We’re counting down the hours before CES 2019 — the first major tech event of the year — officially kicks off, although ASUS has already started the fireworks with its updated ASUS ZenBook S13 ultrabook.

Really, you can’t miss it. According to ASUS, it’s got the thinnest bezels ever on a laptop at just 2.5mm thick. The bezels are so thin, in fact, that a portion of the top bezel sticks out by a couple of millimeters to accommodate the laptop’s webcam. To ASUS’ credit, though, the lip on the ZenBook S13 UX392 actually makes it easier to lift the lid, which is crucial when we’re talking about a machine this svelte and light.

Open the laptop, and you’re greeted by a 13.9-inch LED-backlit IPS screen that, incredibly, makes up about 97 percent of the lid. And the bezels taking up so little space is a real design advantage and makes the display jump out at you even more. The only downside to an almost-full-screen front is that this ZenBook doesn’t come with a 4K option.

SEE ALSO: ASUS ROG Phone hands-on review: King of mobile gaming

The internals are what you’d expect from an upscale ultrabook, including an Intel Core i5-8265U or Core i7-8565U coupled with up to 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM and up to 1TB of storage. What you might not expect is that the ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 has a discrete-graphics option with an NVIDIA GeForce M150.

The Taiwanese manufacturer claims this is the thinnest laptop in the world with a dedicated GPU — only 0.5 inches thick — though that doesn’t mean it is necessarily up to the task of running high-end games at medium or high settings.

ASUS claims this is the world’s thinnest laptop with a dedicated GPU.

This machine offers an adequate set of ports, which includes two USB 3.1 Type-C connectors and one full-size USB 3.1, something you wouldn’t see on a portable computer this, well, portable. There’s also a Windows Hello fingerprint sensor built into the touchpad. ASUS rates the ZenBook S13 UX392’s all-day battery life at 15 hours per charge.

READ ALSO: ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 review: Max power, max battery life

That’s pretty impressive, but we’ll get a better idea of actual battery life once we put a retail unit through its paces, when or if it launches in the Philippines later this year. No mention of pricing yet, but it is expected to cost around $1,500 or almost P80,000.

ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 official video

ASUS ZenBook S13 UX392 specs

• 13.9-inch LED-backlit screen with 97 percent screen-to-body ratio
• 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8565U/1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8265U
• Intel UHD Graphics, up to NVIDIA GeForce MX150 GPU
• Up to 16GB LPDDR3 RAM
• Up to 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac
• 2x USB 3.1 Type-C
• 1x USB 3.1 Type-A
• 1x microSD slot
• 1x audio jack
• 50Wh battery, up to 15 hours battery life
• Windows 10 Professional

---