CES 2026: Asus’ new 16-inch laptop weighs less than a 13-inch MacBook Air

Asus is launching a 16-inch version of its award-winning MacBook Air competitor.

Announced on Tuesday at CES 2026, the new Asus Zenbook A16 is a thin and light Windows laptop featuring a new Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip and a 3K OLED touchscreen offering a sleek 90% screen-to-body ratio. Its beige chassis is made from Asus’ patented “Ceraluminum” material, a durable and lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy, and it weighs just 2.65 pounds depending on the version of Windows it’s running. That makes it almost an ounce lighter than Apple’s 13-inch laptop. (For reference, other 16-inch Windows laptops tested by Mashable in recent months weigh between 3.3 and 4.7 pounds.)

The Asus Zenbook A16 comes in a beige finish called “Zabrinskie Beige”.
Credit: Asus

The Zenbook A16 is a larger version of the Asus Zenbook A14, a 14-inch Copilot+ PC that successfully debuted at CES 2025 last January. It featured peppy chips from the latest generation Snapdragon As Asus’ first all-ceramic laptop, it weighed just 2.18 pounds depending on the configuration.

Asus initially priced the Zenbook A14 at $899.99, but President Trump’s spring tariffs on Chinese imports led to a $100 price increase. Still, it was a solid spec sheet at a decent price, coupled with a surprisingly airy and sturdy design.

The 2026 update of the Asus Zenbook A14 involves a new processor, thinner bezels and matte coating of the keys.
Credit: Asus

After winning CNET Group’s “Best Laptop of CES 2025”, the Zenbook A14 was named the best Windows ultraportable laptop of the year by Mashable after further testing. It also landed a spot on Oprah’s list of favorite things for 2025, marking the first time a laptop has appeared on the iconic gift guide since the Sony VAIO FJ in 2005.

For 2026, Asus is refreshing the Zenbook A14 with a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, thinner bezels, WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and matte key coating for added durability. Its base configuration will start with 512 GB of storage and 24 GB of memory, up from 16 GB of RAM.

All Asus Zenbooks 2026 feature an all-ceramic chassis.
Credit: Asus

Asus uses Ceraluminum entirely for the rest of the laptops in its lightweight and minimalist Zenbook series. The 2026 iterations of the Zenbook S14, S16 and the dual-screen Zenbook Duo will be made entirely from plasma ceramic aluminum material, which is scratch-resistant, impact-resistant, fingerprint-resistant and 100% recyclable.

Asus Zenbook A16 specifications

The Asus Zenbook A16 has a superb 90% screen-to-body ratio.
Credit: Asus

Compared to its 14-inch counterpart, the new Zenbook A16 will have a larger, brighter and sharper screen, an additional slot for an SD card reader, a faster processor and more memory. (It comes with 48 GB of RAM, compared to the Zenbook A14’s 24 GB or 32 GB.) Here’s a full look at its spec sheet:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme processor

• Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (up to 80 TOPS)

• Qualcomm Adreno GPU

• 48 GB of RAM

• 1TB SSD storage

• 16-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate; 500 nits of typical brightness and up to 1,100 nits of peak brightness for HDR content

• FHD Webcam

• Two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, one HDMI port, one SD card reader slot, and one headphone jack

• 70Wh battery

• Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4

• 13.92 x 9.54 x 0.54-0.65 inches

• 2.65 pounds with Windows 11 Pro, 2.87 pounds with Windows 11 Home

• Zabrinskie Beige finish

The Zenbook A16 isn’t the lightest 16-inch laptop on the market, but it is one of the lightest available for purchase in the United States. The Acer Swift Air 16 launched at IFA 2025 in September with AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors, an optional 120Hz AMOLED display, and a starting weight of just 2.18 pounds (matching the weight of the Zenbook A14’s lightest configuration – or rather, lack thereof). It’s only available in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, with a starting price of €999, or around $1,165.

Asus is yet to confirm pricing and availability details of the updated Zenbook A16 and Zenbook A14. It will be interesting to see if the company can maintain the competitive value of the 14-inch model despite the current RAM shortage. This could also result in some changes to the spec sheets for both sizes by the time they hit store shelves. Committing to 24 to 48 GB of memory for consumer laptops may be unrealistic.