ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) review – its 1-kilo chassis hides a full ton of performance

ASUS is the manufacturer of one of the best ultrabooks on the market. Today, we have the Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302), which aims to battle with the Lenovo Yoga 7 Carbon, and the Dell XPS 13 9320 Plus.

But what does that mean? Who is it made for? Well, this device is aimed at young professionals who travel a lot and concentrate on office tasks. Now, if we consider the hardware it comes with, we will see that it can do more than just ordinary Word and Excel.

The Ryzen 7 6800U is an incredibly powerful mobile CPU. It obliterates two-year-old desktop CPUs, so it is no surprise that the laptop can ease through photo and video editing.

Arguably the most impressive feature of them all, however, is Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)’s portability. It is one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks on the market. And obviously, it is one that comes with an OLED display. We’ll tell you more about it later.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-zenbook-s-13-oled-um5302-amd-ryzen-6000-series/

Contents


Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box

ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302, AMD Ryzen 6000 Series) - Specs

  • Samsung ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172)
  • Color accuracy  1.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro
  • Battery
  • 67Wh, 4-cell , 67Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum, Magnesium alloy
  • Dimensions
  • 296.7 x 210.5 x 14.9 mm (11.68" x 8.29" x 0.59")
  • Weight
  • 1.00 kg (2.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 3x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • Card reader
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Microphone with Cortana and Alexa voice-recognition
  • Speakers
  • Speakers by Harman Kardon, Smart Amp
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/zenbook/zenbook-s-13-oled-um5302-amd-ryzen-6000-series/helpdesk_download/

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we see some paperwork, as well as a very interesting charger. It is super compact, and it’s modular. This means that you get the brick, itself, the USB Type-C cable, and the region plug separately. In addition, there is a USB Type-C to USB Type-A dongle inside the package.


Design and construction

ASUS has made a behemoth effort to produce this extremely portable device. It weighs only a kilo, while the profile is just 14.9mm. These specs by themselves look crazy. But this is made even better by the fantastic rigidity of the machine. According to the manufacturer, it complies with MIL-STD-810H standards.

The finish of the surface is rough, but not too much. It sports an antibacterial treatment, which should work as intended for up to three years. Not only that, but ASUS uses a magnesium-aluminum alloy unibody for the build of the machine. This gives it the aforementioned rigidity while remaining super thin and light.

Here, the lid can be opened with a single hand. However, you should keep in mind that the base might lift from the ground due to the low weight of the laptop. Our unit is configured with a touchscreen panel, which features Gorilla Glass protection. Besides that, there are thin bezels around the screen, with the top one featuring, either an HD or a Full HD Web camera.

Moving to the base, we see that pretty much the entire space has been used. Most of it is by the keyboard. It is an exceptional unit, featuring a backlight, long key travel, and clicky feedback. The only thing we didn’t like about it, is the size of the Arrow keys.

As you can see, the Power Button looks a bit different from the other keys. That’s because it has an embedded fingerprint reader. In addition, the huge touchpad sports a NumberPad function, which is activated by pressing the top-right part of the touchpad for one second.

Interestingly, the backside of the base lifts gently from the ground, when the lid is opened at more than 90°.

Turn the laptop upside down, and you will find the two speaker cutouts, as well as the ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, is exhausted through the left side of the device.

Ports

This laptop’s port selection includes three USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort functions, as well as an Audio jack. One of the ports is located on the left side, while all of the rest is found on the right,


Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound

ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) is equipped with an OLED touchscreen panel, model number Samsung ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172). It comes with a 60Hz refresh rate and a 10-bit per channel Color Depth. Its diagonal is 13.3″ (33.8 cm), and the resolution – 2880 x 1800p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:10, the pixel density – 255 ppi, and their pitch – 0.1 x 0.1 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 34 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 366 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen (HDR off) and 367 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of only 1%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6630K (average) – almost matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB (“Splendid” – Color Gamut: “Native”, “Normal” mode).
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio of OLED panels is practically infinite, due to their ability to turn off black pixels entirely.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, and 100% of DCI-P3, ensuring a super vibrant and attractive picture.


The “MyASUS” app also emulates the DCI-P3 and the sRGB color spaces.


We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc.

Below you can compare the scores of the ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) with the default settings – HDR off, “Splendid” – Color Gamut: “Display P3”, “Normal” mode.

Also, you can see the sRGB accuracy results (HDR off, “Splendid” – Color Gamut: “sRGB”, “Normal” mode).

There is one more thing we have to say about color accuracy. “MyASUS” features a “Flicker-Free Dimming” function, which allows you to use PWM-free brightness adjustment. Thankfully, it almost doesn’t affect the colors in the sRGB gamut.


The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 3 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.

Health Impact: PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the display is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)’s display uses PWM with low frequency up until 92 nits (the “Flicker-Free Dimming” function eliminates the issue). Above that, we see very weak pulsations. This makes it relatively comfortable to use in this aspect.

Health Impact: Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Health Impact: Gloss-level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 145 GU).

Sound

ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)’s Harman Kardon speakers produce a sound of very good quality. You can pick through a bunch of audio presets through “MyASUS”, make your own preset, or let the tech do its own thing. Furthermore, its low, mid, and high tones have no deviations from clarity.


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) configurations with 13.3″ Samsing ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172) (2800 x 1800) OLED.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Performance: CPU, GPU, Gaming Tests

CPU options

This machine can be found with the Ryzen 5 6600U, or the Ryzen 7 6800U.

GPU options

Graphics-wise, you get the integrated solutions found inside the aforementioned CPUs. This translates to the Radeon 660M and Radeon 680M.

Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS179 fps140 fps108 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS141 fps106 fps72 fps

Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)2.78 GHz @ 74°C @ 30W2.71 GHz @ 89°C @ 30W2.47 GHz @ 89°C @ 25W
Lenovo Yoga 7 (14″, 2022)3.32 GHz @ 75°C @ 45W2.92 GHz @ 86°C @ 34W2.72 GHz @ 70°C @ 28W

Well, the Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) can’t match the Lenovo Yoga (14″, 2022) in outright performance. This is not a surprise, given the space constraints of the ASUS device.

Comfort during full load

As you can see from the IR image below, the right part of the keyboard gets to about 46°C. This is warm, but not too warm. Interestingly, this is a reading from the area between the keys. The buttons, respectively, sit at about 3-4 degrees lower temperature. Also, the fan seems to spin up really slowly, meaning that the vapor chamber has a lot of capacity. Essentially, you are rarely going to hear the fan in day-to-day use.

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This device’s 67Wh battery pack lasts for 11 hours and 40 minutes of Web browsing, or 15 hours and 56 minutes of video playback.


Disassembly, Upgrade options, and Maintenance

To access this laptop’s internals, you need to remove the back rubber feet. Then, undo all 9 Torx-head screws you see, and pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool.

Here, we find a 67Wh battery pack. To take it out, unplug the battery from the motherboard, and undo all 8 Phillips-head screws keeping it in place.

This device comes with either 8 or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM soldered to the motherboard. Unfortunately, an upgrade is not possible. As for the storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which supports Gen 4 SSDs. To remove it, locate the two screws that secure its metal cover.

The cooling comprises one heat pipe, a side-mounted heat sink, and a fan.


Verdict

A very interesting trend is emerging. Some manufacturers revert back to slightly heavier laptops, in order to make them more competitive, while others – like ASUS, concentrate on making laptops as thin and light as possible. And it is quite successful in our opinion.

Well, we said the same about Acer, who changes its Swift 5 to a fattier diet, making it gain 200 grams year on year. But sometimes, you need to go your own way, which may be completely different from the one of your competitors.

Anyways, sitting at 1 kilo and 14.9mm, the Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) establishes itself as one of the most portable laptops in its class. It has a surprisingly good performance and humongous rigidity, thanks to the magnesium-aluminum unibody.

The battery life is also on point, with nearly 12 hours of Web browsing, or about 16 hours of video playback on a single charge. This can be contributed both to the large 67Wh battery and to the fantastic efficiency of the system.

ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302)’s OLED touchscreen panel has a high resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and fantastic pixel response times (despite the 60Hz refresh rate). It fully covers both the sRGB and the DCI-P3 color gamuts, while the software it comes with, features emulation for either of these color spaces.

We are happy to see that the color accuracy, in this case, is great, and you can comfortably use your device for professional work. And if you are worried about the OLED technology’s affinity towards PWM usage in low brightness scenarios, you should remain calm. ASUS has a great technology, called “Flicker-Free Dimming”, which eliminates the issue with very little impact on color accuracy.

Some miscellaneous features include the fingerprint reader, AI noise cancellation, MIL-STD-810H compliance, and Wi-Fi 6E support. The NumberPad never disappoints, and the touchscreen works great. And you can lay the display down flat to present your content to more people around you.

Now, there are some things that we’d like to address. Unfortunately, the memory of this device is soldered to its motherboard. With a maximum of 16GB outside the box, you can’t really expect to be on the sharp edge of technology in the future. Also, you have no SD card reader, nor a regular-size USB port. Quite frankly, ASUS supplies a USB Type-C to Type-A dongle inside the box.

If these disadvantages are not too big for you, go on, and get yourself a Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302). The feeling you get when using the laptop is amazing, while its more traditional design makes it a more comfortable for use machine than the Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-zenbook-s-13-oled-um5302-amd-ryzen-6000-series/

Pros

  • Long battery life
  • Rigid magnesium-aluminum chassis
  • Extremely thin and light device
  • 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage plus accurate color representation (Samsung ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172))
  • PWM is treated by first-party software (Samsung ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172))
  • OLED provides True Blacks and crazy fast pixel response times (Samsung ATNA33AA03-0 (SDC4172))
  • Charges via Type-C
  • Gen 4 SSD support
  • Fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Needs a dongle to expand the I/O
  • Soldered memory

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