[ Words Tom Wiggins ]

HOT FIVE #1

NEW LID IN TOWN

Asus Zenbook S 16

Ceraluminum might sound like some sort of fictional creation, like Unobtanium, Transformium or corned beef, but it’s actually the stuff the lid of this 16in laptop is made of. Combining smooth ceramic with tough aluminium, it’s supposed to be strong without feeling sterile and cold – so it won’t just be the keyboard, massive touchpad and OLED touchscreen that you’ll want to fondle.

Inside the chassis, which measures just under 1.2cm at its thinnest point and weighs a mere 1.5kg, you get a new AMD Ryzen 9 processor, up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, with a 3D vapour-chamber cooling system to stop it getting hot when you give it some serious work to do.

It’ll get some help from a dedicated AI chip and Microsoft’s new AI buddy, Copilot, which can answer queries and summarise long documents for you. Asus has also loaded it with tools to jazz up your video calls – such as automatic framing and that creepy thing that makes it look like your eyes are always peering straight down the camera. Plus it’ll easily remove backgrounds from your photos and, possibly, generate videos of Transformers made of corned beef.