Asus Zenbook 14X OLED overview: a cool however impractical laptop computer

Zenbooks of this dimension are all normally a reasonably comparable deal — should you’ve used one, you’ve used all of them. Two traits try and make the Zenbook 14X OLED, slated for launch in early 2022, distinctive. The primary is its OLED show, which is among the first 90Hz OLED panels to seem in mass manufacturing. (Asus’s Vivobook Professional 14 OLED, which I reviewed earlier, is one other.) The second is that the touchpad can also be a display screen. Like, it’s actually a tiny touchscreen. You’ll be able to put home windows down there and navigate them as you’ll with every other touchscreen machine.

A little bit of a spoiler: each of those options are cool however not fairly as cool as they sound, particularly contemplating their impression on battery life. Finally, if the Zenbook is a bundle you’re all in favour of, you’re higher off going for the Vivobook Professional 14 OLED, which has the identical OLED display screen with an eight-core processor and a greater GPU for a pair hundred {dollars} cheaper. The Zenbook’s audience is basically people who need one thing out of the peculiar and are keen to pay for it.

To start out with the OLED display screen — it’s neat. It’s 16:10, it’s 2880 x 1800, and it’s a step up within the visible expertise from a regular 1920 x 1200 panel. Colours are vivid, and blacks, the trademark of OLED know-how, are very, very black. It makes textual content only a bit extra putting, which is enjoyable for me as somebody who reads and writes all day. It virtually maxes out our colorimeter, overlaying 100% of the sRGB gamut, 99 p.c of Adobe RGB, and 100% of P3, and reaching 395 nits of brightness. Some glare is seen in a brilliant workplace setting, however nothing that interferes with work.

The 90Hz refresh fee is sort of good — scrolling is noticeably smoother — however, once more, I’m undecided it’s well worth the battery life impression. (Extra on that in a bit).

Photograph by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Second, the touchscreen touchpad. This can be a comparable thought to Asus’s Zenbook Duo, Zephyrus Duo 15, and different varied dual-screen laptops that the corporate’s tried. The touchpad basically capabilities as a tiny exterior show — you may drag home windows forwards and backwards between it and the first panel.

Whenever you don’t have a window open on the touchpad and also you’re not really utilizing it as a touchpad, it’s basically a secondary desktop with a grid of apps and shortcuts. Essentially the most helpful one, to me, is the Group button, which lets you “seize” no matter group of tabs and apps you will have open on the time and pull it again up later. You’ll be able to pull up a quantity pad and a calculator (which you may as well do on the Vivobook’s screenless touchpad, although it doesn’t look as cool). There are shortcuts to open Voice Recorder, Solitaire, and the like on the first display screen (and you may add your apps and webpages of alternative). There’s a Handwriting app — scribble on it, and the phrases will seem as textual content wherever your cursor is (e-mail, Slack message, no matter).

This know-how may be very cool, and Asus has performed a pleasant job making its interface engaging and straightforward to make use of. I’ll additionally admit that I nonetheless haven’t actually discovered a use case for it. For some time, I attempted sticking Slack or Twitter down there to look at sometimes whereas I labored. However neither was usable on such a tiny display screen. This touchpad is similar dimension as many smartphones, however apps and webpages that you just use in your smartphone are designed to be navigated on a tiny display screen — apps on the Zenbook aren’t. Textual content was tiny, and clicking was clumsy (and I’ve small fingers).

The Handwriting app is definitely spectacular, and the machine interpreted my horrible handwriting completely. That stated, it is best to perceive that it is a text-recognition app, not a full note-taking app — you may’t draw photos or diagrams and anticipate the Zenbook to breed them. (And it couldn’t acknowledge Chinese language and Korean characters I wrote, at the very least not with my language set to English.) As a pure handwriting-recognition device, it’s enjoyable, however it does appear principally to be enjoyable — I’m undecided who really wants one thing like this for his or her job (and people that do can get advantageous Wacom tablets for below $100).

As I famous earlier, essentially the most compelling element for me of the touchscreen touchpad is the grouping function, particularly because the numpad and calculator capabilities can be found in loads of different Asus laptops. However I don’t suppose that’s price a a number of hundred greenback premium over the Vivobook.

It additionally appeared to confuse my exterior show a bit — home windows I introduced over had been usually too massive by default and wanted to be resized manually. I’m guessing the Zenbook is contemplating the touchpad as an extension of the first display screen (relatively than a secondary display screen), and that’s someway throwing off its sizing. Regardless, this isn’t a catastrophe, however it’s one thing I hope Asus can work out earlier than this ships.

Elsewhere, that is Zenbook by means of and thru. It’s a fine-looking machine with a pleasant lustrous lid you could simply open with one hand and no display screen wobble. A warning about Zenbooks, typically, is that the lids are fingerprint magnets — my unit was always smudged. The construct is a bit plasticky — there’s a small quantity of flex within the display screen and keyboard, and I noticed one small dent within the backside of the deck after battering the machine round in my full backpack for just a few days — however a step above funds fodder. There’s a darkish grey futuristic-y end. It’s 0.67 inches (16.9 mm) thick and simply over three kilos (1.4 kg) — not a featherweight however transportable sufficient.

Like many Asus laptops, this Zenbook has the Ergolift hinge — the lid folds beneath the deck and lifts the keyboard up just a few levels, conveniently hiding a number of the backside bezels. That is presupposed to make typing extra ergonomic and assist with cooling, however it was additionally a bit sharp on my lap.

There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-A, one HDMI 2.0, one microSD reader, and one audio jack. That’s a very good combine, although I want each USB-C ports weren’t on the best aspect. The Harmon Kardon audio system sound advantageous however don’t get almost as a lot quantity as I’d like — I typically needed to lean far ahead to listen to my Zoom calls. The keyboard is snug with respectable journey, and there’s a fingerprint sensor within the energy button that didn’t give me any bother.

One remaining factor to pay attention to: the webcam isn’t good. Colours are correct, however it’s grainy and a bit blurry at instances — my editor stated it appeared like somebody had smeared Vaseline over it throughout a Zoom name. I do sufficient video requires work now that this might be a priority for me. I additionally respect bodily shutters (which this one doesn’t have, although there’s a kill swap on the keyboard) the extra I hear about embarrassing Zoom incidents.

Inside is a Core i7-1165G7, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, along with an Nvidia GeForce MX450 discrete GPU. Samsung and Asus gave me a value of $1,400 for this unit however caveated that pricing might change nearer to launch. If that occurs, I’ll replace this overview.

These specs, to place it bluntly, confuse me. The MX450 is a really entry-level GPU that I wouldn’t even suggest for esports gaming. (Neglect about hitting 90 frames per second in trendy video games with it.) 16GB of RAM (essentially the most you may get on this machine) will even not be sufficient for a lot of skilled workloads. I’m completely satisfied to see 1TB of storage at this value, however I nonetheless can’t see this being a good selection for professionals or for avid gamers — it nonetheless appears primarily slated to be a multimedia machine for individuals who like OLED screens and easy scrolling. For these people, a Zenbook 14x is e-waste — the Vivobook pairs the identical display screen with an RTX 3050 for (allegedly) $200 cheaper.

That apart, the Zenbook did a advantageous job with my every day workload, even within the silent fan profile (known as “Whisper Mode” in Asus’ management heart) with Battery Saver on. It was typically heat however by no means sizzling, and I didn’t normally hear any fan noise.

However there’s an enormous tradeoff for that: battery life. I’m certain the Vivobook’s longevity isn’t helped by the truth that it’s working a 90Hz high-resolution panel and additionally working a secondary display screen. Nonetheless, this Zenbook doesn’t final lengthy sufficient. I solely averaged 5 hours and 38 minutes of steady workplace use with this machine round 200 nits of brightness. That does barely beat the Dell XPS 13 OLED, however it’s lower than we’ve seen from all types of high-resolution units like Huawei’s MateBook 16 or any of Apple’s M1-equipped laptops. It means I couldn’t go a workday with out plugging the machine in. For most individuals (however particularly these looking for a 14-inch machine), battery life goes to be extra helpful than an MX450 and a touchscreen touchpad.

My remaining word is on bloatware. This machine shipped with an enormous load of annoying software program preinstalled, together with a number of McAfee packages that insisted on scanning every thing I downloaded earlier than I may open it, and that required me to shut all my Chrome tabs and restart the pc with a view to be uninstalled. These things shouldn’t be on a laptop computer that prices $1,400 — it simply shouldn’t.

The Zenbook 14X OLED is a reasonably reasonably priced technique to pair a 90Hz OLED display screen with a GPU. Regardless of varied nitpicks I’ve, it really works nicely sufficient as a driver. The issue is that one other laptop computer exists — the Vivobook Professional 14 OLED, with a really comparable chassis, a really comparable display screen, and a greater GPU — at a considerably lower cost. I’m really questioning if Asus and Samsung bought wires crossed right here as a result of it is senseless that the Zenbook prices a lot extra, so I’ll be preserving a watch out for any modifications as we strategy the discharge.

The principle factor that would probably justify the Zenbook’s value premium is its fancy touchpad. I actually do like that Asus is doing this touchpad. I like that there’s an organization on the market making an attempt issues like this which can be new and totally different — and that these issues really work. I can’t inform you how refreshing it’s, as somebody whose job it’s to check one million laptops per week which can be all principally the identical factor, to know that there’s an organization on the market making an attempt to determine the place they’ll do issues in a different way.

I actually, actually hope there’s a gaggle of individuals on the market who has an ideal use for this touchpad of their life and who will end up in droves to pay additional for this Zenbook as a result of it’s the primary laptop computer ever made that completely fits their wants. I’m not on this group, and I’m skeptical that it exists, however God, I hope it does.