It’s a basic rule of laptops: you can’t have it all, right? Or so we’re told, at least when it comes to thin-and-light notebooks, compromises must be made because they don’t offer much in the way of internal space to fit the powerful components necessary to provide plenty of oomph on the performance front (while keeping these parts suitably cool).
So, if you want a sleek and portable laptop, you’re going to be limited in the performance it can achieve, or that’s the conventional wisdom. That is, except for the new laptops freshly released by Asus are busy helping to rewrite this particular rulebook, thanks to clever tricks from the company’s engineers and some excellent new Intel Alder Lake processors.
Intel’s H-series Alder Lake (12th-generation) chips are powerful models capable of providing the performance that PC enthusiasts crave, and they are the engines of some surprisingly slim and compact notebooks thanks to smart design chops and innovative cooling tech from Asus. Plus, the H-series typically is mostly used in laptops for gaming and creating, so it’s a real treat to see it in a slim, compact mainstream laptop.
We’ll come back to that cooling solution later, but first off, let’s take a deeper dive into exactly why these Alder Lake laptop processors are a great choice and work so well to ensure that a thin-and-light device can be highly capable, before moving on to look at some of the specific laptops Asus has just launched which might tempt you to make a purchase.
Alder Lake plus IceCool equals something special
Alder Lake takes great strides forward on the silicon front, being Intel’s first major foray into hybrid technology – using a mix of performance and efficiency cores – offering some huge gains compared to the chip giant’s last-generation of processors.
In fact, Intel’s Core i7-12700H (running at 45 Watts) is just over twice as fast as the previous-gen Core i7-1165G7 in Cinebench R20 for multi-core performance (as per an Asus comparison of a Zenbook 14X from this generation and last, equipped with those respective CPUs).
The key to getting the most out of that Core i7-12700H is in cooling it sufficiently so the processor isn’t throttled back due to getting too hot, which is no easy task in the confines of a thin-and-light laptop chassis. This is where Asus excels in laptop innovation with its IceCool technology which helps keep temperatures down to ensure the H-series processors used in its new range of laptops can put the pedal to the proverbial metal and get up to their full speed.
Asus IceCool uses more heat-pipes than rivals to dissipate the internal heat build-up inside the laptop case, and makes these pipes thicker, too (for better cooling performance). With the fans, Asus uses IceBlade tech with specially shaped blades (and lots of them) again to provide improved cooling. All of this is a recipe for good thermals inside the laptop, thereby avoiding the danger of the CPU getting overly warm and throttling back its power usage (which slows the chip down).
Incidentally, all this is done while keeping the machine relatively quiet (and indeed if they wish, Asus laptop owners can benefit from a ‘silent mode’ where the device makes no sound at all).
Power and portability for all your needs
The philosophy Asus has taken to heart with these new laptops is simple – make a slim and lightweight notebook that is easy to carry around all day, and that’s powerful enough to tackle more demanding tasks as well as all your daily computing activities.
At this point, some of you may be wondering – might a 12th-gen H-series CPU be a bit overkill for the average user? Isn’t such a fast chip the domain of, say, creatives who need more power for heavyweight tasks like content creation? Well, there’s some truth to that, but in fact, a laptop with some serious performance horsepower can also make a big difference to every day more run-of-the-mill computing chores, too.
Think about it: you might well use your laptop for light work such as word processing or tinkering with a spreadsheet in Microsoft Office, and each time you pop into one of these apps and make a change – like maybe inserting a table – with a faster processor that small task happens just a bit more swiftly.
Equally, when editing a photo, a powerful H-series processor allows any tweaks you make to the image to be implemented almost instantly, rather than having to wait a small amount of time for the edit to happen. Another potential time-saver with a performant CPU is simply that it starts up any apps you want to run that much faster. It’s unsurprising, when you realise that the 12th Gen Intel Core i7 H-Series is 2x more powerful than 11th Gen Intel Core i7 U-series.
All these saved seconds add up at the end of the day to improve productivity levels with your laptop and mean that you spend more time doing stuff, rather than waiting for things to happen. In short, it’s not just content creators who benefit from a peppy CPU like Intel’s Alder Lake-H models, but everyone does – even when relaxing, perhaps, and indulging in a spot of casual gaming for example.
We mustn’t forget that other priority with portable devices, and while perhaps not as much of a concern as performance, battery life is certainly an important aspect of a laptop. If this H-series performance came at the cost of driving down longevity away from the power socket, that would be a compromise in itself – another commonly-seen one in the notebook arena, of course – but fortunately, this isn’t the case with Alder Lake mobile chips.
Indeed, according to battery life testing that Asus conducted that compares an H-series 45W CPU to a P-series 28W chip, there’s barely any difference. Both of these processors (inside an Asus Vivobook X1603ZA) last just over 11 hours on battery power (with the P-series CPU managing to run for only an extra 13 minutes compared to the H-series).
Viva la Vivobook (and Zenbook)
Asus has produced these new H-series toting portables aiming to take the mainstream laptop world by storm, blending performance and portability as we’ve seen, and avoiding all the common compromises which are traditionally pitfalls in this endeavour. But that’s enough talk about the broader design and philosophy of these new laptops – let’s now look at what specific models Asus has incoming, and some tech specs.
The freshly unleashed Asus laptops with Intel 12th-generation H-series CPUs which are just launching are Vivobook and Zenbook models. They include the Vivobook S X (S5402 and S5602 models) plus Vivobook S (K3402 and K3502), along with Vivobook X (which has four new variants: X1403, X1503, X1603 and X1703).
There’s also the Vivobook S Flip (TP3402 and TN3402 models), and Zenbook (UX5400, UX5401, UM5400, UM5401), alongside the Zenbook Flip (UP5401 and UN5401).
That’s a lot of new hardware encompassing both traditional and convertible laptops, and in the interests of brevity, we’re going to pick out a couple of highlights to have a closer look at.
First of all, there’s the Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED (S5402) thin-and-light, which is billed as the first 14.5-inch laptop in the world to offer a 2880 x 1800-resolution OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, so everything looks crystal-clear and super-smooth. Not only that, but the screen sports truly accurate colours (Pantone validated, with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut), and a lightning-quick 0.2ms response time.
The Vivobook S 14X also benefits from a premium build and appearance, with an all-metal chassis that’s just 17.9mm thick, and super-slim bezels around that OLED screen. It can be equipped with up to an Intel Core i7-12700H processor (which we’ve already talked about plenty), plus you get integrated Iris Xe graphics courtesy of that CPU. The laptop comes with up to 16GB of system RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for storage (for more info on the S 14X, check out this video on YouTube).
Second to go under our spotlight is the Asus Vivobook S 15 (K3502) which is a 15.6-inch laptop featuring a Full HD IPS display (again, with ultra-slim bezels) - or, if you’re looking for an even more premium experience, you can go for the OLED 120Hz version. It’s a stylishly designed notebook that mirrors the above Vivobook S 14X in offering up to a Core i7-12700H CPU with 16GB of system memory and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, complementing this with a beefy 50Wh battery, plus there’s an optional fingerprint sensor to facilitate quick logins. (For further details on the S 15, there’s a video clip here).
Both of these laptops are Intel Evo certified, which is a hallmark of a quality slim and lightweight notebook, and a guarantee of certain standards including all-day battery life, fast-charging, good connectivity – both of the aforementioned Vivobooks have Thunderbolt 4 ports – as well as being performant and responsive. Also worth noting is that both the above devices offer an extra and unusual trick in the form of a 180-degree hinge that allows for the keyboard deck and screen to lie flat on a surface if needed.
Concluding thoughts
Asus is convinced that these new Vivobook and Zenbook models, with their Alder Lake H-series CPU engines, are representative of a new-generation of mainstream laptops that deliver pro-grade performance without a pro-grade price tag; and given what we’ve explored here, it’s easy to see why.
The key is in the value proposition of these machines, and the all-round performance you’re getting with an Intel Evo-verified laptop, including instant wake, and the ability to speed up any task you might want to tackle. That applies to everything from office tasks to photo editing through to entertainment – watching movies is going to be a particularly pleasant experience on a stunning Asus OLED panel – or even some light gaming (given lower detail settings, the Iris Xe integrated graphics can certainly do the job with some games).
Whatever you want to do, you’ll be able to do it better with one of these new laptops from Asus loaded up with an Intel H-series 12th-gen CPU and Asus IceCool tech to keep it running highly efficiently. You’ll find the Vivobooks and Zenbooks now on sale offer a compelling range of benefits in terms of performance, portability, all-day battery, and just plain good looks, with a lack of any of the compromises you might be used to seeing with these kinds of svelte and premium-looking laptops.
