RAM. At the top of the range is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model with Radeon 890M and 32GB of RAM. Asus is currently selling the Ryzen AI 9 370 machine for £1,299, which is £400 off the RRP in the UK at the time of writing and the Ryzen AI 9 365 model for £1,199, again £400 off. For the extra £100, the AI 9 370 machine is the one to pick. For comparison, a 15-inch MacBook Air with a matching 24GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive costs £1,799. AMD's new chips deliver improved performance thanks to a host of small optimisations in how they handle data throughput, rather than by adding more cores or upping the clock speed. The result is better performance, efficiency and longer battery life. Regardless of the task in hand, the Zenbook S16 is one of the fastest ultrathin laptops currently on the market and capable of running demanding games on its potent Radeon integrated graphics. The Black Myth Wukong benchmark ran at 44fps, albeit at 1,920 x 1,080 and the lowest graphics preset, which is a superb result for a laptop without a discrete GPU. It means this laptop is up to the task of casual gaming. The Zenbook S16 scored 928 in the Cinebench R24 CPU test which is a strong result and similar to the score you'll get from the base Apple M4 processor used in the MacBook Air and 14-inch MacBook Pro. The 1TB SSD (solid state drive) performed well, recording sequential read and write speeds of 4,026MBps and 2,212MBps respectively. That's more than sufficient for the quick movement of even large amounts of data. Given the Zenbook S16's performance levels, it runs surprisingly cool and quiet under maximum stress. After 30 minutes of extreme stress testing, the CPU performance dropped to 50 per cent but the GPU stayed at 100 per cent and fan noise never climbed above a moderate whisper. The rear edge of the underside does, however, get a little hot. Battery life: 8/10 In our standard video rundown battery test, which involves looping a video using the VLC video player with the display brightness set to 200cd/m2, the Zenbook S16 lasted for 14 hours and 10 minutes. That's a strong achievement for this type of laptop, especially one with only a 78Wh capacity battery. The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops can do better than that, some running past the 24-hour mark, but considering the large display and powerful hardware, the Zenbook S16's showing is impressive. Battery life has long been an area where Apple laptops consistently beat those running Windows, but those days are now gone. I was easily able to get through a full day's work with the Zenbook S16 without using the charger. Usefully, the charger Asus supplies is a small and compact 65W USB-C affair that you can also use to charge your phone. Technical specifications: Telegraph verdict: 9/10 The Asus Zenbook S16 is an exceptionally well-rounded laptop: The design, performance, build, screen and speaker quality are superb, while the battery life is good for a Windows laptop with a large OLED display. The only downsides are the rather ordinary webcam, the lack of an option to add a second SSD and the degree to which it gets warm when being thrashed. None of those niggles bothered me excessively though. FAQs What was the release date for the Asus Zenbook S16? The Zenbook S16 went on sale in the UK in late 2024 but since then, the price has dropped and it has gained official Microsoft CoPilot+ AI accreditation. What new features does the Zenbook S16 have? The Zenbook S16 is the first outing for AMD's new Zen 5 x86 processors which offer improved efficiency, faster performance and a new neural processor capable of running local AI tasks at up to 50 TOPS. The latest Radeon 880M and 890M graphics chips are also impressively powerful. What configurations does the Zenbook S16 have? The Zenbook S16 is available with three processor choices, two AMD Ryzen 9 and one AMD Ryzen 7, with either 16, 24 or 32GB of RAM. All models have the same 1TB SSD and the same 3K, 120Hz OLED touchscreen display. What is the Zenbook S16's price? At the time of writing, Asus is knocking £400 off the price of the Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 and HX 360 models, taking them down to £1,299 and £1,199 respectively.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Yahoo
Intel needed a win — its new laptop CPU delivers just that
It feels cliche at this point, but it's true. Intel can't catch a break. The new Arrow Lake-H chips feel like a tide shift for Team Blue, though, leveraging the highly efficient architectures the company debuted with Lunar Lake to deliver performance and battery life worthy of the best laptops on the market. We've already seen what Intel's Lunar Lake processors are capable of — read our Asus Zenbook S 14 review for more on that — but these new Arrow Lake-H offerings are a bit different. Under the hood, Intel is still using its Lion Cove and Skymont core architectures, which Arrow Lake-H shares with Lunar Lake. However, these chips get a larger core count, higher power budget, and beefier integrated graphics based on Intel's Battlemage architecture. The power budget is really important here. The base power is 45W, but Intel allows the chip to boost up to 115W for short periods of time. The core split is interesting, too. You get 16 total cores, but they're split between six performance cores, eight efficient cores, and two low-power efficient cores. If you remember, the efficient cores are actually the main performance driver in this architecture, so the extra two low-power ones are simply there for a little extra multi-core grunt. I've brought in a few comparisons from AMD here. First is an identical laptop packing the Ryzen AI 9 365 — which Intel compares the Core Ultra 9 285H to — and second is an Asus Zenbook S 16 with a beefier Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. These are 10-core and 12-core CPUs, respectively, but they use simultaneous multi-threading. The Core Ultra 9 285H doesn't, so while Intel has a core advantage, AMD actually has a thread advantage. MSI Prestige 16 (Core Ultra 9 285H) MSI Prestige 16 (Ryzen 9 AI 365) Asus Zenbook S 16 (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) Cinebench R24 (single/multi) 128 / 918 111 / 819 110 / 871 Geekbench 6 (single/multi) 2,776 / 15,773 2,832 / 14,059 N/A PCMark 10 7,508 7,352 7,229 PugetBench for Photoshop 7,717 7,656 7,248 PugetBench for Premiere Pro 3,520 3,107 2,971 3DMark Time Spy 4,018 3,565 3,207 3DMark Steel Nomad Light 3,494 3,088 3,219 Intel's approach clearly works, as you can see in both Cinebench and Geekbench. These apps typically favor a thread advantage, but Intel is still coming out on top. That's probably due to a solid lead in single-core speed, which you can see in Cinebench. PCMark 10 is a bit different, with all three laptops more or less falling in the same range. That's not too surprising. These are high-end CPUs in some of the best laptops money can buy, so of course they can handle basic office and productivity tasks with ease. The difference makers are Photoshop and Premiere. Intel is providing a slight edge in Photoshop, but there's a massive boost in Premiere. The Battlemage GPU is certainly helping there, along with QuickSync. Gaming sees a huge boost, as well — frankly, AMD isn't even close with its integrated graphics, at least until we see the Ryzen AI MAX chips later this year. Intel is no stranger to performance, and frankly, it's not impressive that Intel can outclass the competition (especially considering the larger power budget). What is impressive is that Intel is able to deliver this level of performance while keeping its battery life in check. It was very strange queuing up a video to loop on the Core Ultra 9 285H when I left work, only to find it still looping the next morning, and with around half the battery to spare. That's the kind of efficiency Intel is offering here and without any of the typical tricks in Windows that kick in when the battery gets low enough. In local video playback, I got nearly 21 hours of battery life out of the MSI Prestige 16 — 20 hours and 46 minutes, to be exact. For context, the Acer Swift 14 AI with the Ryzen AI 9 365 managed 18 hours and 36 minutes, the MacBook Air M3 lasted 19 hours and 29 minutes, and the HP Omnibook X with the Snapdragon X Elite stayed on for 22 hours and 4 minutes. The Snapdragon chip comes out on top, but Intel is damn close considering this is a 16-core flagship chip. I expected decent battery life given that Intel is using the same core architectures as its Lunar Lake offerings, but with more cores and a higher budget, I didn't expect this Arrow Lake-H chip to be as close as it is to Intel's Lunar Lake offerings. Not only is Intel's performance fantastic here — its battery life holds up equally as well. Something struck me when testing Intel's new Arrow Lake-H chip. It just worked. Intel has really struggled to catch a break, and although its Lunar Lake laptop chips were a small highlight, they weren't enough to reverse the narrative established by the desktop Arrow Lake range. Arrow Lake-H makes a lot of sense, though, and it proves Intel was onto something when it decided to focus on efficiency. Now, finally, we can see how Intel is able to scale its design to deliver great performance and battery life in a single package. It's a great change of pace for Intel, who up to this point struggled to provide a clean ramp between performance and efficiency in laptops, rather splitting the ranges in half with two completely different approaches to architecture. Arrow Lake-H feels like everything coming together, and for a company that's been promising that everything will come together soon for years, that's a big win.
