How to open ASUS Zenbook S 16 (UM5606) – disassembly and upgrade options

Undo the 11 Torx-head screws securing the bottom panel.
If you are brave and careful enough, pop the bottom plate by raising it in the speaker cutout sections and then pry the sides with a thin plastic tool.
Alternatively, pry the top two corners, pop the rear with a lever tool, and work your way around the sides and the front to remove the bottom panel.

More info: There are two dust filters for the ventilation grills on the inside of the bottom plate.

Battery Removal

Pull out the battery connector from the motherboard.
Undo the 9 Phillips-head screws securing the battery.
Lift the battery to remove it from the device.

Note: The laptop uses a 78Wh battery, providing approximately 14.5 hours of video playback.

Memory Information

Note: The memory is soldered but you get up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-7500MHz in dual-channel mode, which should be plenty for most users. The Wi-Fi card on the left is also soldered.

Storage Upgrade

Locate the single M.2 slot compatible with 2280 Gen 4 SSDs.
Remove the foil covering the preinstalled NVMe and the long thermal pad on top, if present.
Install the new SSD in the slot.

Hint: Don’t forget to check out our Top M.2 SSDs Performance Rankings for insights on the best storage options available.

You can buy compatible SSDs here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Cooling System Overview

The thin vapor chamber cooling system includes two fans.
Some of its other components are also visible, such as the pair of heat sinks.
Ensure all cooling components are clean and free of dust for optimal performance.

ASUS Zenbook S 16 (UM5606) in-depth review

The first Zen 5 laptops are already on the market. The Zenbook S 16 (UM5606) is one of the first new-age ASUS AI PC with an ultraportable design. This fella is based on the AMD Strix Point chips. The top-tier laptops are offered with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 which boasts four Performance Zen 5 cores and eight smaller Zen 5c cores alongside 24 threads and a mighty RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 890M iGPU with 16 compute units. The latter makes this super thin laptop into an entry-level gaming machine. You can even play some of the AAA titles on Low or Medium details. The more affordable notebooks are paire[...]

Read the full review

Pros

Great OLED display with 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage (SDC41AF)
Infinite contrast ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, and 2880 x 1800 resolution (SDC41AF)
588 nits in HDR and 378 nits max brightness in SDR mode (SDC41AF)
Tremendous color accuracy (SDC41AF)
Good audio setup
"OLED Flicker-Free Dimming" mode in MyASUS software
Comfortable well-illuminated keyboard
Huge smooth touchpad
1080p IR Web camera
Very good overall CPU and iGPU performance given the thin profile
The fans are noisy even in "Full-speed mode" mode during full loads
Up to 32GB of soldered LPDDR5x
Long battery life
The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 can maintain 28W plus ~2.70 GHz / 1.80 GHz for the P and E cores
Great solid premium build quality
2x USB4 ports + Type-C charging