For many years, work have issued me with a slab of Lenovo as my work laptop.

Like me, it may not be very glamorous, but it gets the job done.

Meanwhile at home, what do I use for all my personal and voluntary projects?

For the last four and a half years I’ve been on an un-lovely HP which was purchased in a bit of a hurry at the start of the pandemic. However, owing to some idiot dropping it on a corner, the hardware was on its way out.

I’ve long muttered about defecting to the shiny side upon my next laptop purchase, but turning to PC Pro magazine’s A-List of products they’ve reviewed, I was surprised to see the Macbook Air had been deposed from its place at the top of the “premium laptops” category. By this:

Asus Zenbook S14 on my coffee table

I didn’t need too much convincing to stick with the Windows/Intel world I know, and I managed to find the top of the line model with the Ultra 9 288V processor for cheaper (well, less expensive) than the price it was when reviewed.

I’ve only had it for three days at the time of writing, but so far it’s damn impressive. The battery life alone is a quantum leap over any laptop I’ve ever used. 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM means I can do serious business like video editing when the occasion demands it.

Meanwhile, face-based unlock Just Works (not being confused, thus far, between me with or without glasses on). The keyboard is fine as far as it goes, and unlike HP, they put the backslash in a sensible place.

No doubt there will be more to say once I’ve lived with it for a while, but I’ve already bought it a decent case to ensure it doesn’t meet its predecessor’s fate.