Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406 laptop review - Excellent everyday laptop with Intel Lunar Lake

[Redaktion]

Asus has presented its first laptop featuring Intel's new Lunar Lake processors, namely the Zenbook S 14. It comes with a 14-inch OLED screen, 32 GB RAM, a ceraluminum coating and the fastest iGPU currently on the market.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Zenbook-S-14-UX5406-laptop-review-Excellent-everyday-laptop-with-Intel-Lunar-Lake.892978.0.html

[Mjgp]

Can you please review the ASUS Expertbook P5? It should have better cooling and mate IPS panel.

[toto1234]

So 0% uplift for the CPU, and 0% for the GPU in real world application (not bullshit benchmark)

LOL ?

[bgx]

A bit surprised for once by the testing of apple to carrots....

You are comparing very different computers/CPUs, 28.6W vs 61.9W  (cf Cyberpunk power consumption result).
And you conclude: Oh, the 29W CPU is not as fast as the 62W CPU, 38 vs 50 FPS.

Sure, Sherlock, how impressive, it uses more than 2x the power consumption for +30% more fps. Is it worth it?
That's the equation Lunar lake is trying to solve. While you provide all the numbers, they are so far apart that it s hard to put things together and understand what is happening.

If you are interested in raw performance without being interested in the power consumption *in the same time* (which is a perfectly valid case study), then Lunar lake is NOT FOR YOU. Alder Lake or the new Zen 5 are better suited for you, there is nothing wrong about it. These architectures are optimized to provide the highest benchmark numbers.

Now, there are people like me who cares about getting an efficient machine, which is very responsive while consuming very little and is powerful enough. That's why I run my machine underclocked undervolted (with ThrottleStop), bypassing the boost clock entirely to avoid the +10% speed +100% power consumption which is not useful for my case.

Lunar lake should be tested vs other architecture at relatively similar power consumption (@30W, also @17W). Then your conclusion would be very different. You can also keep the current test, and explain to people if its for them or not, depending what they are looking for. Depending on the usuage, different profile to do the benchmarks are relevant. I think your review is missing this important point.

[better at least]

glad Intel fixed its performance per watt somewhat but what good is that benchmark when a 890m device gets better battery life (on WiFi and on full load), more performance, all with an equal size battery? this is why I never liked the shift to "performance per watt is so important" narrative spearheaded by Apple cultists and now everyone parrots it like it's the only benchmark to consider. if a comparable laptop can outmatch another in nearly every benchmark at a higher wattage AND still have better battery life when tested, isn't that ppw stat useless then? Looks like Ryzen AI APUs are a clear winner but props to Intel at least for bringing some competition in the iGPU and efficiency race.

[JUAN_pcbox]

Let's see if MINISFORUM releases a good product with AMD as it has done with the mini-PCs and we make real comparisons. Although the product that everyone is waiting for is the second part of MINISFORUM V3, you can search for it on YouTube.

[bgx]

glad Intel fixed its performance per watt somewhat but what good is that benchmark when a 890m device gets better battery life (on WiFi and on full load), more performance, all with an equal size battery? this is why I never liked the shift to "performance per watt is so important" narrative spearheaded by Apple cultists and now everyone parrots it like it's the only benchmark to consider. if a comparable laptop can outmatch another in nearly every benchmark at a higher wattage AND still have better battery life when tested, isn't that ppw stat useless then? Looks like Ryzen AI APUs are a clear winner but props to Intel at least for bringing some competition in the iGPU and efficiency race.

Indeed, That's what you would deduce after reading the notebookcheck test... But i think its not the full story!

Performance benchmarks are run at vastly different power consumption, while power consumption test are done at iso performance, on some standardised/optimized profiles (e.g. video playback). It s nice videoplaback has been optimized now, but it is far from all the task you can do while on battery mode.

Now, do Both at the same time (e.g. I want to play a game single player while on battery mode).
From notebookcheck own  numbers, the picture would be vastly different. The Ryzen would have less than half the battery life as the Lunar Lake. Or you would compromise a bit and run at same performance as the lunar lake but still with a deficit in battery life, but not as large. Or if you want iso battery life, performance would be much worse.

Do everyone wants to play game (or do anything  a bit intensive) while unplugged all the time? Few people. But
it happens sometimes or often to others. That's for these people Lunar Lake is for.
That's what the current review is totally missing.

If your profile is to play games sitting on a chair and plugged in (which is the profile of many), and just have a lightweight laptop to travel with, then Lunar Lake is definitly not for you (Go see Rizen, Arrow Lake in this case...).

[Palm1r]

That's the thing, lunar lake is not for anyone, and look at the rest of the Intel processors yourself, I don't know yet what to do with a dying laptop with 13980hx

[Fixitplease]

The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is the direct replacement of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U a 12 cores (2,8,2) cpu

But non of the devices you compare to has it...

[RicoViking9000]

Ok, seems like I'll be waiting for JustJosh or someone to get a better comparison for performance...

[lol]

AMD shills will have hard time explaining why Lunar Lake is worse. Apple is still king though.

[sharath]

There is a problem with idle watts. ~6 watts idle with a 72 WH battery should not last beyond 12 hours on idle. somewhere the measurement is wrong.

[@JUAN_pcbox]

F minus-forum
shitty little spammers

[Oba]

There is a problem with idle watts. ~6 watts idle with a 72 WH battery should not last beyond 12 hours on idle. somewhere the measurement is wrong.

They measured it at full SDR brightness and 120 Hz (according to the article.)

[systemBuilder22]

Energy Efficiency (from JustJosh on YouTube)

Before Lunar Lake
1.  Apple M3
2.  AMD zen5 laptop hx365, hx370
3.  Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
4.  Intel 155h or whatever

After Lunar Lake
1.  Apple M3
2.  AMD zen5 laptop
3.  Intel 268 or whatever
4.  Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite

Competition isn't putting much pressure on the leaders in the field ...