Asus Zenbook 14 evaluate: A $799 laptop computer that feels pricier than it’s

Asus ZenBook 14: Premium design in new colours

Asus hasn’t compromised on construct high quality to maintain the value down. The chassis is sturdy and ergonomically designed, with rounded edges, a well-built and thoughtfully designed keyboard with clear backlighting, a smooth-action display screen hinge and a big touchpad with exact management.

They name the fabric “Ceraluminium” — aluminum with a ceramic-like end. As soon as once more, the laptop computer is offered within the sandstone-like coloration Zabriskie Beige. There at the moment are additionally two different colours to select from: a grey-blue and a coral-colored pink variant. All three are actually fashionable.

You get the identical anticipated array of exterior ports on the perimeters: two USB-C 4 ports with DisplayPort assist, one USB-A, one HDMI port and a headphone jack. One space the place Asus has lower corners is Wi-Fi. You gained’t get Wi-Fi 7 assist right here, however you do get Wi-Fi 6e, which is sweet sufficient within the overwhelming majority of conditions.

Asus ZenBook 14: Slower, however nonetheless quick

The areas the place Asus has lower corners probably the most to maintain the value down are efficiency and storage capability. You get the previous-generation Snapdragon X as an alternative of the Snapdragon X2 Elite discovered within the ZenBook A14; as talked about, you get 16 GB of RAM as an alternative of 32, and a 256 GB SSD with no possibility for extra – at the very least on the time of this writing. Reminiscence and storage are costly, and that is the place Asus is saving some huge cash.

Mattias Inghe

The SSD can be of the PCIe 3.0 sort slightly than PCIe 4.0, which is present in most top-of-the-range fashions in the intervening time (together with the 512 GB mannequin of this laptop computer, apparently). This implies a learn velocity of round 3,500 MB/s, whereas the most effective drives right now supply speeds of between 6,000 and seven,000 MB/s.

The efficiency remains to be completely enough. Asus markets this as a great pupil laptop computer, and I can solely agree. It’s greater than able to dealing with all on a regular basis duties, comparable to working in workplace software program, shopping the net, emailing, collaborating in webcam conferences, and streaming video.