Unveiling the Ultimate On-the-Go Companion: A Comprehensive Review of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

In today's fast-paced world, having a reliable, lightweight, and powerful laptop is crucial for productivity and entertainment. The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED promises to deliver just that, with its ultra-thin design, stunning OLED display, and robust specifications. Join me as I dive deep into the features and performance of this sleek machine to see if it truly lives up to the hype.

First Impressions

Today we have with us, the Zenbook 14 OLED laptop from Asus. This ultra-thin, lightweight, sleek laptop is the perfect companion when working on the go. The OLED display does not disappoint, making everything from movies to Word documents look sharp and vibrant.

Unboxing and Accessories

First, let’s get into the accessories. Inside the box, you get this 65W little power brick with a generously long cable measuring around 158 cm long with an additional power lead ending in a UK plug. Its USB-C connection makes for pretty fast charging times, which is great for long periods between charges.

Design and Build Quality

Looking at the design, it’s beautifully thin and discreet. It comes in this blueish grey and a muted silver, sporting a very durable all metal chassis. I love the subtle line design on the back, adding that little extra personality without it being too extra. Something it has going for it over any other laptop is the size and weight. Its tiny frame measures around 31 x 22cm with a miniscule height of 1.5cm. It’s easy to carry in one hand, only weighing around 3lbs and makes the perfect space saver for small bags, not weighing you down with overbearing bulky builds. Opening it up, you get an amazing 180-degree angle on the display with a strong hinge, easily letting you angle the screen to a comfortable position while holding it firmly in place. It only just passes the one-hand open test if you move slowly but it fairs better than some laptops I’ve tried this year.

Ports and Connectivity

For connections, you get all the essentials with a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 on the left and a full size HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack and 2x Thunderbolt 4s with display and power delivery support on the right. I personally would have liked to see one more USB squeezed in there somewhere but mostly I’m happy with what’s available if it helps retain that slim body. In terms of built-in accessories, you do get a FHD webcam along the top of the display with a privacy shutter. The picture is very clear even in this low light setting and does have some options to change the quality settings if needed though you won’t find any in-built features like background blur. On a positive note, the microphone does have AI noise-cancelling so you can guarantee no unwanted sounds interrupt your Teams meetings when working in a busy environment.

Keyboard and Trackpad Experience

Now, the keyboard and trackpad here look pretty generous. The keys have a nice low profile and offer a practically silent typing experience. You get a 3 stage backlight that’s bright enough to see what you’re typing in a dark room and shine brightly through the keys at an angle. The trackpad is very smooth and responds very well with a little friction when warm and even transforms into a number pad with just a slight touch saving space in a pretty ingenious way.

Display Quality

Let’s move on to that luxurious display. This model has a 14-inch 3K OLED display with a slightly taller 16:10 aspect ratio and a 87% screen-to-body ratio. Of course, the OLED panel really shines here with such vibrant colours, deep blacks and super sharp visuals no matter what I’m viewing. It’s great to see it can go up to 120Hz refresh rate too so no more choppy visuals, fast-paced movies and shows look smoother than ever. Something that’s not heavily advertised here is the display has touchscreen control. I only discovered this a good few minutes in not wanting to smudge the display with unnecessary fingerprints but this feature is a huge added bonus. You can buy the Asus-specific stylus to work with more precision but I loved having the freedom to scroll quickly or select specific areas with one touch without having to navigate using the touchpad all the time. One thing I was impressed with was the brightness and colour accuracy. Asus states the display has a max 600nits brightness and though I couldn’t test this specifically I did find the full brightness setting to be exceptional. Though the display is quite glossy making reflections a little bothersome in a bright room, the brightness really helped seeing those darker scenes in both light and dark conditions.

Core Specifications and Performance

Now let’s get into the all-important specifications. Starting off with the core components you get an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, Intel Arc Graphics, 32GB onboard memory and a generous 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD. Apart from the graphics capabilities, this laptop is set up to run incredibly smoothly for work case scenarios. One thing I did notice however is the new addition of an AI NPU. With AI quickly creeping into most machines in 2024, you can expect to experience boosted performance and optimised power usage which will hopefully localise AI use without referencing online sources. While it’s still new and we won’t see the full impact of this NPU just yet, it’s exciting to see how much this support alters your performance and it’s a great way to future-proof for any updates down the line.

Audio Quality

Thankfully, you do get some very decent built-in Harman Kardon powered speakers. I had the sounds on around 70-80 throughout testing and I was very impressed. It didn’t sound tinny, the speakers didn’t blow out during loud trailers and I didn’t feel the need to boost the volume up high to hear clearly. Here’s a little sound sample to give you an idea of the quality.

Battery Life

Finally, let’s touch on battery life. This Zenbook offers a 4-cell Li-Ion battery with 75WHrs. Asus boasts a tidy 15+ hour battery life which is very tempting assuming that’s based on average use. As always, having access to fast charging is a bonus meaning I can power back up quickly when desperate. Mostly, I played a lot of video content with multiple web pages open for roughly 5-6 hours and I’m happy to report that the battery did not drain completely. It only really dropped just below 50% which makes me hopeful for the battery life on this one.

Conclusion

So after focusing on this laptop for a good portion of a day, I found it had lots of positives that drew me in. It has a brilliant display with a supportive hinge, a powerful set of specifications that will hold up for a good couple of years without thinking about upgrading and the battery life really came in clutch when I least expected it too. It’s a brilliant work and everyday machine that I can easily see supporting a fair few apps and even editing video content on. It’s light and portable nature means I can take it anywhere without the weight dragging me down. I feel this is a great investment for future proofing my tech and I can’t wait to see the impact the AI boost has on my performance over time.

Final Thoughts

After spending a day immersed in the capabilities of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, I am thoroughly impressed. This laptop combines a beautiful display, impressive performance, and exceptional portability, making it a top contender for anyone in need of a versatile and reliable device. Whether you're a professional on the go, a student, or someone who loves to binge-watch in high quality, the Zenbook 14 OLED is just as worthy investment as Asus or Acer Chromebook. Stay tuned for more tech news and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest reviews!