My first computer was an ASUS. Back then, they were really small (almost tablet size), and over the years, I had several other laptops, including a Mac Air, HP, Dell, and Lenovo, among others.
My wife is currently studying an MBA and we have a Huawei D14 which is nice, but we had it for over 5 years now and we were looking for something new since it started to run slow and crash with basic tasks (excel formulas and stuff). After a very thorough search and reviews (we even considered getting a Mac again), we decided to go with this one: the ASUS Zenbook A14. I gotta say it is amazing and very comparable to a Mac Air.
My wife uses it for school, and I use it for photo editing. It has great capacity, and the processor works great! It feels super fast and is perfect for multitasking. It can handle programs like Lightroom, ON1 Photo Raw, and Luminar all at the same time.
The image quality and refresh rate are quite decent.
Its display color is amazing, and you even have the option to add your personalized color profile, but its "basic" color profile is amazing, very sharp, and accurate (for those who wonder if it's good for photo and/or video editing).
Seriously, go for it.
Lightweighted, super portable, battery life, and performance. It is a great machine!!
I haven't tried with gaming (I'm more a console guy), but it might actually work good enough.
Update: it actually holds pretty well with gaming. It actually came with 3 months of Game Pass and I decided to test it with 2 games: COD and Gears of War Remastered (to compare refresh rates and gaming experience with this laptop). It actually holds pretty well, and it enhances HDR graphics (not fully 4k, but that's ok). Games run smoothly, but I would recommend keeping the battery plugged in for better performance.
Photo editing with Luminar has some issues, but it is because of the software itself. I tried Lightroom, and its basic editing tools run smoothly; however, if you try using any AI tool for editing, it might run quite slow and make your PC crash sometimes; again, I believe it has something to do with software compatibility rather than the processor itself, but I was able to edit around 100 photos in less than an hour so you take a hint.
Battery life is still average... not the 35 hours it says, but it might be the settings... I haven't tried optimizing battery life over performance, but I prefer performance over battery life due complex tasks such as photo and video editing. I will try it later when my wife gets a hold on it for basic stuff. But, I must say that is ok... I ran it for over 8 hours straight without needing to charge it, so it might say something (my office HP brand new laptop only runs 4 hours before charging).
| Standing screen display size | 14 Inches |
|---|---|
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1200 pixels |
| Max screen resolution | 1920x1200 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.97 GHz snapdragon_x |
| RAM | Lpddr 5 |
| Hard Drive | 1000 GB SSD |
| Graphics coprocessor | Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU |
| Chipset brand | Qualcomm |
| Card description | Integrated |
| Wireless Standard | 802.11ax |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 32 Hours |
| Brand | ASUS |
| Series | Zenbook A14 |
| Item model number | UX3407QA-DS51-CA |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home |
| Product Dimensions | 31.07 x 1.59 x 21.39 cm; 980 g |
| Item dimensions L x W x H | 31.1 x 1.6 x 21.4 Centimetres |
| Colour | Iceland Gray |
| Processor Brand | Qualcomm |
| Number of Processors | 2 |
| Memory Type | DDR5 RAM |
| Flash memory size | 1 TB |
| Optical Storage Device Type | BD-R |
