This is my detailed review of the Asus Zenbook A14 series, the early-2025 addition to the Zenbook lineup, a brand new chassis design for a computer built on Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware.
The hardware specs mainly set this Zenbook A14 apart from the other Asus Zenbook 14 and Zenbook S 14 models, this being built on an ARM-based Snapdragon platform, with its particularities, advantages, and quirks. But this is not just a hardware update of an existing Zenbook, it’s an exciting new design with solid ergonomics and a nice overall feel.
This A14 chassis is lightweight, at just shy of a kilo for this tested model, making it the lightest Zenbook of this generation , and still feels well built and nice to the touch, due to the entire body being made of a ceramic aluminum-magnesium alloy. It doesn’t sacrifice ergonomics or ports or inputs – in fact, this implements an arguably better keyboard than the one in the Zenbook S 14 premium-tier option. The screen, on the other hand, is only 2K and non-touch with an OLED panel, so not quite on par with the best out there.
And then there’s the overall performance and efficiency of the Snapdragon hardware. Our test model is the Snapdragon X Elite configuration with 32 GB of memory, but other more affordable variants are available as well, and are better value than the Elite. That’s because the Snapdragon hardware is still meant for casual use and daily multitasking, and less so for professional use, where an x86 platform still makes more sense, due to wider app compatibility and superior graphics performance.
We’ll go over all my thoughts and impressions on this Zenbook A14 UX3407 series down below.
Specs Sheet – Asus Zenbook A14 UX3407
Asus Zenbook A14 OLED UX3407RA, early-2025
Screen 14-inch, OLED, 16:10 aspect ratio, non-touch, glossy,
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100, 12C/12T, up to 3.4 GHzX1 26 100 and X1P 42 100 configurations also available
Video Qualcomm Adreno X1-85 GPU
Memory 32 GB LPDDR5-8488 (soldered)
Storage 1 TB SSD (Micron 2500), single M.2 2280 slot
Connectivity WiFi 7 (Qualcomm FastConnect 7800), Bluetooth 5.4
Ports left: 2x USB-C connectors with USB 4, 1x HDMI 2.1, mic/headphone
Battery 70 Wh, 90W USB-C charger48 Wh only on some lower-tier models
Size 311 mm or 12.22” (w) x 213 mm or 8.45” (d) x from 13.4 mm or 0.52” (h)
Weight 2.18 lbs (.99 kg) + .49 (1.1 lbs) for the USB-C charger, cablessub 2 lbs (.9 kg) for the variants with 48Wh battery
Extras clamshell format with a 150-degree hinge,
This is the higher-specced variant of the Zenbook A14, code name UX3407RA, with the Snapdragon X1 Elite hardware. The Snapdragon X and Snapdragon X Plus configurations are called Zenbook A14 UX3407QA. The two are the same, but with higher power settings and more advanced cooling on the X1 Elite configurations.
Design, build quality – lightweight chassis This Zenbook A14 is a compact 14-inch chassis, about the same size as the Zenbook S 14 and a little smaller than the existing Zenbook 14 models. But it is lighter than those, without sacrificing battery size or ports or overall feel, like many other ultra-lightweight designs. It weighs just shy of 1 kilo for this variant with a 70 WH battery, while in some regions Asus will also offer a variant with a 50 Wh battery that’s around .9 of a kilo.
So what’s the catch? No catch, but the laptop’s entire chassis is made from a material called Ceraluminum, which is a marketing name for an alloy of aluminum, magnesium, and ceramic elements. This material is lighter than traditional aluminum and stronger than the magnesium alloys I’ve encountered in the past. It has been implemented on the lid part on other Zenbooks before, but now the entire case is made out of it, top, mid, and underside.
While it’s hard to put this in words, I will mention that this Ceraluminum feels a little weird to the touch at first, somewhat in between good quality plastic and a very smooth stone countertop. It has a slight graphical texture on the lid part, while the interior and underside are simpler, but they all feel the same everywhere. Having a MacBook and a Zenbook S 14 right next to this A14, I can tell that the metals on those have a certain heft to them, a more premium feel, but taken on its own, I can’t find anything to complain about this finishing on the Zenbook A14.
For what is worth, Asus offers the series in two colors, Iceland Gray and Zabriskie Beige, and I have the former here. For a darker color, it did spectacularly well fending off smudges – I didn’t have to clean the laptop for these photos, after using it for the last two weeks. There are some slight finger-oil marks around the lid, but you can hardly tell those apart from a certain angle. In fact, the only smudges I noticed are on some of the more often-used keys. More on that in the next section.
That aside, this Ceraluminum is supposed to resist scratches as well. So I’d expect this material to age pleasantly. At the same time, the chassis meets the MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability standard, like most other modern ultrabooks do.
As far as aesthetics go, you probably noticed a redesigned lid on this series, much cleaner than before, with an Asus Zenbook engraving in the middle. There’s another Asus Zenbook markup on the bottom bezel, which is the same color as the bezel and barely noticeable, a Snapdragon sticker on the armrest, and a tiny monogram Asus logo on the top-right corner of the interior, above the Delete key. Overall, this is one of the cleanest ultrabook designs you could get today.
Ergonomics are nearly darn perfect as well, with no lights in the line of sight, rounded edges friendly on the wrists, grippy rubber feet and smooth screen hinges that are strong enough to keep the display in place. That’s an issue on the Zenbook S 14, where the heavier touchscreen moves back when picking up the laptop, but with the non-touch implementation here, that’s not an issue. Asus also allowed for a deeper lean-back angle for the display, but this still doesn’t go flat to 180 degrees, which is my main gripe with the design. Asus claims they have to limit the angle in order to not block the vents, which are hidden on the rear edge of the laptop, under the hinge. How air blows away from the chassis, and not into the display.
And speaking of picking up the laptop, I have to add that despite this being so lightweight, it doesn’t flex or bend or squeak in any way. The keyboard deck is surprisingly sturdy for a laptop of this weight, and while there’s some bend in the lid around the Asus logo, it doesn’t affect the panel in any way when pressing hard on that spot.
Finally, the IO is standard for a recent Zenbook, identical to the S 14 OLED model, with 2x USB-C ports (SUB 4.0), 1x USB-A, a full-size HDMI and an audio jack. Most of them are on the left side, which means you can only connect peripherals and charge this device on that side.
As we wrap up this section, here are some side-by-side pictures that should help you better understand the size and overall design of this Zenbook A14. First, the Zenbook A14, Zenbook S 14 and Zenbook 14 lineups.
And here’s the Zenbook A14 next to the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch.
Keyboard, touchpad The keyboard on this Zenbook A14 is a traditional Asus layout, with properly sized and spaced-out main keys, and a smaller row of function keys at the top, plus smaller directional keys.
However, the feel of this keyboard and the overall feedback is a little different than on other Zenbooks, something you can tell by only having these side by side as I do here.
The keycaps are made out of plastic, but with a coating that’s supposed to resist smudging better than on other Zenbooks, and that makes these keys a little more slippery than both on the regular 14 and S14 keyboards. That aside, the overall feedback and travel distance are quite close to the regular 14-inch Zenbooks, and should be more appreciated by most users than the feedback on the Zenbook S 14, whose keys are shallower and only travel 1.1 mm deep. In comparison, these keys on the A14 travel 1.3mm, while the keys on the regular 14s travel 1.4 mm.
So as a whole, the typing experience on this laptop is pretty good overall, but the keys’ coating takes some time to get used to and I feel it hurts my typing accuracy and reliability. I also noticed that smudges do show up after a while on the keys – sure, the back keys on the regular Zenbooks smudge easier, but you’ll still have to wipe these on the A14 clean as well, so I don’t think this slippery coating is an overall worthy addition here.
These keys are backlit as well, with white LEDs and three brightness levels to choose from. Unlike on the S14, where even the lowest setting is very bright, the settings on the A14 are better balanced. You can set up an idle time in the settings, and you get dedicated indicators for CapsLock, camera, and mic on this keyboard.
The touchpad is huge and made out of glass. It goes all the way within a few mm of the space key at the top, and that translates into occasional ghost-swipes in daily use, even if palm rejection generally works well. At the same time, I’m glad there’s a little more space between the touchpad and the laptop’s front lip, which prevents most ghost swipes from your clothes when using this on the lap or on the thighs.
Overall, this is a good touchpad, and it comes with a handful of custom gestures that you can activate in the settings. Physical clicks are fine as well, smooth and not that clunky, but I’m a tap person myself so haven’t used those much.
As far as biometrics go, the camera supports IR with Windows Hello.
Display – 2K non-touch OLED The screen on this Zenbook A14 is a rather basic 2K non-touch OLED panel with 60 Hz refresh rate, although the specs sheet on Asus’s website mentions the 3K 120Hz OLED option as well, but I don’t think you’ll get that in most retail configurations.
Either way, there’s no touch variant, which doesn’t bother me a bit. I prefer the non-touch implementation, in fact, as you don’t have to deal with the grain effect noticeable on light backgrounds on this type of touch OLEDs.
Now, this 2K OLED panel is still excellent for general use, with solid blacks and contrast and beautiful colors at 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. The 2K 1920 x 1200 px resolution is sharp enough for 14-inch screen size, but the fact that this panel is 60 Hz only will bother those of you coming for higher-refresh displays, as everything doesn’t feel as smooth at 60 Hz. If you’re transitioning from an older laptop
Overall, this panel is perfectly fine for the more affordable configurations of this series, and acceptable for the upper-tier model. I still think that this top-tier model would make more sense with the 3K 120HZ OLED panel instead, even if that would slightly impact battery life. But that’s sufficient anyway – more on battery life in another section.
Hardware and performance – Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite Our test model is a top-specced version of the 2025 Asus Zenbook A14 OLED, code name UX3407RA, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite X1E-78-100 processor and Adreno integrated graphics, 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8500 memory, and a middling 1TB gen4 SSD.
Disclaimer: This is a review unit provided by Asus. I tested it with the software available as of mid-January 2025 (BIOS 304, Vantage 4.2.31.0 app). Even if the platform has been implemented in other products for many months now, this is very early software, thus some aspects could still change with later updates.
Spec-wise, this series is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware platform, with the X Elite X1E 78 100 processor and Adreno integrated graphics on our configuration. Snapdragon X X1 26 100 and Snapdragon X Plus X1P 42 100 variants are also offered, as lower-specced models.
Our configuration is the X1 Elite X1E 78 100 processor, a design with 12 Cores and 12 Threads, meant to run at up to 45-50W sustained power in this chassis. The X1E-78-100 is the lowest-performance X Elite processor of its generation. The faster-clocked X1 Elite X1E-80-100 and X1E-84-100 are not offered on this Zenbook.
Graphics are handled by the integrated Adreno X1-85 chip running at up to 1.25 GHz. Our configuration also comes with 32GB of LPDDR5-8500 onboard memory and a mid-tier Micron 2500 SSD, in a standard M.2 2280 format.
The SSD is the only upgradeable component here. To get inside you need to remove the back panel, held in place by a couple of Torx screws. These screws are still of different sizes, so make sure you put them back in the right order.
Inside you’ll find the motherboard with the thermal module, the battery, speakers, and the SSD.
As far as the software goes, this Zenbook gets the standard MyAsus app which allows control over the power profiles, battery and screen settings, updates, etc.
There are four performance/thermal profiles to choose from (the power numbers are my estimates, as explained below, take them with a lump of salt):
Full Speed – allows the hardware to run at 50+W sustained, with fan noise at up to ~45 dB;
Performance – allows the hardware to run at 45+W sustained, with fan noise at up to ~45 dBA;
Balanced/Standard – limits the hardware at ~30W in sustained loads, with fan noise at up to ~35 dBA;
Whisper – limits the CPU at ~10-15W to favor fan noise of sub 30 dBA.
Since no software allows to measure CPU Package power (that I know of), I’ve measured the laptop’s total power draw from the wall while running Cinebench R23 loop, and these are the results: 80W from the wall in Full-speed mode, 70W in Performance, 45W in Standard mode, 25W in Whisper mode.
I’d recommend keeping the laptop on Standard for general use and only opting for Whisper mode for light tasks or streaming, but even that isn’t necessary as the fans keep idle on Standard with light use anyway. The Performance and Full Speed profiles offer faster processing capabilities in sustained loads, but are noisier, as the fans kick in occasionally even with casual use.
We’ll get to that in a bit, but first, here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily chores such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.
Productivity Performance and Benchmarks On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
I’m not seeing any differences between Full Speed and Performance modes. In Performance mode, the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor stabilizes at temperatures in mid-high-70sC, with fan noise of around 45-46 dBA at head level, and scores of around 2000 points.
The laptop runs quieter on Standard mode at 35 dBA, with scores of around 1500 points. Whisper mode is even quieter at sub 30 dBA, but only allows about 55% of what the system does on Performance mode.
Finally, our sample performed very well on battery, delivering the same performance as when plugged in.
All these are illustrated in the graph below.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this X1 Elite X1E-78-100 implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops .
It’s faster than Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra V devices , but slower than the AMD Strix Point Ryzen AI options and close to AMD Ryzen Krackan mid-tier implementations. But that’s only multi-threaded performance, as in IPC and single-core all these other platforms trump the Snapdragon hardware.
We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passed the test with the laptop flat on the desk, which means the performance is not impacted in longer-duration sustained loads as the heat builds up.
Benchmarks results and performance summary With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Performance mode and the screen set at its default 2K resolution.
Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 9702, 16 – 9315, 8 – 6532, 4 – 3284, 2 – 1644, 1 – 824;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 6206 (Graphics – 6444, Physics – 19046, Combined – 2714;3DMark 13 – Night Raid: 28786(Graphics – 32142, CPU – 18088);3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 11038;3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 2220;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: -.
GeekBench 6.2.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 14633, Single-Core: 2462;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2353 cb, CPU Single Core 216 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 4532 cb, CPU Single Core 427 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 11998 pts (best run), CPU 11067 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1113 pts (best run);CineBench ARM 2024: CPU 819 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 106 pts.
And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:
Blender 3.6.5 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 3m 42s ;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 11m 26s;Blender 4.3.1 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 2m 19s ;Blender 4.3.1 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 40s;V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 8992, CUDA – 242.Puget Benchmark (v. 1.0.2)- Adobe Photoshop (26.1 – 2025) – 10375;Puget Benchmark (v. 1.1.0) – Adobe Premiere (25.1.0 -2025) – 2759;Puget Benchmark (v. 1.1.1) – Davinci Resolve (19.1) – error;
This Snapdragon Zenbook A14 is a balanced performer for everyday use, and fairly competitive in multi-threaded CPU performance. The hardware makes perfect sense for this sort of compact and lightweight chassis, where it can run at high power settings, the kind you wouldn’t be able to thermally apply for Intel/AMD platforms at this point.
At the same time, single-core CPU and general GPU performance is no match for competing hardware as of 2024/2025, even at high power settings, and is close to platforms from 3-5 years ago. It’s no match for the recent Apple M hardware either.
Despite these, the laptop handles everyday activities fine. The general use experience feels perhaps a little sluggish, but that’s due to the 60 Hz screen; however, as mentioned earlier, you’re not going to notice it if you’re coming from an older laptop and you’re not already used to a higher-refresh laptop display. For what is worth, Apple puts a lower-tier 60 Hz IPS display on their MacBook Air 13, and people find it good enough.
Overall, for specialized software, light gaming, and even creative use (more on that further down), I’d still go with a traditional x86 platform at this point. But for daily chores and multitasking, this Snapdragon Zenbook is a solid contender, with even an advantage in efficiency and thermal/noise on its side, and hopefully a competitive price as well (later in the year).
I’d circle back to creative use, though, as Adobe Photoshop and DaVinci: Resolve already offer native support for ARM hardware, with Adobe Premiere still in development. Thus, you can expect a fair experience with these native apps on this laptop. I ran the Photoshop Puget Benchmark on this system, and the results are solid, significantly better than on an Intel Lunar Lake platform tested recently . Even the Premiere test result is OK, despite that running emulated. The DaVinci test returned a bunch of errors, though.
Gaming Performance We also ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan games on the Performance profile of this X1 Elite configuration, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.
Low settings Zenbook A14 2o25, Zenbook S 14 2024 ,Yoga Pro 14 2024 ,Vivobook S 15 2024, Zenbook 14 2024,
Dota 2 48 fps (16 fps – 1% low)
82 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
52 fps (12 fps – 1% low)
81 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 dns
52 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
60 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
dns
43 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West dns
43 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (40 fps – 1% low)
dns
–
Shadow of Tomb Raider 40 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
83 fps (66 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
54 fps (3o fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 42 fps (30 fps – 1% low)4
43 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
53 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
Doom, Dota 2, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.
You could run older titles on this laptop, but don’t expect much from more recent launches. I’d also disable Super Resolution in the Graphics settings, it can interfere with available settings in some games – for instance, in Witcher 3, you can only set the resolution at 1366 x 768 with SR enabled, which doesn’t even match the screen’s format.
Here are a few logs while running Witcher and Dota, but you’re not getting much out of these, other than internal temperatures and details on the GPU clock.
One final aspect worth mentioning is that this Zenbook performs very well on battery power, matching the plugged-in experience in Performance mode. It won’t run for long this way, though.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others Asus went with a standard thermal module on this version of the Zenbook A14, with dual fans, dual radiators, and a single heatpipe connecting to each heatsink.
However, the Zenbook A14 UX3407QA configurations with the X1 and X1 Plus hardware don’t get the heatsink on the left. Instead, that fan is placed so that it pulls air into the laptop and then blows it over the heatpipe and towards the exhaust fan on the right. Not sure why they’d go through the hassle of having two designs.
For what is worth, the X1 and X1 Plus hardware is also designed to run at lower sustained power, and it might run quieter/cooler than this model as well.
Not that this one runs hot by any means. As shown above, despite the high power settings applied, internal temperatures never go above 80 degrees Celsius in demanding sustained loads.
As far as the noise levels go, expect 45+ dbA on Full Speed, 45+ dBA on Performance, 35 dBA on Standard, and sub 30 dBA on Whisper mode.
With daily use, the fans are mostly idle on Whisper/Standard and rarely activate when heavy multitasking is involved. They’re much more active on Performance mode, though, so I mostly kept the laptop on Standard during my time with it. I haven’t noticed coil-winning or electronic noises on this unit.
As for the external temperatures, the chassis keeps cool with light use, with the warmest spot at around 30 C.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Whisper Mode, fans at 0 dB
With demanding loads, this laptop doesn’t heat up badly even in Performance mode, with a hotspot of around 40 degrees C on the top side of the chassis, around the hardware. But the areas that you’re mostly coming in contact with rarely go even above 30 degrees Celsius.
The fans run too loud though on Performance mode, at 45+ dBA, and I’d rather have quieter fans with a little warmer chassis temperatures.
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~46 dB
For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on this X1 Elite configuration. Everything performed fine during my time with the laptop. Keep in mind that the other configurations only ship with WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, as WiFi7 is exclusive to the X1 Elite model.
Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills positioned on the bottom of the chassis. The audio quality is about average for a portable chassis, about on par with the standard 14-inch Zenbooks, but quieter and tinier than on the Zenbook S 14 or the MacBook Air 13.
Finally, there’s an FHD camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. The image quality is rather lacking, and the lens seems to get this fisheye effect – I don’t think my head is that big in real life.
There’s also IR functionality with Windows Hello support offered here. But there’s no longer a physical camera cover as on the regular Zenbook 14 models – instead, you get dedicated controls for deactivating the camera/mic with F9/F10.
Battery life – excellent runtimes There’s a 70 Wh battery inside this 2025 Asus Zenbook A14, excellently sized for a laptop of this weight. However, keep in mind that some configurations might only bundle a 48Wh battery.
Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50 brightness). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.
<3 W (20+ h of use) – idle, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;5.5 W (~13 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;3.5 W (~20 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;4 W (~17 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;5-8 W (~9-14 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.
These are excellent runtimes, thanks to the efficiency of the Qualcomm hardware platform and that big battery. The A14 runs more efficiently than all other platforms tested so far in the same way. I’ll also note that this unit did very well conserving energy in sleep mode, with little to no power drain after hours and even days of sleep.
This configuration ships with a 90W USB-C charger, a dual-piece design with long cables and a hefty brick. It’s quite bulky and doesn’t match well with this ultralight laptop.
The configurations with the X1 Plus and X1 hardware ship with a more compact 65W charger, but I’m not sure if it’s the same dual-piece design or the more premium and much smaller single-piece 65W charger offered with the Zenbook S 14 (illustrated below, to the left, for comparison). Hopefully, it’s this latter one, with the detachable USB-C cable.
Price and availability- Asus Zenbook A14 At the time of this article, the Asus Zenbook A14 UX3407 is listed in some stores.
Over here in Europe, the UX3407RA configuration with the Snapdragon X1 Elite processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD, and the 2K display, is listed at around 1500 EUR.
In the US, the UX3407QA with the X1 Plus processor and 32 GB of RAM is expected at $1099, while the X1 configuration with 16 GB of RAM should come a little later at $899. The same X1 version sells for 1099 EUR over here. All with the same 70Wh battery, but configurations with the 48Wh battery should also be available at some point over the different regions.
Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area .
Final thoughts- Asus Zenbook A14 UX3407 review While the Zenbook A14 is a very interesting chassis evolution within the Zenbook lineup, with a lightweight design and excellent ergonomics, I find the overall positioning of this series within the multitude of good-quality ultrabooks available out there today rather questionable.
On one hand, there’s the whole discussion around Windows or ARM and the overall app compatibility on this Snapdragon platform. To put it simply, Windows on ARM is perfectly fine for everyday use, video streaming, browsing, text editing, and general multitasking. But for sustained loads in specialized software, content creation, or occasional gaming, you’re still better off with an Intel/AMD x86 computer. And there are plenty to choose from, especially in the Intel camp with the latest Lunar Lake designs .
Sure, the Snapdragon platform still has an edge when it comes to efficiency and overall cooling requirements, but recent Intel/AMD hardware is not that far off in efficiency either.
Furthermore, I’m not sold on this implementation of the X1 Elite hardware in this Zenbook A14 chassis. For starters, it’s darn expensive, positioning this series alongside premium options in the Intel camp that offer builds and features and general capabilities that you’re not getting here. And then, implementing the X1 Elite at high power forced Asus to bundle a chunky power brick with this laptop, and also set the fans to run loud on the Performance modes. But what’s even the point of running this hardware at 45+W, what will buyers actually use this Snapdragon laptop for that would benefit from these high settings? And why not keep the fans much quieter instead and use a smaller charger, as this combo would still suffice for general use?
Hence, I expect the regular Zenbook A14 UX3407QA configurations with the Snapdragon X1 hardware to offer much better value for the money, while also running quieter and bundling a smaller charger. Those are already available at 1099 EUR over here, and are announced for 899 USD across the pond in a month or so. That’s competitive for what you’re getting here, and should translate into affordable pricing later in the year once the initial MSRP price tags see discounts of a few hundred EUR/USD. At that point, the Zenbook A14 could be a solid option to consider for a lightweight companion, as long as you understand and accept the particularities of a Windows on ARM laptop.
But today, Jan 2025, the X1 Elite version we got for this test is nowhere near as competitive, and even when its price drops, it would still be hard to justify over the mid-specced configurations.
This wraps up my time with the Asus Zenbook A14, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback down below in the comments section.
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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.
gluckgluck
January 22, 2025 at 11:50 pm
I like the chassis and the fact that its only 1kg with 20 hours of video playback!
This with the lower specced snapdragon would be perfect for taking on vacations.
Would prefer obviously a matte display though.
Wondering why there are not more matte oled displays, i think the thinkpads have such an option?
thanks for testing