Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ review (AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, Nvidia MX350)

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
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By Andrei GirbeaAsus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ, last updated on April 5, 2021

Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ

Summary: The AMD Ryzen 4000 and Nvidia MX350 platforms in the ZenBook 14 UM433 deliver performance unmatched by compact $1000 ultrabooks in the past, and even the AMD Renoir only versions can hold their way in simpler games, making them competitive options on a lower budget. Specs aside, the ZenBook 14 UM433 is also a compact, lightweight, and well-made ultrabook, with a fair-quality IPS matte screen, decent IO, a fast keyboard, and good battery life. However, the basic thermal design limits the potential performance in combined loads and games, and I'm not a fan of the exhaust blowing hot air straight into the screen or that frustrating silver keyboard with white backlighting.

Our score: 4.25 / 5
Price when reviewed: from $999 ??

THE GOOD

compact, lightweight and well made
fine IPS matte screen, but not very bright
fast typer and excelent clickpad/NumberPad
solid performance for the form-factor, even with the thermal limitations
runs coolly and quietly with daily use and games
decent battery life
competitive pricing

THE BAD

limited screen inclination angle
gimped USB-C connection, without video or charging, and no full-size card-reader
not a fan of the silver keyboard with white illumination
hot air blows straigth into the screen with this design
the basic thermal design can't fully cope with this sort of hardware

Table of Contents

Specs as reviewed – 2020 Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ
Design and construction
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts

This here is the ZenBook 14 UM433IQ from Asus.

It looks and feels much like the other ZenBook 14 ultrabooks of this generation, so it’s a compact and lightweight notebook, but it’s powered by an AMD Ryzen 4000 APU and dedicated Nvidia MX350 graphics, in this configuration. Paired with fast memory and storage, they allow the UX433IQ to outperform the Intel-based ZenBook 14 UX434 by a significant margin in demanding loads and light gaming, while also selling for less.

At the same time, you’re not going to get a touchscreen with this product, or the ScreenPad integrated with the ZenBook UX434. So if you’re torn between these two options, you’ll have to choose between performance, a matte screen, and silver color on one side (UMX433), and a touchscreen, ScreenPad and blue color on the other (UX434). We’ve further compared the two in this detailed article.

Here, though, we’re going to solely focus on the UX434IQ variant. We’ve spent the last few weeks with this ZenBook 14 and gathered all our thoughts and impressions down below.

Specs as reviewed – 2020 Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ

	Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ
Screen	14.0 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, IPS, non-touch, matte, BOE NV140FHM-N63 panel
Processor	AMD Renoir Ryzen 7 4700U, 8C/8T
Video	AMD Radeon Vega 7 + Nvidia MX350 2GB DDR5 10W (10DE 1C96) (GeForce 445.87)
Memory	16 GB LPDDR4x 4266 MHz (soldered)
Storage	1 TB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD (Samsung PM981 MZVLB1T0HALR)
Connectivity	Wireless 6 (Intel AX200), Bluetooth 5.0
Ports	1x USB-A 3.1 gen2, 1x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-C 3.1 gen2 (data only), HDMI, microSD card reader, mic/headphone
Battery	50 Wh, 65W charger
Size	320 mm or 12.56” (w) x 200 mm or 7.83” (d) x 15.9 mm or 0.63” (h)
Weight	2.64 lbs (1.2 kg)+ .44 lbs (.2 kg) charger, US version
Extras	white backlit keyboard, glass NumberPad, HD webcam, IR Hello camera and near-field mics, 2x 1W stereo speakers, available in Icicle Silver

Our ZenBook 14 UM433IQ version gets the 8-Core/8-Thread AMD Ryzen 4700U APU with Nvidia MX350 graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR4x memory and a 1 TB Samsung PM981 SSD. Asus will, however, offer this in a couple of different configurations, starting with a Ryzen 5 4500U processor, 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, and with or without the dedicated Nvidia chip.

They also offer a ZenBook 14 Q407IQ model as a Best-buy exclusive in the US, starting at a very competitive price.

Our model is listed at around 1099 USD/EUR at the time of this post (follow this link for updates), but the base tier variant should start at around 800-900 USD/EUR.

Design and construction

As I mentioned before, Asus keep their design lines consistent within the entire ZenBook 14 lineup. That makes this UM433 a compact and lightweight 14-inch ultrabook, with a full-size keyboard, a large glass clickpad and a fair selection of full-size ports on the sides.

This is only available in what’s called an Icicle Silver color theme, with a matte aluminum lid-cover and underbelly, and a brushed aluminum interior. The build quality is top-notch, with almost no flex in either the chassis or the lid, and it seems to me that Asus took some steps in reinforcing the construction compared to the UX434 models.

The brushed silver interior also does a great job at hiding smudges and fingerprints, and the blunted corners and interior-edges are friendly on the wrists. Unfortunately, though, Asus also implemented a silver keyboard in their effort to maintain a consistent design, and I truly resent white backlit silver keyboards. We’ll get to that in a bit. Oh, and the Power-key in the top-right corner continues to integrate an annoying always-on light.

Much like the other ZenBook 14s, this one gets tiny bezels around the screen, with still enough room for a webcam and IR cameras on the top lift, as well as a tiny chin. As part of the Ergolift hinge design, the chin tucks behind the main body and lifts it on small rubber feet placed at the bottom of the screen, creating a slightly inclined typing position and allowing for increased airflow underneath. The feet provide a decent grip on a flat surface and the mechanism works smoothly, allowing to easily pick up and adjust the screen with a single hand.

However, there are are two downsides to this Ergolift design. First off, the screen only goes back to about 145-degrees, which is limiting when using the device on the lap or in tight spaces.

On top of that, the thermal system is designed to draw fresh air from the bottom and push it out through this grill hidden between the hinges. That means that the exhaust is within a cm or two of the screen, so the hot air is pretty much blown straight into the laptop’s matte, unprotected panel. That’s why this portion of the screen is the hottest part of this ZenBook, reaching 35-40 degrees with daily use and 45-50 degrees with demanding loads and games.

I’ve asked Asus about this and was told that this sort of heat won’t impact the panel in any way, but heat and electronics don’t play well together and I feel this aspect is something you should be aware of and consider in your decision, especially if you plan to run demanding loads or games on your computer. And I expect you will, especially if you’ll be opting for the Ryzen 7 + MX350 configuration. Lower tier models without the MX350 chip run cooler, but I’d advise on buying extended warranty with this UM433IQ configuration and make sure it covers any screen degradation issues that might occur long term.

This aside, we should also briefly touch on the IO.

Asus includes full-size USB-A, USB-C, and HDMI ports on the sides, as well as a USB to LAN adapter in the box, plus a protective sleeve. However, that microSD card-reader might not be that useful, and the USB-C port continues to be gimped, with just gen2(10 Gbps) data transferring capabilities and no support for video, charging or Thunderbolt 3. This still charges via a classic barrel-plug.

Keyboard and trackpad

There’s a silver keyboard with white backlighting on this laptop, like on most of the other silver ZenBooks.

This combo makes the writing on the keys very difficult to tell apart, and I pretty much had to switch the illumination off most of the time during my time with the UM433. Even so, I find this sort of keyboard frustrating, especially since the backlighting is not very bright or uniform on our test unit. In comparison, the blue ZenBook 14 models don’t suffer from this same issue, with contrasty and easy to read blue keys and white illumination. The UM433 is not available in blue, though.

As far as the typing experience goes, it’s pretty good, with short and shallow strokes and decent feedback, the kind you should expect from a modern ultrabook. I’d reckon this will satisfy most of you.

The UM433 also gets a slightly different keyboard layout than the other Zenbook 14 models, with an extra column of function keys at the right, and that’s a double-edged sword.

On one hand, some users will appreciate having these dedicated function keys on a small laptop, but Asus had to shrink some of the other important keys to make room for them, such as the entire block on the left, as well as the Backspace to Shift column on the right.

These take a bit of time to get used to, and the one I struggled most with is that narrow Control on the left.

Asus didn’t skimp on the clickpad here. They implemented a large glass surface with Precision drivers and smooth, albeit fairly clunky, clicks. This also backs up as a NumberPad with a press of the small button-area in the right corner.

As for biometrics, there’s no finger-sensor on this ZenBook, but there’s a more practical set of IR cameras compatible with Windows Hello at the top of the display.

Screen

The Zenbook UM433 series gets a 14-inch display, like the name suggests, and is only available in a matte non-glare non-touch option.

The implemented BOE panel is alright for daily use, with good contrast, colors and viewing angles, and little light bleeding around the edges. It could be brighter and more uniform, though, as it’s only a 300-nits panel and the bottom half is 10-15% dimmer than the middle and top. This might not suffice in brighter environments, but you should be fine as long as you’re using your laptop mostly indoors.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

Panel HardwareID: BOE BOE07E9 (NV140FHM-N63);
Coverage: 81.5% sRGB, 59.6% NTSC, 66.3% AdobeRGB;
Measured gamma: 2.25;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 301 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1069:1;
White point: 7000 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.28 cd/m2;
PWM: No.

Hardware and performance

Our sample is a top-tier configuration of the Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ, with an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor, 16 GB of LPDDR4x-4266 MHz RAM, a fast Samsung PM981 PCIe x4 SSD and dual graphics, with the AMD Vega 7 embedded within the APU and the dedicated Nvidia MX350 2GB DDR5 dGPU, in the efficient 10W implementation meant for ultraportable notebooks.

We’re also testing an early pre-production unit with the software and drivers available as of late April 2020 (BIOS 300, MyAsus 2.2.18, Nvidia GeForce 445.87), thus certain aspects might improve with future updates. We’ll update at some point if given the choice to retest a more mature unit.

The CPU, GPU, and memory are soldered and non-upgradeable, but inside you do get an M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage. Getting inside is fairly easy, you just have to remove the back panel, hold in place by a couple of screws. Careful that there are two extra screws hidden underneath the rear rubber feet.

The Ryzen APU is the major novelty here, an 8Core/8Thread mobile processor with a TDP of between 10 to 25 W according to the various settings and loads. Asus offers two fan profiles in the MyAsus app, which also act as power profiles. Silent favors low noise, but caps the CPU at around 10W, while Auto is a balanced mode that allows the CPU to run at between 15-25W in sustained loads.

Ryzen mobile also comes with support for DDR4 and LPDDR4x memory, with up to 16 GB of LPDDR4x 4266 MHz on this configuration, as well as a capable Radeon Vega 7 integrated graphics chip.

This UM433IQ configuration also bundles the Nvidia MX350 dGPU, which is more than just a minor bump from the previous MX250. Instead, it’s based on the GP107 chip with 640 processing units (previously used on the GTX 1050 GPU), compared to the 378 units on the GP108 that powers the MX250. However, Nvidia still offers two versions of the MX350, one designed for ultraportable implementations and with a TDP of around 10W, and another for larger products, with a TDP of 25W. The former is what we get here, and we’ll talk about its performance further down.

Before that, I should also mention that our configuration also included a fast Samsung PM981 SSD, which favorably impacts some of the benchmarks results. Retail configurations vary between regions, but Asus tends to put a slower Intel SSD on the 512 GB models, and the Samsung SSD on their 1 TB configurations.

Now, the ZenBook 14 UM433 is not just a fine performance ultraportable, but also a cool and quiet everyday laptop. Here’s what to expect in terms of performance and temperatures with Netflix, Youtube, and daily use, on the Auto profile.

On to the taxing chores that showcase the platform’s capabilities, we first test the CPU’s behavior in 100% loads, by running the Cinebench Cinebench R15 test for 15+ loops, with 2-3 sec delay between each run.

The Ryzen 7 4700U did well on the Auto power mode, running at 25W for the first 5-8 loops, and then dropping to 15W. Temperatures average around 78 C at 25W, and drop to 64 C at 15W, which suggests this laptop could easily handle 25W for longer with a future BIOS tweak.

On top of these, the laptop returns scores between 860 to 1050 points, which is more than the current 4C/8T Intel options are capable off in sustained loads, and on par with the 6C/12T Core U i7-10710U implementations, but at lower temperatures.

The performance drops once the processor is limited at 10W on the Silent mode, but this laptop does very well on battery, running at 15-25W, just the same as when plugged in. All the results are detailed in the logs and pictures below.

We verified these findings by running the longer and more demanding Cinebench R20 loop benchmark, as well as the gruesome Prime95 test. The CPU runs at 25W for a few minutes, then drops to 15W once the heat builds up, and then jumps back to 25W, and so on.

We’ve also compared the Ryzen 7 4700U with a few of the Intel Core U options currently out there, such as the Comet Lake i7-10510U and i7-10710U, as well as the Ice Lake i7-1065G7 implemented in premium laptops such as the Dell XPS 13 9300 or the Razer Blade Stealth.

Then, we ran some of our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit failed to pass it.

Luxmark 3.1, on the other hand, fully loads both the CPU and GPU at the same time. The GPU runs well in this test, but the CPU drops to 10W after about a minute or so with the laptop plugged in, and to only 5W while running on battery.

These two suggest potential issues with combined loads, and we’ll further look into these in our gaming tests below. But first, some benchmarks.

We ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Auto profile in MyAsus and Best Performance power mode in Windows. Here’s what we got.

3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 3691 (Graphics – 4062, Physics – 9906);
3DMark 13 – NightRaid: 14503 (Graphics – 17503, Physics – 6639);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 1322 (Graphics – 1193, CPU – 3420);
AIDA64 Memory test: Write: Read: 46533 MB/s, 41911 MB/s, Read: 46533 MB/s, Latency: 115.7;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 2990;
Handbrake 1.3.1 (4K to 1080p encode): 34.54 average fps;
PassMark: Rating: 4681, CPU mark: 14136, 3D Graphics Mark: 3496;
PCMark 10: 4580 (Essentials – 9125 , Productivity – 6718 , Digital Content Creation – 4256);
GeekBench 4.4.2 64-bit: Single-Core: 4921, Multi-core: 22098;
GeekBench 5.0.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 1117, Multi-core: 5567;
CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1049 cb, CPU Single Core 176 cb;
CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 2602 cb, CPU Single Core 448 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 191.77 fps, Pass 2 – 57.64 fps;
x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 51.52 s.

We also ran some Workstation related loads, on the Auto profile:

Blender 2.82 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 6m 23s (Auto);
Blender 2.82 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 21m 38s (Auto);
Luxmark 3.1 – Luxball HDR – OpenCL CPUs + GPUs score: 6104 – CPU not properly recognized;

These are some solid results for a U-type mobile platform.

Some of you might also be curious about how the AMD Vega7 iGPU performs in this laptop, given that Asus will most likely offer configurations without the MX350 dGPU in some regions. We disabled the Nvidia dGPU and here’s what we got:

3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 3115 (Graphics – 3474, Physics – 12463);
3DMark 13 – Night Raid: 12372 (Graphics – 13581, Physics – 8225);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 1205 (Graphics – 1066, CPU – 4665);
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 2177.

Graphics scores are within 15-25% lower here, but the CPU scores came up higher in some of these combined tests. That’s due to this particular implementation. With the MX350 enabled, the system quickly limits the CPU’s frequencies in combined loads and favors the dGPU, as also shown by our 3Dmark and Luxmark stress tests. However, with the MX350 out of the picture, the CPU runs at higher clocks for a bit longer, before eventually dropping to roughly the same frequencies. That’s what allows for those increased scores in short-term tests such as 3DMark, but it’s not going to make a huge difference in longer combined loads, such as games, which we’ll look at next.

We ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan titles on the Auto/Best Performance profiles, with and without the MX350. Here’s what we got:

	Ryzen 7 + MX350	Ryzen 7 + Vega 7
Bioshock Infinite (DX 11, Low Preset)	97 fps (45 fps – 1% low)	52 fps (24 fps – 1% low)
Dota 2 (DX 11, Fastest Preset)	95 fps (48 fps – 1% low)	100 fps (55 fps – 1% low)
Dota 2 (DX 11, Best Looking Preset)	74 fps (39 fps – 1% low)	-fps (- fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 5 (DX 11, Low Preset, no AA)	35 fps (32 fps – 1% low)	22 fps (19 fps – 1% low)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (DX 11, Lowest Preset)	65 fps (48 fps – 1% low)	46 fps (16 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 (DX 12, Favor Performance) – HD	30 fps (19 fps – 1% low)	–
Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX 12, Lowest Preset, no AA)	45 fps	34 fps
Shadow of Tomb Raider (Vulkan, Lowest Preset, no AA)	40 fps (35 fps – 1% low)	18 fps (15 fps – 1% low)
Strange Brigade (Vulkan, Low Preset)	44 fps	40 fps (27 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (DX 11, Low Preset, Hairworks Off)	16-35 min-max fps (29 fps avg, 18 fps – 1% low)	8-14 min-max fps (11 fps avg, 8 fps – 1% low)

Battlefield V, The Witcher 3, Dota 2 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
Bioshock Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Strange Brigade, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider games – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.

You should take our findings with a grain of salt and perhaps expect some improved results with future software tweaks, and here’s why.

First, let’s talk about the UM433IQ configuration, with the enabled MX350 graphics chip. The HWinfo logs below show the CPU and GPU speeds and temperatures in Farcry 5, Dota2, Shadow of Mordor, and Witcher 3.

Going through these logs, you’ll notice that the GPU performance is the limiting factor here. The MX350 kicks in hard for the first minutes, and then gradually drops to around 950-1000 MHz in most titles, to keep temperatures at bay. The more GPU intensive the game, the higher the frequency drop, and you can tell the difference by looking at the Dota2 logs below, with low and high settings. The GPU runs at around 62 C and full speeds on low, but then jumps to 70+ C and lower frequencies on high settings.

However, raising the laptop from the desk, to improve airflow underneath, has a noticeable impact on the performance, as it allows the GPU to run at higher clocks, so this laptop is going to be a prime candidate for a cooling pad when playing games.

But what happens on the AMD-only configuration?

Disabling the Nvidia GPU allows the Radeon Vega7 graphics to take over in games. The CPU package kicks in hard at 25W for a few minutes, with the GPU running at 1500+ MHz, close to its max rated frequency of 1600 MHz. But then the CPU package drops to 15W, which results in the processor running at only 1.4 GHz and the GPU at around 1.0 GHz, roughly 65% of it’s potential, and that explains the limited performance in demanding games such as Farcry 5 or Witcher 3.

In conclusion, both the Vega7 and the MX350 chips cannot run at their full potential on this ZenBook UM433 implementation, and we’ll update our findings if we get to test a final unit.

We know for a fact that both can perform better in higher tier thermal designs, but I can’t tell whether final retail units of the ZenBook 14 UM433 will perform any better. Based on our experience with the past Intel/MX250 ZenBook 14 implementations, I wouldn’t expect significant differences. Asus pretty much have to thermally limit the hardware to keep temperatures at bay, as the thermal design on the current ZenBook 14 lineup is just not up to the task for this sort of configuration.

Even so, the ZenBook UM433IQ can deliver 30-60 fps in games released in the last 2-3 years at FHD resolution and low settings, while simpler or older titles should run much smoother. That’s not bad for an ultrabook.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

There’s a basic cooling module on the ZenBook 14 UM433, with a single fan and single heatpipe covering both the CPU and GPU. That’s barely OK for a 15W mobile APU and just not on par with the requirements of a 25W APU and extra 10W dGPU, as in this case, and proven by many of the more complex thermal designs implemented in this class by both Asus (on the ZenBook Duo, the ExpertBook B9 or the ZenBook S13) and the competition.

Yes, the laptop performs well and out-scores many of the other ultrabooks in its tier, mostly thanks to the efficient and capable AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile hardware. But based on our experience with other similar hardware implementations, it could have performed 20-30% better in games and other demanding loads with a more competent thermal module. Hopefully, better-optimized software on the final retail models can further tweak the performance, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it.

As it is, Asus thermally limits the APU/GPU and that helps keep the internal and exterior temperatures down. The UM433 doesn’t run noisy or hot with games (and the AMD-only version runs cooler than the AMD+MX350 model), with the fans ramping up to about 41-42 dB at head level and the hottest part being the screen, around the exhaust. We’ve already talked about that and the potential screen-damage long term issues, another reason why I feel that Asus should change this thermal design.

On top of that, the fans keep quieter with daily use, at 30-35 dB on Auto, but they’re still active all the time. Switching over to Silent further ensures the fan will not occasionally ramp up with multitasking, but this also makes the laptop rather sluggish and I can’t seem myself ever using it in this mode.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Silent Profile, fans at 30-35 dB
*Gaming – Turbo– playing Far Cry 5 for 30 minutes, Auto Profile, fans at 41-42 dB

For connectivity, there’s latest-gen WiFi 6 with an Intel AX200 module on this laptop. It did well with our setup and the signal and performance remained strong at 30-feet, with obstacles in between.

Audio is taken care of by a set of stereo speakers firing on the bottom. They’re not the same as on the Intel-based ZenBook UX434 models, and are a bit louder, at 77-79 dB, but the sound quality is rather harsh and tiny. Will do fine for daily use, but they’re not one of this laptop’s strong selling points.

Finally, there’s an HD camera at the top of this laptop’s screen, flanked by 2 microphones. These are fine for occasional calls, but the camera quality is still muddy and washed out.

Battery life

There’s a 50 Wh battery inside the ZenBook 14 UM433, much like on the entire ZenBook 14 lineup. It’s average-sized for a mid-tier 14-inch laptop, but the efficient hardware implementation helps squeeze solid runtimes on each charge.

Here’s what we got on our review unit, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness).

6.8 W (~7+ h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
5.8 W (~8+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
5.5 W (~9 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Better Battery Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
10 W (~5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Better Performance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.

The laptop comes with a compact 65W charger (in this configuration) that plugs-in via a classic barrel plug. It’s a single-piece design with a small brick and a long cable, and a full charge takes about 2 hours. USB-C charging is still not supported on this ZenBook 14 generation.

Price and availability

The ZenBook UM433 is not widely available in stores at the time of the post, so we’ll update this section once we know more.

In the meantime, follow this link for updated listings and prices at the time you’re reading the article .

The top-tier configuration reviewed by us here, with the Ryzen 7 4700U and MX350 graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage, is listed in Europe for around 1100 EUR, which is roughly 15-20% cheaper than the Intel-based ZenBook 14 UX434. That means we could expect this to sell for around $1000 in the US.

Of course, lower-tier configurations should also be available in most regions, and I’d especially look into the AMD-only Ryzen 5 4500U and 7 4700U models, without the Nvidia dGPU, as the best-value picks.

Final thoughts

Drawing the line on this ZenBook 14, I’d like us to talk about what this is, and what it could have been.

Hardware-wise, the AMD APU and Nvidia MX350 platforms deliver performance unmatched by compact sub-$1000 ultrabooks in the past. The AMD Zen2 hardware is both powerful and efficient, which allows it to excel even in this thermally-limited implementation, and the MX350 is a significant step-up from the MX250s on the previous generation ultraportables. Furthermore, even the Radeon graphics within the AMD Renoir APUs can hold their way in simpler/older games, making those AMD-only based configurations something to keep an eye on in the $800-$900 price brackets.

Specs aside, the ZenBook 14 UM433 is also a compact, lightweight, and well-made ultrabook, with a fair-quality IPS matte screen, decent IO, a fast keyboard, and good battery life.

At the same time, though, the basic thermal design limits the performance in combined loads and games, and I’d expect 20-30% improved results on a higher-tier implementation that could run the CPU and GPU at full clocks. I’m also not a fan of the exhaust blowing hot air straight into the screen, that frustrating silver keyboard with white backlighting, or the lack of USB-C charging or video.

If you can live with these quirks, though, the ZenBook UM433 could be one of the better multipurpose ultrabooks out there, especially when backed by Asus’s aggressive pricing in most regions.

Nonetheless, this is one of the first Ryzen-based ultrabooks on the market, and I’d advise you to research the other options as well before making a decision, as well as look into this list of other MX350-powered ultraportables available out there.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through some of the links on our site, we may earn a commission. Terms.

Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

33 Comments

Dan

May 5, 2020 at 7:11 pm

Very poor proof reading.
The Good "fine IPS touchscreen, but not very bright" yet states "At the same time, you’re not going to get a touchscreen with this product"

Video "Intel UHD 620 + Nvidia MX350"

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 5, 2020 at 7:42 pm
  
  Thanks for the heads-up
  
  Reply
Mikita

May 6, 2020 at 11:06 am

Why laptop makers never install good quality touchscreen displays into Ryzen-powered laptops? Is it prohibited by some law?

Reply
Chris

May 6, 2020 at 1:43 pm

Hey guys I do not know if this is possible but could you check how the setup performs with the dGPU only taking care of PhysX ?
This could be the best performance scenario for games.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 6, 2020 at 2:41 pm
  
  I no longer have this around. PhysiX was set on Auto in our tests, which is the standard-setting, why would changing it to dGPU only make any difference?
  
  Reply
  - Chris
    
    May 6, 2020 at 4:12 pm
    
    From my experience offloading physx increases performance by about 10% in typical games, found this out when I noticed my old mobo was not Sli compatible. As both gpus won't play together in this way, it might be a clever solution to boost overall performance. I'm not an expert!
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    May 6, 2020 at 5:11 pm
    
    I've never tried it, so I can't comment on whether it makes a difference or not. I doubt it can go past the main problem here, which is the limited thermal module
LHPSU

May 6, 2020 at 7:45 pm

Great to see the MX350 vs Vega comparison. There have been some idiots claiming that the Renoir iGPU is comparable to the MX350, and it clearly isn't. Did the games without data simply fail to run at all for the Vega?

I like the keyboard layout, but good god white on silver is just awful.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 6, 2020 at 7:58 pm
  
  Yes, Red Dead didn't start on Vega. For what is worth, though, I wouldn't judge these platforms based on this single review, especially one that's thermally limited. I'd expect both the Vega and the MX350 chips to score higher in better designs.
  
  Reply
- zarkonj
  
  May 8, 2020 at 12:11 pm
  
  I would not be so sure about this. Imagine they dropped de MX350, used a Ryzen 4800U and increased the TDP of the APU to 25 Watts. And for the icing on the cake cooled it properly, so it would sustain clock speeds. Which all would have been possible if it weren't for the dGPU.
  
  I believe that configuration would come very close to the MX350 – or mights even beat it. Just wait for other OEMs to this. Since the Zenbooks aren't famous for great cooling anyway, other devices could perform way better. Just take a look at the Huawei Matebook D14 with a Ryzen 3500U. They managed to properly cool it and it outperformed even all Ryzen 3700, i5-10210u/i7-10510u, i7-1065G7…
  
  Can't wait to see the performance of such a device with only 4800U and no dGPU…
  
  Reply
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    May 8, 2020 at 12:24 pm
    
    A properly cooled MX350 would still beat the Vega8 in games, and by a fair margin. See this, where we compared an ideal Vega8 implementation with the limited MX350 on this ZenBook: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/38004-amd-vega-7-8-mx350-benchmarks/ . That's on a 4900Hs with excellent cooling, something you're not going to get on any 4800U implementation.
    
    I agree that other Ryzen U laptop will perform better than this one, but the MX350 is still a more capable GPU.
  - zarkonj
    
    May 8, 2020 at 12:42 pm
    
    Alright, it did outperform it – but not by very much. We'll have to wait for some properly cooled, 25-Watt 4800U devices.
    
    I imagine that it is just easier to cool only this APU without a dGPU and so keep sustained performance. In that article you assume the mx350 will perform better when properly cooled – which for sure is true.
    
    But I just feel like there will be more properly cooled and thus better performing systems out there, housing only an 4800U APU with Vega8, than there will be lets say 4700U + MX350 devices which can sustain performance. In such a case the gap between Vega8 and MX350 would become smaller – which makes the mx350 questionable in Renoir-Ultrabooks. Intel devices on the other will clearly profit from a dGPU.
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    May 8, 2020 at 1:06 pm
    
    Yep, you're right. Ryzen 5 + MX350 would still pair very well imo, but 7 4700U and especially 4800U, not that much.
  - Jocelyn
    
    June 1, 2020 at 9:03 pm
    
    I think the MX350 is far more efficient than vega8 because on this laptop we have a poorly cooled MX350 10w vs poorly cooled 25w vega8. And there the MX350 is superior. In the case MX350 10w well cooled vs vega8 25w well cooled, MX350 will surely be superior now therefore imagine a MX350 25w well cooled vs vega8 well cooled. The MX350 will have a good spread over the vega8 in this condition
  - Dan
    
    May 22, 2020 at 5:20 am
    
    Hello,
    
    Thank you for very useful review. Definitely, Asus could have done better job here.
    
    There are also rumours about the similarly specced Zenbook UX434IQ launching soon. Do you think it's the same laptop?
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    May 22, 2020 at 8:39 am
    
    I think those early rumors reported this UM433IQ as a UX434IQ. If you'll look at the HWinfo picture, it reports this as both UX434IQ and UM433IQ in that BIOS version. That's why I don't think they're going to have a different IQ model for now.
Andrew

May 7, 2020 at 5:52 pm

Once again AMD variant is fcked with that shitty color. Ideapad/Yoga looking way more attractive, especially with USB-C charging/video.

Reply
Dan

May 21, 2020 at 8:32 pm

The part marking on the Micron part in your picture looks up to be LPDDR4 4266 in as 1Gb x 32b. Are you sure it was configured as DDR4 3200?
https://www.micron.com/support/tools-and-utilities/fbga?fbga=D9WLQ#pnlFBGA

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 21, 2020 at 9:58 pm
  
  Pff, you're right, that's LPPDDR4. Thanks, I'll address the article.
  
  Reply
Bent

May 30, 2020 at 2:40 am

When is this going to be available in the US?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 30, 2020 at 11:06 am
  
  No idea when or even if this will get to the US.
  
  Reply
Joonas Laakkonen

June 27, 2020 at 7:56 pm

Hey, I need an answer urgently if you are able to provide it.

Is the laptop configured in single channel or dual channel? I'm buying the 8gb model with Ryzen 5, so do you think that is in single channel, and is it upgradeable?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 28, 2020 at 10:31 am
  
  why not just read the article? The RAM is dual-channel on this configuration, and it's not upgradeable
  
  Reply
- MOHAMMAD ASHOUR
  
  July 27, 2020 at 11:12 am
  
  It is in dual channel, the ram is soldered on and can not be upgraded.
  
  Reply
02nz

July 4, 2020 at 6:05 pm

"The USB-C port continues to be gimped, with just gen2(10 Mbps) data transferring capabilities and no support for video, charging or Thunderbolt 3." Well 10 Mbps would indeed be unacceptable! It's 10 Gbps obviously. I agree the lack of Power Delivery in particular is a bummer. Being able to use a USB power bank or smaller charger on the go (and not being stuck with a proprietary charger) is convenient.

Reply
LHPSU

July 11, 2020 at 8:28 pm

Apparently now in (only in) Light Grey finish: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-14-UM433IQ/Tech-Specs/

Better than Icicle Silver?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 12, 2020 at 11:14 am
  
  Seems about the same. Still a silver keyboard with with lighting
  
  Reply
Andrei A.

July 19, 2020 at 8:12 am

I'm not a fan of brushed aluminium and they moved it from the top lid to the keyboard deck. The overall color scheme looks pretty bad to me. It seems like they went a step backwards with this design. Looking at the images taken with a dark screen in a dark room and besides the backlight bleed, I also noticed dead/stuck pixels (a red dot and some other white dots – which could be specks of dust but the red one certainly isn't). Almost every Asus laptop I've seen has had dead pixels and it's too bad because they usually make decent laptops but the screens are a letdown.

Reply
jazzi

August 21, 2020 at 9:47 pm

Great review, i'm hesitating get this one but for CAD 1050 here (650 euro) price is going down it's good price with the discrete graphics, or wait for 4800Us which i might not have time for. I need good performance, i currently run 2 ext monitors natively on my 2018 inspiron 7370 i5-8, 1 x 2.5k hdmi and one 1080p using a usb-c dongle, browser open with at least 70 tabs, real time stock trading platform with lots of streaming data, and it has held up well with 8gb ram but have to restart every day obviously, except it's slow for managing photo libraries and handling 4k video (8gb ram). I also want to get more into video and photo editing, so would the mx350 help me much vs the standard 4700u without discrete graphics but more RAM (prob 24 or 32gb)?

Also:
1- i understand the lpddr4 is slower than DDR4? is that a factor against this machine? some reviewers say it is
2- Although usb-c does not support video out or PD, would a usb-c or usb 3 dock that supports 2 or 3 monitors such as this amazon.ca/gp/product/B0823BQ4PK/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3OQU8EXMVAZGF work? or does the pc still have to send video out for the dock to work. I assume these docks have drivers and chips to do that? but i'm not sure

The others i am looking at are hp envy 15 (video and PD on USB c), acer aspire 5 144 (no video and PD on USB c), Dell 7405 2 in 1. They all have 1 or 2 sodimm slots upgradeable, but with the Asus i wouldn't probably want more than 16 native already dual channel…

Reply
Marius

October 29, 2020 at 6:02 pm

I ordered this laptop 3 days ago and it looks very good for this money (~1000 EUR), but you should put this in bold "that frustrating silver keyboard with white backlighting" with UPPER cases. I bought it from PCgarage .ro and guess what? : returning it is not allowed for juridical persons. For a normal person, that keyboard cannot be used because you can't distinguish the letters in grey with a light grey letter color. And I don't intend to start learning blind-typing.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  October 29, 2020 at 6:08 pm
  
  So I'm not crazy :) Very few others mention this issue, but it's something that truly bothers me on modern laptops. I found that turning off the illumination during the day helps, and only activate it during the night.
  
  Reply
Marius

October 29, 2020 at 6:59 pm

@andrei girbea you're not crazy at all. And I'm very angry on the seller that I cannot return it just after 3 days because stupid pcgarage.ro return policy.
Thanks for your advice, I'll try it.
I have complained to Asus for this problem.
Keep us the good reviews!

Reply
Mr. X

September 4, 2021 at 1:05 pm

Really great review and would have to agree with all the points made here. I have recently purchased one of these to replace an old Lenovo T420 which broke beyond economical repair (i7, 16gb ram, SSD, discrete nvidia graphics)

I needed a portable notebook which could be used for a wide variety of things with an emphasis on photo editing (Adobe Light Room) and also some music production\post production editing software along with the usual day to day stuff i.e. office software, web browsing\youtube and some light gaming.

The thing that annoyed me beyond anything is the soldered ram which is just inexcusable, not even the crappiest laptop of 10 years ago came with this.
At the time of purchasing I could only find the 8gb model so here we are groan groan….
Then there is the keyboard illumination \ colour choice which although doesn't bother me as much as some it IS a thing. But more annoying to me is the location and size of the enter key for example.
The hidden number pad in the touch pad is quite cool though.
Also really miss the forwards and backwards buttons of the old Lenovo's when web browsing

Other than that superb laptop and whilst you could further knit pick (thermal design I'm looking at you) I think those points above are the biggest gripes with this or at least for me. Other than that great laptop, love the display and seems well made \ feels solid. Performance so far has been ok but would of still loved more ram or the option to actually upgrade!

Reply

Asus ZenBook 14 UM433IQ review (AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, Nvidia MX350)

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