Asus has been killing it with the 14-inch kind issue this yr, and the up to date Zenbook 14X OLED takes its place alongside the usual Zenbook 14 OLED to make for a reasonably formidable lineup.
With thirteenth Gen Intel energy, a luxurious OLED panel, a good port array, and a stellar keyboard and touchpad, there isn’t actually something to grouse about. However I’m British, so after all I discovered one thing — nevertheless it’s not a dealbreaker. In truth, I fairly love this method. However there are some foibles I need to deliver to your consideration.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED worth and compatibility
You possibly can choose up the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED from $1,199/£1,199, which is an affordable worth while you have in mind the Intel Core i7-13900H CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. For the mannequin we examined, you get double the RAM and a devoted RTX 3050 GPU for £1,799 (presently £200 off on Amazon).
That’s £200 lower than the base mannequin M2 Professional MacBook Professional, but additionally £250 greater than a similarly-specced Lenovo Slim Professional 7. Asus has positioned this smack bang in the midst of this class — now it simply must nail the basics.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED design
Just like the Zenbook S 13, the 14X OLED is kind of the stand out stunner. From the utilitarian aesthetic and sharp edges to the clear traces on the lid, the construct high quality seems and feels unmistakably premium. You’ll be proud to whip this out at a café or in your subsequent assembly.
The plasma ceramic aluminum lid is a specific favourite of mine — the silver-etched lining kicks up the dynamism, and the textured floor seems like a high-quality piece of paper. Open it up, and also you’ll discover some impressively skinny bezels and a spacious keyboard with clearly lit characters that’s coated in an equally gracious matte texture that your fingers will adore.
Plus, Asus has managed to maintain this gadget good and transportable. It’s barely bigger than the Macbook Professional and Slim Professional 7, however a contact lighter.
| Laptop computer | Dimensions | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 12.7 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches | 3.4 kilos |
| Apple MacBook Professional 14-inch | 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches | 3.5 kilos |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches | 3.5 kilos |
It’s lovely from each angle — and that even contains the symmetrical vent ports on the underside and spherical again.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED ports
The port array is respectable for many issues, however I’d have anticipated extra in a 14-inch laptop computer. As it’s, you’re getting a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A on the left, together with two Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack on the precise.
That’s going to be sufficient to get the overwhelming majority of duties performed, however what about an SD card reader? What a few second USB-A port? There are only a couple of omissions that restrict it from being a wonderfully efficient prosumer system, so you might must seize one of many greatest USB Sort-C hubs.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED show
Asus has been spreading OLED all through its complete lineup, and naturally, the Zenbook 14X acquired a style, too. This 14.5-inch panel rocks a 2880 x 1800-pixel decision and 16:10 side ratio, alongside capacitive contact that helps all of your normal multi-touch gestures.
From the brightest of vivid hues to the inkiest of blacks, the content material seems beautiful right here. The vivacity of watching tasty meals in Anyone Feed Phil — the deep pink of the superbly cooked steak exudes vivocity and virtually makes you need to drool whereas a display screen. Flip on over to one thing darker in tone like The Final of Us, and the deep distinction ratio actually provides a way of deepening stress to each scene.
However in the case of the numbers, we hit one thing of a bizarre snag right here.
| Laptop computer | Common brightness (nits) | DCI-P3 colour gamut | Delta-E colour accuracy (decrease is best) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 360 | 77.50% | 0.23 |
| Apple MacBook Professional 14-inch | 441 | 84% | 0.2 |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 325 | 83.7% | 0.21 |
| Premium Laptop computer common | 381 | 89.6% | 0.21 |
Yep, you learn it proper. Whereas the brightness falling barely under our premium laptop computer common isn’t so stunning while you have in mind the Asus OLED laptops we’re seeing, that could be a surprisingly low DCI-P3 colour gamut, and a higher-than-usual colour accuracy rating.
In most circumstances while you’re utilizing this show, it’s going to be fairly the vivid looker. However whereas it’s been positive for my extra informal use of Photoshop, there could also be some doubts as to the accuracy of these shades if you happen to’re engaged on something extra skilled.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED audio
The audio system hearth out from beneath, and with the Harman Kardon tuning, the tip result’s a pleasant readability throughout highs and mids, together with sufficient area to precise these decrease tones.
When confronted with the bone-crunching breakdowns of Deliver Me The Horizon’s “AmEN!” the guttural screams have been saved in verify throughout the vast soundscape that includes distorted guitars and thunderous drumming.
Comparatively, although, Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Professional continues to be the undisputed champion of laptop computer audio system — the distinction is evening and day. Nevertheless, Asus does a great job on producing a pleasant soundscape with zero distortion at excessive volumes.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED keyboard and trackpad
Asus’ keyboard and touchpad ergonomics have been enhancing properly throughout my tenure at Laptop computer Magazine, and the Zenbook 14X is mainly a victory lap. It’s severely a implausible typing and clicking expertise.
The depth of journey to every key, together with the tactile snap, provides every letter, quantity, and punctuation mark a way of intent. Pair that with a pleasant snappiness to the pointing gadget, and also you’ve acquired an important workhorse.
Every key on this full-size QWERTY board has a subtly cushioned affect whereas sustaining that tactility, so you’ll be able to go for hours and not using a trace of fatigue. When placing it by means of the 10FastFingers.com wringer (I often hit a median of 80 phrases per minute), I achieved 88 WPM at 99% accuracy.
On prime of that, the touchpad is a wholesome dimension at 5.3 x 3 inches, which gives a bit of extra width and fewer peak than each the MacBook Professional (5.1 x 3.2 inches) and Lenovo Slim Professional 7 (5.3 x 3.1 inches). The glass floor of the pad has a pleasant slickness to it as your fingers glide effortlessly, which is complimented by a satisfying click on. Help for all the Home windows 11 multi contact gestures is right here, too, which is nice information for energy customers.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED efficiency
The mixture of an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, RTX 3050 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD makes this a little bit of a beast in the case of crushing processes and multitasking.
Whether or not you’re hitting some high-resolution edits on an enormous PSD in Photoshop, or placing the Zenbook 14X by means of its paces with a number of RAM-hungry apps, this machine didn’t break a sweat. You possibly can see how favorable it performs in opposition to its competitors — even leapfrogging the M2 Professional within the MacBook Professional.
| Laptop computer/class common | Geekbench 5 multicore | Geekbench 6 multicore | Handbrake time | 25GB file copy velocity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 12,580 | 13,265 | 05:34 | 21.8 seconds |
| Apple MacBook Professional 14-inch | 12,125 | 12,253 | 05:03 | n/a |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 9,031 | 11,438 | 06:36 | 16.8 seconds |
| Premium Laptop computer common | 10,212 | 10,621 | 08:29 | 20.6 seconds |
Enhancements over the premium laptop computer common are spectacular, and the 14X runs rings across the Slim Professional 7. The one two locations the place it’s pipped to the publish is in Handbrake and the SSD velocity. The M2 Professional’s supreme media encoding capabilities beat out the Asus laptop computer, and it falls behind the Slim in our 25GB file copy take a look at.
As for the graphics capabilities, it’s clear that the devoted GPU in right here has a give attention to getting used for inventive professional duties fairly than gaming.
| Laptop computer | 3DMark Hearth Strike |
|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 8,675 |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 10,064 |
To not say which you can’t hearth up a AAA title, however be ready to crank these graphics settings method all the way down to accommodate the decrease vRAM of the 3050. For instance, to get Forza Horizon 5 to greater than 60 FPS, it took me decreasing every little thing all the way down to a wide range of low and medium settings. It will’ve been nice to see a RTX 4050 utilized right here to benefit from DLSS 3.0 and squeeze out these additional frames.
However with that stated, this factor completely flies for the day-to-day, which incorporates Google Chrome with a number of tabs, Spotify enjoying within the background, a few Microsoft Workplace apps and occasional Photoshop enhancing, this capably dealt with it with out a lot slowing down at first.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED battery life
In follow, you gained’t essentially be worrying an excessive amount of concerning the battery lifetime of the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED. It would comfortably final you most of a working day. However when put up in opposition to the competitors, it does fall behind everybody.
| Laptop computer | Battery life (hh:mm) |
|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 08:44 |
| Apple MacBook Professional 14-inch | 16:37 |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 09:41 |
| Premium Laptop computer common | 10:15 |
The 70 WHr cell in right here isn’t fairly as much as par in our personal testing. Fortuitously, the 100W quick cost help is able to juicing this laptop computer again to full in slightly below an hour. However we will’t ignore that it falls behind its competitors. For many of you, this might be positive, but when stamina is vital (perhaps you spend loads of time away from plugs), there are higher selections.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED warmth
Very similar to different 14-inch Home windows laptops, this factor can get a bit of spicy in sure areas — far hotter than the MacBook Professional (and its ungodly thermal-management talent). However the 14X OLED does a great job of preserving cool and eliminating thermal throttling.
| Laptop computer | Temperature of touchpad | Temperature G/H key part | Temperature underside | Temperature hottest space |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED | 79 | 90 | 95 | 98 |
| Apple MacBook Professional 14-inch | 78 | 81 | 81 | 82 |
| Lenovo Slim Professional 7 | 78 | 90 | 95 | 97 |
All over the place aside from the underside and the vents spherical again, temperatures stay under that 95-degree threshold that is still snug to make use of. So if you’re doing something notably intense, maintain this factor on a desk or laptop computer tray — in any other case your lap goes to start out feeling prefer it’s been put below a broiler.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED webcam
The 14X OLED comes filled with a 1080p webcam, which is best than I anticipated it to be. Don’t get me incorrect, there’s nonetheless a bit of noise in difficult lighting, however the image is sharper, and the aperture appears to have been improved to make sure a brighter picture.
The tip result’s a decently crisp image with cheap colour and distinction. After all, most built-in webcams aren’t nice (take a look at our extraordinarily brief checklist of the greatest laptop computer webcams you may get). If you wish to step up your image, that you must snag one of many greatest exterior webcams. However with an honest sufficient picture for all of your conferencing wants, and built-in IR capabilities for Home windows Hi there, this can be a handy snapper that’s not a potato.
Asus Zenbook 14X OLED software program and guarantee
Asus has turn into properly reserved in the case of Home windows 11 bloatware, and the Zenbook 14X OLED isn’t any totally different. When you’ve taken the compulsory 30 seconds to shortly take away McAfee and its relentless onslaught of notifications, the entire OS is good and clear.
For all of your firmware updates, system information, and customization wants, you’ll be heading over to MyAsus. Efficiency mode is one thing I’d suggest sticking on completely. It doesn’t activate when operating on the battery, and it retains the clock velocity of that CPU good and excessive whereas utilizing it.
This laptop computer additionally comes with a one-year restricted guarantee. See how Asus carried out on our Tech Help Showdown and Greatest and Worst Manufacturers rating.
Backside line
Whereas I could be British and make a hullabaloo concerning the battery life not fairly being the place I’d need it to be, the fact is this can be a actually good choice to purchase.
The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED provides you a stunning touchscreen, nice ergonomics, and loads of energy for even fairly intense duties that your common inventive professional would throw at it — all at an affordable worth.
Is it a MacBook Professional assassin? Not a lot, however it’s nonetheless a great system that’s fairly the looker, too. Whether or not you’re trying to turbo increase your workload, you need to get inventive with some touchscreen artwork, or you will have eyes on this as a laptop computer to whip out at school while you return to highschool, the 14X OLED is an effective choose.
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