I reviewed the Asus Zenbook A14 last year and it turned out to be one of my favourite laptops. The biggest reason behind this was how easy it was to carry around. At 0.9 kg, it was the kind of laptop I could throw into my bag without thinking twice, and it fit rather well into my routine of working during long commutes. So when Asus sent me the Zenbook A16 this year, I was curious about one thing before anything else. Could a 16-inch laptop offer that same sense of portability?
The answer, at least from my first few days with it, is yes. The Zenbook A16 weighs just 1.2 kg, which is super light for a laptop with a 16-inch OLED display. I even carried the laptop around the office with my MacBook Air, and I could comfortably carry both in one hand. And that speaks volumes about how easily portable this machine is.
The Zenbook A16 comes with a price tag of Rs 2,19,990 and Asus is currently selling it for Rs 2,04,990 on its website. Talking quickly about the specs, the device comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme processor, 24GB of RAM and a 3K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
From what I have seen so far, the A16 is fast, responsive and handles my everyday workload without any hiccups. Let me explain in detail.
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The Zenbook A16 comes in a Zabriskie Beige finish and I really like how it looks. It has a minimalist design and still feels like a premium laptop. The laptop’s surface has great resistance to dust and fingerprints and I didn’t see any smudges form up during my time with the machine.
As mentioned already, the highlight here is the weight which is just 1.2 kg, making this an ultra portable device. Coming to the hinge, it is sturdy and I could open the laptop with one hand without having to hold the base down. Once it is open, the display stays firmly in place.
The laptop comes with a chiclet backlit keyboard and a large touchpad, using the 16-inch form factor effectively. I have spent quite a bit of time typing on the laptop and the keyboard feels super comfortable so far. The touchpad was also sufficient for my day-to-day use and I didn’t feel the need to connect my mouse.
Asus has also included a good selection of ports here. You get two USB4 Type-C ports with display and power delivery support, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an SD 4.0 card reader.
The Zenbook A16 has a 16-inch 3K OLED display with a resolution of 2880 x 1800. It uses a 16:10 aspect ratio and supports a 120Hz refresh rate.
The display, when you first glance upon it, looks really good and holds your attention. Text is sharp, colours are punchy and scrolling through Windows feels smooth thanks to the high refresh rate. The larger screen also means that you have plenty of room to work with, especially when there are multiple things going on.
Asus says the display covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It can reach 500 nits of brightness, while HDR content can push peak brightness up to 1,100 nits.
The panel is also VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1000 certified and supports 1.07 billion colours. It has a 0.2ms response time, along with an anti-glare coating.
Asus also says the display reduces harmful blue light by 70 percent and has received TÜV Rheinland and SGS Eye Care certifications.
From the time I have spent with it so far, the display is one of my favourite things about this laptop. The combination of the 3K resolution, OLED panel and 120Hz refresh rate makes everything look and feel good. Reflections are an issue here and I had to adjust the screen to avoid them, but that is pretty normal for an OLED screen.
The Zenbook A16 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 processor. It has 18 cores and 18 threads, with a single-core boost speed of up to 5GHz and a multi-core maximum of 4.4GHz.
There is also 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a Qualcomm Adreno GPU. For AI workloads, the laptop has a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU capable of up to 80 TOPS.
I have not run benchmarks on the laptop, but I have been using it for my regular work and it has felt fast and responsive so far. Apps open quickly, moving between windows feels smooth and I have not noticed any stuttering during my usual workload.
The laptop comes with a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. There is also an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot if you need more storage later.
The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is also paired with 24GB of RAM, which should be more than enough for the kind of everyday work I have been doing on the laptop.
Asus has packed a 70Wh battery into the Zenbook A16. That is a decent-sized battery for a laptop this thin and light and should easily last beyond an entire day full of work. The laptop comes with a 130W USB-C charger, so even when you do run the battery down, the charger has enough power to get the laptop back up and running without needing a bulky charging brick.
As far as other features are concerned, the Zenbook A16 runs Windows 11 Home and comes with the MyASUS app. This gives you access to features such as AdaptiveLock, AI Noise Canceling, battery health charging, fan profiles, Wi-Fi SmartConnect and system diagnostics.
There is also a Full HD IR camera, which means you can use Windows Hello to sign in. Asus has included Microsoft Pluton and TPM support as well.
The laptop also comes with Office Home 2024, so you get a lifetime licence for Microsoft’s productivity suite. There is one year of Microsoft 365 Basic included as well, which gives you 100GB of cloud storage.
In a nutshell, after spending some time with the laptop, I like what Asus has done here. The A16 gives you a large 16-inch OLED display without making you carry around a heavy laptop. The build feels solid, the display looks great and the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme has been fast and snappy in my everyday use.
I have not spent enough time with it to make this a full verdict, but as a first impression, the Zenbook A16 has definitely left me wanting to spend more time with it.
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