Asus Zenbook 14X OLED review: More than a beautiful display

Price When Reviewed

$799.99

Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook 14X OLED

It’s tempting to suppose the cheap Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, which retails for simply $799.99, is little greater than a vessel for delivering a crisp, lovely OLED show. On the opposite, the 14X OLED is an affordable but basically nice laptop computer that scores properly in battery life, construct high quality, and day-to-day usability. 

Looking for extra laptop computer choices? You’ll undoubtedly need to take a look at PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops accessible as we speak.

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Specs and options

The headline characteristic is, in fact, the 14.5-inch OLED show. It packs a decision of 2880×1800 and a 120Hz refresh fee, specs that put aggressive laptops with 1080p shows to disgrace. 

• CPU: Intel Core i5-13500H
• Memory: 8GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe
• Display: 14.5-inch 2880×1800 120Hz OLED
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 
• Connectivity:  2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 1x USB-A 2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
• Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: IR webcam for Windows Hello facial recognition 
• Battery capability: 70 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.67 x 8.88 x .67 inches
• Weight: 3.44 kilos
• MSRP: $799.99

But the 14X OLED is greater than a fairly display screen. It has an Intel Core i5-13500H processor, which is a step up from the Intel Core i5 U-series and AMD Ryzen 5 sequence processors present in most opponents. And its most essential traits are people who don’t present up on a spec sheet—like a high quality keyboard, sturdy design, and powerful real-world battery life. 

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, like most cheap Windows laptops, isn’t a lot to have a look at. It’s a humble slab of matte blue metallic adorned solely by just a few refined geometric shapes alongside the show lid. I have to admit that I miss the traditional “concentric circle” design of previous Zenbooks, and I don’t get why Asus hasn’t continued to make use of that design on all Zenbook machines.

Looks apart, the 14X OLED is exceptionally well-built for its worth level. Both the show lid and decrease physique present little flex when the laptop computer is dealt with, and the physique panels maintain up when strain is utilized. The Zenbook 14X OLED’s construct feels noticeably extra sturdy than equally priced alternate options like Acer’s Aspire 3 14-inch, HP’s Envy 14, and MSI’s Prestige 14.

The Zenbook 14X OLED weighs 3.44 kilos, measures a couple of foot and a half broad, and is 0.67 inches thick. These figures are much like alternate options just like the Acer Swift X 14, Lenovo Slim 7i, and MSI Prestige 14. A couple of alternate options, just like the LG Gram 14 Style, can considerably undercut the 14X OLED’s measurement and weight—although at the next worth.

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

Asus offers a spacious keyboard for the Zenbook 14X OLED. Most keys are massive and the format feels instantly acquainted. Key journey is respectable at 1.4 millimeters and keys backside out with a exact motion that gives a tad of tactile suggestions. It’s an awesome typing expertise that outpaces most opponents.

The keyboard lacks a numpad (which is true of most 14-inch laptops), however Asus compensates with a touch-sensitive numpad that’s hidden within the touchpad. It’s activated by an extended press of the touchpad’s higher proper nook. I don’t suppose it’s an awesome substitute for an actual numpad, nevertheless it may work in a pinch.

The touchpad is in any other case typical of a funds Windows laptop computer. It measures 5 inches throughout and about three inches deep, offering a easy, responsive contact expertise. Multi-touch gestures are fairly straightforward to make use of, though the touchpad’s measurement can really feel a bit of limiting. It’s actually not the perfect touchpad accessible, nevertheless it does the job.

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED consists of “OLED” in its identify for a motive. The 14.5-inch OLED touchscreen, which delivers a decision of 2880×1800, is the laptop computer’s most interesting characteristic.

OLED panels have a status for glorious distinction and coloration efficiency, and the 14X OLED isn’t any exception. It offers an infinite distinction ratio that may attain an ideal minimal luminance of zero nits. Dark, nuanced content material offers an immersive, alluring, and lifelike expertise with glorious element in dimly-lit scenes.

The show additionally has a wonderful coloration gamut that covers 100 p.c of DCI-P3 and 97 p.c of Adobe RGB. This coloration efficiency is much like competing laptops that use the identical OLED panel—and there’s loads of them. Still, it’s spectacular to see this stage of coloration high quality in an inexpensive laptop computer.

The OLED panel can solely attain a most SDR brightness of 335 nits, which is a bit weak. However, laptops on this worth class typically have panels that aren’t as vivid as these in laptops offered for $1,000 and above, so this draw back is much less of a drawback within the 14X OLED than in costlier laptops. The 14X OLED’s brightness is ok to be used indoors, however can really feel insufficient open air or close to massive, sunlit home windows.

Brightness improves to 513 nits in HDR mode, although this stays inadequate for nice HDR efficiency (at brightness of 1,000 nits or higher is most well-liked). HDR is disabled when the laptop computer is on battery energy, too, so you’ll be able to’t watch HDR films on the go. This isn’t an issue unique to the 14X OLED: all Windows laptops with HDR I’ve examined had the identical restriction.

The show panel has a pixel density of roughly 234 pixels per inch—a serious enchancment over 1080p decision, which offers roughly 155 pixels per inch on a panel of comparable measurement. The distinction may be onerous to discern on the Windows desktop, however the added sharpness is noticeable when viewing high-quality video content material or modifying high-resolution photographs.

The 14X OLED’s audio high quality matches the spectacular show. Audio comes by means of clear and crisp with minimal distortion by means of the mid-range, even at excessive volumes. The audio system are downward-firing, which might muffle the amount when the laptop computer is used in your lap. But, as a result of the audio system are robust to start with, they nonetheless outperform most opponents. 

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

A 1080p webcam is built-in into the slim higher bezel of the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED. It offers good picture high quality with first rate sharpness and acceptable coloration copy, nevertheless it retains the grainy and muted look of a webcam. Most Windows laptops launched in 2023 are upgrading to 1080p webcams, so the 14X OLED’s webcam doesn’t stand out from the group.

However, Asus consists of an infrared digicam with assist for Windows Hello facial recognition login. This is an uncommon however appreciated improve for a laptop computer priced underneath $800. Windows Hello facial recognition is fast, straightforward to make use of, and works even in a dimly lit room.

The built-in microphone array has strengths and weaknesses. It captures clear audio with good quantity even when leaning away from the laptop computer, however the microphones additionally have a tendency to choose up background noise. The 14X OLED sounds good in voice and video calls, however consumers with a talkative canine companion or a loud window AC needs to be cautious. 

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED packs a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports (which additionally assist USB-C) alongside one USB-A port and one HDMI 2.1 port. A 3.5mm audio-out jack rounds out the choices.

That’s an appropriate however unremarkable vary of connectivity for a contemporary laptop computer. The most notable ache level is the lonely USB-A port: there’s loads of conditions the place a second port would show helpful. The laptop computer additionally lacks an Ethernet port, so these on the lookout for a wired Internet connection might want to use a USB-C to Ethernet adapter.

Both Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports assist Power Delivery, and the laptop computer ships with a 90-watt USB-C energy brick. The energy brick is a compact sq. unit measuring three inches throughout and about an inch thick. This provides Asus an edge over some opponents: some cheap laptops nonetheless use old-school barrel-plug energy adapters. 

Wireless connectivity spans Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth, as is true of practically all Windows laptops offered in 2023. Wi-Fi efficiency was stable with robust obtain speeds of as much as one gigabit per second, the utmost doable over my dwelling WI-FI community.

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Performance

Intel’s Core i5-13500H powered the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED I reviewed (a Core i7-13700H is accessible for an additional $200). The i5-13500H packs 4 efficiency cores and eight environment friendly cores for a complete of 12 cores and 16 threads. It additionally has a most Turbo frequency of 4.7 GHz. The 14X OLED I examined paired this processor with Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of reminiscence, and a 512GB stable state drive. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Zenbook 14X OLED has a mediocre exhibiting in PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark. Blame the laptop computer’s built-in graphics—this benchmark does embrace a graphics check, so any laptop computer with lackluster graphics efficiency will fall behind. With that mentioned, the 14X OLED’s efficiency on this check is broadly consistent with what I count on for the value, and the laptops which outperform it are costlier.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15, a short-duration multi-core benchmark, offers a robust consequence for the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED. It hit a rating of two,037, which beats most laptops used for comparability and solely falls notably behind the Acer Swift X 14. That’s honest, because the Swift X 14 is far more costly (it retails for $1,599) and has an Intel Core i7-13700H processor.

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Handbrake result’s arguably much less favorable to the 14X OLED, although it’s a nuanced debate. Intel’s Core i5-13500H struggles to maintain up with AMD’s Ryzen 7 7000-series chips, which have an fringe of roughly 25 p.c. However, each of the AMD Ryzen 7 laptops are a number of hundred {dollars} costlier, so an edge in efficiency could possibly be anticipated. As talked about, Asus provides an upgraded Zenbook 14X OLED with Intel’s Core i7-13700H for $999.99, which presumably would examine higher towards the Ryzen 7 competitors. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED’s processor efficiency isn’t stellar, nevertheless it’s respectable for the value. I’m unsure the identical might be mentioned of its graphics efficiency, as Intel’s growing older Iris Xe struggles.

3DMark Time Spy delivered a rating of 1,676, which is in direction of the low finish of what I count on from laptops with Intel Iris Xe graphics (most rating between 1,600 and a couple of,000). This is a giant improve from bottom-dollar alternate options, just like the Acer Aspire 3, but in addition method wanting AMD laptops with the corporate’s top-tier Radeon 680M graphics. A laptop computer with discrete graphics, just like the Acer Swift X 14, will blow the doorways off the Zenbook 14X OLED.

That’s a bit disappointing. To be honest, few Windows laptops offered under $800 have discrete graphics, and people who do are often funds gaming laptops which don’t compete immediately with the slimmer, lighter 14X OLED. Shoppers on the lookout for a 14-inch laptop computer with acceptable 3D graphics efficiency ought to up their funds. 

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Battery life

Asus crams a 70 watt-hour battery into the Zenbook 14X OLED. Its capability is common for a 14-inch laptop computer, however the laptop computer’s lack of discrete graphics and in any other case modest specs assist to attain robust ends in battery exams.

IDG / Matthew Smith

The 14X OLED lasted 10 hours and 32 minutes in our customary battery check, which loops a 4K trailer of the quick movie Tears of Steel. That’s an excellent consequence for our check, and the 14X OLED leapfrogs many laptops of comparable measurement. 

Also, as talked about earlier, the laptop computer prices over USB-C and ships with a compact 90-watt energy adapter. The laptop computer’s stable battery life means you’ll be able to depart it at dwelling for day journeys, nevertheless it received’t take up extra room in the event you want it.

Asus Zenbook 14X OLED: Should you purchase it?

The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED is a superb alternative for if you would like a easy, wise laptop computer that nails the basics of an excellent laptop computer expertise at a low worth. It’s doable to seek out laptops which are slimmer and lighter, or bigger and extra highly effective, at this worth level—however they typically make sacrifices in show efficiency, keyboard high quality, or battery life. The 14X OLED not solely avoids these issues, however delivers outcomes which are typically comparable with costlier laptops. That makes for nice worth.