The daddy of the modern Microsoft Windows based UltraBook that is supposed to compete with the likes of a MacBook Air was the ZenBook, if you can remember it. Asus introduced their first ZenBook line-up in 2012 to be ultra-efficient, ultra-long battery life, ultra-portable notebooks like a Windows PC never was. It brought out a whole slew of things that we thought we will never see from a Windows platform. It kick-started a few races toward the longest possible battery life, the smallest possible package, and even the lightest packages with different display sizes.
It was their most premium consumer product as well at that moment. A Windows notebook PC that would be as expensive as a MacBook was quite unheard of at that time. The ZenBook, in that sense, was a pioneer.
Fast forward to 2020 though and we have a new family of premium UltraBooks from ASUS, and it is the ASUS ZenBook 14 and 13. The numbers are an indication of sizes, technically. So the 14 refers to the 14-inch display while then 13 refers to the 13-inch, quite obvious really.
Like many of the manufacturers, ASUS likes to claim that their stuff, especially the ZenBook, is the thinnest or lightest at something. It is all sort of marketing gibberish to be honest. With the new classic ZenBook though, they claim that they have the thinnest 13-inch and 14-inch notebooks with full I/O ports.
While this is not the thinnest 13-inch or even 14-inch notebooks you can find in the market, there may be some truth to ASUS’ marketing blurb. In short, you cannot find an ultrabook today that has a full USB Type-A and full HDMI port. So, this claim of the thinnest with full I/O ports must be true right? It is true, but is this claim enough to win over your MYR 4,699? Is it enough to keep you away from other lighter, smaller, and more compelling ultrabooks in the market like the Acer Swift 5, for example? We find out.
Design
Like any other review, we start with the design. Yes, it is important, you are going to be looking at your notebook PC almost on a daily basis now that we are working from home on a near permanent basis. Okay, we are lying if we say our team is working from home full time. Most of us are already back in the office. But we have also always championed remote working and we rely on our notebooks plenty.
In that sense, we look at our notebooks on a daily basis no matter where we are. Because of that, we would want our notebooks to look pleasing too for us. Somehow it makes us feel good about what we do on a daily basis.
Back to the ZenBook 14 that we have here (not the 13). It is an MYR 3,999 full aluminium package that is way smaller than almost any 14-inch notebooks that I know of. It is not lighter than most ultrabooks though. It is quite hefty for its size, to be fair. Then again, full aluminium and metal construction does that to your notebook.
The ZenBook 14 still retains that swirling brushed aluminium look that made it so popular when it first launched in 2012. Instead of the swirl starting from the middle though, it is now pushed third away toward the right side, if you are viewing the notebook with the letters facing you. We admit that we said that the brushed aluminium was a timeless look. In this one, we do feel that it is getting a little aged. Even the colour feels quite old school, the Pine Grey colour option is quite a classic colour. We might prefer the Lilac Mist colour variant though, that looked good in photos and renders. Yes, we are men and we are proud of that colour choice.
We are not saying that you would not like the colours. Just because we do not like the colour, does not mean you would not like it too. It is just a matter of personal preference. We would appreciate a slightly different design and look from the ZenBook by now though. A little effort goes a long way, we are looking at you too, Porsche.
The ErgoLift hinge design that was championed again and again by ASUS these two years makes it into the design language of the ASUS ZenBook 14 here. We have mentioned that we are not ultimately fond of the ErgoLift design, but we also recognise the language and its benefits. At the right angles, it does help with typing comfort and fatigue. At some angles, it becomes kind of useless. It does benefit greatly on the cooling side though, we will talk about the ErgoLift more later on.
Hardware
The ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX425JA) you see here is not the lightest ZenBook you can get. That has to go to the 13-inch (UX325JA) variant of the ASUS ZenBook. There is also a variant of the ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX434FLC) where they fit a ScreenPad on the touch sensitive mousepad. Unfortunately, this is not that either.
The mousepad on this ASUS ZenBook 14 has a little trick up its sleeves too, just not in the way you think. It doubles as your numpad as well, which is a nice touch, since you are not getting a full-sized keyboard with numpad on it.
The variant we have for review packs a powerful 10th Generation Core i7-1065G7 processor clocked at 1.3GHz. While that may not sound like much, it is powerful enough for plenty of work that we are accustomed to. It does bump the price up to MYR 4,699 though if you opt for the Core i7 variant. At MYR 3,999, you get an Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor.
8GB of RAM for this thing is quite ample and you do not really need to add too much more to it. That is also because you cannot really add another RAM stick in there. It is an ultrabook, after all. At the same time, you should not expect to be using the ASUS ZenBook 14 as your main gaming rig or video editing rig; 8GB is enough. It does pack an SSD though, for that extra speed when you need it.
Specifications
| Asus ZenBook 14 UX425JA (2020) | As Tested |
| Processor (clock) | 10th Generation Intel Core i7-1065G7 (six-core@1.30GHz) |
| GPU | Intel Iris Plus |
| Display(s) | 14-inch IPS (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare NanoEdge 400nits |
| Memory | 512GB NVME M.2 SSD 8GB DDR4 RAM |
| Networking and Connections (I/O) | 1 x USB Type-A 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 1 x Standard HDMI 1.4 1 x MicroSD card reader Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Battery | 67Wh 4-cell Li-Polymer 65W USB Type-C Charger |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
| Miscellaneous | Harman Kardon Audio 3D IR HD camera with Window Hello |
Features
Is it as thin as you think it is? Especially when they claim it to be the slimmest with a Full HDMI and USB port? This would beg another question that you have to ask yourselves. Have you seen the size of a full HDMI port? They are not that thick, but they are not exactly paper thin either.
In that case, it is not as thin as you think it should be. At 14-inch, it is not exactly the lightest notebook around either. But you have to appreciate the premium touch of the completely metal constructed body.
Full I/O Ports and an MicroSD slot
One thing that we hate about the more modern ultrabooks we use for work, especially in our line of work, is the fact that none of them comes with full USB ports anymore. In that sense, having a full-sized USB Type-A port is a breath of fresh air, something we can really appreciate. At the same time, there is only one full-sized USB port, which is occupied by a USB dongle for my wireless mouse most of the time.
Of course, because of that one USB port, you can put in normal sized thumb drives to work with. That also means you, or whoever you work with do not have to spend extra money just to buy a USB Type-C thumb drive or USB Type-C to USB Type-C cables. You do not need to spend on a USB Type-C dongle as well for that matter. Of course, if you already do have a USB Type-C dongle, you can use them still via the two Thunderbolt USB Type-C ports on the other side with the full HDMI port.
Full HDMI is a big welcome with any notebook, not because we thoroughly use them, just because it is nice to be able to go home and plug your TV to your notebook to watch Netflix or just work on a bigger display. In our line of work as well, we do travel to other parts of the world and work out of hotel rooms from time to time. In that case, having a full HDMI port that we can use to plug the provided TV in the room is nice as well.
There is also a MicroSD card reader that proved to be useful from time to time. We heavily rely on MicroSD cards in our work thanks to the compact camera we use. In that case, when we need to quickly transfer data, we simply pull out the MicroSD card from the Sony RX0ii that we heavily rely on for most of our production use case and just transfer out the data from the card to an external HDD we plug into the full-sized UBS port.
We would appreciate if they could fit another full-sized USB Type-A port though. Also, if they could include a 3.5mm audio in/out jack in the next iteration of the ASUS ZenBook 14, that would be great. We found this to be a little bit of an annoying pickle because of the lack of that audio AUX port.
We still do not agree with the decision of phone makers around the world when they decided that the 3.5mm AUX jacks are obsolete. Imagine our dismay then, when we found that we could not use our 3.5mm AUX earphones or headphones with this notebook. In that case, we have to dig up our bags for a USB Type-C earphone, or connect a Bluetooth enabled wireless earphone or headphone. With Bluetooth headphones, you might want to prepare to wrestle with Windows a little bit.
ErgoLift Comfort and Discomfort
The ErgoLift hinge that is championed by ASUS is technically nothing new. They introduced it a few years ago and the design is still stuck until this day. It is not exactly something that should win ASUS any style points though. In that case, while the design does create for some very interesting and seamless look on the outlook part, it serves a more practical purpose than you think.
Of course, every other person that has gone through the marketing blurb from ASUS knows that the ErgoLift hinge is designed for typing comfort. It raises the keyboards a little bit to make it a little more natural for you to type on. The angled keyboard is supposed to relieve some of the pressure on your wrists and ensure that you do not get fatigued while working on the notebook or even Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Trust me, it is not fun.
Thing is, the Ergolift hinge also means that the keyboard tends to sit at different heights in different angles. It is not that big of a deal in most cases, since the changes to the angle is quite minimal. But this also means that your viewing angle changes the way you work with the keyboard, which could very well be in a weird angle after you change your own seating position and then the display angle.
There are two rubberized legs on the ErgoLift hinge’s edge. That is to prevent the ASUS ZenBook 14 bodywork to be touching the surface it sits on and scratch itself to bits. It is also to prevent the notebook from slipping away from you while you type on it or work on it. It is to plant itself on that surface.
However, working with the ZenBook 14 on your thighs could be a small annoyance. That is because the naked parts of the hinge would be resting on your thighs. It might not be an issue if the notebook rests on your pants, but it might be a little annoying if the hinge rests on your bare thighs.
While they have managed to design an edge that is blunt enough that it does not dig into your skin, it is still a little uncomfortable as typing and resting your palms on the notebook means that you are still putting pressure on a smaller contact patch. In that sense, we do not recommend putting it on your lap when you are working, find a proper table. You would be more productive that way too. Of course, if you have no choice but to put your notebook on the lap, you are not going to bleed from the experience.
Blowing Hot Air, At the display
The ErgoLift had posed another problem for ultrabooks though. It has posed a cooling problem for ultrabooks. With the sides plugged up by plugs, the only way heat could travel out of the notebook is through the back. The ErgoLift hinge means that most of the heat is dissipated via fans blowing the display.
The cooling fans draw cool air from the bottom of the device. ErgoLift also means that there is a bigger gap at the bottom allowing for bigger airflow. The exhaust air is blown to the back of the device that is now part of the display, so hot air will travel on the display panel.
Thankfully, there is not that much heat that needs to be transferred out on normal use cases. You do not want to constantly blow hot air into the display else you might risk some damages from the display panel itself that might lead to discoloration or worse still, glue coming apart from the plastic panels, effectively disintegrating your notebook.
Backlit Keyboard for the Dark Times
There is no RGB here, thankfully. It is not a gaming device, after all, so why would you want RGB? But that also means that you can only get white colour backlighting on the ASUS ZenBook 14.
We do have to admit though that the keyboard on the ASUS ZenBook 14 is one of the best you can find on an ultrabook. It has enough travel and feedback for that extra smooth workbench feel. Typing on it is comfortable and typing fatigue is minimized with decently sized keys as well.
We do suspect that the extra thickness they had on the baseplate allows for better keyboard fitting and therefore slightly more key travels. That also means it does not feel like you are typing on a hardboard with ‘touch sensitive’ keys. Instead, you feel like you are typing on a keyboard, a proper keyboard.
We do find that we seldom put the illuminated numpad integrated in the touch sensitive mousepad to good use. It is a neat feature though to integrate a full keyboard into a form factor such as the ASUS ZenBook 14.
In a sense, working on the ASUS ZenBook 14 as a document, or email machine is a pleasure. The keyboard is silent even in the most silent working environment. It is not too mushy or too harsh on your fingers and every stroke of key feels properly solid.
Facial Recognition
Thanks to infrared sensors and webcam, the ASUS ZenBook 14 packs Windows Hello’s facial recognition. That is at the sacrifice of the good ol’ fingerprint sensor though. While it may seem counterintuitive to remove a secondary layer of security, the facial recognition of the ASUS ZenBook 14’s Windows Hello is what you need though. It is fast and accurate to the touch.
We did face some issues with facial recognition in our use, but that is more user error than the fault of the PC. You have to remember to take off your facemask before you start using the notebook. If you are wearing glasses, you should be fine. It is Windows Hello technology, which also means that it is a proven technology.
The lack of a fingerprint sensor is hardly missed though, since you still can use a pin number to secure your ASUS ZenBook 14. That is not to say that we dislike fingerprint sensors, or we do not want one. We do think that we should still have a fingerprint sensor just in case the webcam sensors failed to identify our faces when we need things done quickly.
At the same time, having a facial recognition webcam with Windows Hello also means that you have to keep the webcam free of tapes or webcam covers. Of course, you can leave a webcam cover in it. You Just need to remember to remove it or open it up every time you turn on your notebook.
Harman Kardon Audio
This ASUS ZenBook 14 comes with Harman Kardon tuned audio and speakers. That does not mean that it has all the bells and whistles that comes with certified sound bars. It is close though, without a sub-woofer that is.
Harman Kardon audio capabilities means that music sounds good. When we say good, we mean that its sound stage is nearly full and most frequencies are clear and crisp. Clear and crisp is what we will use to describe the top-end frequencies on the ASUS ZenBook 14. Since there is no sub-woofer elements packed into the compact body that is the ZenBook, low-end frequencies tend to be weaker.
That is not to say that it is a bad audio and music machine though. You still can appreciate good music through the speakers, just not something with a lot of low-end power. That also means EDMs might not cut it. Vocals do sound excellent on the speakers though, better than the ASUS ZenBook from before than does not come with Harman Kardon’s touch.
Performance
Of course, 10th Gen Core i7 that it packs comes with plenty of expectations from us. It is 2020 and we can expect modern notebook PCs to be powerful enough to work and game lightly at the same time; especially an Intel Core i7. Of course, we cannot have a thin and light that does everything under the sun without any compromises. In that sense, this is an ultrabook with nearly zero compromise.
The Extra and Subtle Workhorse
In any angle, the ASUS ZenBook 14 exudes ‘premium’. At any touch, that is also the word that comes to mind. ‘Boring’, is another, as we have said in the design section.
These are not the only words available for the ASUS ZenBook 14 though. When you talk about taking a workhorse out for a trip out of town, the ultrabook of choice with the best value and performance is the ASUS ZenBook ultrabook. So, there is ‘Reliability’ in their repertoire as well.
The ASUS ZenBook 14’s body may not be the slimmest notebook you can find in the market. It may not be the lightest too in the market. If you are looking for those, you should be looking elsewhere.
A workhorse should have as little compromise as possible for its purposes. An ultrabook today will not pack a full-sized USB port for normal thumb drives and external HDDs. It will not pack a full-sized standard HDMI port for easy presentation modes as well. The ASUS ZenBook 14 is a workhorse that does not compromise on those. Hence, its extra heft.
It is mostly made for document processing, web browsing, and even scrubbing through emails too, which also means that there are some compromises in terms of other performance. In that sense though, the ASUS ZenBook 14 is more than adequate to handle everything and more. We mostly used it to play Music while we are working, reading through emails, typing through long articles and web browsing.
When we say we are listening to music, we did not connect a Bluetooth earphone or connect an earphone at all with the notebook, most of the time anyway. Which also means we are using the built-in speakers most of the time. When we say web browsing too, there are times where there are about 40 tabs open in each of the three Mozilla Firefox web explorer windows we have open on the ASUS ZenBook 14. Oh yes, we even had Microsoft Edge open from time to time to access a completely different thing. With Chrome, the notebook might not fare so well.
In those operations, the ASUS ZenBook 14 performs as silky smooth as you expect it to. Windows load up quite instantly thanks to Intel’s Optane memory included in the notebook. Apps also open at a near instant speed thanks to the 512GB SSD.
Video Editing is Possible
Everything sort of falls apart a little bit in video editing though. Iris Plus does help a little in reducing load and rendering times compared to the older generation Intel Core processors. We were only editing a 15-second timelapse that was supposed to be produced in 4K though. To be fair, we are processing 45-Megapixel photos that was stitched together to be post-processed as an 8K video file first. We were scrubbing through 136 photos in total for the time lapse.
Once stitched though, it took up to 50 minutes for the stitching to be post-processed into a 4K video. Scrubbing through the individual frames also took some time for the ASUS ZenBook 14. We had to wait a second or two to check through each of the 136 frames of the video.
Still, if you work with Full HD videos, you should have not trouble scrubbing through the video with ease on Adobe’s Premiere Pro. You might want to look into other more powerful products for smooth and quick 4K video productions. Still, a 3-minute Full HD render from a Full HD source should be done in about 10-15 minutes.
Gaming
Really? Do you really have to ask about gaming on a notebook designed to accompany you for work purposes? Redundant question that you might already know the answer to.
Gaming performance on the ASUS ZenBook 14 is pretty much as expected. It is not a gaming machine, so it is never going to do well in that regards. It is acceptable with certain games though, if you do not mind letting it run a little hotter than usual that is.
You can still play Football Manager, or Motorsport Manager, or even Cities Skyline on it smoothly with the fans going a little crazier than usual. You could, technically, play DOTA 2 with it too if you are into MOBAs. You might not be as competitive as if you are playing on a proper gaming rig though. That could either be your excuse for underperforming in a ranked match or kicked for being too incompetent, you have been warned. It is smooth enough with DOTA 2 though, so you might still be fine with a little bit of skill. We are never good in DOTA 2 anyway.
Even if you are thinking of playing the latest indie games like No Straight Roads, you would still be fine. The game will still load up smoothly and surely. You might just want to keep in mind to not push the graphics all the way up.
We are not saying that you should be playing games on the device. We are saying that you can if you want to. You might not be able to touch full-fledged AAA titles, but plenty of indie games like This War of Mine or Motorsport Manager never needed ultra-powerful rigs to run properly anyway.
Battery
A heftier body also has some benefit to a notebook’s battery life. You could technically fit a bigger battery pack into the body of the ASUS ZenBook 14 at the cost of more weight on it. In the body of the ZenBook 14 is a 67Wh 4-cell battery that is quoted to be good for 22 hours on a single charge.
To be fair, we have never hit anything that is close to the 22 hours claim in our usage. You do have to keep in mind that battery life is very dependent on use cases though. Battery life is affected by the ambient temperature, operating temperature, amounts of processes within the PC, use cases with the PC, and much more.
In our use case, where we have at least 20 tabs open on a web browser at any time, we got about 18 hours of continuous use before the PC tells us that we need to start charging the notebook. That is also with some music listening included with a mix of work and standby time. At some point too, the ASUS ZenBook 14 did not need a charge for a whole week. Of course, we were not continuously using the notebook.
ASUS Battery management
Technically you can fully charge the 67Wh battery of the ASUS ZenBook 14 within 2 hours with the included 65W charger. They claimed a 49-minute charge time to 60% with an empty tank, with the PC turned off.
We believe them though. We have only charged the ASUS ZenBook 14 while working on it once and while we are editing and rendering the odd video. Most of the time, charging is done while it is turned off, and we never left it charged for more than two hours at a time before we get going again with a fully charged battery.
We left the power management to let the charger to fully charge the batteries though, because we are on the go most of the time. But if you are going to let it sit on your office desk all the time, you can choose to restrict the battery charge to only 60% to prolong the battery shelf life. If not, there is a balanced battery preservation mode too in MyASUS app.
USB Type-C Charger
Having a universal charger is a very sensible thing to do. It also means that ASUS saves a porting hole just for a proprietary charger. Which still begs the question of their exclusion of the 3.5mm jack or another USB Type-A port. They clearly have space for the two mentioned ports.
Modern USB Type-C cables can also support up to 75W in output. That also means that you can even fast charge an ultrabook with a proper USB Type-C cable. But that also means that you can buy a high-output power banks wit proper 65W output too to charge your PC when you have no access to a charging port.
Since modern smartphones and other gadgets are making USB Type-C as a standard port these days too, having a high-output power adapter is also a bonus. You do not need to bring three different adapters and cables anymore to charge your devices when you travel. You only need one of ASUS’ USB Type-C adapter, and you are good to go.
Display – IPS and Iris Plus
The IPS Full HD display is a pleasure to look at though. It may not be the most colour accurate display in the world, it does not need to be. But it is a great looking display with highly saturated and bright colours. It should be good enough for the occasional movies that you might want to enjoy on the ASUS ZenBook 14.
That said also, 60Hz is not encouraging for games either, especially when you consider more competitive games like Valorant, or DOTA 2. It still works with games like This War of Mine and such, but you might even want your No Straight Roads to run at higher frame rates when possible. Iris Plus is plenty more powerful than the UHD graphics GPU that came before, but it is not a discrete GPU like an NIVIDIA GeForce MX250.
Again, the notebook is not designed with gaming in mind though. It is designed with portability, productivity, and practicality in mind. The display is designed for that too, technically with some clever blue light filtering software (Windows standard these days too). At the same time, the modern display panel is highly efficient with a 1-watt power draw rating. It is not exactly bright enough placed under direct sunlight in Malaysia, technically with 400nits. If you sit in a naturally lit café though, 400nits is enough for you to work with.
In this case, for its purpose, the display of the ASUS ZenBook 14 is not the most brilliant or highest resolution you can find. It is quite brilliant on its own though and does hold itself against any other notebooks of its standard. It is a brilliant looking display for a working-class notebook.
The ASUS ZenBook 14 – So Much, yet So Little
The package that you see here will set you back MYR 4,699. That is not exactly a budget notebook price. It is not exactly a premium as a Dell XPS 13 though. For that price you still get a full-aluminium body, a clever touchpad, an innovative hinge, Windows Hello’s brilliant webcam facial recognition, super-long battery life, some clever software, and fully sized I/O ports.
You do not get a lot of things for that kind of money either though. You do not get a proper, physical numpad (although, at this form factor, it is kind of impossible). You do not get a 144Hz display, or anything close to a colour accurate display as well. You are paying for slightly more heft with the ASUS ZenBook 14 and you get no fingerprint sensor with that, or even a 3.5mm AUX jack. You cannot even expect it to come with a discrete GPU too for that money, or even a full-sized SD card slot.
We are annoyed at the fact that they chose to hang us dry when it comes to audio solutions. To be fair, we were really annoyed at the fact that there is no 3.5mm jack on this piece of kit. We found the Grey colour option to be a little boring too, while the Lilac Mist colour to be tantalizing, but not very professional. WE are not saying that it is badly designed, it still looks sharp and very distinctively ASUS.
It was not as light as we thought it should be with the 14-inch trim. On a bright side though, it is lighter than most 14-inch notebooks you can find in the market today. It is also quite a little bit smaller than most 14-inch notebooks today too. Maybe, just not that much thinner in terms of thickness.
That extra girth though gives way to a full HDMI port and USB 3.2 Type-A port, which is always a welcome in ultra-portable machines that we know as our workhorse today. The extra girth also allows for a bigger fan in a sense to cool the PC adequately, and even house a slightly larger battery than you can expect an ultrabook to ever have. That extra sized battery gives you a longer battery life expectancy compare to its competition, and in that terms, more confidence in making it through a day with no battery anxiety. It gives you peace of mind, is what I am saying.
If you want the ASUS ZenBook 14 to be your daily driver for the next five years or so, you will want to invest in the more expensive Intel Core i7 variant. If not, even the Core i5 variant at MYR 3,999 will do you some good for the coming few years. You could even opt for a smaller display and more compact packaging with the 13-inch variant, if you really want. We always appreciate a larger display though, so the 14-inch is the one we will go for.
The ASUS ZenBook 14’s closest competitor technically comes at about the same price. You are getting the exact same display size with very similar packages. The only thing that differs from each product, other than thickness and weight, is their security features and one RAM size difference. The competition packs twice the RAM that the ASUS ZenBook 14 can offer for the same price. The competition lacks Windows Hello’s webcam facial recognition though and does not come with a USB Type-C charger (proprietary charger).
So, which would we buy? It is a difficult choice, to be fair. Considering the convenience of the ASUS ZenBook 14, we are leaning toward the fully sized ports. In truth though, we would be a little more comfortable using the other product because of ZenBook’s lack of weight, and an extra 3.5mm AUX jack. Ports? The competition has all the other ports too. Although we really like the idea of only carry a single charger for all our devices in the bag. Now we are in a pickle.
