Asus releases new 14-inch laptop with Intel Panther Lake and 120 Hz OLED display
Asus has finally released new versions of the Zenbook S14 in North America. Presented in January during CES 2026, the new Zenbook S14 swaps Intel’s Lunar Lake for its newer Panther Lake platform. This year’s release is not a straightforward one, though.
In January, Asus indicated that the new Zenbook S14 would reach the US with Core Ultra X processors like the Core Ultra X7 368H or Core Ultra X9 388H. Currently, Asus is only offering lesser Core Ultra 7 356H and Core Ultra 9 386H options though with weaker iGPUs than their Core Ultra X counterparts.
As a consequence, the new Zenbook S14 may trail last year’s model in games and other GPU-heavy workloads (curr. $999 - used on Amazon). Stranger still, Asus initially charged less for the Core Ultra 9 386H in the US than its lesser Core Ultra 7 356H counterpart. Specifically, Asus priced the former at $1,599 and the latter at $1,999, both with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage.
Soon after, Asus increased the price of the Core Ultra 9 386H variant to $1,999. Still, this updated pricing means that Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9 SKUs cost as much as each other. Both variants feature a 72 Wh battery too, as well as a 2.8K and 120 Hz OLED display with up to 1,100 nits peak brightness in HDR mode. Asus has not confirmed when Core Ultra X-backed SKUs will be available to purchase.
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