The MacBook Air M3 from Apple represents the latest successful slim and lightweight laptops built on fast and efficient Apple Silicon chips. It is one of the best laptops ever made, and Windows laptops have struggled to keep up with it.
Now, Intel has introduced a new chip series, the Core Ultra Series 2, also known as Lunar Lake, aiming to compete much more efficiently. The Asus Zenbook S 14 is one of the first laptops to be introduced with the new chip series. Can it compete?
Specifications and Configurations
| Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) | Apple MacBook Air M3 | |
| Dimensions | 12.22 × 8.45 × 0.47-0.51 inches | 11.97 inches × 8.46 inches × 0.44 inches |
| Weight | 2.65 pounds | 2.7 pounds |
| CPU | Intel Core Ultra 7 258V | Apple M3 (8 cores) |
| GPU | Intel Arc 140V | 8-core GPU 10-core GPU |
| RAM | 16GB LPDDR5X RAM | 8GB 16GB 24GB |
| Display | 14.0-inch 2.8K (2880 × 1800) OLED, 120Hz | 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a 16:10 aspect ratio (2560 × 1664) IPS |
| Storage | 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD | 256GB SSD 512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD |
| Ports | 2 × USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 × USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 × HDMI 2.1 1 × 3.5mm headphone jack |
2 × USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 × 3.5mm headphone jack 1 × MagSafe 3 |
| Touch | Yes | No |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 |
Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Webcam | 1080p with IR camera for Windows 11 Hello | 1080p |
| Battery | 72Wh | 52.6Wh |
| Operating System | Windows 11 | macOS Sonoma |
| Price | $1,399+ | $1,099+ |
| Rating | 4 out of 5 stars | 4 out of 5 stars |
Not many configurations of the Zenbook S 14 are available yet. Our review unit costs $1500 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display.
The MacBook Air M3 offers several options. The base model costs $1099 with an M3 CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and a 13.6-inch IPS display. RAM and storage upgrades cost $200 for 16GB or 512GB, $400 for 24GB and 1TB, and $800 for 2TB. Our review unit costs $1699 with an 8-core CPU/GPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. The advanced configuration with 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD is $2299.
Therefore, when configured similarly, the price of the MacBook Air M3 is $100 more. This makes it close enough for other factors to weigh more heavily.
Design
The MacBook Air M3 is an incredibly thin laptop while maintaining Apple’s usual excellent build quality and sturdy construction. It is made from a single piece of aluminum, with an elegant aesthetic in one of four colors. The Zenbook S 14 is also very thin, using Asus’s “Serluminum” material to be very lightweight yet strong. It has a good-looking design and comes in either dark gray or white with a geometric pattern on the lid.
Both laptops have a high-quality hinge that can be opened with one hand. While the MacBook Air feels dense and cool in the hand, the Zenbook has a warm texture. Ultimately, no one should buy either laptop based on looks alone.
The Zenbook S 14 has a very good Asus keyboard, found in the entire ZenBook line. It has plenty of spacing, large keycaps, and backlit keys. The MacBook Air uses Apple’s excellent Magic Keyboard, known for its perfect design, comfortable keys, and most accurate keys on a laptop today. The Zenbook’s mechanical touchpad looks fine but is too large, leaving a very small palm rest. The Force Touch trackpad on the MacBook Air is perfectly sized and works great, with the Force Click function adding extra features with a more stable click. The keyboard and trackpad are strengths for Apple.
Connectivity-wise, the Zenbook S 14 with two Thunderbolt 4-compatible ports excels, along with modern wireless connection. Both laptops have 1080p webcams, with the Zenbook using an IR camera with Windows 11 facial recognition compared to the MacBook Air’s Touch ID fingerprint reader. The Zenbook supports Studio Effects software to enhance video conferencing.
Performance
Intel’s Lunar Lake chips aim to compete directly with Apple Silicon. We reviewed the Zenbook S 14 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, an 8-core chip with a 17W power design, and 8 threads. It uses the latest integrated graphics Intel Arc 140V. The MacBook Air uses Apple’s M3 chip with eight CPU cores and eight or 10 GPU cores. We reviewed the faster version.
In our benchmarks, the MacBook Air M3 was faster in all tests except Handbrake. It was faster in both single-core and multi-core tests. Its GPU was more than twice as fast in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark.
This doesn’t mean the Zenbook S 14 is slow. It’s just that the MacBook Air M3 is noticeably faster.
| Geekbench 6 (Single/Multi) |
Cinebench R24 (Single/Multi/Battery) |
Handbrake | 3DMark Wild Life Extreme |
|
| Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V) |
2,738 / 10,734 | 112 / 452 | 113 | 3,240 |
| Apple MacBook Air M3 (M3 8/10) |
3,102 / 12,078 | 141 / 601 | 109 | 8,098 |
Display
The Zenbook S 14 uses a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It is a beautiful display with vibrant OLED colors and deep blacks. This is compared to the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch 2560 × 1664 IPS display with a 60Hz refresh rate.
While the MacBook Air’s IPS screen is very good, being very bright and reasonably colorful, the Zenbook’s OLED panel has much wider colors and near-perfect black levels. Color accuracy was oddly poor on our review unit, but this is unusual and likely an anomaly. The Zenbook’s display will be appreciated by creators and media consumers.
| Asus Zenbook S 14 (OLED) |
Apple MacBook Air M3 (IPS) |
|
| Brightness (Lux) |
313 | 496 |
| AdobeRGB Range | 95% | 87% |
| SRGB Range | 100% | 100% |
| DCI-P3 Range | 100% | 99% |
| Color Accuracy (DeltaE, lower is better) |
4.92 | 1.24 |
| Contrast Ratio | 28,310:1 | 1,480:1 |
Portability
The MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop you can buy, with the Zenbook S 14 being slightly thicker. Despite having a larger screen, the Zenbook has almost the same width and depth and weighs almost the same. Both are extremely portable laptops.
When it comes to battery life, the Zenbook S 14 approaches the MacBook Air M3 like any modern Windows laptop. We only fell three hours short in our web browsing test and one hour in our video loop test. Both laptops achieved nearly the same thing in the multi-core Cinebench R24 test.
