The Asus ZenBook 14 (UX3402) is the 2022 refresh of Asus’s premium Ultrabook line. The ZenBook 14 (UX3402) is smaller than its 2021 predecessor, but it’s available in the same signature Asus dark blue, and the touchpad once again serves as a numeric keypad, a function on ZenBooks for quite some time.
To understand where the new ZenBook 14 outperforms last year’s UX425 models, go beneath the hood they have more up-to-date Intel CPUs, 12th-generation Alder Lake-P vs 11th-generation Tiger Lake. The newest CPUs include more cores, letting you do more tasks at once and providing an overall speed gain.
What will you see here?
Design:
Asus ZenBook computers have always been fashionable, and the 2022 model is no exception. It’s a really slim-looking gadget that will fit easily in a messenger bag or knapsack.
It adheres to pass ZenBook design cues, but instead of the traditional concentric spun-metal jackets, Asus has carved lines from its Star Trek-esque ‘A’ emblem onto a flat surface. Curved edges are also gone, with Asus opting for a more angular design. The platform is trapezoidal in shape, with the broadest section pointing up. It’s still a long way from something like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 (2022), but it’s a significant improvement.
The traditional Asus ErgoLift feature is featured here, as the form of the laptop’s 180-degree hinge raises the deck slightly off the surface of your desk when opened. This is said to perform two functions. It means that the keyboard is angled slightly towards your hands, making typing more comfortable, and it also means that heated air from the bottom air vents can exit the system more easily – though Asus has put a second air vent on the left-hand side as well. The impact is less severe than on prior models, but it is still discernible.
While the second air duct takes up a lot of areas that might have been used for ports, there is just one Type-A USB 3.2 (Gen 2) connector here. All of the additional physical connections are on the right side, including a MicroSD slot, two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone socket, and an HDMI 2.0b connector.
Keyboard & Trackpad
The Asus ZenBook 14’s keyboard is really comfortable to type on, and the trackpad is large and snappy, The keyboard arrangement is mostly logical, and the keys snap back smoothly. The keycaps are a touch thin, but there are no indicators of wobbling or anything else that causes me to be concerned. Everything is reassuringly solid.
However, there are a few particular complaints. The Enter and hash keys are too close together, and the Enter key is too tiny. Many Asus laptops have a similar keyboard layout, so if you’ve used a ZenBook previously, you’re presumably comfortable with this setup, but there wasn’t a single day.
Speaking of which, it’s simple to mistakenly activate the trackpad’s secret function, the NumberPad. A long press on the trackpad’s upper right corner brings up a number pad and calculator buttons, activating a calculator program on the display.
Performance:
The Asus ZenBook 14 handled basic office chores and light picture editing admirably, but games typically slowed to a crawl due to the lack of a dedicated graphics processor. included an Intel Core i5-1240P CPU with 12 cores, a base clock speed of 1.7GHz that can be up to 4.4GHz, and an Iris Xe graphics card. This is in addition to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD, 475GB of which is usable right away.
Day-to-day chores like word processing and online surfing were unaffected, even with up to twelve Firefox tabs open and a YouTube playlist playing. If all you want to do is resize, crop, and change light levels, photo editing is rather simple. Opening 84 JPEGs with GIMP took a little under 3 minutes (2:43). The Asus ZenBook 14 will more than please shoppers looking for a flexible laptop that can accomplish the basics.
It’s not ideal for gaming. Civ 6 could only be played just on the lowest settings, and even then, the fans would go crazy. This was OK for short stints of an hour or two, but much longer and the turns became tedious. The program even crashed a number of times.
You might buy an external GPU to improve gaming and video editing. However, if you want to spend a lot of money on one of these, consider getting a gaming laptop instead, something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, which is expressly designed for content production.
Battery Life & Charging:
Depending on what you’re doing, the battery life is also decent. For example, one hour of Civ 6 reduced a full charge to 60%.
An eight-hour workday with roughly the same amount of gas remaining in the tank. The battery lasted 11 hours and 14 minutes while looping a 720p film with the brightness set to 120 nits. Other laptops will last longer, but considering how much power OLED panels consume, this is impressive.
Expect to receive about 25% of your juice back after half an hour, and 45 percent after an hour. Charging from flat to full takes about two and a half hours using the included 65W charger.
Price & Availability
The full price range for the Asus ZenBook 14 (UX3402) was not known at the time of writing, however, Asus has said that it would begin at £1,099. It was due to be on sale in May. However, in the United States, the laptop is available for $749.99 through BestBuy.
This package includes the same Core i5 processor as seen here, as well as 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. When you consider that you still receive the OLED screen rather than a lesser-grade LED model, it’s a bargain.
Is Asus ZenBook good quality?
The Asus ZenBook 13 UX325 costs less than $1,500 and outperforms the competition (it’s even suitable for casual gaming). It also has a really comfy, clicky keyboard, which is frequently ignored. A decent keyboard, like The Flash, will boost your productivity and speed through your duties.
What are the problems with Asus laptops?
1. Motherboard from ASUS.
2. Repairs for any power issue caused by a liquid spill, a power surge, or a lightning strike. Motherboards manage hardware like audio, video, power, USB, Firewire, and keyboard/touchpad.
3. Backlight and LCD from ASUS.
4. Is your screen cracked? Do images continue to flicker?
Conclusion
The Asus ZenBook 14 (UX3402) is a stunning laptop with a brilliant display that provides adequate performance for regular computing needs. Anyone looking for a high-quality Windows 11 workhorse will be happy with a ZenBook 14 from the 2022 series.
Because of the high level of color fidelity, this is a fantastic pick for photography students or anybody who wants to edit images, while the lack of a specialized graphics processor means it isn’t also for video editing as the other laptops. Similarly, if you expect the Asus ZenBook 14 to be a gaming computer, you will be frustrated – but that is not its intended purpose.
