A diode-pumped Nd:YAG oscillator laser with an end-pumped zigzag slab architecture and weak pump absorption is developed. An output power of 253 W with a slope efficiency of 50.2% and an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 39.6% is achieved from the resonator, which emits the maximum power of 290 W with 840-W pump power. An optimum laser diode (LD) array coolant temperature is chosen in an attempt to realize the weak but uniform pump absorption. Furthermore, we have confirmed that the performance of zigzag slab resonator depends sensitively on the incident angle of the beam at the slab end face.