Zenbook S16 Real User Verdict: Beautiful Screen, Brutal Heat

After owning my Asus Zenbook S 16 for 7 weeks, with the officially released Windows 11 24H2 and Asus BIOS 309, it has finally become very stable. No more BSOD and no more black screen. Everything just runs smoothly but a bit slower. Yes, it's less performant compared to its early days. I ran Geekbench 6.3 and Cinebench R23 yesterday, the multi-core scores are almost identical to Intel Core Ultra 7 258V's. To be frank I feel a bit disappointed that Asus cut too much performance.

Nobody should buy this laptop for gaming. Asus are being kind of jerks not making an HX370 laptop with good cooling and no discrete GPU. The dimensions and really feeble fans and giant flat battery suggest this is a 10-17W laptop. If you try to game at 28W (performance) or 34W (max fans) you will be uncomfortable.

I've had my Zenbook S16 for over a month. It does have a lot of problems so far, especially in the first 2 weeks, which includes overheating when doing file transferring (OneDrive, Dropbox, moving files between USB disks). I also got maybe over 30 times blue screens or black screens. I think the main reason is the hardware is too new and the OS and software are not ready for it.

I've been using this laptop for a few weeks now. I am an entrepreneur and an engineer. I use it for CAD design, office suite, browsing. I find battery extremely satisfying for my use. I don't game on it, but I tried Spiderman and it played ok. The problem I find annoying is it gets hot when charging. In normal use it stays cool and quiet. I would recommend this laptop for someone who does productivity work.

I just got a Zenbook S16 UM5606WA and followed all the instructions and got the same temperatures. Thank you for the guide — it was very helpful.

The Zenbook S16 is locked at 28W TDP out of the box. Really there is not much gain over 28W for the heat and noise. I personally locked mine at 20W (with GHelper) in balanced mode because I wanted to keep fans low and really don't need that much power during the normal work day. If I need to crank it, then I can open it up to 28W TDP in Performance mode.

If you think the cooling design is not enough now, you should have seen it with the launch TDP. They released a BIOS update after a few days that lowered the max TDP by about 8 watts.

The Zenbook S16 is a competitor to the MacBook Air. It's thinner than the MacBook Air, and has really rinky-dink (small) fans. Thus, it does not have much cooling performance, and so it made sense to me to get the lower-end CPU — I would not be frustrated trying to get max performance out of a chassis not designed for max performance. The S16 chassis is designed for max-thinness and max-it-looks-coolness.

Added info about gaming — it's really bad. Decided to return it. Frankly, I have no idea how it was reviewed by popular bloggers. Looks like they just opened it, watched video on YouTube, wrote two lines of text and stated it's the best laptop of the year.

Glad to hear you got similar results. I think this laptop got bad press initially due to heat issues which can be corrected (and have been). I have never had any thermal issues.

Typing this from the S16 HX370 and the laptop is cool to touch. It is wild how different it is from launch — I had it then briefly and it was super hot.

For me max TDP is not a problem for such a slim laptop. The problem is sustainable TDP with low ultrabook noise levels and decent heat. This laptop handles well only at 10W TDP — everything more is too hot or too loud. Make it 15-20W and this laptop would be great.

The Zenbook S 16 seems to have issues with SSDs that have Phison controllers, which are quite common. This additional detective work helped clarify why so many users were getting BSODs after SSD upgrades.

For gaming yes, it's absolutely awful. For analyst job, I think it will be hot also. When I ran 1 project in VS Code, 1 tab in browser and Slack, that's all, and it was really hot — I could feel heat with the tips of my fingers. But when it works from battery it's ok, not good, but ok.

I pay 2200$ for a laptop and have to do a lot of things to make it work properly — it's nonsense. If the cooling system is too weak for such specs then Asus and its engineers have to think about it, not me. It's a good laptop, but with awful cooling for such specs.

I am currently using the Zenbook S16 as my primary device, and it has been excellent from the beginning (transitioning from a MacBook Pro 14). Ensure that all Windows updates are completed (there are several) and update drivers and BIOS to the latest versions. Once everything is updated, the device performs optimally. Initial users may have experienced issues due to unoptimised drivers and BIOS setup, as the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was a new processor when this laptop was released.

I have the ZenBook S16 with the Ryzen 370 processor, and overall, I've had a positive experience with it. I've primarily used it on battery for light work like Chrome (with 5+ tabs), Google Drive, Sheets, Docs, Microsoft Excel, Word, and similar tasks. The screen, keyboard, and touchpad are excellent, and the battery life is impressive for a Windows laptop.

I have had massive problems — worst laptop I ever had. It can be called unusable. Screen went black and never worked again 4 months after purchasing, had to be exchanged by Asus service in China, took them 3 weeks. Constant Bluescreens, especially when fan setting is set to high or immediately when power mode is set to 'performance'. What's the use of a good processor when it cannot be run at full power even for short intervals.

Sent back to service, they changed the motherboard. Now with the new one I only get 90C browsing the internet or charging, only 3-5 BSOD per day now. Working now is impossible, afraid to lose all data when the power protection kicks in at 100 Celsius. Running any game all fans run at 10000 RPM and temp goes to 100 Celsius.

I bought a Zenbook S 16 (AMD HX 370) 10 days ago. Today, I will return it. It's a dream machine until you encounter the SSD upgrade issue. I tried several models and ended up with an almost stable system using a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD. Even when I installed Windows, I received numerous BSODs. In daily use, I only get BSODs when copying files larger than 200MB. It gets extremely hot when used and while charging.

Don't buy the ASUS Zenbook 16 with an AMD AI 365 processor. Had it for 2 days and it overheated playing YouTube. First thing I did was install all the updates and it was ok-ish but ran hot during the updates. Today it stopped turning on — the bottom is very hot, the fans are running, but it's not cooling down. Can't turn it on or off.

I kept having fan noise issues with the Zenbook. I ended up getting a TUF A14, so it is not a direct replacement. I cannot suggest a direct replacement because I personally find the really thin laptops get too hot and have keyboards with too shallow of key travel.

Neither S16 nor S14. I returned my Zenbook S16 and got a TUF A14 as replacement. The new Zenbook laptops stink in my opinion. The 14X was the last good Zenbook.

Bought one from Bestbuy and had WiFi connection problems in the form of frequent disconnects (latest network drivers) so I returned it and bought an open box model for $200 less. Same WiFi connection problems! Will be returning the second one as well and probably going for an M4 MacBook Air. So disappointing Asus.

I also have an Asus S16 HX365. WiFi is a little below average. At first, I got an open-box laptop but WiFi wouldn't work in my bedroom, 25ft from the router (2 walls). Now WiFi works when I'm laying down on the bed, legs flat. If I raise up my legs and cross them, that's enough attenuation (going through my legs) that it cuts out. Worst mobile device WiFi I have.

I have had one for a year now and I still can't find a better laptop since I got it for 1300 USD for the 9 370HX version.

I have the HX 370, and so far, everything has been very good. I have it set to maximum performance, and the fan profile is also set to maximum. Sometimes, when I'm doing light work, the fans can be heard running, but they sound very quiet. The only time I notice any heating in the chassis is when I use it for gaming.

I've had it for a month. Gets way too hot. Screen is beautiful but I regret this purchase.

It gets so hot that it deformed the chassis in mine, not a joke.

I bought an ASUS Zenbook S16 OLED in April 2025. After four months of use, it shut down due to overheating, after which ASUS refused to honor the warranty, citing 'Customer Induced Damage.' From feedback, I see that several users (sometimes even with motherboard replacements) have experienced the same problems. I'm gathering experiences to demonstrate that this is a systemic issue.

I used to LOVE ASUS products because they were always very innovating. I bought the Zenbook S16 last year and learned to regret my decision very quickly. It CONSTANTLY overheats with very few applications. Even running a web browser and MS Word will make it overheat and crash. I have to keep the MyAsus App open to monitor CPU temp so I don't lose anything when it overheats and restarts.

I purchased the S16 UM5606KA Ryzen AI 7 350 in October 2025. I am satisfied with the performance for my day to day programming and coding stuff. However, whenever I plug in the provided 65W charger, the laptop overheats a lot. The bottom overheats so much that I need to shut down and then keep charging — I cannot use it while it is charging because of its temperatures.

I undervolted the CPU, and am using G-Helper instead of MyAsus. It definitely helped with performance. Still thermal throttles but not as bad.

Under balanced mode, it doesn't heat up anymore. It can still get hot at the bottom under turbo mode. But it doesn't affect my usage because I normally put it on a table. It still lasts 7-8 hours (at 70% brightness) for my workflow. Good enough for me. I was thinking of changing to a Lunar Lake laptop but cancelled my order eventually.

I just got this computer in May of this year. Aside from it heating up too much for my comfort I absolutely love it. I love everything about it except for the heat which is tolerable.

With G-Helper and CPU boost enabled, the total package watts on the CPU will go above the hard limit that everyone keeps talking about. I have had mine set to 48 watts for a while, but it does get a little warm when you are busy pushing the CPU. At 30 watts, R15 will score 2264. At 48 watts it will score 2705, about a 20% increase in multicore performance for about a 50% increase in power.

I tried again with a 4TB drive after upgrading the BIOS and noticed that there is also an SSD firmware update from ASUS. After doing all those upgrades, I was able to make the 4TB drive work fine. I tried two different drives and both worked fine. Looks like ASUS fixed their bugs.

I have a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB that regularly crashes. It is recognized by the BIOS and boots but crashes with IO issues shortly after boot. That is with the latest BIOS version 316.

It's ok for watching videos and coding on. Any kind of demand though and the fans kick on and it just isn't comfortable to type on. I can't work or game in bed next to my sleeping wife — too loud and hot.

The cooling system should be adequate enough to comfortably use the PC whilst fully utilizing its specifications. It looks like ASUS is biting more than they can chew with this one. I think the cooling issues could have been avoided if they made it just a little bit thicker — going below 15mm is unnecessary for most users.

After reading the entire thread, I might just buy the S16 and use GHelper to disable boost to reduce heat. There really isn't another laptop in the market like this. My only concern is that maybe the S17 is around the corner and they would have fixed this heating issue.

I'm on an HX370 Vivobook S16 too. The battery life is okay but not outstanding. 76Wh isn't massive for that power-hungry display no matter how frugal the internals are. I also notice when unplugged, it feels more sluggish, although it might just mostly be the screen going to 60Hz.