Asus’ lightweight 16-lumber laptop is a daring MacBook Air substitute

I already build aside Asus’ contemporary Zenbook A16 thru the wringer when I introduced a pre-manufacturing unit with me to CES. I cherished it for its sizable energy in an impressively light 16-lumber chassis. It’s immediate enough for piece-time inform creation, it’s bought lengthy battery existence, and its broad OLED cowl is crisp and shining.Now, the closing manufacturing mannequin is here, priced at $1,699.ninety 9 for a configuration with a whopping 48GB of RAM — a spec-to-ticket steadiness that’s unprecedented, especially in these unsure times. The total strengths I witnessed from its pre-manufacturing days are tranquil present off, and the early hardware considerations and software program bugs I encountered had been mounted (as they should tranquil have). The outcome is a particular Home windows laptop for someone looking out for basically the most cowl true estate in one among the lightest and most capable packages, and a priceless substitute to a 15-lumber MacBook Air.$1700The GoodIncredibly light for such a capable 16-lumber laptopGreat battery existence and a savory OLEDVery precise performance with a range of RAMHell yeah, an SD card slotThe BadBeige colour isn’t for all people (although the satin enact is candy to the touch)The identical outdated Home windows on Arm disclaimer — compatibility considerations with some indubitably neutral precise apps and plenty gamesOkay speakersComponent describe cardScreen: AWebcam: BKeyboard: BTrackpad: BPort substitute: BSpeakers: CNumber of grotesque stickers to do away with: 3The Zenbook A16 is totally on hand within the US in one configuration with a nearly high-of-the-line 18-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Indecent X2E-94-100 chip. It also comprises that plentiful 48GB of RAM (which is soldered) and 1TB SSD. Its piquant appears to be like are owed to its great-attempting 16-lumber, 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz OLED point out and Asus’ Ceraluminum coating, wrapping the chassis in a satiny enact. The A16 has more relaxed vibes than your moderate laptop, thanks to that evenly textured indubitably feel and its distinctive beige colour. Right here is high beige (complimentary or derogatory, relying how you feel).The pre-prod mannequin I weak wait on in January wasn’t exciting for benchmark testing, however the closing A16 with its contemporary X2 Elite Indecent chip most positively is. After inserting it thru a beefy suite of tests across Geekbench, Cinebench 2026, Puget Bench, Blender, and more, I will confidently mumble: Rattling, it’s pretty precise! The 15-lumber M5 MacBook Air it’s aimed to compete with tranquil wins most head-to-heads, however the Zenbook reveals its strengths in multi-threaded CPU performance across Geekbench and Cinebench. It’s even scorching on the MacBook’s heels within the Puget Bench Photoshop test (which is CPU-intensive).Turning to the Intel Panther Lake-geared up Asus Zenbook Duo, the Zenbook A16 handily wins in both single- and multi-core CPU performance tests. The Zenbook Duo has the excellent bigger advantage in graphics tests thanks to its beefier Arc B390 GPU. But you pay great more for the Duo’s graphics chops (and its second cowl), as it charges $600 higher than the Zenbook A16.Asus Zenbook A16 / Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Indecent X2E-94-100 / 48GB / 1TBMacBook Air 15 / Apple M5 / 16GB / 1TBAsus Zenbook Duo (2026) / Intel Core Extremely X9 388H (Panther Lake) / 32GB / 1TBAcer Swift 14 AI / Intel Core Extremely 7 258V (Lunar Lake) / 32GB / 1TBAsus Zenbook S16 / AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) / 32GB / 1TBMicrosoft Floor Computer 13-lumber / Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 / 16GB / 512GBMacBook Neo / Apple A18 Educated / 8GB / 256GBCPU cores18101681286GPUAdreno X2-90M5 (10 cores)Arc B390 (12 cores)Arc 140V (8 cores)Radeon 890M (16 cores)Adreno X1-45A18 Educated (5 GPU cores)Geekbench 6 CPU Single3643417530092609282824373402Geekbench 6 CPU Multi2204416567172681069013565114278508Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL)4110147661568392898435991939119798Cinebench 2026 Single628727528Not testedNot testedNot tested518Cinebench 2026 Multi632734133993Not testedNot testedNot tested1466Puget Bench for Photoshop10931115138773659873484773Not testedPuget Bench for Premiere Educated (2.0.0+)Now not tested6186154920Not testedNot testedNot testedNot testedPuget Bench for DaVinci Compile to the underside of (2.0.0+)Now not tested45378Not testedNot testedNot testedNot testedNot testedBlender school room test (seconds, decrease is more healthy)1984661Not tested308486Not testedBlender cosmos test (seconds, decrease is more healthy)670Not tested204Not tested862Not testedNot testedPremiere 4K Export (decrease is more healthy)6 minutes, 38 seconds2 minutes, Fifty three seconds3 minutes, 3 secondsNot testedNot testedNot testedNot testedSustained SSD reads (MB/s)7092.917049.456762.155200.835060.843840.781735.91Sustained SSD writes (MB/s)5694.947480.555679.414662.053665.423476.621684.053DMark Time Set (1080p)5289Not tested98475955Not testedNot testedNot testedPrice as tested$1,699.ninety 9$1,499$2,299.ninety 9$1,299.ninety 9$1,700$999.ninety 9$599The A16’s performance rankings computer screen with my true-world abilities the utilization of it to edit 50-megapixel RAW files in Adobe Lightroom Classic, where it assuredly felt paying homage to wicked M4 and now M5 MacBooks. I could well presumably blaze thru my edits, even on battery energy. And talking of battery existence, the A16 is yet one other example of a Snapdragon laptop that without considerations lasts an eight-hour workday of combined utilization (Chrome tabs, some video calls, and a diminutive little bit of streaming). I purchased thru a day lawful love that, with nearly 90 minutes of collective video calls, and I tranquil had 30 percent battery left over to utilize for my evening.USB-A and an SD card slot on the precise.HDMI, USB4, and an audio jack on the left.A true keyboard and solid trackpad.Couchouflage.The the rest of the Zenbook A16 can also be successfully build aside collectively: a hinge that without considerations opens with one finger, a pleasant-feeling keyboard with deeper key commute than MacBooks, a solid mechanical trackpad, and a few first payment speakers. The trackpad is hinged at the tip, piano key-type, but it clicks successfully in its decrease half. Paying consideration to song on the A16 sounds nice and pretty beefy, but it lacks bass, as you’d quiz. And the downward-and-outward-firing speakers secure in part blocked when resting the laptop to your legs, altering the sound. It lawful doesn’t have the the same diploma of oomph the 15-lumber MacBook Air is able to, but general this remains to be an attractive total equipment for a thin-and-light (and broad) laptop.My greatest knock in opposition to the Zenbook A16 remains my identical arena with all Arm-based Home windows laptops: the gaming arena. Qualcomm deserves some credit score for inserting within the work to secure more games running on Home windows on Arm (now as much as 2,400 supported titles from the initial 1,200), but it’s tranquil a fall within the bucket when in contrast to x86 Home windows. Easy Anti-Cheat is now supported, so games love Fortnite are playable on Snapdragon laptops. But Elden Ring Nightreign (one among my personal faves for online stay-provider games) tranquil doesn’t work, despite also the utilization of Easy Anti-Cheat. Qualcomm and Microsoft must defend building momentum and getting more developers and publishers to change their games for Arm. I lawful can’t aid knocking Snapdragon laptops for this, because one among my predominant attracts for the utilization of Home windows is being in a arena to play lawful about any game I prefer. I’m gorgeous with settling for potato-quality graphics on an constructed-in GPU, as long as I will play whatever the temper requires.With upright game enhance, a laptop love the Zenbook A16 could well presumably in the end be the MacBook Air killer (or closer to one) that it’s positioned to be. It’s a worthy substitute as it stands now, but you’d like to need Home windows and be willing to play the the same roulette of “Is that this game supported?” lawful love Mac customers build.1/3Healthy competition without straight-up imitation. It’s essential to peep it.My have nerdy gamer needs aside, I’m relieved to peep the Zenbook A16 is hitting the market with this great RAM and performance for $1,600. It must also neutral no longer be a MacBook Air killer, but it’s an piquant substitute that isn’t lawful an also-ran. I’d tranquil point out most people lawful high-tail with the MacBook Air, and should you indubitably prefer more energy or more ports (including that handy SD card slot) the entry-diploma 14-lumber MacBook Educated can also be precise there. But that’s also a chunkier and much heavier laptop. The Zenbook A16 gives an bright and refreshing twist: a light but broad laptop with very precise performance and enough RAM to climate the ongoing storm of a world reminiscence scarcity.Now let’s hope Asus doesn’t lawful jack up the price in just a few months love we’ve began seeing in a range of locations.Asus Zenbook A16 specs (as reviewed)Show cowl: 16-lumber (2880 x 1800) 120Hz OLED touchscreen, as much as 1,100 nits high brightness in HDRProcessor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Indecent X2E-94-100 (18-core), Adreno X2-90 GPURAM: 48GB (soldered)Storage: 1TB SSDWebcam: 1080p with IRBiometrics: Home windows Hello facial recognitionConnectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4Ports: 2x USB 4 (Style-C), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Style-A), HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack, SD 4.0 card slotWeight: 2.87 pounds / 1.3kgDimensions: 13.92 x 9.54 x 0.54 ~ 0.65 inches / 353.6 x 242.3 x 13.7 ~ 16.5mmBattery: 70WhPrice: $1,699.99Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The VergeUpdate, April Seventh: After this text published, Asus urged The Verge that the Zenbook A16 is $1,699.ninety 9 at Handiest Aquire, no longer $1,599.ninety 9 as the firm initially place urged us. The overview has been as much as this point to mediate the explicit ticket.Prepare topics and authors from this tale to peep more love this to your customized homepage feed and to derive electronic mail updates.Antonio G. Di Benedetto