Taiwanese laptop major, Asus, unveiled a new iteration of its Zenbook series - the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. The laptop punches well above its weight as an impressively designed premium laptop. Starting at ₹99,990, the laptop packs top-tier components like AI-enabled Intel Evo Edition’s Core Ultra processor, 32GB RAM and a fluid touch-screen display with a refresh rate of 120Hz.
Design
At just 14.9mm thickness, the Zenbook 14 is sleek and compact. The ponder blue aluminium exterior looks professional yet stylish, with subtle branding that allows the design to shine. Details like the colour-matched hinge, diamond-cut edges, and spun-metal finish on the lid add understated elegance. Despite its thinness, the chassis feels sturdy thanks to aluminium construction and MIL-STD-810H certification. The 180-degree hinge allows further flexibility while working on the laptop.
The lean design of the laptop does not compromise on the connectivity and the ports. The left side houses two Thunderbolt 4 ports for versatility, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. The variety of new and legacy ports allows easy connections with minimal dongles. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 for fast, reliable connections.
Display
The 14-inch 2,880x1,800 OLED touchscreen hits all the right notes in the Zenbook. With brilliant colour and flawless contrast thanks to pixel-perfect black levels, the display is gorgeous. Everything from documents to videos to photos look very vivid and life-like. Images are clear and accurate from all angles thanks to the anti-glare touch layer.
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With 600 nits max brightness, the screen is readable even under bright light. It handles reflections very well. OLEDs are also more power efficient thanks to pixel-level dimming rather than whole backlight dimming like LCD screens.
Asus tuned this display to provide studio-level colour accuracy. The 100% DCI-P3 gamut coverage provides a wide, rich colour range for immersive viewing. With a high refresh rate, fast response time, and support for HDR content, entertainment is smooth and immersive. The touch layer is highly responsive for intuitive navigation or pen input for drawing/annotating.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The backlit keyboard is a standout, providing best-in-class typing experience. With 1.4mm of key travel and perfect tactile feedback, keys feel responsive and comfortable. The layout is standard and includes a full number pad thanks to the touchpad’s built-in numeric keypad feature.
The touchpad performed flawlessly during testing. Its smooth glass surface allows easy gliding while clicks feel snappy. Asus’ NumberPad 2.0 is clever, saving space by transforming the touchpad into a numeric keypad at the touch of a button. We liked the placement of the touchpad - right in the centre, so the palm space allowed us to type easily and fast.
Performance
Our reviewed configuration utilises AI-enabled Intel Evo Edition’s Core Ultra processor with integrated Intel Arc graphics. With 6 Performance cores, 8 Efficiency cores and 2 low-power efficient cores, CPU performance impresses. Easily handling demanding tasks like video editing proves its processing prowess. The generous 32GB RAM keeps everything swift and snappy by avoiding slowdowns from virtual memory. Storage is speedy too thanks to the fast 1TB NVMe SSD.
The Intel Arc GPU isn’t meant for intensive AAA games but will suit casual gaming or GPU-accelerated workloads. Performance exceeds expectations for integrated graphics thanks to hardware-accelerated ray tracing and Xe graphics architecture. For on-the-go productivity, content creation/consumption, and school/business use, the performance is outstanding. AI acceleration also enhances experiences like video calls by powering background blur and automatic framing.
The Zenbook 14 OLED delivers speedy performance according to GeekBench testing. It scored 1501 for single-core operations and 9676 in multi-core tasks. These high figures highlight the laptop’s ability to swiftly launch applications, browse the web, and complete day-to-day productivity jobs.
OS
The Zenbook 14 OLED comes equipped with Windows 11 Home. The laptop comes with the Office Home and Student 2021 variant pre-installed on it.
Camera
The Zenbook 14 OLED features an impressive ASUS AiSense camera. The camera is quite good, allowing clear video calls and conferences. This integrated 3D Noise Reduction IR camera with an ambient light and colour sensor provides clear and vivid FHD resolution video. With artificial intelligence powering the Zenbook’s webcam, users can expect excellent quality visuals complete with automatic adjustments to lighting conditions and skin tones when on calls or recording footage.
Sound
On the audio front, the Zenbook 14 is equipped with a Harman Kardon-certified sound system with Dolby Atmos technology for an immersive listening experience. There are two built-in speakers providing robust sound quality. The laptop also has an integrated array microphone. With support for voice recognition software, users can conveniently access information and control their PC through voice commands. Between the Dolby Atmos 3D audio and far-field microphone pick-up, multimedia consumption and voice operations are greatly enhanced on the Zenbook 14 OLED.
Battery
The Zenbook 14 OLED is equipped with a 75Wh lithium-polymer battery. During our review period, the laptop lasted almost 8 hours of continuous office hours after a full charge. It comes bundled with a compact AC adapter, providing a seamless charging experience. The adapter conveniently plugs into the Zenbook 14 through a standard USB-C port, the same port used for data transfer and external display connectivity.
Verdict
The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED shines as a prestige ultrabook packing impressive specs and thoughtful refinement into a highly portable design. For users wanting a premium daily driver to work, create, consume content, travel and more, the Zenbook 14 OLED is easy to recommend. It nails the fundamentals while going the extra mile in detail that make for an outstanding overall experience worthy of its flagship status.
