ASUS returns to the 16‑inch ultraportable segment with the ZenBook A16, a follow‑up to last year’s under‑performing A14. The new model stretches the thin, Ceraluminum chassis to 16 inches while staying remarkably light—2.9 lb with the glass‑covered touchscreen, or 2.6 lb for the non‑touch variant sold on ASUS’s site. Its understated silhouette rivals the Zephyrus line and feels warmer than typical aluminum laptops.

Under the hood the A16 runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, either the X2E94100 or X2E96100 18‑core SoC clocked to 4.7 GHz. Combined with up to 48 GB of RAM and an 80‑TOPS NPU, the machine leaps ahead of the previous X1 chip. Geekbench 6 shows a 1,200‑point single‑core advantage and double‑core throughput, while PCMark 10 Applications posts 17,264 points—about 1,000 more than Dell’s Premium 16 with an Intel Core Ultra 7. Best Buy lists the configuration at $1,600, a noticeable bump from the A14’s $1,100 launch price.

Battery life stretches to 21 hours 35 minutes in Engadget’s rundown, thanks to the ARM‑based SoC. Connectivity is generous: full‑size SD card slot, HDMI, two USB‑C 4.0 ports, a USB‑A 3.2, and a headphone jack. Gaming performance reaches roughly 80 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with medium settings, though anti‑cheat incompatibilities still block some titles. For users who value a portable, high‑resolution OLED workstation, the ZenBook A16 delivers on paper and in real‑world use.