Laptop Reviews

ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435EG Ultra-Slim Laptop – Review

In the ZenBook 14 family, the Asus ZenBook 14 UX434 is a flagship notebook. What makes it more pleasing and more acceptable from the notebooks is its configuration and ScreenPad 2.0. GPU options and the all-important integrated ScreenPad 2.0 make this model an up-gradation of the previous ZenBook 14UX433. The newly available ScreenPad is a clickpad-turned-touchscreen that enhances its appeal for productivity as well as multimedia reasons. However, except for GPU options and ScreenPad, this powerful notebook is visually similar to the older notebook. With the specifications, it becomes a competitor of other upper mid-range 14-inch Ultrabooks like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5, the MSI Modern 14, and LG Gram 14. Despite having power equivalent to the MacBook Pro, our model is not as excellent as the former, but buying it is a pragmatic deal.

Design:

It is already an update of the Asus ZenBook 14 UX433, so it looks familiar and mostly the same. That is why the royal blue color with gold accents looks identical. However, to accommodate the improved internals and repositioning ports, dimensions are moderately tweaked. Coming with a weight of 2.98 pounds and measurement of 16.9mm, make this notebook one of the chunkiest notebooks in its league. Although the build quality is good, yet the refinement of HP’s Spectre x360 and Dell’s XPS 13 is missing in our reviewed model. Elaborative detail of its design is given in the later section.

1: Display:

Coming to a screen that is a 14-inch full HD LCD with a maximum resolution of 1920*1080 pixels, a single sheet of glass covers it. The bezels measurement is 5.9 to 6.4mm at the top, 3.3 to 4.5mm at the bottom, and 2.8 to 3mm at the sides. With its solid NanoEdge panel, Asus ensures 100 percent of RGB color space. The red blocks of the display look like they are undersaturated. However, maximum brightness is not standard-setting but good enough to make outdoor use of this very model comfortable. In addition to brightness, the size of the screen makes it easily usable for your day job. However, a small webcam at the top positioned ideally is the only glaring interference from the black borders. Placing a webcam where almost 80 percent customers prefer is a testament that Asus gives ear to customer’s preference.

2: Keyboard:

The sensible layout and right size of the keys make its keyboard suitable for even serious stuff. The distance among the keys is much more than some style laptops, especially MacBooks. A fair amount of travel of keys, which is 1.4mm, does not make them too wobbly. A three-stage backlight beneath the keyboard makes night typing easier. One more thing about the notebook is the Ergolift that makes typing comfortable.

3: ScreenPad:

Instead of the conventional touchpad, this laptop is armed with ScreenPad. Its measurement makes it identical to many smartphones. With its sitting area, settings such as brightness, setting a background image, and changing the refresh rate can be controlled. Moreover, you can find pre-installed applets in the ScreenPad software. In short, it can be used as a second display. Despite having no major driver issues, a top-quality glass trackpad still gives better feelings than this one.

4: Ports:

Despite having good port selection, a few concerns emerge about this. First of all, there is a lack of Thunderbolt connection. Furthermore, the power plug on the left side is not a USB Type-C one but an ordinary barrel-style. An HDMI connector, a USB Type-C 3.1, and a USB Type-A 3.1 accompany the power plug. While on the other side, you will find a USB Type-A 2.0, a MicroSD card slot, and an audio jack. This is a port selection this model is equipped with. How this laptop look has been detailed; let’s now discuss how the ZenBook 14 performs.

Specifications:

Design and some details have briefly been discussed above. The list of further specifications and technical information is as follows:

Performance:

On the technical side, an Intel Core i7 processor, coupled with Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620, power this notebook. In performance, this notebook is comparable to Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, new Acer Swift, and HP Spectre x360. Generally speaking, its performance is good. What it scored on PCMark 10 makes it suitable for general productivity apps. In web browsing as well, its scores were amongst the highest. It is interesting to see that in 3DMark scores, it is competitive with Dell and HP. The earlier presumption that Intel’s integrated GPU’s are no match for even entry-level discrete GPU’s, but the latter show their worth and importance on Tomb Rider. With these Graphics, Asus is way better than HP and Dell. So the performance indicates that it is very powerful and can easily handle industry-standard creative apps without blinking. For students to perform day-to-day computing tasks, their performance is impressive.

Battery life:

The battery is a shortcoming of the Asus ZenBook 14 UX434. The combination of discrete GPU and the less efficient Comet Lake processor makes its power consumption higher than its competitors, especially the Dell and HP. Even with this enhanced power consumption, the battery is moderately good for standard day-to-day computing. As for the portability score, it is not very impressive. But all this does not mean our model is a pork chop. It is still a highly portable notebook but not as portable as its competitors are.

For recharging, a standard cylindrical adapter is used, not a USB-C port. With its small power block, it becomes easy to carry a laptop.

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