Asus Zenbook A14 Assessment: The Greatest Copilot Plus PC So Far

8.5/ 10
SCORE

Asus Zenbook A14 (UX3407)

Professionals

• Extremely skinny and lightweight with out feeling flimsy
• All-day-and-all-night battery life
• OLED show at this worth is a pleasant shock
• Ample RAM and storage for the value too

Cons

• Meh efficiency from Snapdragon X CPU
• Meh mechanical touchpad
• Meh audio system

The Asus Zenbook A14 turned heads at CES 2025 for its ultralight but surprisingly inflexible Ceraluminum chassis and a declare of 30 hours (!) of battery life regardless of that includes an OLED show that usually consumes battery assets at a larger clip than an LCD panel. After weighing, benchmarking and banging on the Zenbook A14, we’re prepared to offer it one other award. It gained a Better of CES Award for finest laptop computer and might now name itself a CNET Editors’ Alternative award winner. 

Constructed round an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, the Zenbook A14 is the lightest Copilot Plus PC I’ve examined and the second-longest operating. Its efficiency is ok for normal use, but it surely’s positively a step or two behind different Copilot Plus PCs with Snapdragon X Plus or Elite CPUs and people with Intel Core Extremely 200 sequence chips. And whereas the general design is superb, the touchpad and audio system are merely common for an ultraportable. 

Nitpicks apart, you will not discover one other 14-inch OLED laptop computer that weighs lower than 2.2 kilos with a battery lifetime of greater than 24 hours. If portability is paramount, the Zenbook A14 is the choose. 

The Asus Zenbook A14 I examined (mannequin UX3407) is out there from Asus and Greatest Purchase for $1,100. It options Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X X1-26-100 processor, which sits one rung beneath chips within the Snapdragon X Plus sequence and two rungs beneath these within the Snapdragon X Elite sequence. It has the identical  8-core CPU depend because the lower-end Snapdragon X Plus processors however runs at a barely slower clock velocity — 3GHz versus 3.2GHz — with no increase frequency.

The Zenbook A14 UX3407 is in any other case well-equipped, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. It depends on Qualcomm’s built-in Adreno GPU and options the identical neural processing unit able to 45 trillion operations per second, which qualifies it as a Copilot Plus PC. The show is a 14-inch OLED panel with a pedestrian 1,920×1,200-pixel decision and no contact assist.

Asus is readying a second Zenbook A14 anticipated to hit Greatest Purchase’s cabinets on the finish of March. It is going to price $900 and have a CPU improve — a Snapdragon X Plus — and half the RAM and space for storing. It does have the identical OLED show, although. Sure, you learn that appropriately: The cheaper mannequin has a sooner processor. You’ll inform the 2 aside as a result of they are going to be totally different colours; my take a look at mannequin is what Asus describes as Iceland Grey, and the opposite mannequin might be outfitted in Zabriskie Beige. The very best half is not any paints are used; the colours are created by way of an oxidation technique of the steel chassis. 

The Asus Zenbook A14 (UX3407) prices £1,100 within the UK and isn’t but out there in Australia.

Asus Zenbook A14 efficiency

The Zenbook A14’s efficiency in lab testing was just like the opening to A Story of Two Cities: It was the perfect of instances, it was the worst of instances. It completed close to or on the finish of the pack of different Copilot Plus PCs primarily based on Snapdragon X Plus or Elite processors and people with Intel’s Lunar Lake Core Extremely 200V sequence chips on our software benchmarks, Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. It additionally trailed the M3 MacBook Air on these exams. 

The Zenbook A14 was unable to run PCMark 10, which highlights the Home windows-on-Arm compatibility problem. Earlier than buying the Zenbook A14 or one other Copilot Plus PC powered by a Snapdragon X, examine to make sure that the functions you employ are appropriate with Arm.

Compatibility additionally comes into play with our 3DMark Time Spy take a look at. It would not run natively on Arm however by way of the built-in Prism emulator, which ends up in a efficiency hit. However its outcome was poor even among the many Snapdragon X-based Copilot Plus PCs, together with the HP OmniBook X 14 and Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7.

Whereas the Zenbook A14’s software and graphics efficiency trailed different Copliot Plus PCs, it nonetheless gives greater than sufficient efficiency for normal use. Competing Copilot Plus PCs could also be sooner, however they do not present one other class of computing. These are all general-purpose laptops that depend on built-in graphics which are higher fitted to workplace duties than demanding graphics work or gaming.

The Zenbook A14 did higher on Procyon’s AI Pc Imaginative and prescient benchmark, ending in the course of the opposite Copilot Plus PCs we have examined. This outcome is no surprise since all the Snapdragon X CPUs characteristic the identical 45-TOPS NPU, and the competing Intel Core Extremely 7 258V gives an identical 48-TOPS NPU.

The very best of instances arrived with battery testing. The Zenbook A14 is just the second laptop computer CNET has reviewed with a battery lifetime of greater than 24 hours, even when it was solely by 7 minutes. The A14’s battery time is second solely to the HP OmniBook X 14, which lasted 1 hour and 5 minutes longer. The Zenbook A14’s longevity is arguably extra spectacular than the OmniBook X 14’s as a result of it options an OLED show, which usually drains the battery sooner than an LCD.

Asus says the Zenbook A14’s battery can last as long as 32 hours. On our battery exams, it got here up just a few hours wanting that determine, however our take a look at of regularly streaming a YouTube video is extra demanding than a typical use case. At any price, the Zenbook A14 gives such a prolonged battery life that you would be able to go days at a time between charging it. 

Ceraluminum is definitely superior

Many instances, when a producer makes an attempt an ultralight design, the result’s an enclosure that feels too mild, with skinny magnesium alloy, aluminum or plastic surfaces that flex and bend underneath the slightest stress. With the Zenbook A14, you may have your lightness and rigidity too. It contains a Ceraluminum chassis that is a mixture of aluminum and ceramic supplies. Including ceramic to the composition provides an excessive amount of rigidity and sturdiness, which permits the Zenbook A14 to be extremely mild with out feeling flimsy or low cost. 

The Zenbook A14 weighs slightly below 2.2 kilos, or lower than a kilogram. By comparability, the marginally smaller 13.6-inch MacBook Air M3 is greater than half a pound heavier at 2.7 kilos. Heavier nonetheless is the 13.8-inch Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7 and 14-inch HP OmniBook X 14, that are nonetheless two of the lightest Copilot Plus PCs we have examined at roughly 3 kilos. The Zenbook A14 additionally has a small energy brick that weighs lower than half a pound, so the entire journey weight is lighter than that of the MacBook Air by itself.

Asus features a light-weight leather-based sleeve in a pleasant, off-white coloration. For those who pack up the Zenbook A14 with the facility wire and journey sleeve, you will nonetheless carry solely 3.1 kilos. 

The Ceraluminum materials not solely ends in an ultralight but very inflexible laptop computer, however additionally it is scratch, smudge and fingerprint resistant. I just like the look of the matte grey end of our take a look at system — it marks a departure from the brushed aluminum end that is grow to be so widespread — and it maintained its clear look in the course of the two weeks I used it. And I am usually snacking whereas working, and the keyboard, touchpad and remainder of the chassis remained smudge-free. 

The inflexible keyboard deck aids the typing expertise on the Zenbook A14. The keys supply shallow journey however a agency response. Any flex within the keyboard deck would make the shallow-travel keys really feel mushy, however as a substitute, they really feel fast and snappy. The keyboard can also be roomy with no shortened keys that you could be taught to accommodate. 

The touchpad can also be roomy and options sensible gestures alongside the aspect and high edges to regulate show brightness and quantity and management video playback. I did not discover myself utilizing the perimeters to boost or decrease brightness or quantity as a result of I’ve grown accustomed to utilizing the operate keys for these, and the Zenbook A14 has devoted operate keys for every. There aren’t any media management keys within the Zenbook A14’s operate row, nevertheless, so I did use the highest fringe of the touchpad for scrubbing ahead and again on YouTube movies and located it correct sufficient to make use of successfully.

Moreover its beneficiant dimension and sensible gestures, the touchpad is primary, with a mechanical click on response. I a lot desire the full of life and uniform click on response from the haptic touchpad of the Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7. The Zenbook A14’s mechanical touchpad’s click on response gives an excessive amount of journey close to its backside edge and never sufficient towards the highest — the dreaded driving board impact. On the Zenbook A14’s worth, nevertheless, it is asking an excessive amount of to get each an OLED show and a haptic touchpad. 

And also you do get an OLED. It isn’t a high-resolution OLED panel, however getting any kind of OLED on a $1,100 laptop computer is a boon. It is a 14-inch OLED show with a 1,920x-1,200-pixel decision. That is a excessive sufficient decision for a 14-inch show that textual content and pictures seem crisp — simply not as sharp because the picture you get with the two.8K OLED on the Asus Zenbook S 14. The HP OmniBook X 14 and Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7 have barely higher-res 14-inch shows, however they’re IPS LCD panels and never OLEDs. 

I might a lot quite have the Zenbook A14’s OLED show than both LCD (and the added pixels) that you simply get with the OmniBook X 14 or Floor Laptop computer 7. The superb distinction and deep black ranges of the Zenbook A14’s OLED show are excellent. Shade efficiency can also be sturdy; my exams with a Spyder X colorimeter confirmed 100% protection of the sRGB and P3 areas and 97% of AdobeRGB. It additionally hits 391 nits of brightness, which is an efficient quantity for an OLED that usually has a decrease peak brightness than an LCD.

Together with the prosaic decision, the Zenbook A14’s show additionally gives a regular 60Hz refresh price. You will have to spend extra to get a laptop computer with a high-res OLED with a speedy 120Hz refresh that ends in smoother movement.

My different minor criticism in regards to the in any other case wonderful OLED show is not in regards to the panel itself however the plastic bezels surrounding it. They provide off finances vibes on a laptop computer the place practically the whole lot else in regards to the design appears spendier than its $1,100 worth would point out. I ponder how rather more a seamless, edge-to-edge glass remedy would add to the Zenbook A14’s price.

To finish the show dialogue on a optimistic word, I am going to point out the show hinge. Much like a MacBook’s, it is a single hinge that runs practically the width of the show. And it is improbable, providing a real, one-finger opening of the show however nonetheless sufficient resistance to maintain the show at your chosen angle with minimal wobble.

On the heart of the highest cowl sits one different little bit of budget-ness: the “ASUS Zenbook” wordmark. The font is boring, and the spacing between the letters appears off — why are the letters so extensively spaced? I’d’ve most well-liked a repeat of Asus’s stylized “A” that seems above the keyboard on the lid. Or simply select a greater font with higher spacing.

The twin audio system emit common laptop computer audio, which is to say it is not superb. The sound suffices for YouTube movies and Netflix exhibits and video chats, however you will need headphones or an exterior speaker for music and a few motion pictures — dramas the place dialogue is softly spoken or motion flicks with giant explosions and over-the-top results.

The 1080p webcam produced a reasonably sharp picture in testing, however the image was oversaturated. The digital camera has an IR sensor so you should utilize it for Home windows Hey logins. That is your solely biometric choice as a result of the Zenbook A14 lacks a fingerprint reader.

Is the Asus Zenbook A14 a very good laptop computer?

It is an awesome laptop computer, notably when you’re on the lookout for an ultralight, ultralong-running laptop computer for journey. Its Ceraluminum enclosure is each inflexible and light-weight, and the Snapdragon X processor permits it to run across the clock. Plus, its show is the icing on this Copilot Plus PC cake at this worth.