Asus Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon) Review

We’ve been fairly suspicious of SnapDragon-based laptops since they appeared: they might be lightweight, have the Ai chops to support Microsoft’s CoPilot+ features and have impressive battery lives, but their incompatibility with most Windows applications will severely limit usage for many potential buyers. What’s more, the appearance of Lunar Lake laptops has limited many of these advantages. But, here’s the Asus Zenbook A14 which is the thinnest and lightest laptop that we’ve seen for some time. Will it be the ultraportable to buy?

Asus Zenbook A14 Specs

Features, Ergonomics & Design

The Asus Zenbook A14 is available in ‘Zabriskie Beige’ and ‘Iceland Grey’ colours. I’ve no idea what the former means but, having been to Iceland, I can say that the grey-colour of our review unit generally matches what you can expect to see in that country [Some fluorescent moss-coloured flourishes would have been a welcome authentic touch, mind – Ed]. On the one hand, it does just look like a grey laptop, but it still looks classy and the glossy moniker on the lid is a nice touch.

It’s worth noting that the whole exterior is plastic. It’s generally solid, but noticeably less stiff and robust than many of the metal laptops we’ve reviewed lately. However, it also feels lighter than anything else we’ve seen for more than a year.

Opening it up reveals the 14-inch, 1,920 x 1,200, glossy, OLED HDR screen. For the most part, it’s very impressive and displays a crisp and clear Windows Desktop. While it took some quick tinkering with Windows’ HDR and brightness settings, we were able to interact with multimedia that offered vibrant colours, smooth monochromatic and colourful transitions, excellent contrast (with details simultaneously being retained in bright and dark areas) and a high, peak brightness of 600-nits. It also supports 100 per cent of the difficult DCI-P3 colour gamut which designer types will like. Technically, it’s very good.

The downsides are that the glossy surface acts like a black mirror when viewing dark content and that the standard, 60Hz refresh rate means fast-moving objects are rendered blurrily – something that will bother and fast-and-frantic gamers.

The speaker specifications aren’t specified. What I can tell you is that they offer-up decent volume with a smidge of punchy bass. However, fidelity is somewhat marred by muddiness for multimedia.

Above the screen is an impressive, Full HD webcam that’s very good at low noise video-capture in low light. It’s also Windows Hello compatible. The microphone array also does a very good job of capturing a clear voice, even in noisy environments. There are also shortcut buttons (with lights showing their activation) which disable both the microphone and the webcam.

The keyboard is a low-travel affair which is comfortable and accurate to type upon for extended periods. The trackpad is smooth, accurate and has pleasant, quiet, well-weighted button actuation.

Connectivity and Ports

Inside there’s Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. That’s a very impressive and modern complement of connections for such a slight laptop.

Other Zenbook features include Asus’ StoryCube software which provides Ai-enhanced photo and video editing, organisation and management features. The A14 also has some good environmental credentials including EPEAT Gold certification.

Being an AiPC with an NPU that’s capable of 45 TOPS, means it’s also compatible with Microsoft’s CoPilot+ features which, I suspect, will become increasingly useful over time (but I could be wrong).

The main problem is, as with other ARM-based Windows laptops, that software compatibility is low. It will run Microsoft Office and web tasks, along with some Adobe Creative products, but not much more. While Qualcomm assures us that compatibility will continue to improve, the A14 loses quite a few points for not being able to install many basic Windows programs. If you’re going to limit compatibility like that, it’s worth also considering those other, more-mature, ARM-based laptops… made by Apple.

All in all, Asus’ Zenbook A14 is very good to interact with. I can’t admonish the average speakers too much as it’s only 15mm thin. It would certainly be nicer to have a quicker screen but the main disadvantage will always be software compatibility.

Features, Ergonomics & Design Score: 2.8 / 5

Performance

Inside the Zenbook S14 is the same 3.4GHz Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor (with 12 cores) that we saw in its 15-inch Vivobook sibling. It’s partnered by 32GB of LPDDR5x-8400 memory, a 1TB hard drive and uses integrated, Qualcomm Adreno X1-85 GPU graphics.

See here for additional details on how we test laptops.

General Computing & CPU Tests

The Zenbook A14 wouldn’t run our PCMark 10 benchmark, which tests all of the components in a system. It did run our UL Procyon Office Productivity test (which uses Microsoft Office apps) but the scoring system has been adjusted in recent months due to Microsoft deprecating a video merge feature in PowerPoint. As such the score of 5,477 isn’t comparable with anything we’ve reviewed before April. It did, however, run the multi-platform version of the same test and it scored 200,000. This demonstrates that it’s an able performer with all office tasks, as one would hope. Score: 3.4 / 5

In the UL Procyon Image Editing benchmark, which uses Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom Classic apps, the A14 scored 5,297. You’d want something faster for regular image-editing work, but this is actually decent for an ultraportable. Score 1.9 / 5

In the Cinebench processor-based rendering tests, the Zenbook A14 scored 2,257 in the rapid, R15 benchmark and 11,464 in the longer R23 test. That’s not terrible for an ultraportable but you wouldn’t want to be a professional renderer who uses it every day. Score: 2.3 / 5

General Computing & CPU Performance Score: 2.5 / 5

Graphics and Gaming Performance

We’ve seen many Snapdragon-based ultraportables fail to run the UL Video Editing benchmark recently – which is based upon Adobe Premiere – but the Zenbook A14 completed the task with a score of 2,222 using the Adreno GPU. On the one hand, that’s an impressive feat which is likely due to recent driver enhancements but, on the other hand, it’s the slowest score we’ve seen. You wouldn’t want to rely on this for regular video work as each task takes many minutes more than rivals.

Gaming Benchmarks

Unsurprisingly, the A14 wouldn’t run the difficult 3DMark Speed Way and Time Spy ray-tracing tests, which are for hardened gaming PCs.

In the multi-platform, 1,440p, 3DMark Solar Bay test (which includes ray tracing) the Zenbook scored 10,962 which is an average of 42fps. As such, similar games will generally run smoothly if you dial-down the resolution and detail settings. Score: 1.2 / 5

In the trickier Steel Nomad test (a multi-platform, 4K-resolution, ray-tracing benchmark) the A14 managed just 520 which is an unplayable average of 5.2fps. Score: 1.3 / 5

In the much easier, 1,440p Steel Nomad Light benchmark, the Zenbook scored 2,244 which is an average of 17fps. That’s still not playable, but some significant quality and resolution reductions should get comparable games running somewhat smoothly.

I also ran our legacy 3DMark gaming benchmarks for reference:

It wouldn’t play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which, once again, highlights Snapdragon’s software compatibility issues. So, don’t expect much beyond mobile-grade gaming potential and remember that the slow, 60Hz screen will hamper basic, fast-and-frantic shoot’em ups.

Cooling

As for cooling, the Zenbook A14 is mostly silent. Under load it can make a constant, low whooshing sound but it doesn’t get more than warm at worst.

3D Performance Score: 1.4 / 5

Portability and Battery Life

At 980g, the Asus’ Zenbook A14 is the lightest laptop I’ve seen in some time. It’s perhaps a shame that Asus supplies one of its larger, 90W power supplies, rather than a phone style charger as it (and the cables) add an extra 400g to the mix, and this eats into the weight-saving of the svelte chassis.

Fortunately, you won’t need to carry the PSU around too much as the A14’s 70Wh battery ran our UL Procyon Office Productivity battery benchmark for a very-impressive 20 hours 43 minutes.

While it’s been a while since we’ve seen an all-plastic chassis, it’s still stiff enough to give few concerns regarding robustness. There’s minimal flex when a twisting force is applied to the screen and its military-grade, MIL-STD 810H rating, goes a long way to provide third-party assurances in these regards, too.

Ultimately, the build quality, battery life and overall weight are enough to make the Asus Zenbook A14 our new Best Portable Laptop. It should appear at Number 1 when the group test is next updated.

Price & Value

Asus offers a couple of SKUs of the A14. Our review unit (SKU: UX3407RA) comes in at a hefty $2,599 while a lesser sibling, with 16GB RAM, a 512GB hard drive and a weaker processor (SKU: UX3407QA), costs $1,999.

I’m still wary of recommending Snapdragon-based laptops because of their software compatibility issues and the fact that sibling rivals like the Asus Zenbook S 14 – with its Lunar Lake processor – offer significantly superior software compatibility and similar portability.

Also, be aware that we’ll also soon be publishing a review of the Acer Swift Go 14 AI. It might not be quite as portable but it’s got similar specs and costs over $1,000 less than the A14. So, stay tuned for that if you want a Snapdragon AiPC-style laptop.

Value Score: 4 / 5

Conclusion: Should You Buy The Asus Zenbook A14?

We haven’t given an award for a Snapdragon laptop yet and I still think almost all ultraportable laptop buyers would be better off with either a Lunar Lake laptop or something like the MSI Prestige 14 AI Evo with its Core Ultra (first Series) processor, amazing battery and matte screen. However, if you absolutely need the most portable laptop on the market, and only need to do Office, web and occasional photo-editing work, then the numbers show that this is technically the best on the market, even if there are plenty of rivals nipping at its toes.

Last Updated on 28 April 2025 by Nick Ross