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Review: Asus ZenBook 13 OLED UM325S

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 April 2021, 14:01

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

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Conclusion

...the UM325S backs up major performance chops with all-day battery life.

AMD's infiltration into the laptop market gathers pace with the Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile chips. Housing up to eight cores and 16 threads alongside integrated Radeon graphics, all wrapped inside a 15W SOC, there are numerous reasons why the laptop big boys are interested in expanding their catalogues.

Asus is a case in point. The traditional Intel-based ZenBook is joined by outwardly similar versions touting AMD's latest technology. Equipped with a Ryzen 7 5800U, 16GB RAM, a fast 1TB SSD, that lovely OLED display, the UM325S backs up major performance chops with all-day battery life.

There are some drawbacks, however, which are outside of AMD's control. The keyboard feels overly cramped, the webcam particularly poor, and the screen coating is overly reflective.

Bottom line: Asus' use of the latest AMD technology propels performance without sacrificing battery life in the true thin-and-light laptop market. Think small and thin means slow? Think again.

The Good
  
The Bad
Nice OLED panel
Generally pretty quiet
All-day battery life
Genuinely thin and light
Stonking multi-core performance
  
Overly reflective coating
No touchscreen option
Poor webcam
Cramped keyboard



Asus ZenBook OLED UM325S

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TBC.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.


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HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Posted by 3dcandy - Thu 22 Apr 2021 14:16
I cannot believe that in 2021 these companies insist on god damn awful 720p webcams…
Posted by DanceswithUnix - Thu 22 Apr 2021 14:28
3dcandy
I cannot believe that in 2021 these companies insist on god damn awful 720p webcams…

You really want to see your boss crystal clear in 4K in the morning?

Then there's the problem that there are sometimes three or four Teams meetings going on in the house, which is a *lot* of camera footage being streamed about.

Honestly I'm fine with 720p. If I want more, I'll use a proper camera with a proper lens.

Edit: Having seem the image, 720p shouldn't look as bad as that though.
Posted by 3dcandy - Thu 22 Apr 2021 14:35
DanceswithUnix
You really want to see your boss crystal clear in 4K in the morning?

Then there's the problem that there are sometimes three or four Teams meetings going on in the house, which is a *lot* of camera footage being streamed about.

Honestly I'm fine with 720p. If I want more, I'll use a proper camera with a proper lens.

Edit: Having seem the image, 720p shouldn't look as bad as that though.

Hahahaha the edit… which is why I said god damn awful. I have *no issue* with 720p but that quality 720p is dire
Posted by DanceswithUnix - Thu 22 Apr 2021 15:04
3dcandy
Hahahaha the edit… which is why I said god damn awful. I have *no issue* with 720p but that quality 720p is dire

That picture just seemed odd though. Looking elsewhere, the camera looked about as good/bad as I would expect for use in a call.



(from https://www.ultrabookreview.com/45028-asus-zenbook-13-um325-review/)
Posted by kalniel - Thu 22 Apr 2021 16:25
As per recent GTC keynote, you don't need much information content in the webcam image these days, just give it a hint and let ML fill in the details (or whatever you want instead).

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