Studying an article in regards to the Asus Zenbook A14 is doing a disservice to all events concerned. You actually need to carry this factor your self.
The brand new 14-inch ultraportable laptop computer made a splash at CES 2025 in Las Vegas this week because the “world’s lightest Copilot+ PC,” incomes an Innovation Award within the tech present’s Sustainability & Power/Energy class and a number of “best of” nods (together with one from us on the CNET Group). Comprised of an revolutionary materials referred to as “Ceraluminum” that is elegant and eco-friendly, the Zenbook A14 combines a flyweight body with next-level Qualcomm energy effectivity, a shiny OLED show, and a gesture-controlled trackpad — all for as little as $899.99.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable
I am sufficiently old to recollect when Steve Jobs slid the primary Apple MacBook Air out of a brown envelope. And after spending a while with the Zenbook A14 in Asus’ personal CES showroom, I am tempted to make the daring declare that it appears like the brand new standard-bearer of ultraportable laptops — barring any Home windows on ARM compatibility points. (I would be remiss if I did not level out that the digits in its identify look quite a bit just like the phrase “Air.”) It is a competitively priced, full-featured AI PC that additionally occurs to be an absolute beaut.
The news on Ceraluminum
Ceraluminum is Asus’ trademarked identify for “plasma ceramic aluminum,” a powerful magnesium-aluminum alloy that is scratch-resistant, shock-resistant, and 100% recyclable. An organization rep advised me it is ceaselessly used to make luxurious watches and aviation know-how, and that Asus was the primary to make use of it in client electronics. It premiered within the lids of some earlier Zenbooks, however the Zenbook A14 takes issues a step additional with a completely Ceraluminum chassis. It has a easy matte texture in individual.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable
In line with Asus’ rep, ending the Zenbook A14’s chassis includes a singular aluminum anodization course of the place its two halves are dipped in a water tub and blasted with high-voltage electrical energy. The colour of the chassis is dependent upon the period of time it spends within the water — the longer it marinates, the darker it will get. Asus says its technique is best for the surroundings than conventional aluminum anodization, which requires an acid tub. It additionally eliminates the necessity for dye.
Mashable Gentle Velocity
Asus will promote the Zenbook A14 in two mild hues referred to as Zabriskie beige and Iceland grey, that are fashionable, minimalist neutrals which are ever-so-slightly grainy up shut. (Each have a metallic Asus Zenbook brand on the again of their lids for some good distinction.) Per Asus’ rep, no Zenbook A14s look precisely the identical as a result of nature of its ending course of.
I am unable to wait to totally check this factor
The most important takeaway from my restricted time with the Zenbook A14 can also be the obvious one, which is that it is remarkably mild and glossy. Everybody who strolled as much as the counter the place it sat on the entrance of Asus’ showroom spent a very good minute simply lifting it up and down in amazement (myself included). For reference, it is as much as half a pound lighter and somewhat below a tenth of an inch thicker than the present 13-inch MacBook Air lineup.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable
The Zenbook A14’s construct high quality and portability alone ought to make it a finalist amongst college students and on-the-go employees looking for a brand new PC, however its battery life shall be one of many issues that shut the deal (the opposite being its value). Asus has rated it at over 32 hours of video playback per cost, which beats the longest-lasting laptop computer Mashable has ever examined by a whopping 9 hours: “If you leave the house for the day, you can confidently not bring a charger,” the corporate’s rep advised me. I stay up for testing this declare in a future in-depth evaluation.
Different Zenbook A14 highlights embrace a vivid FHD, non-touch OLED show with a nice-for-entertainment 16:10 facet ratio and 600 nits of peak HDR brightness. (That is 100 nits brighter than the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs, FYI.) Its keyboard is snug and deliciously clicky, and its touchpad helps Asus’ Good Gestures characteristic — you’ll be able to slide your fingers to regulate the laptop computer’s display screen brightness, change its speaker quantity, and fast-forward or rewind movies. It is geared up with two USB4 ports, a USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port for connecting an exterior monitor, and a headphone jack.
Asus affords two completely different configurations powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X collection processors. The Iceland grey mannequin is the lighter of the 2 at 2.18 kilos. It contains a Snapdragon X CPU with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a $1,099.99 price ticket through Finest Purchase and Asus’ on-line storefront. It is set for the soonest launch on Monday, Jan. 13.
Coming in at 2.4 kilos (or precisely the identical as a contemporary MacBook Air), the Zabriskie beige mannequin shall be a Finest Purchase unique with a Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of reminiscence, and 512GB of storage. It is going to retail for $899.99 when it launches someday in March.
