Last year, Asus Zenbooks turned ten years old and the manufacturer also took the opportunity to invest heavily in OLED screens in laptops. Zenbook 14X was one of the new models, which delivered impressive image quality and many other great features. The new Zenbook 14 Oled, which we tested here, has skipped X in the name, but it is precisely the 2021 Zenbook 14X that it is most similar to and which we would say is a sequel to.
Rating 4 out of 5
Opinion
If you want a compact computer for creative creation, the Zenbook 14 Oled is an attractive choice. At least if you still want decent mobility and do not want to pay outrageously for a real professional laptop. The brilliant screen has the right quality and the new Alder Lake P processor gives a good performance boost. This, however, at the expense of battery life. The computer also has details that could be better, especially the speakers.
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Positive
- Convincing performance
- High resolution, bright and colorful oled
- Still discreet cooling
- Fast connections and connections
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Negative
- Limited battery life
- Strangely muted speakers
- No longer ultralight
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However, with several obvious differences. The most obvious is Asus’ new design, with a new style in the screen lid that matches the new Asus logo, sharper edges and corners, a deep blue tone in the matte aluminum chassis, and a new chrome-gloss rod as a screen hinge. With a 14-inch screen in 16:10 format and thin screen edges, it is relatively compact.
It is a few millimeters wider and a millimeter thicker than the Zenbook 14X, but still weighs roughly the same amount, just under 1.4 kilos. It is not a super light and ultra-portable computer, but close enough for those who are not picky. According to Asus, this is this year’s “standard” Zenbook, while the really ultralight in the future will be the Zenbook S 13, which will arrive in Sweden later in the year.
A noticeable difference is a newly designed keyboard, where Asus removed the annoying navigation buttons that sat on the right side and gave rise to some typos. It is for better or worse, because functions such as Home, End, PgUp and PgDn are now only accessed via function key combination. The keyboard is otherwise as well-built as we have come to expect in a Zenbook, with good response in the keys and just the right stroke height, as well as adjustable and clear backlighting.
An on button that also works as a fingerprint reader sits as one of the keys, but not as stupidly placed as in some other Zenbook models, where there was a risk of turning off the computer instead of taking a back step. In addition, the button has more resistance and protruding design, so we do not complain about it anymore.
The right quality for most things
The mouse pad is large and provides good control. However, it is unusually susceptible to grease stains, which makes it look less attractive after only a short time of use. Pressing the upper right corner activates the virtual numeric keypad that Asus has in several of its computers. It is not a viable replacement for a real numeric keypad, but can be handy in some situations. If you have a mouse plugged in, it is easy to activate it and deactivate point. Then it can be useful. Otherwise, it is difficult to combine with mouse control.
The webcam has from time to time been a problem child for Asus, but in recent years the minimum level has been raised, and here the quality of both image and sound is good. It’s not surprising, a 720p camera that shoots at 30 Hz, but it does so with noise- and trailing-free image, reliable handling of different lighting conditions and has the right colors, especially for skin tones, which is important. The microphone also does a good job with pleasant voice recording and some noise.
On the sides is a well-approved set of connections. Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports with full function, so you can charge the battery in any of them. In addition, a USB 3 port of type a, also the one of fast gen 2 type, and finally headset port, hdmi and a micro sd card reader. An ordinary USB port would have been welcome, but since a cooling grille covers one side, it is difficult to see where it would fit. Of course, you also get a fast wireless connection, with full wifi 6E support.
Major upgrade in performance
The computer is available in both Intel and AMD versions, where the AMD models do not have the ability to run Thunderbolt, but instead have fast standard USB c-ports with power supply and display port. The AMD models also run the Ryzen 5000 series instead of the latest 6000 series, so the Intel model, which now has the 12th generation Alder Lake, is the most modern and interesting. It has the same processor as in the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 5G, Intel Core i7-1260P. This is a significant step up in performance for a 14-inch Zenbook.
In the previous generation, a quad-core Intel processor of the most energy-efficient variety Tiger Lake U sat with 12 to 28 watts of power consumption, but Asus has chosen not to run the corresponding Alder Lake U in this year’s Zenbooks, but goes up a notch in power and performance. The new processor has as many as twelve cores and 28 to 64 watts of power.
It is not twelve cores that perform to the max, but four that contribute to top performance in heavy operations, while the other eight are Intel’s new efficiency cores, which are mainly there to take care of everything else in the background. If you only run simpler programs, they can also be run with the efficiency cores, which saves power.
The new performance cores are also clearly sharper than before and contribute to a performance increase of between 20 and 60 percent in various measuring steps. And it could have been even better, because the processor underperforms something compared to the same in Samsung’s computer. It can be a conscious configuration or have to do with how efficient the cooling is.
Restrained cooling despite that
With grille for fan exhaust on the sides and some hissing under high load, it is obvious that the computer transports away a lot of excess heat. But the cooling is not overly intense, it feels like it could puff on more.
This is an Intel Evo certified computer and thus does not have a discrete graphics card. All that is needed is if you want to be able to play games on your computer, Intel’s own Iris Xe graphics provide a good boost in productivity programs and are also suitable for simpler games.
Maybe not on the high-resolution screen you get here, 2.5k resolution or 2,880 times 1,800 pixels is a challenge even for a powerful gaming computer. In addition to new design and heavier performance, the screen is the big draw. Already last year’s oled screens were impressive, but now they are further upgraded.
More light and better color control
Here you get 90 Hz frame rate that provides a smooth experience on the web, interface and documents. Large color gamut, which gives an intensity even above dci-p3 class, up to 600 cd / m2 in point brightness, which is a lot for a laptop, Vesa hdr True Black 600 certification and Pantone validation for color accuracy. It is in hdr mode that you can get up to such brightness locally. In normal use, the screen can handle around 400 cd / m2. Still good, but not uniquely good.
One thing we missed in Zenbook 14X and which has now been added are ready-made color profiles you can switch between for srgb, dci-p3 and display p3, as well as the panel’s “native” color gamut. We are not sure that in these situations it has color accuracy in real professional class, but they are close enough. The panel, manufactured by Samsung like almost all OLED screens, is also said to be susceptible to very precise calibration if you have the right equipment for this.
The screen has built-in speakers signed Harman Kardon which gives a powerful and rich sound. However, a lot of details are missing in the treble. It sounds like someone threw a blanket over the computer. We have to trick with manual equalizer to get an acceptable level of clarity in the higher frequencies. Fortunately, the Zenbook 14 Oled has tools for this, with Dolby Atmos support and good control in the Dolby Access app. Zenbooks have sounded better than this.
But memory had been appreciated
The performance and the nice color properties of the screen make the new Zenbook a cross between an ultra-thin laptop and a real productivity laptop for creative work. You can of course choose a real one, such as Asus’ own ProArt, Zenbook Pro and Pro Duo laptops or similar competitors. But then much of the mobility that Zenbook 14 has lost goes away, and they cost significantly more. We believe this can be a good compromise that hits right for many.
What can be an obstacle is memory. It is fast but “only” 16 gigabytes, and there is no possibility to choose more or upgrade afterwards. The computer has a fast ssd. 512 gigabytes in our model, which is available for purchase at Elgiganten, or one terabyte in an alternative model which at the time of writing is sold exclusively in the Asus web shop.
A powerful processor with higher power than before and a high-resolution and high-frequency LED screen is not gentle on energy consumption, but thanks to a relatively large battery, it gets approved, as long as we do not compare it with low-power ultrabooks. You can get a working day out, without having to plug it in, but only if you use it very carefully.
You should probably make sure to always have the charger with you. The 65 watt charger that comes with it is fortunately compact, think of a stiffer mobile charger, and easily fits in a bag or larger jack pocket. With it you get a full charge in about a couple of hours.
Convenient control program
You can also choose to limit the battery charge to a lower percentage, which will extend the life. You do this in the MyAsus program, where you can also get some control over the fans, microphone, webcam and some other details. There is also an update check for drivers, support functions and a few other goodies.
Zenbook 14 Oled with Intel processor can be ordered in Asus’ own online store. At the time of writing, it is over, but will be replenished in June. It will also go on sale in June in selected stores such as Elgiganten. With a price of just under SEK 15,000, it is a computer where you get many great features for the money.
But it is not a computer for everyone. Anyone who has previously owned a Zenbook 14 may be surprised by its higher weight and larger format. The choice of more powerful processor and the high-resolution, high-frequency and bright OLED screen undeniably have a negative impact on battery life. For those who can accept this, however, it offers a lot that is very good.
Specifications
Product name: Zenbook 14 OLED UX3402ZA
Tested: Maj 2022
Manufacturer: Asus
Processor: Intel Core i7-1260P, 4st Performance upp till 4,7 GHz + 8st Efficient upp till 3,4 GHz
Chart: Intel Iris Xe G7
Remind: 16 GB ddr5
Storage: 512 GB / 1 TG ssd, space for micro sd
Screen: 14 inch glossy oled, 2880×1800 pixels, 90 Hz
Webcam: 720p
Connections: 2st thunderbolt 4, usb 3 gen 2 typ a, hdmi, headset
Wireless: Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Other: Fingerprint reader
Noise level: 0-37 dBa
Battery life: 2 hours 50 minutes (high load), 11 hours 10 minutes (low load)
Size: 31,4 x 22,1 x 1,7 cm
Weight: 1,39 kg
Rek. Paris: SEK 14,999 (with 1 TB)
Current price: SEK 14,999 at Asus
Performance
Cinebench R23, cpu: 8,461 points
Cinebench R23, cpu a core: 1,476 points
Geekbench 5, cpu: 7 105 points
Geekbench 5, cpu and core: 1 677 points
Geekbench 5, gpu: 15,750 points
Disk, reading: up to 6,648.81 MB / s
Disk, writing: up to 4 917.6 MB / s
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