Asus Zenbook 15 OLED (2023): Gorgeous, light, and packed with ports

There's a lot to like about this thin and light laptop.

- THOMAS NEWTON

The Asus Zenbook 15 OLED (UM3504) is a powerful laptop that’s great for basic office and photo work, watching content, and even a spot of light gaming. While it doesn’t have dedicated GPU, the USB4 port means that you can connect to an external GPU if you need extra grunt in that department. Asus says the 15-inch OLED display covers the entire sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces, so for budding creators looking to get started with content creation, this could be the one.

While it’s not a budget laptop (fave.co/ 3KG8v0f), the Zenbook 15 OLED isn’t priced exorbitantly either. But how does it stack up to the competition?

DESIGN & BUILD 

Picking up the Zenbook 15 OLED for the first time, you’ll notice how thin it both looks and feels—thin frame, thin bezel, and thin keycaps.

You would expect a 15-inch laptop to be a bit unwieldy, but, at 3.1 pounds, the Zenbook 15 OLED is reasonably lightweight. There are less heavy ultrabooks out there—most of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 variants (fave. co/3DROYGy) are a touch lighter at around 2.86 pounds—but this doesn’t feel like it’s going to break your back carrying it between meetings.

It feels sturdy as well, with hardly any flex anywhere in the chassis. The display does wobble when you tilt it, which is the only thing that spoils the otherwise high-end look and feel.

While this shade of dark blue has been the norm for Asus Zenbooks for a while, in a sea of bland black and silver laptop conformity, it’s refreshing to see something a bit different.