Compact, Slim, Light & Powerful. ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED

Laptops and their features have greatly evolved as the needs of users become more demanding. Multitasking and always on-the-go laptop users these days are not just for documents, spreadsheets & presentations but for other stuff as well. Creative works, basic video & photo editing, and let’s face it when we need to relax we catch up on the latest series or movie when we have those downtimes. Not all laptops are built for those demanding tasks, but I may have found the perfect one that delivers over and beyond what's expected.

This is the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED (UM5401). It’s compact, slim and light at 15.9mm thin and only at 1.4 kg ready to be taken anywhere giving you that ease and power with features that will increase your productivity. So, let’s talk about the beautiful design first.

DESIGN

Let’s just start with the body. In standard ASUS fashion, the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED is a testament to the brand’s superior commitment to providing the best possible design built in its laptop. This Zenbook also won the Red Dot Product Design Award in 2021. Here are the ones that stood out during my time with the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED.

The Spun Metal Brushed Finish in Jade Black has that signature ASUS design that adds class into the design, definitely giving off that premium vibe, and elegant feel. The ports in this slim laptop design are amazing, packed with all the I/O ports you would need for all your gadgets and other stuff. Two reversible USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C supporting up to 10Gbps data transfers, an HDMI port and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port! (Yes!) and also a microSD card reader with an audio combo jack.

Opening up the lid is a breeze as you can lift it in a finger and of course my favorite hardware design of the ASUS Zenbooks is its ErgoLift Hinge that elevates the keyboard for better ventilation and airflow at the bottom. But it doesn’t stop there, because you can tilt the screen up to 180° for easier content sharing, talk about precision engineering.

Opening it, you will be greeted with a 4 side “Frameless” NanoEdge display. If you’ve been exposed to ASUS Zenbooks before, this is a feature that is truly amazing and I just love pointing it out. Alright, the display, this is a 16:10 4K OLED HDR delivering the deepest black and the most vivid colors! Oh and it’s touchscreen! A feature you never thought you’d need but there it is making navigation and user experience a bit better. The 16:10 aspect ratio gives you a larger workspace, perfect for reading, writing or just scrolling because of the taller screen.

Before we move on, let me just share a few items on why I think the ASUS OLED laptops are the best in the market right now.

Stunning visuals - Detailed and realistic vivid colors have a cinema-grade 100% DCI-P3 best-in-class color gamut and also PANTONE validated color accuracy. As in the colors are amazing! Try watching a 4k content and stream or watch it on this laptop and you’d be amazed by the quality.

True Black - ASUS OLED laptops produce blacks really well. A 4K display has around 9,216,000 pixels and 3 times that for the sub-pixels. Compare that with regular backlit LCD displays in that market. For OLED displays, the pixel is basically turned off to produce the darkest black possible giving you crisp and clear images especially in those dark scenes. Enjoy watching and chilling with a more immersive display.

Eye Care - Not just for work and other apps, but the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED is also safe for kids to use to watch on or do some school work. With the ASUS OLED displays, the blue light levels are significantly lower, around 70% less harmful which means better eye care for children. ASUS OLED also has the TUV certification for low blue light and flicker-free for eye protection.

Clearer images at any brightness - Unlike conventional LCD Displays which decrease the details and color quality as brightness is reduced, ASUS OLED laptops maintain great detail and picture quality. ASUS OLED displays have about 60% higher color volume giving better color reproduction at any brightness level.

Fast Response time - The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED is a fast laptop, and 50x faster than your average laptop LCD display. To give you guys a picture for comparison, most LCD displays have a response time between 10 and 25mn, the ASUS Zenbook OLED has a 0.2 ms response time. So what does this mean? Well, it means you can enjoy smoother fast-paced action scenes for your shows, low-latency gameplay and subtle details like blur-free text scrolling. 0.2 ms fastest response time on any laptop

ASUS definitely puts a lot of thought into the products they make because they really make sure that there is a nice user experience. For those punching in a lot of numbers, there’s the ASUS NumberPad 2.0 that is integrated into the touchpad. You just need to turn it on by pressing the button on the screenpad for 1 second and the NumberPad will illuminate. The keys are familiar and you won’t have a problem adjusting to it when typing. One that I think has that nice addition is the Secure Fingerprint Login right at the power button. Easy one-touch login with Windows Hello.

The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 H-Series processors with up to 16GB RAM. This is definitely something that will help you to be more productive and enable you to multitask smoothly. Say hello to fast loading of apps websites because the laptop also has Ultrafast PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage and gigabit-class Intel WiFi 6. The ASUS IceCool Plus technology has a new thermal design with powerful heat pipes and two 83-blade fans enduring maximum performance, just access the MyASUS app to choose from the three cooling fan modes (Performance Mode, Standard Mode & Whisper Mode).

Now that we got that information out of the way, you might ask me, what’s my favorite feature of this laptop? Well, it’s actually hard to trim down to one or even a few but what’s amazing with ASUS Zenbook laptops is the whole user experience and the quality hardware and technology that is inside.

I do like that it’s lightweight, at 1.4 kg, portability these days, and working anytime and anywhere is vital, and having a light but powerful and fast laptop is definitely a plus. The design and its durability are something that ASUS is also known for. The Zenbook 14X OLED has been tested to and has passed the military standard test for reliability and durability so you’re assured that your laptops are ensured to last and can survive even the harshest environment and even drops and stress tests. Not only did the 14X OLED pass the tests but also far exceeded the standards set by the industry.

Another feature I like is the fingerprint scanner on the power button giving you convenience and secured easy access. The NumberPad 2.0 is always useful and the comprehensive I/O ports allow you to connect anything you want.

With the age of WFH Zoom & Teams meetings, ASUS has implemented AI noise-canceling audio technology which has machine learning isolating unwanted noise from human speech and also a ClearVoice Mic feature to screen and filter ambient noise ensuring the best experience. The Immersive Sound of the Zenbook 14X OLED has a stereo system certified by experts at Harman Kardon delivering a powerful and crystal clear sound for a clearer call and immersive entertainment.

Of course, the OLED display makes this laptop such a worthy buy. Amazing HDR display and vivid colors. You can’t say anything bad about the 2.8K immersive display of the Zenbook 14X OLED. Now, if you’re in the market for a laptop, I suggest you take a look at this one right here. They are actually available in two variants with the only difference being the 8GB memory.

UM5401QA-KN009TS - ₱ 66,995

14" 2.8K 16:10 OLED / R5-5600H / 16GB LPDDR4X /

512GB PCIE3 SSD / AMD Radeon Graphics

UM5401QA-KN006TS - ₱ 64,995

14" 2.8K 16:10OLED / R5-5600H / 8GB LPDDR4X /

512GB PCIE3 SSD / AMD Radeon Graphics )

When you purchase the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED, you will also receive 3 months membership of Adobe Creative Cloud for free! Here you get 20+ Adobe Apps, Fonts, Behance, Creative Cloud Libraries, and 100GB of cloud storage, valued at more than ₱ 11,000 which comes already with pre-installed Microsoft Office apps. Imagine that.

If you want more details about the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED, make sure you visit the ASUS site right here and if you want to buy, check out the list of stores, online stores and resellers nationwide right here.