You don’t need a MacBook Air this Prime Day, you need an ASUS Zenbook S 13

As the tech reviews editor at Creative Bloq I’ve reviewed a lot of laptops in the last couple of years. And I don’t think any of them changed my mind on anything as thoroughly as the ASUS Zenbook S 13 changed my mind on small laptops. With a bright touchscreen, 16GB of RAM, and now available with the AI-boosted Intel Core Ultra processor, it’s a true alternative to the MacBook Air, and if you ask me (someone hold my entire team’s ears please), I’d say it’s better.

You can get the base-spec MacBook Air for $899 now (down from $1,099), and yes, while that’s a good deal, what you’re getting there is 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and no touchscreen functionality in a package that’s now two years old (with the limitations on OS updates that can entail).

Meanwhile, the Zenbook S 13 has a 3K OLED touchscreen (it’s so bright and sharp, guys, you won’t even believe), 512GB storage and 16GB of RAM, and the latest edition has the new Intel AI Boost NPU as part of the Intel Core Ultra chipset. And despite all that, it’s still neater and lighter than the MacBook Air. And right now, it’s at a best-ever price of $999, down from $1,199. We reviewed the 2023 edition with the 13th-gen Intel chipset, but judging by our impressions of the Intel Core Ultra onboard the slightly larger Zenbook 14 OLED, it’s only improved with the new motor.

Unfortunately this is the only Intel Core Ultra ASUS model we can see discounted for Prime Day at the moment, but there are some tempting offers on 2023 editions of the more general-purpose Vivobooks, which you can see below, as well as a big UK discount on another MacBook Air rival, the creative-pro-friendly Zenbook 14 OLED (with a powerful 13th gen Intel CPU), which is down a massive £500 to £899.99 right now.