BitComet is a free torrenting client for PCs and mobile devices. It allows you to download videos, music, photos, and other files from across the web. BitComet is unique because it doesn’t support only the BitTorrent protocol. It can also download files using the HTTP and FTP protocols.
With a glut of torrenting platforms available, many people struggle to choose the best one for their needs. We’re reviewing BitComet to help you decide whether it’s an ideal choice. Our review centers on crucial factors, including its features, user-friendliness, and security.
BitComet: Versions and platforms
BitComet is available as a desktop or mobile app. The desktop app is compatible with the Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. The mobile app is compatible only with the Android operating system. Like most torrenting apps, it is incompatible with iOS.
Apple's iOS App Store has stringent requirements and is generally unfriendly to torrenting apps. Hence, most torrenting apps are incompatible with iOS.
You can download BitComet by heading to the website, clicking the “downloads” section, and choosing your relevant operating system. Downloading and installing the app takes little time and effort.
(Image credit: Future)
BitComet: Features
BitComet is unique because it supports multiple file-sharing protocols (BitTorrent, HTTP, and FTP). You can download content indirectly via torrents or directly from an online source.
This platform supports long-term seeding, whereby any torrent file a user downloads is kept for an extended period. This makes it easy for other users on the network to access the file, ensuring faster download speeds across the torrenting network.
BitComet has a “torrent exchange” feature that allows users to obtain torrents directly from other BitComet users. This feature increases the availability of content on its torrenting network.
To download content via BitComet, you’ll first search for the relevant torrent from your favorite torrent site. For instance, if you want a specific audio track, you can search for the track and download the .torrent file on your PC. Then, you’ll upload this torrent to BitComet to begin the download. Alternatively, you can download a file by providing its torrent hash or Magnet URI.
BitComet supports the HTTP and FTP file transfer protocols, so you can also download a file by providing its HTTP URL. Unlike most rivals exclusively used for torrenting, we like that BitComet supports multiple download protocols.
To illustrate, we downloaded a (public domain) music .torrent file. The next step is clicking on BitComet’s torrent upload button, highlighted with a red arrow in the below image.
(Image credit: Future)
Click on this button, upload the file, and you’ll automatically create a new download task. Choose the file destination and click “Download Now” to begin downloading. Alternatively, you can click “Download Later” and schedule the download at a specific time.
BitComet shows your real-time download progress and speed. You can monitor all your pending or completed downloads from a single page. You’re free to pause or stop a pending download.
When testing BitComet, we observed swift download speeds, but yours can vary depending on how many seeders (for your specific torrent file) are present on the network. Seeders are users like you who have downloaded and shared a file with other BitComet users.
The more seeders available, the more bandwidth and the faster your download speed. The fewer the seeders on the network, the slower your download speed. Your network speed also contributes to how fast BitComet will download your torrent file.
If you download content via HTTP or FTP, you don't need to worry about seeders. In this case, your download speed primarily depends on your internet service provider (ISP).
Torrenting can consume significant bandwidth, especially when acting as a seeder for other BitComet users. To save bandwidth, BitComet lets users set maximum file upload speeds. You’ll never surpass this limit when uploading files for other users.
BitComet lets users set IP filters for security purposes. You can do that via denylists or allowlists. Denylists block specific IP addresses from sharing files with your device, usually the IPs known for spreading malware. With allowlists, you’ll permit only a specific set of IP addresses to share files with your device, and the others are automatically blocked.
BitComet: Interface and in-use
Intuitiveness is one of the main advantages we observed when testing BitComet. It has a simple interface that users can easily understand. All the functions are neatly arranged on the dashboard’s upper side. The upper-left corner hosts an array of buttons, including the torrent upload, start, stop, and delete buttons.
Every button has a fitting icon as opposed to plain text, making it easy to discover what you want. BitComet has a white background and bright colors to make icons noticeable. The navigation menu is easily accessible on a desktop or Android phone.
BitComet is compatible with the most popular desktop operating systems—macOS, Windows, and Linux—and the most popular mobile operating system (Android). It is highly accessible, though it lacks an iOS app for broader reasons.
BitComet: Security and privacy
Torrenting can expose you to security threats like malware. Hence, BitComet has sophisticated features to prevent users from falling victim to cyber threats. It automatically scans all files for viruses before downloading them. You'll be warned and prompted to cancel the download if a virus is detected.
This platform uses advanced encryption algorithms to prevent unauthorized parties from snooping on your torrenting activities. For heightened security, you can set BitComet always to encrypt outgoing connections and only accept encrypted incoming connections.
Though very secure, BitComet isn’t perfectly airtight. There’s always a risk of your torrenting activities getting leaked, so don’t use BitComet for illegal activities. TechRadar explicitly doesn’t endorse piracy.
BitComet: Final Verdict
BitComet is one of the best free torrenting solutions. It makes discovering and downloading content a cakewalk, thanks to its support of other protocols aside from BitTorrent. We recommend BitComet to anyone looking for a suitable torrenting solution.
Apple unveiled iOS 26 in early June, along with the respective OS branches for its tablets, watches, computers and other gadgets. It’s a major visual overhaul that introduces Liquid Glass, but the company still isn’t done tweaking the looks. The update hasn’t reached the stable milestone yet, but work is progressing quickly and Apple is already on the fifth beta.
After concerns that the effect was too strong, iOS 26 beta 2 toned down the Liquid Glass. However, that was an over-correction and beta 4 dialed it up a bit. Beta 5 doesn’t seem to have made any changes to Liquid...
DJI practically invented the idea of the gimbal camera but other makers including FeiyuTech, Benro (for a while) and now Agfaphoto have joined in with their own designs. They are all based on a small camera unit mounted permanently on a compact 3-axis gimbal with the screen, controls, battery and other electronics built into the handle.
Gimbal cameras provide both stabilization for handheld video and the kind of smoothed-out camera movements that you see in movies. It’s the same principle as gimbal stabilizers for regular cameras, but a fraction of the size and weight. I’ve used a DJI Pocket 2 for a long time, and love the way you can create professional-looking camera movements without a lot of heavy and expensive gear.
The latest DJI Pocket 3 leads the field in the gimbal camera market, but it’s pretty expensive, coming in at around the same price as an entry-level mirrorless camera, and the Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X undercuts it considerably. It does sacrifice a few features compared to the more expensive Pocket 3, but not everyone will need DJI’s fancy features and would rather spend a good deal less on a more basic camera.
The main compromise with the Realimove MC3X is the sensor size. The 1/2.5-inch 8MP sensor is pretty small, and while its 4K video looks very good when you’re filming outdoors in good light, I did find it got noticeably softer in low light at higher ISO settings.
The MC3X also has a fairly limiting 0.3m-infinity focus range. That sounds like it should be fine, but it’s equipped with a wide-angle lens, so sometimes I had to move in really close to fill the frame with an object, and then found it went out of focus.
The Realimove MC3X can’t match the DJI Pocket 3’s frame rates, either. Its maximum frame rate for 4K video is 30p, which effectively means you can’t shoot slow motion 4K and have to drop the resolution to 2.7K for 60p recording and full HD for 120p slow motion. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s how costs have been cut. It did mean that if I planned to combine regular and slow motion video in a project, I’d probably have to film the whole thing at a lower resolution to avoid upscaling compromises when splicing together different resolutions later in my video editor.
I also found the MC3X’s face tracking a little unreliable, and while the digital zoom is easy to operate with a rocker lever on the side, zooming in looked a bit jerky, so I think I’d probably set the zoom before filming rather than while I was recording.
It’s good to get all the criticisms out of the way, though, because the Realimove MC3X has some really good features. The biggest is the rotating 3.5-inch display, which is WAY bigger than the thumbnail-sized screen on my Pocket 2 and bigger even than the screen on the Pocket 3.
What this means is that you can still see clearly what you’re filming, even with the camera at arm’s length, and also if you’re filming yourself with the camera reversed. It’s hard to overstate how useful this is.
You leave the screen in its vertical position for vertical video, or rotate it 90° for horizontal video. It switches orientation automatically and I found this really intuitive. Rotating the screen horizontally reveals physical buttons for adjusting the gimbal direction, and this is much better than the virtual on-screen controls, which I found a bit unresponsive.
The other thing I really like is that you can set all the important controls directly on the camera, so that while there is a free companion app, I never felt the need to use it. You can swap between pan-follow, pan-tilt-follow and free-follow modes in the menus with just a few taps.
Here's a sample movie I shot with the Realimove MC3X to show its video quality, panning smoothness and audio.
I found the gimbal movement smooth and progressive – and you can change the speed in the menus if you need to. Occasionally the gimbal did get confused if I dropped my hand between bits of filming and the gimbal ran out of movement, but it only takes a moment to recenter when you’re ready to start filming again.
Perhaps the biggest issue for me was everyday practicality. The large screen is very welcome, but it does mean the body is quite wide and, while you can put the MC3X in a pocket, it does leave the gimbal head feeling quite exposed while the unit is powered off – I’d be happier if the gimbal axes were locked when the camera is off, but then it’s the same for my Pocket 2, so I can’t say much.
But the Pocket 2 and Pocket 3 do come with protective slimline hard cases which don’t add much to the size and do protect them in your pocket or bag. The Realimove MC3X doesn’t have this. It does come with a fitted hard case that also accommodates the cables, but it’s pretty big and there’s no way this is going to fit in a trouser pocket.
So I do think this Agfaphoto gimbal comes with compromises. It’s a lot cheaper than the DJI Pocket 3 but it’s not hard to see what you’ve had to sacrifice. I’d say it’s a great buy for anyone who would like to try out a gimbal camera without splashing too much cash – and the results can be very good. So good, in fact, that you might be glad you didn’t spend more.
But if you are a little more serious about filmmaking and need a wider choice of framerates, better video quality (especially in low light) and a little more design finesse and practicality, you might end up upgrading to the DJI Pocket 3 after all.
Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X review: price
The Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X is on sale in the UK for £299 but with US availability and pricing yet to be confirmed. It’s a decent enough camera, but while it’s a lot cheaper than the DJI Pocket 3, you might find the older DJI Pocket 2 even cheaper. The screen is smaller, but the Pocket 2 is a better camera. This puts the Realimove MC3X in awkward territory. Yes, it’s cheaper than its main rival but it’s also a good deal less sophisticated. It’s quite good for the money but it is quite basic.
You want a gimbal camera on a budget The Realimove MC3X is a great introduction to this kind of camera, and while it is quite basic it may do everything you need.
You like the big screen This really does make a difference. It makes the on-screen camera control much easier and you can actually see what you’re filming.
You don’t like using an app It is a nuisance to be holding a gimbal camera in one hand and your smartphone in the other, so the Realimove’s comprehensive on-camera control is welcome.
Don’t buy it if…
You need top-quality footage The Realimove’s 4K video is fine in good light, but the limitations of the small 1/2.5-inch sensor are obvious indoors or after dark.
You need to shoot slow motion If you need faster frame rates on the MC3X you have to drop the resolution, and that’s a limitation that will be deal-breaker for many action/adventure filmmakers.
You want pocket-sized portability The larger body and lack of any hard ‘shell’ stop the Realimove from feeling like a genuine pocket camera – the camera/gimbal head just feels too exposed.
How I tested the Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X
I had the Realimove MC3X for several weeks and tested it in many different scenarios. I checked its ability to maintain a level pan-follow orientation with height changes and following a fast-moving pet dog through long grass (very fast-moving!), and also the smoothness of its panning movements, what I’d call a ‘sideways pan’ while walking, and its stability when filming and walking in typical vlogging style, and it did all these things pretty well.
I also wanted to find out what the video quality was like both in bright daylight and dimmer indoor conditions, which is where I would expect a smaller sensor to start to struggle – and sure enough, it did.
I didn’t set out to test the battery life, but I did come away impressed, as I spent a couple of hours at a time filming sequences to stitch together into a move, and the battery indicator hardly budged. I think I got it down to about half during my longest session.
A new leak found inside the latest iOS 26 beta revealed the upcoming Apple Watch Ultra’s possible display resolution. An image dug out by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris reveals the upcoming Watch Ultra will feature a 422 x 514 px display resolution.
For context, the first and second-gen Watch Ultra feature 1.92-inch screens with 410 x 502px resolution. The higher pixel count on the upcoming Watch Ultra should imply a slightly larger 1.98-inch screen diagonal, possibly achieved through slimmer bezels.
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Apple is expected to keep the same design as its...
The Asus Zenbook laptop line has long been one of my favorites, sitting among the best ultrabooks alongside rivals like Dell's XPS series and the LG Gram collection. Now, Asus has given its premium laptop lineup a fresh lease on life, thanks to AMD's mighty new Ryzen AI chips and the magic of something called 'ceraluminum'.
I'll get further into that mysterious new material further down in this review, but here's the short version: the lid of the new Asus Zenbook S 16 is made from a futuristic composite of aluminum and ceramic, giving it a soft matte feel while also being more durable, lighter, and fingerprint-resistant than the traditional aluminum and plastic used in the construction of most modern laptops.
Of course, a fancy outer casing doesn't guarantee you're getting a high-quality product. But the Zenbook S 16 delivers a premium experience in other areas too, with great performance across a variety of workloads and a generally very comfortable user experience.
(Image credit: Future)
Although I always spend at least a full workweek using any laptop I review in lieu of my regular daily driver (the ever-faithful HP Spectre x360), I was actually forced to use this laptop for a few days. See, my boiler needed replacing, and unfortunately, it's situated in my home office - meaning that for two days, I was jettisoned from my desktop setup to the breakfast bar downstairs while the installation engineer resolved my lack of hot water.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a creature of habit, and was initially unhappy to be displaced from my usual workstation. But honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't drop Asus a line politely asking (read: begging) to keep this Zenbook. The 16-inch OLED touchscreen is gorgeous, and the large touchpad and keyboard make for a very comfortable user experience. It's perhaps the closest I've felt to using a MacBook Pro while actually on a Windows laptop - and while I'm a known macOS hater, I've always maintained that Apple's Mac products are very well-designed devices.
Starting at $1,599 / £1,499 / AU$2,999, the Zenbook S 16 isn't exactly cheap, but for that price tag, you're getting some pretty impressive performance and a really, really nice piece of physical hardware. I'll dig into the details more in the Price and Availability section, but the key takeaway here is that the value proposition is solid.
There's only one real drawback here, in my opinion: the battery life. It's perfectly serviceable, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing spectacular within the current market space. Still, it'll last you through a full day's work and then some - so as long as you don't mind putting it on charge overnight.
Asus Zenbook S 16: Price and availability
How much does it cost? Starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,999
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
With a price tag starting at $1,599 / £1,499 / AU$2,999, the Asus Zenbook S 16 certainly leans towards the premium end of the market, but you're getting plenty of bang for your buck here.
There are a few different configurations, with the main difference being the Ryzen processor model and the amount of RAM. Every model comes with the same 3K OLED display and 1TB of storage - a 2TB model would've been nice, but at least the SSD is user-upgradable. The base configuration, priced as above, comes with a Ryzen AI 7 350 chip and 24GB of RAM (an unusual amount, but still better than the more commonplace 16GB industry standard).
(Image credit: Future)
My review unit is a higher-end model, featuring a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and 32GB of RAM, and it will cost you $1,799 / £1,599 - and at the time of writing, this model unfortunately isn't available in Australia. I say 'unfortunately' here because for my money, that extra $200 / £100 is well worth it for the internal hardware upgrade.
For comparison, a 16-inch MacBook Pro will cost you $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 - and that's just for the base M4 Pro model. Granted, there's no denying that Apple's pro-grade laptop can offer better performance in many areas than this Zenbook, but the point stands that the Zenbook S 16 is very good value for money.
Price score: 4.5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Specs
Asus Zenbook S 16
CPU
Up to AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
GPU
Up to AMD Radeon 890M
RAM
Up to 32GB LPDDR5X
Display
16-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz
Storage
Up to 1TB SSD
Ports
2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3,5mm combi audio jack
Wireless
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Weight
1.5kg / 3.31lbs
Dimension
35.4 x 24.3 x 1.29cm / 13.9 x 9.6 x 0.51 inches
Asus Zenbook S 16: Design
(Image credit: Future)
Super comfortable keyboard and trackpad
Ceraluminum casing is impressive
Surprisingly lightweight
Aesthetically speaking, this is undeniably one gorgeous laptop. With the 'Scandinavian White' colorway, it feels as clean and striking as any of the best laptops. The back of the screen is not only made from Asus's fancy ceraluminum material, but it also has a kintsugi-inspired pattern of sharp lines inlaid in silver, which strikes the perfect balance between eye-catching and minimalist.
A little more about that revolutionary new material, though: you can read about my first time encountering ceraluminum right here, but I'll give you a quick breakdown in case you don't feel like reading a whole different article. It's created by electrochemically bonding aluminum with a ceramic component, producing a strong plated material with a matte surface that feels like unglazed pottery to the touch.
The best thing about this is that it brings the lightweight, durable nature of aluminum - a popular choice among manufacturers when it comes to laptop construction - while also providing a grippier surface that is more resilient against both damage and smudging from fingerprints. I've criticized more than a few laptops over the years for being 'fingerprint magnets', and happily that doesn't apply here. The whole thing feels impressively sturdy despite being very thin and light for a 16-inch laptop.
(Image credit: Future)
Opening up the lid, you're met with a more conventionally constructed aluminum keyboard housing, with a large glass touchpad and nicely spaced keys that make it very comfortable to type on. I also found the touchpad to be sensitive and responsive, with a firm click, although I typically prefer to connect a wireless mouse when using laptops.
Above the keyboard, a wide cooling grille sits with a subtle Asus logo in the corner. The keys are backlit with white LEDs, which can be set to three different brightness levels; it's not often I take much time to comment on keyboard backlighting, but the Zenbook S 16's is particularly vibrant.
Speaking of vibrancy, the display on this laptop is fantastic, offering rich color and sharp contrast thanks to its 3K OLED panel. While the maximum brightness isn't quite as high as I've seen on some other OLED laptops, it's certainly bright enough to use in well-lit environments, and it's also a touchscreen. Somewhat surprisingly, this display has a 120Hz refresh rate, a pleasing upgrade from the 60Hz panels you see on most non-gaming laptops.
In terms of physical connectivity, we've got a good selection of ports here, including USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and even an SD card reader - the latter of which may be a boon for photographers when combined with the excellent display. Lastly, the speakers are quite good, providing detailed audio for both music and dialogue - it's perhaps lacking a tiny bit of kick in the bass department compared to some laptops I've seen, but overall I really can't complain about the speaker quality.
Design score: 5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Performance
Solid all-rounder performance
NPU provides support for AI features in Windows
Playing games is certainly an option, though it's no gaming laptop
The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a powerful chip backed with 32GB of RAM in my review unit, and I'm pleased to say it performs admirably. General responsiveness is great and everyday tasks run smoothly, to the point where anyone who just wants a laptop for office work could probably consider downgrading to a Ryzen AI 7 model.
When it comes to more demanding workloads, the Zenbook S 16 offers good performance across a variety of areas, including 3D rendering, AI functionality, and gaming. Sure, it's not going to beat out an actual gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU, but the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics are surprisingly competent even in more demanding games, provided you're willing to dial back the graphical settings a bit and turn on AMD's FSR 3.0 resolution upscaling mode.
Asus Zenbook S 16 review: Benchmarks
Here's how the Asus Zenbook S 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) performed in our suite of benchmark tests: 3DMark: Night Raid: 34,618; Fire Strike: 8,516; Time Spy: 4,407; Steel Nomad: 889 Cinebench R23: Multi-core: 13,441; Single-core: 1,953 Geekbench 6.4: Multicore: 14,102; Single-core: 2,845 Geekbench AI: Single Precision Score: 2,359; Half Precision Score: 1,217; Quantized Score: 4,811 PCMark 10: 6,827 Crossmark: Overall: 1,744; Productivity: 1,637; Creativity: 1,940; Responsiveness: 1,537 Sid Meier's Civilization VII: (1080p, Medium, No Upscaling): 45fps; (1800p, High, No Upscaling): 16fps; (1800p, High, Balanced FSR 3 Upscaling): 22fps Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, Medium, No Upscaling): 22fps; (1800p, Ultra, No Upscaling): 6fps; (1800p, Ultra, Balanced FSR 3 Upscaling): 10fps Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 14 hours, 55 minutes
In real-world testing, I had no issues whatsoever with the performance of the Zenbook S 16. Running Spotify in the background while working across 20+ open Chrome tabs didn't cause the slightest bit of slowdown, and image editing in GIMP 3.0 was smooth and effective - a far cry from the rather sluggish experience I get when trying to edit images on my usual laptop.
AI performance is also reasonably good; again, you're ideally going to want to spring for a laptop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU if you want to be running serious AI workloads locally, like producing your own language models, but for running the local aspects of something like Microsoft's Copilot+ AI assistant, the average user will have no problems.
(Image credit: Future)
To dig into that gaming performance a little more (there's overlap here with other 3D rendering and modeling software), I needed to drop the resolution to FHD+ rather than the native 3K and enable AMD's FSR 3 upscaling to make most games playable - this machine isn't coming close to any of the best gaming laptops - but for anyone who just wants to play casual titles or indie games on their off-time, the Zenbook S 16 is more capable than I had expected. I used it for a spot of Stardew Valley after work on multiple occasions, which unsurprisingly ran great.
In Civilization VII, I was easily able to get a decent framerate at 1200p, while the infamously hardware-demanding Cyberpunk 2077 was completely unplayable at native 1800p but produced an fps of 35 at 1200p with Low settings and FSR 3's Performance mode enabled (and frankly, even with those settings, this game still looks bloody fantastic). It's a true testament to the power of AMD's resolution upscaling tech for integrated GPUs; I'm quietly awed by the fact that a game like Cyberpunk is playable at all on an ultrabook like this.
I will note that the fans on the Zenbook S 16 get a tad noisy when you're running more intensive software - it's nothing too onerous, and I found it ran quietly during regular tasks like web browsing, but be aware that you might want headphones to play games on it. It's worth adding that the laptop didn't get uncomfortably hot at any point (aside from directly on the vent above the keyboard), even during stress testing.
(Image credit: Future)
Performance score: 4.5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Battery
The battery life on the Zenbook S 16 is pretty good. That's almost all I can really say about it; it's not mind-blowing, beaten out by several competitors, but it's still sufficient for a full day's work (or two) without needing to plug in provided you turn off the keyboard backlight and don't work at maximum brightness.
In our battery life test, which involves running a looped video file at 50% brightness, the Zenbook S 16 ran out of juice just shy of the 15-hour mark, which for a 16-inch OLED laptop is respectable, if unspectacular. In real-world use situations, I was getting between 10 and 12 hours out of it at a time on average, and it holds its charge remarkably well when not in use.
Since it charges via USB-C, you can easily make use of other charging cables, though the supplied 65W adapter provides fast-charging capabilities that provide 50% battery charge in a little over half an hour.
Battery score: 4/5
Should you buy the Asus Zenbook S 16?
Notes
Rating
Value
It's no budget machine, but the price-to-performance ratio here is great.
4.5/5
Design
A stylish and robust design combined with a comfortable user experience makes for a truly premium-feeling laptop.
5/5
Performance
Performance is solid across productivity, creative, and gaming workloads, with good responsiveness and fans that only kick in when you're running demanding programs.
4.5/5
Battery
The battery can comfortably run for more than an 8-hour workday, though it is beaten out by some competing laptops.
4/5
Total
While the pre-installed Asus software is a bit annoying, this is a fantastic laptop that delivers a great aesthetic and strong performance at a sensible price point.
4.5/5
Buy it if...
You want a laptop that looks great Between its sleek shell, excellent display, and pleasantly understated keyboard backlighting, the Zenbook S 16 is certainly an aesthetically pleasing laptop.
You want something thin but powerful Despite its relatively light overall weight (for a 16-inch laptop) and thin chassis, the next-gen Ryzen chip inside this Zenbook is fantastic for productivity workloads and can even handle some light gaming.
You want to use Windows 11's AI features Since this is a 'Copilot+ PC' with a built-in NPU and a dedicated button for summoning Microsoft's AI assistant, it's a solid pick for anyone who wants an AI laptop.
Don't buy it if...
You’re on a tight budget The price tag on the Zenbook S 16 is actually very reasonable for the specs, but it's certainly not a cheap laptop.
You want the best in battery life While this Zenbook's battery is alright, there are competitors that do a better job - and if you really want ridiculously good battery life, a smaller laptop is usually the way to go.
Also Consider
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) Beating the Zenbook S 16 in both performance and battery life, Apple's latest MacBook Pro 16-inch is a staunch competitor - though bear in mind that it'll cost you more, and macOS isn't for everyone.
Dell XPS 17 If you're looking for a similar premium-feeling laptop but with an even larger screen, the Dell XPS 17 is arguably the best 17-inch laptop out there right now.
Replaced my regular laptop with the Zenbook S 16 for several weeks
Used the laptop both for day-to-day work and personal projects
Ran it through our full suite of benchmarks, plus some extra tests
As is typical for my laptop review process, I swapped out my daily driver for the Asus Zenbook S 16 - and actually ended up liking it so much that I kept using it after my usual week or two of real-world testing. Asus, if I could keep this one, that would be great...
This involved all my day-to-day work, which is mostly emailing, word processing, web research, and image editing, plus some work on personal projects and a bit of gaming in my off hours. I also ran our suite of benchmarking and battery tests to provide a clearer image of the Zenbook S 16's overall performance.
The Asus Zenbook laptop line has long been one of my favorites, sitting among the best ultrabooks alongside rivals like Dell's XPS series and the LG Gram collection. Now, Asus has given its premium laptop lineup a fresh lease on life, thanks to AMD's mighty new Ryzen AI chips and the magic of something called 'ceraluminum'.
I'll get further into that mysterious new material further down in this review, but here's the short version: the lid of the new Asus Zenbook S 16 is made from a futuristic composite of aluminum and ceramic, giving it a soft matte feel while also being more durable, lighter, and fingerprint-resistant than the traditional aluminum and plastic used in the construction of most modern laptops.
Of course, a fancy outer casing doesn't guarantee you're getting a high-quality product. But the Zenbook S 16 delivers a premium experience in other areas too, with great performance across a variety of workloads and a generally very comfortable user experience.
(Image credit: Future)
Although I always spend at least a full workweek using any laptop I review in lieu of my regular daily driver (the ever-faithful HP Spectre x360), I was actually forced to use this laptop for a few days. See, my boiler needed replacing, and unfortunately, it's situated in my home office - meaning that for two days, I was jettisoned from my desktop setup to the breakfast bar downstairs while the installation engineer resolved my lack of hot water.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a creature of habit, and was initially unhappy to be displaced from my usual workstation. But honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't drop Asus a line politely asking (read: begging) to keep this Zenbook. The 16-inch OLED touchscreen is gorgeous, and the large touchpad and keyboard make for a very comfortable user experience. It's perhaps the closest I've felt to using a MacBook Pro while actually on a Windows laptop - and while I'm a known macOS hater, I've always maintained that Apple's Mac products are very well-designed devices.
Starting at $1,599 / £1,499 / AU$2,999, the Zenbook S 16 isn't exactly cheap, but for that price tag, you're getting some pretty impressive performance and a really, really nice piece of physical hardware. I'll dig into the details more in the Price and Availability section, but the key takeaway here is that the value proposition is solid.
There's only one real drawback here, in my opinion: the battery life. It's perfectly serviceable, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing spectacular within the current market space. Still, it'll last you through a full day's work and then some - so as long as you don't mind putting it on charge overnight.
Asus Zenbook S 16: Price and availability
How much does it cost? Starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,999
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
With a price tag starting at $1,599 / £1,499 / AU$2,999, the Asus Zenbook S 16 certainly leans towards the premium end of the market, but you're getting plenty of bang for your buck here.
There are a few different configurations, with the main difference being the Ryzen processor model and the amount of RAM. Every model comes with the same 3K OLED display and 1TB of storage - a 2TB model would've been nice, but at least the SSD is user-upgradable. The base configuration, priced as above, comes with a Ryzen AI 7 350 chip and 24GB of RAM (an unusual amount, but still better than the more commonplace 16GB industry standard).
(Image credit: Future)
My review unit is a higher-end model, featuring a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and 32GB of RAM, and it will cost you $1,799 / £1,599 - and at the time of writing, this model unfortunately isn't available in Australia. I say 'unfortunately' here because for my money, that extra $200 / £100 is well worth it for the internal hardware upgrade.
For comparison, a 16-inch MacBook Pro will cost you $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 - and that's just for the base M4 Pro model. Granted, there's no denying that Apple's pro-grade laptop can offer better performance in many areas than this Zenbook, but the point stands that the Zenbook S 16 is very good value for money.
Price score: 4.5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Specs
Asus Zenbook S 16
CPU
Up to AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
GPU
Up to AMD Radeon 890M
RAM
Up to 32GB LPDDR5X
Display
16-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz
Storage
Up to 1TB SSD
Ports
2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3,5mm combi audio jack
Wireless
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Weight
1.5kg / 3.31lbs
Dimension
35.4 x 24.3 x 1.29cm / 13.9 x 9.6 x 0.51 inches
Asus Zenbook S 16: Design
(Image credit: Future)
Super comfortable keyboard and trackpad
Ceraluminum casing is impressive
Surprisingly lightweight
Aesthetically speaking, this is undeniably one gorgeous laptop. With the 'Scandinavian White' colorway, it feels as clean and striking as any of the best laptops. The back of the screen is not only made from Asus's fancy ceraluminum material, but it also has a kintsugi-inspired pattern of sharp lines inlaid in silver, which strikes the perfect balance between eye-catching and minimalist.
A little more about that revolutionary new material, though: you can read about my first time encountering ceraluminum right here, but I'll give you a quick breakdown in case you don't feel like reading a whole different article. It's created by electrochemically bonding aluminum with a ceramic component, producing a strong plated material with a matte surface that feels like unglazed pottery to the touch.
The best thing about this is that it brings the lightweight, durable nature of aluminum - a popular choice among manufacturers when it comes to laptop construction - while also providing a grippier surface that is more resilient against both damage and smudging from fingerprints. I've criticized more than a few laptops over the years for being 'fingerprint magnets', and happily that doesn't apply here. The whole thing feels impressively sturdy despite being very thin and light for a 16-inch laptop.
(Image credit: Future)
Opening up the lid, you're met with a more conventionally constructed aluminum keyboard housing, with a large glass touchpad and nicely spaced keys that make it very comfortable to type on. I also found the touchpad to be sensitive and responsive, with a firm click, although I typically prefer to connect a wireless mouse when using laptops.
Above the keyboard, a wide cooling grille sits with a subtle Asus logo in the corner. The keys are backlit with white LEDs, which can be set to three different brightness levels; it's not often I take much time to comment on keyboard backlighting, but the Zenbook S 16's is particularly vibrant.
Speaking of vibrancy, the display on this laptop is fantastic, offering rich color and sharp contrast thanks to its 3K OLED panel. While the maximum brightness isn't quite as high as I've seen on some other OLED laptops, it's certainly bright enough to use in well-lit environments, and it's also a touchscreen. Somewhat surprisingly, this display has a 120Hz refresh rate, a pleasing upgrade from the 60Hz panels you see on most non-gaming laptops.
In terms of physical connectivity, we've got a good selection of ports here, including USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and even an SD card reader - the latter of which may be a boon for photographers when combined with the excellent display. Lastly, the speakers are quite good, providing detailed audio for both music and dialogue - it's perhaps lacking a tiny bit of kick in the bass department compared to some laptops I've seen, but overall I really can't complain about the speaker quality.
Design score: 5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Performance
Solid all-rounder performance
NPU provides support for AI features in Windows
Playing games is certainly an option, though it's no gaming laptop
The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a powerful chip backed with 32GB of RAM in my review unit, and I'm pleased to say it performs admirably. General responsiveness is great and everyday tasks run smoothly, to the point where anyone who just wants a laptop for office work could probably consider downgrading to a Ryzen AI 7 model.
When it comes to more demanding workloads, the Zenbook S 16 offers good performance across a variety of areas, including 3D rendering, AI functionality, and gaming. Sure, it's not going to beat out an actual gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU, but the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics are surprisingly competent even in more demanding games, provided you're willing to dial back the graphical settings a bit and turn on AMD's FSR 3.0 resolution upscaling mode.
Asus Zenbook S 16 review: Benchmarks
Here's how the Asus Zenbook S 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) performed in our suite of benchmark tests: 3DMark: Night Raid: 34,618; Fire Strike: 8,516; Time Spy: 4,407; Steel Nomad: 889 Cinebench R23: Multi-core: 13,441; Single-core: 1,953 Geekbench 6.4: Multicore: 14,102; Single-core: 2,845 Geekbench AI: Single Precision Score: 2,359; Half Precision Score: 1,217; Quantized Score: 4,811 PCMark 10: 6,827 Crossmark: Overall: 1,744; Productivity: 1,637; Creativity: 1,940; Responsiveness: 1,537 Sid Meier's Civilization VII: (1080p, Medium, No Upscaling): 45fps; (1800p, High, No Upscaling): 16fps; (1800p, High, Balanced FSR 3 Upscaling): 22fps Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, Medium, No Upscaling): 22fps; (1800p, Ultra, No Upscaling): 6fps; (1800p, Ultra, Balanced FSR 3 Upscaling): 10fps Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 14 hours, 55 minutes
In real-world testing, I had no issues whatsoever with the performance of the Zenbook S 16. Running Spotify in the background while working across 20+ open Chrome tabs didn't cause the slightest bit of slowdown, and image editing in GIMP 3.0 was smooth and effective - a far cry from the rather sluggish experience I get when trying to edit images on my usual laptop.
AI performance is also reasonably good; again, you're ideally going to want to spring for a laptop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU if you want to be running serious AI workloads locally, like producing your own language models, but for running the local aspects of something like Microsoft's Copilot+ AI assistant, the average user will have no problems.
(Image credit: Future)
To dig into that gaming performance a little more (there's overlap here with other 3D rendering and modeling software), I needed to drop the resolution to FHD+ rather than the native 3K and enable AMD's FSR 3 upscaling to make most games playable - this machine isn't coming close to any of the best gaming laptops - but for anyone who just wants to play casual titles or indie games on their off-time, the Zenbook S 16 is more capable than I had expected. I used it for a spot of Stardew Valley after work on multiple occasions, which unsurprisingly ran great.
In Civilization VII, I was easily able to get a decent framerate at 1200p, while the infamously hardware-demanding Cyberpunk 2077 was completely unplayable at native 1800p but produced an fps of 35 at 1200p with Low settings and FSR 3's Performance mode enabled (and frankly, even with those settings, this game still looks bloody fantastic). It's a true testament to the power of AMD's resolution upscaling tech for integrated GPUs; I'm quietly awed by the fact that a game like Cyberpunk is playable at all on an ultrabook like this.
I will note that the fans on the Zenbook S 16 get a tad noisy when you're running more intensive software - it's nothing too onerous, and I found it ran quietly during regular tasks like web browsing, but be aware that you might want headphones to play games on it. It's worth adding that the laptop didn't get uncomfortably hot at any point (aside from directly on the vent above the keyboard), even during stress testing.
(Image credit: Future)
Performance score: 4.5/5
Asus Zenbook S 16: Battery
The battery life on the Zenbook S 16 is pretty good. That's almost all I can really say about it; it's not mind-blowing, beaten out by several competitors, but it's still sufficient for a full day's work (or two) without needing to plug in provided you turn off the keyboard backlight and don't work at maximum brightness.
In our battery life test, which involves running a looped video file at 50% brightness, the Zenbook S 16 ran out of juice just shy of the 15-hour mark, which for a 16-inch OLED laptop is respectable, if unspectacular. In real-world use situations, I was getting between 10 and 12 hours out of it at a time on average, and it holds its charge remarkably well when not in use.
Since it charges via USB-C, you can easily make use of other charging cables, though the supplied 65W adapter provides fast-charging capabilities that provide 50% battery charge in a little over half an hour.
Battery score: 4/5
Should you buy the Asus Zenbook S 16?
Notes
Rating
Value
It's no budget machine, but the price-to-performance ratio here is great.
4.5/5
Design
A stylish and robust design combined with a comfortable user experience makes for a truly premium-feeling laptop.
5/5
Performance
Performance is solid across productivity, creative, and gaming workloads, with good responsiveness and fans that only kick in when you're running demanding programs.
4.5/5
Battery
The battery can comfortably run for more than an 8-hour workday, though it is beaten out by some competing laptops.
4/5
Total
While the pre-installed Asus software is a bit annoying, this is a fantastic laptop that delivers a great aesthetic and strong performance at a sensible price point.
4.5/5
Buy it if...
You want a laptop that looks great Between its sleek shell, excellent display, and pleasantly understated keyboard backlighting, the Zenbook S 16 is certainly an aesthetically pleasing laptop.
You want something thin but powerful Despite its relatively light overall weight (for a 16-inch laptop) and thin chassis, the next-gen Ryzen chip inside this Zenbook is fantastic for productivity workloads and can even handle some light gaming.
You want to use Windows 11's AI features Since this is a 'Copilot+ PC' with a built-in NPU and a dedicated button for summoning Microsoft's AI assistant, it's a solid pick for anyone who wants an AI laptop.
Don't buy it if...
You’re on a tight budget The price tag on the Zenbook S 16 is actually very reasonable for the specs, but it's certainly not a cheap laptop.
You want the best in battery life While this Zenbook's battery is alright, there are competitors that do a better job - and if you really want ridiculously good battery life, a smaller laptop is usually the way to go.
Also Consider
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) Beating the Zenbook S 16 in both performance and battery life, Apple's latest MacBook Pro 16-inch is a staunch competitor - though bear in mind that it'll cost you more, and macOS isn't for everyone.
Dell XPS 17 If you're looking for a similar premium-feeling laptop but with an even larger screen, the Dell XPS 17 is arguably the best 17-inch laptop out there right now.
Replaced my regular laptop with the Zenbook S 16 for several weeks
Used the laptop both for day-to-day work and personal projects
Ran it through our full suite of benchmarks, plus some extra tests
As is typical for my laptop review process, I swapped out my daily driver for the Asus Zenbook S 16 - and actually ended up liking it so much that I kept using it after my usual week or two of real-world testing. Asus, if I could keep this one, that would be great...
This involved all my day-to-day work, which is mostly emailing, word processing, web research, and image editing, plus some work on personal projects and a bit of gaming in my off hours. I also ran our suite of benchmarking and battery tests to provide a clearer image of the Zenbook S 16's overall performance.
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