With the Zenbook A14Asus has reached a new milestone of portability. It is a 14-inch laptop that only weighs £ 2.2 and it feels more like a tablet than a computer when you pick it up. And with its unique ceraluminum housing, which feels like a cross between ceramic and metal, the ZenBook A14 is a more practical premium notebook than the Chintzy Ultra-Light-Gramm structure of LG. But there is always a compromise between size and power, and in this case Asus has delivered the slowest Copilot+ PC that we have seen so far. But I assume that only makes it a real lightweight.
To be clear, the ZenBook A14 is a maintenance laptop for the work of light productivity. Since it is a Copilot+ AI -PC, it has at least 16 GB RAM, so that it can easily deal with juggling dozens of browser tabs and your typical office and photo editing apps. But the Snapdragon X X1 chip of the A14 limits its ability to do something really demanding. So do not expect it to play a lot of games or render video. And since it is driven by this arm chip, the ZenBook must also perform apps that are designed for Intel and AMD cpus in a slower emulation. Software does not work at all, including very old apps and play like Fortnite Using anti-cheat software.
While the ZenBook A14 may appear like a MacBook Air Killer at first glance, it is more of a memory of how well Apple compensated for this laptop. Sure, it is half a pound heavier, but the MacBook Air can also edit videos, 3D rendering and playing games in a pinch. You will not feel the same restrictions on power that you will undoubtedly meet on the Zenbook A14.
Apart from that, there is still an audience for an ultra -light, interrupted laptop. The A14 is an ideal machine for writing because you can easily travel with it and a whopping 18 hours and 16 minutes of battery life (according to PCMark 10 benchmark). And let’s be honest, the sluggish gaming chops of the Zenbook can actually increase your productivity.
I could see that it is a perfect secondary computer device if you already have a desktop or booklet laptop setup at home. And if you really only have to browse on the Internet, respond to e -mails and watch the occasional video, you will probably not notice your performance problems.
Dewine Hardawar for Engadget
Hardware
The ZenBook A14 makes an amazing first impression long before you see it in action. The retail box feels alarming weightlessly as if it only contains air and some cardboard padding. And as soon as you open it, it is difficult to understand how a 14-inch laptop can only weigh £ 2.2. It also feels as good as a handicraft gauge, which makes it easy to keep. The ZenBook A14 is so impressed by the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16, the Zenbook A14 is a stronger example of how far the company was made from cheap MacBook clones.
In addition, the ceraluminum housing of the ZenBook A14 mentioned above is added to the overall polish of the Zenbook, which is easy to stay well. It is warm and inviting to touch, while Apple’s MacBooks and most other all-metal laptops almost always feel cold (especially in highly directed offices). As we have seen in other recently published Asus notebooks, ceraluminum also feels robust because there is no flex on the easy frame of the A14.
The company clearly spent time to exceed the user -friendliness of such a alternator. Opening with one hand is effortless, thanks to a new hinge design that the A14 tilts backwards when lifting the screen. I tested other light notebooks, including earlier Zenbook models for which two hands were required: one to hold the keyboard section of the computer and another to lift the display. I can tell you from experience that it is helpful to be able to open your computer with one hand while holding a crying child in the other.
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The ZenBook A14 has an impressively thin profile when it is open, but it is also well built enough to keep your screen stable when entering on your lap. This may seem like a niche point, but I am to despise that unstable displays are despised on less thin notebooks. It is another sign that Asus does the little things in the A14 right.
And if I do the right thing about things, I estimated that Asus was able to enable a ton of ports: two USB-C compounds, a USB type A, a full size HDMI connection and a headphone socket. Meanwhile, Apple contains only two USB-C connections, a Magsafe charging connection and a headphone socket on the MacBook Air.
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In use: an elevated ARM-BASIS Windows laptop
It is a shame that the entire thoughtful hardware design of Asus is held back from Snapdragon X1, an eight-core system on a chip (SOC), which is intended for ultra-Limic and light devices. With benchmarks and general use, it is clearly a much slower solution than the X Elite and X Plus chips that adorned the Surface Pro and other Copilot+ systems. As I mentioned above, this is the main compromise that Asus had to do to deliver such a slim notebook, and for some it can be a complete dealer.
The ZenBook A14 has completed my basic productivity workflow well: browsing Chrome and Edge with dozens of tabs, and at the same time perform the apps of slack, Spotify and occasional photo editing. But compared to the surface professional and the laptop, it is like driving an entry -level car instead of a real luxury offer. And that’s a shame because it is similar to this PCs. Best Buy currently lists our review unitIncluding 32 GB RAM and a 1 -TB SSD for $ 1,100. If this technical data were combined with a better processor, I would consider the A14 as an intelligent purchase. Instead, it feels like a machine that should clearly be below 1,000 US dollars with 16 GB RAM and a smaller SSD.
On the edge and chrome, I noticed slight hiccups when I jumped between tabs and several windows. And these were native apps developed for ARM processors! Snapdragon chips have to imitate older X64 and X86 -Windows apps, which leads to even more slowdowns. While writing this rating in Evernote (an X64 app), the A14 often had problems scrolling long grades smoothly, and it sometimes took a few seconds to load older notes. (Evernote owner Term says It “does not officially support the ARM processors at this time”, which means that users have more out of luck if they have more important problems.)
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An upward trend to run a fairly slow processor? Excellent battery life. In PCMark 10 Battery Benchmark, the ZenBook A14 lasted 18 hours and 16 minutes. That is about 30 minutes more than Dells Copilot+ XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X elite, and it is also two and a half hours longer than last year’s Intel Core Ultra-Operated Zenbook S14.
I appreciated the Zenbook A14 the most when I did not try to evaluate it or look for occasional slowdowns. It is a wonderful machine that you can use if you only want to concentrate on writing, removing emails or completion of the cursed corporate training. The keyboard is quick and pleasant to type, although I wish that the touchpad measured the clicks more precisely.
The ZenBook A14 is also ideal for catching Netflix shows in bed, as it feels practically weightless and video looks enormous on its 14-inch OLED screen. However, the speakers sound terribly thin, so I would use headphones for serious binge session sessions. I was also surprised that the 1080p webcam actually generated a decent film material, and you can also easily register with Windows Hello IR support in the A14.
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Should you buy the ZenBook A14?
In view of the combined problems of the ARM compatibility and a slow processor, I would not recommend the ZenBook A14 for most people, although it is like a real MacBook Air competitor. If at all, it is an experiment to see which compromises tolerate consumers to get such a light laptop. Instead of an incredibly light and submerged notebook, most people would be better with something like that Zenbook 14 OLEDwhich is currently being sold for 1,050 US dollars with 16 GB RAM and a 1 -TB SSD. Sure, it weighs £ 2.8 instead of 2.2, but it is still quite portable.
Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air, which starts with an M4 chip at $ 999, is half a pound heavier than the Zenbook A14, but overall much more capable. Even the older M2 chip is faster than the Snapdragon X, and MacOS has a larger selection of arm compatible apps and faster emulation than Windows.
Dewine Hardawar for Engadget
Diploma
If Asus was the goal of making an impressively premium-ultra light laptop, it almost came up with that Zenbook A14. While it exceeds the MacBook air in weight and value, it makes its slow processor far less capable than the ultraportable Apple. Perhaps one day, Asus could finally deliver a powerful laptop with two pounds with future revisions and more capable hardware. At the moment, however, they are better waiting for a discount so that the A14 can serve as a secondary PC.
This article was originally released on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-zenbook-a14-review-a-light-tevery-sense-13301368.html?src=rSS
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