Asus Zenbook S 14 vs HP Envy x360 2-in-1: a stark difference

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Asus Zenbook S 14 vs HP Envy x360 2-in-1: a stark difference

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Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Intel’s Lunar Lake chipset is aimed at two objectives. First, it’s meant to leverage the popularity of generative AI with a fast neural processing unit (NPU) that meets

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’s Copilot+ PC initiative. Second, Windows laptops need to be a lot more efficient to compete against Apple’s MacBooks that are both fast and get very good battery life.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is one of the first Lunar Lake laptops, and it accomplishes both objectives while being a good laptop in its own right. The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 stands in as a previous generation laptop that shows exactly how close Intel has come. Is the Zenbook therefore a better fit on our list of the best laptops?

Specs and configurations

	Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA)	HP Envy x360 14 2024
Dimensions	12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47-0.51 inches	12.34 inches x 8.62 inches x 0.67 inches
Weight	2.65 pounds	3.08 pounds
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 7 258V	Intel Core Ultra 5 125U Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
GPU	Intel Arc 140V	Intel Graphics
RAM	16GB LPDDR5X RAM 32GB LPDDR5X RAM	16GB 32GB
Display	14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz	14.0-inch 16:10 WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz
Storage	1TB M.2 NVMe SSD	512GB 1TB 2TB
Ports	2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack	2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 1 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 x 3.5mm audio
Touch	Yes	Yes
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
Webcam	1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello	5MP with infrared camera for Windows Hello
Battery	72 watt-hour	59 watt-hour
OS	Windows 11	Windows 11
Cost	$1,399+	$700+
Rating	4 out of 5 stars	3 out of 5 stars

The Zenbook S 14 is a more premium laptop overall, costing around $1,500 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chipset, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display.

The Envy x360 2-in-1 is a more budget-class machine. The base model starts at $700 for an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch FHD+ IPS display. Max out the configuration and you’ll spend $1,430 for a Core Ultra 7 155U, 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display.

Design

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Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Zenbook S 14 is a very attractive laptop with a unique “ceraluminum” material that makes its chassis light while remaining quite rigid. There’s a coating on the lid, which is festooned with a modern geometric pattern, that makes for a comfortable feel in hand. The Envy x360 2-in-1 is also all-aluminum, and while it’s a more minimalist design, it’s still quite attractive with some streamlined angles. It, too, feels solid in hand. It has a slightly less modern look given a larger bottom display bezel to feature the more complicated convertible 360-degree hinge, but the difference isn’t egregious.

Really, both of these laptops are a joy to use. However, the Zenbook is quite a bit thinner and lighter, which is even more of an issue with the Envy given that it’s meant to be used as a tablet.

Both keyboards are very good, with plenty of key spacing, large keycaps, and light and snappy switches. I can’t imagine anyone finding either keyboard will slow them down. The Zenbook’s mechanical touchpad is a lot ******* than the Envy’s mechanical version, but it’s almost too large. Both laptops have touch displays, and the HP supports an active pen.

Connectivity is better on the Zenbook, with an additional Thunderbolt 4 port and an HDMI connection. And, the fastest Wi-Fi is standard on the Zenbook and just optional on the Envy.

In terms of webcams, the Envy x360 2-in-1 has a higher-res 5MP version, but its NPU is slower than the Zenbook’s, meaning that it only supports the standard version of

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’s Studio Effects software, not the enhanced version as with the Zenbook. And, the Asus is part of

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’s Copilot+ PC initiative that will eventually leverage fast NPUs for on-device AI capabilities that earlier laptops lack.

Performance

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Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Intel’s Lunar Lake chipsets are the direct successor to Meteor Lake, offering up the promise of better performance with more efficiency. The first Lunar Lake chipset we’ve reviewed is the Core Ultra 7 258V, a 17-watt chipset with eight cores (four Performance and four Low Power Efficient) and eight threads running at up to 4.8GHz. The most relevant Meteor Lake comparison is the Core Ultra 7 155U, a 15-watt chipset with 12 cores (two Performance, eight Efficient, and two Low Power Efficient) and 14 threads running at up to 4.8GHz.

In all of our benchmarks, the Core Ultra 7 258V is significantly faster, even with fewer cores and threads. And the newest Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics are a lot faster than the previous generation.

The Zenbook S 14 isn’t fast compared to some other new chipsets, but it’s a significant step up from the previous generation. That shows up most strongly in the Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark and our Handbrake test. And graphics, while still not fast compared to discrete GPUs, is also meaningfully improved.

	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	73	7,514
HP Envy x360 14 2024 (Core Ultra 7 155U / Intel Arc)	2,229 / 8,298	102 / 405	120	2,524

Display

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Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Both laptops have similar 14-inch 2.8K (2800 x 1800) OLED displays running at 120Hz. That means you’re unlikely to notice a difference when you boot them up.

Our colorimeters verified two displays with equally wide colors and near-perfect *******, although the HP OLED display is brighter. And, our Zenbook review unit had weirdly inaccurate colors, which is unusual for an OLED panel.

Assuming that issue was a one-off, both of these displays will please productivity users, creators, and media consumers alike.

	Asus Zenbook S 14 (OLED)	HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (OLED)
Brightness (nits)	313	385
AdobeRGB gamut	95%	98%
sRGB gamut	100%	100%
DCI-P3 gamut	100%	100%
Accuracy (DeltaE, lower is better)	4.92	0.82
Contrast	28,310:1	26,940:1

Portability

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Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The primary goal of Intel’s Lunar Lake chipset is to offer up better efficiency than previous Windows laptops. As you can see above, the Core Ultra 7 258V is faster than the previous generation Core Ultra 7 155U, in some cases significantly. And, the Zenbook S 14 does have a larger battery than the Envy x360 2-in-1.

However, in both of our battery tests, the Zenbook lasted almost twice as long. That’s a significant jump with better performance, meaning that Lunar Lake achieved the goal of dramatically improving battery life.

	Web	Video
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	16 hours, 47 minutes	18 hours, 35 minutes
HP Envy x360 14 2024 (Core Ultra 7 155U)	7 hours, 37 minutes	9 hours, 30 minutes

Intel’s Lunar Lake is a breakthrough, at least against Intel itself

The Zenbook S 14 isn’t as fast as some other recent chipsets from the likes of AMD and Qualcomm, but it’s a lot faster than Intel’s previous generation. And it gets significantly better battery life, as in, twice as much. That makes it a real breakthrough.

Otherwise, the Zenbook S 14 is a more attractive laptop, but it’s not a night and day difference. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, then you can save quite a bit by choosing a base model Envy x360 2-in-1. But the Zenbook is a lot easier to recommend.

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