ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407) Review – An Imperfect Ultra Lightweight Laptop

Unboxing

This is the first-ever ASUS Zenbook powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processor, and ASUS has give it a special model name for it called Zenbook A14. ‘A’ presumably stands for ‘Air’, as this is also the laptop of which the company claims is the world’s lightest Copilot+ PC (don’t mind how specific this may be), tipping the scales at less than 1kg – for the specific model that we have here, it’s the lower-end variant (UX3407Q) that further cuts the weight down to just 899g.

The items you’ll get from this laptop are pretty basic, which includes only the laptop and the charging accessories. Here’s the full list:

– Type G (UK) AC adapter
– 65W GaN USB-C charger
– USB-C cable
– Laptop user guide
– Laptop quick start guide
– MyASUS leaflet
– Postcard
– The ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407) laptop

Walkaround

Unlike the Zenbook 14 OLED or Zenbook S 14, the Zenbook A14 features a completely unique design on the lid with a simple wordmark sans the logo; ASUS says the laptop entirely covered in Ceraluminum, a unique material finish that debuted in Zenbooks last year which has great anti-smudge properties and is also smooth to the touch (for reference, existing Zenbooks only use Ceraluminum in specific parts of the laptop).

For this specific model (Snapdragon X1-26-100), the laptop comes with an IPS-level display with FHD+ resolution and 400 nits of brightness (as measured), with the pixels displayed through a matte surface. The top part of the bezel houses a webcam and an IR sensor responsible for Windows Hello facial recognition, among other things.

As mentioned, the laptop is fully covered in Ceraluminum material, in this case with the color called Zabriskie Beige – the colors extends to even the speaker grilles (they sound okay, nothing special) and the rubber feet. Compared to the most recent redesign found on the Zenbook S laptops, the CNC-machined intake vents above the keyboard is no longer present. The exhaust ports of the laptop are also hidden behind the display hinge.

Nothing to special in terms of front and rear views, although the hinge is noteworthy for its articulation limits, which only allows up to 135 degrees. Opening with one finger is reasonably easy as the hinge doesn’t produce significant resistance in motion.

Despite using entirely different processors, the I/O and its layout are just about the same as Intel’s equivalent, with a lone USB-A port on the right complemented by a pair of USB4 ports (Thunderbolt 4 in Intel’s case), along with HDMI and headphone jack.

Specifications

ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407Q-ASB0226WS)

Full specifications available in product specification page.

Chipset / CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 (2.97GHz / 8 cores, 8 threads)
RAM	32GB LPDDR5X-8448 (on-package)
GPU	Integrated: Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 GPU (1.7 TFLOPS)
NPU	Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (45 TOPS)
Storage	Micron 2500 1TB SSD (MTFDKBA1T0QGN-1BN1AABGA) PCIe 4.0, M.2 2280
Display	BOE NV140WUM-N64 14″ IPS-level, anti-glare non-touch 1920×1200 (FHD+ 16:10) 60Hz refresh rate 100% sRGB, 8-bit (16.7M colors) 400 nits max brightness
Keyboard	1.3mm key travel White backlighting
Touchpad	Precision touchpad
Audio	Downward-firing stereo speakers Dolby Atmos Support
Webcam	FHD IR camera Windows Hello support Electronic webcam shutter
Biometrics	Facial recognition (Webcam + IR)
I/O	Left: 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS (max. 4K 60Hz) 2x USB4 (40Gbps) (DisplayPort, 65W USB PD) 1x 3.5mm combo jack Right: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 (Qualcomm FastConnect 6900)
Battery	48Wh 3-cell Li-ion
Power Supply	65W, GaN USB-C charger
Operating System	Windows 11 Home 24H2 for ARM64 (Copilot+ PC)
Dimensions	310.7 x 213.9 x 13.4~15.9 mm
Weight	899g

Performance

Storage

The Micron 2500 SSD housed within this laptop is decently fast, at the same ballpark as the brand’s ExpertBook P5 laptop we reviewed not too long ago. This drive does perform slightly better in write performance, although overall you won’t notice the difference as we’re well into the point of diminishing returns when it comes to storage performance.

CPU

In terms of CPU performance, the Snapdragon X processor (not to be confused with X Plus, which is a tier above) performs fairly decently when it comes to multi-core performance, owing to having 8 full-size cores as opposed to the 4P+4E configuration employed by Intel’s Lunar Lake (Core Ultra 200V) processors. Still, as the lowest-end model of the Snapdragon X family, the sub-3GHz clock speed does reflect accordingly in the single-core benchmark, trailing behind the competition.

GPU

The Snapdragon X’s Adreno X1-45 GPU is admittedly… weak. Looking at 3DMark Steel Nomad which is compatible for both x86 and ARM-based systems, we see the GPU trails significantly behind the Snapdragon X Elite’s GPU, of which also lags behind the x86 CPU vendors that packs enough graphics performance to closely rival some of the older gaming laptops. Unless you already paid for a cloud gaming service, gaming on this laptop will unlikely be viable.

System

Despite the apparent superior CPU performance shown in Cinebench benchmarks compared to Intel’s Core Ultra chips, the Snapdragon X sits at the far end of this chart with the lowest scores. Its CPU and GPU performance are unable to compete with Intel’s offerings we previously tested, though we’ll cut it some slack given that it’s the entry level Snapdragon chip we’re dealing with here.

Battery

For battery test, we use the UL Procyon video playback test compatible with ARM laptops, since PCMark is not designed to work in ARM-based laptops. Here, we see the Zenbook A14 lasting 14 hours and 26 minutes, pretty close to the similarly-priced Acer Swift Go 14 AI that outlasted itself by 28 minutes. It’s not quite as good as the ASUS ExpertBook P5 that lasted over 16 hours on a single charge, although you’ll have to factor in the battery size – this laptop only has a 48Wh battery, so lasting over 14 hours is still pretty impressive all things considered.

The Good

Let’s start with the good: the ASUS Zenbook A14 aims to be the MacBook Air of the Windows world, and as far as the weight part of the equation is concerned, this laptop definitely ticks that box. There’s the 1.5kg lightweight, and then there’s 899g lightweight; if you want a laptop that demands as little heft as possible, this might just be it.

Another strong point of this laptop is the chassis itself. ASUS’s Ceraluminum material, debuted last year, was the wonder material that solved Zenbook’s longstanding smudge magnet issues. Smudge is pretty much a thing of the past for these laptops, and with the Zenbook A14 now entirely covered in this material, there’s nowhere for smudges to stick anymore. Besides that, the material also provides a soft touch texture that will certainly be appreciated by some.

Battery life is also a positive of this laptop, as this has been one of the traditional strengths of Snapdragon-powered laptops (and their main selling point) so far. Extracting a 48Wh battery – one that presumably had to be small to save weight – to last more than 14 hours is certainly a feat, and it’s got no issues lasting days on standby power if you’re the kind of user that prefers to immediately slam the lid shut and move on to the next physical spot.

The Bad

Now, all these weight saving does come at a cost. Assuming you went for the cheaper Snapdragon X variant which we have here, there’s two major flaws exclusive to this laptop – the IPS-level display has some of the worst pixel response times I’ve seen out of a laptop display, with easily visible smeary pixels as long as there’s motion going on the screen. I do not recommend watching any fast-paced content with this display, despite its otherwise fine brightness, color and resolution specs.

GPU performance, or the lack thereof, is also a major downside of this specific model. Assuming the games you play are compatible, the X Elite should at least maintain reasonable framerates against its x86-powered competition; with X Elite already far behind, the vanilla Snapdragon X’s Adreno X1-45 GPU simply has no business in running most games natively. If you want to game, cloud gaming is likely your only option (and you still have to deal with the smeary display we just mentioned).

A more general downside of this laptop also involves the Snapdragon chips. Regardless of which variant, ARM-powered Windows laptops will have to deal with software compatibility issues as soon as you need to use any of the less common software, especially ones that no longer have active support. Installing specific device drivers can also be a hit-or-miss, which we’ve definitely stumbled during the display brightness calibration process for the battery tests.

Verdict

Currently, the Snapdragon X-powered Zenbook A14 will cost RM4,999 apiece – if you go for the Snapdragon X Elite version instead (which also gets you an OLED display significantly better than the cheaper variant), that’s another RM1,000 on top of the base model. To be honest, the value proposition of Snapdragon laptops in general isn’t good due to the inherent limitation of software compatibility, as nobody wants to take risks on what software can run and what can’t.

However, if you insist on getting one of these as the idea of a sub-1kg laptop is too enticing for you, I highly recommend you go for the more premium model so you at least get a better bang for the buck, even if it’s pricier on paper. The Snapdragon X Elite will give you more performance for the apps that will work, and gaming is at least a remote possibility, although you’re once again in uncharted territory as far as compatibility goes.

On the grand scheme of things however, there are many laptops today, Intel-powered and AMD-powered ones, being as good if not better for the same price – we don’t live in the age where x86 processors can’t keep up in battery life anymore, so if your next laptop’s priority list doesn’t involve getting the lightest laptop there is (or aesthetics above all else), just skip this one.

Special thanks to ASUS Malaysia for providing the Zenbook A14 (UX3407Q-ASB0226WS) laptop for this review.