ASUS has unveiled its latest premium ultraportable laptop, the Zenbook 14 OLED for 2023. This sleek and lightweight notebook packs impressive performance and cutting-edge features into a compact chassis, making it an enticing option for professionals and content creators on the go.
With a chassis that measures just 14.9mm thin and weighs a portable 1.2kg, the Zenbook 14 OLED doesn’t sacrifice power for portability. It’s powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra processors with up to 16 cores and an integrated AI acceleration engine.
One of the major highlights is the laptop’s stunning 14-inch 3K OLED display. This panel offers a sharp 2880×1800 resolution, 0.2ms response time for smooth motion handling, and a wide DCI-P3 color gamut. It also gets incredibly bright at 600 nits with HDR support.
The combination of a premium aluminum build, svelte design, and powerful internals position the Zenbook 14 OLED as a flagship productivity machine that can easily transition from the office to a coffeeshop. Let’s dive deeper into what makes this ultraportable so compelling.
Build Quality and Design
The Zenbook 14 OLED continues ASUS’ tradition of crafting extremely well-built and stylish ultraportable laptops. The all-metal chassis is supremely rigid and dense, while still achieving an impressively slim 14.9mm profile.
Despite the compact size, ASUS has included some smart design touches. The 180-degree hinge allows the laptop to lay completely flat, and the ErgoLift mechanism slightly elevates the rear when opened for improved airflow and typing comfort.
At just 1.2kg, the Zenbook is very lightweight yet still feels reassuringly solid in hand. The minimalist aesthetic is accentuated by the uniform anodized blue finish and sleek lines.
ASUS also managed to include a good array of ports without excessive thickness. You get two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a full-size HDMI 2.1 output, USB-A port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The only omissions are an SD card slot and SIM tray for mobile data.
Display
One of the standout features of the Zenbook 14 OLED is its sublime 14-inch OLED display. ASUS has pulled out all the stops to create an exceptional viewing experience.
The 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED panel offers outstanding sharpness and clarity. Coupled with the 16:10 aspect ratio, it provides ample screen real estate for productivity work without increasing the overall footprint too much.
As an OLED display, it exhibits perfect black levels and an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio for vibrant colors and inky blacks. It also covers an ultra-wide 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it ideal for color-sensitive creative work.
The display gets plenty bright too, with a peak HDR brightness of 600 nits. This allows HDR content to really pop while providing good visibility outdoors. ASUS touts TÜV Rheinland certification for blue light reduction as well.
Video editors and motion designers will appreciate the snappy 0.2ms response time and buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate. This eliminates ghosting and motion blur.
To top it off, the display panel is covered by durable Gorilla Glass for added scratch protection. This premium touch elevates the Zenbook’s display above most premium ultraportables.
Performance
Despite its slim and light form factor, the Zenbook 14 OLED packs a serious performance punch. It’s powered by Intel’s latest 13th Gen Core Ultra CPUs with up to 16 cores and 22 threads of multi-threaded muscle.
For demanding multi-taskers and creative workloads, you can opt for the top-end Core i7-1355H. This chip features 8 Performance cores running up to 4.8GHz and 8 efficient cores. An intelligent Thread Director optimizes workloads across the cores.
The CPU is complemented by Intel’s AI Boost neural processing unit (NPU), which accelerates AI inferencing tasks like video enhancement, background blur, and speech recognition. This future-proofs the laptop for AI workloads.
For graphics, the Zenbook 14 can be configured with integrated Intel Arc graphics or even discrete Arc GPUs on higher-end models. The Arc GPU offers real-time ray tracing capabilities and enough horsepower for casual gaming.
Memory specifications are generous, with 16GB of speedy LPDDR5X RAM as standard. Storage needs are handled by a blazing-fast 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
While not a workstation-class portable, the combination of multi-core CPUs, discrete graphics option, AI acceleration, and fast storage make the Zenbook 14 OLED highly capable for productivity tasks, coding, photo/video editing, and even light gaming when needed.
AI Features
One area where the Zenbook 14 OLED stands out is its incorporation of dedicated AI acceleration hardware and smart AI-powered features.
At the core is Intel’s AI Boost technology, which integrates a neural processing unit (NPU) onto the same chip package as the CPU. This specialised AI engine can massively speed up AI inferencing workloads compared to running them on the CPU alone.
ASUS has leveraged this AI muscle to enable some neat AI-enhanced features in the Zenbook 14 OLED. The webcam app, for instance, can apply real-time background blur, auto framing, and gaze tracking effects using the NPU’s AI capabilities.
For video calls and streaming, these AI-powered camera enhancements can help you look more professional and polished without needing a green screen setup. The NPU handles the video processing efficiently without bogging down the main CPU.
Beyond the webcam, the AI engine can also accelerate AI-based audio processing like noise cancellation during calls. Future software updates could unlock even more AI-driven capabilities like voice recognition or intelligent noise filtering.
As AI workloads become more mainstream, having a dedicated NPU could give the Zenbook 14 OLED a performance edge over laptops relying solely on CPU/GPU AI acceleration. It’s a forward-looking addition that highlights ASUS’ focus on futureproofing.
Battery Life and Charging
ASUS has managed to cram an impressive 75Whr battery into the Zenbook 14 OLED’s svelte chassis. This large cell capacity, combined with the power efficiency of the Intel Core Ultra platform, translates to excellent battery life.
ASUS rates the Zenbook 14 OLED for up to 15 hours of usage on a single charge. In more intensive real-world scenarios like video playback and light productivity work, you can still expect over 10 hours of unplugged runtime.
When it’s time to top up, the laptop supports fast charging via its 65W USB-C power adapter. ASUS also claims you can charge the laptop using a compact third-party USB-PD power bank when there’s no outlet nearby.
While the included 65W power brick gets the job done, frequent travelers may lament its relatively bulky size. An optional smaller power adapter would have been a nice omission.
Gaming
While the Zenbook 14 OLED is primarily designed for productivity and creative workloads, it packs enough graphics muscle for some casual gaming as well.
The key to its gaming capabilities is the option for a discrete Intel Arc GPU. ASUS is offering configurations with the Arc A370M or more powerful A550M graphics chips.
These Arc GPUs utilize Intel’s XESSmobile architecture and feature hardware-accelerated ray tracing capabilities. While not as powerful as dedicated gaming GPUs, they provide a decent boost over integrated graphics for less intensive titles.
In the PCMark gaming test suite, a Zenbook 14 OLED with the Arc A370M GPU managed scores over 10,000. This indicates it can handle many popular eSports and indie games at 1080p with medium-high settings.
More demanding AAA games will require dialing down resolution and graphics settings for playable performance. But the discrete GPU still enables a better experience than typical integrated graphics.
For on-the-go gaming sessions, the laptop’s 14-inch 3K OLED display with its 0.2ms response time, 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR support provides an excellent portable gaming experience when GPU power allows.
So while not a gaming beast, the GPU configurations give the versatile Zenbook 14 OLED just enough oomph for casual gaming in addition to its productivity and creative strengths.
Verdict
The new ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED for 2023 represents an extremely compelling premium ultraportable option. Priced from PHP 63,995, it deftly balances portability and performance in a remarkably compact and well-built chassis.
The laptop’s stunning 14-inch 3K OLED touchscreen steals the show with its vibrant colors, inky blacks, HDR support, and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Combined with the sleek aluminum design, it exudes a flagship premium vibe.
But the Zenbook isn’t just a pretty face. Under the hood, it packs some serious hardware in the form of Intel’s latest Core Ultra CPUs with up to 16 cores and support for discrete Intel Arc graphics. This allows it to handle demanding productivity tasks, content creation workloads, and even some casual gaming with relative ease.
The AI acceleration engine also provides some unique AI-powered features like webcam background blur and video enhancement. These smarts future-proof the laptop for emerging AI workloads.
While not perfect, with minor gripes like non-upgradeable RAM, the Zenbook 14 OLED ticks most of the boxes for a premium productivity and creativity-focused ultraportable. If you prioritize portability but don’t want to sacrifice performance, this could be the ideal laptop for you when it launches in the Philippines.
ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405MA) technical specifications
- Color: Ponder Blue
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home (Windows 11 Pro recommended for business)
- Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 1.4GHz (up to 4.8GHz) or Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 1.2GHz (up to 4.5GHz)
- Graphics: Intel® Arc™ Graphics
- Neural Processor: Intel® AI Boost NPU
- Display: 14.0-inch 3K (2880×1800) OLED, 16:10, 0.2ms, 400 nits, HDR 600 nits peak, 100% DCI-P3, 1,000,000:1 contrast, glossy
- Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X dual-channel
- Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 SSD
- I/O Ports: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 2x Thunderbolt™ 4, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio
- Keyboard & Touchpad: Backlit chiclet keyboard, precision touchpad
- Camera: FHD webcam with IR for Windows Hello, privacy shutter
- Audio: Harman/Kardon speakers, array mic, Smart Amp
- Network: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
- Battery: 75WHr 4-cell Li-ion
- Power Supply: 65W USB-C (20V, 3.25A)
- Weight: 1.20 kg (2.65 lbs)
- Dimensions: 31.24 x 22.01 x 1.49 cm
- Security: TPM 2.0, Windows Hello webcam
- Certifications: MIL-STD-810H, EPEAT Gold, Energy Star 8.0, RoHS, REACH
- Price: Intel Core Ultra 7: PHP 69,995 (16GB+1TB) / Intel Core Ultra 5: PHP 63,995 (16GB+1TB)