New AMD-powered Asus laptop debuts as rebranded Zenbook S16 with brighter OLED display

Asus has introduced a bunch of new products in China, and the Zenbook 16 Air 2026 is one of them. It's essentially a slightly different version of the S16 that the company launched at CES 2026, and the notable difference is the display.

The newly introduced Zenbook 16 Air 2026 is powered by the Ryzen AI 9 H 465, a refreshed Strix Point Zen 5 APU that features a 10-core configuration, and the Radeon 880M iGPU. This integrated GPU makes the laptop capable of handling AAA games smoothly at the FHD resolution. To compare, there are more CPU options available for the S16 besides the AI 9 465.

Notably, the 2026 Zenbook 16 Air comes with a bright OLED display. It's a 16-inch panel with a peak brightness rating of 1,100 nits, 120Hz refresh rate, and a resolution of 2880x1800 pixels. In comparison, the S16 also has a 16-inch OLED screen but with a peak brightness rating of 1,000 nits.

Design-wise, the Zenbook 16 Air even looks identical to the S16, and Asus notes that the laptop measures 1.1cm thin when closed and weighs 1.5kg. While it's lightweight, it packs an 83Wh battery, and there's an okay number of ports, including:

• 2x USB4 (3.3-feet 80Gbps Ugreen USB4 cable curr. $17.99 on Amazon)
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x 10Gbps USB Type-A
• 1x SD card reader
• 1x 3.5mm audio

Among the other notable features are WiFi 7, a large touchpad, Dolby Atmos speakers, and a 1080p webcam with 3DNR. Asus is offering the 2026 Zenbook 16 Air with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, and the launch price is CNY 9,999, about $1,434. It's still unclear whether this version of the laptop will see a global release with the non-H Ryzen AI 9 465H.