Asus Zenbook A14 Review: A Super Lightweight Laptop ​ | WIRED

Maybe it was never “out,” but with Asus’ new Zenbook A14—the first of its new A series—thin is decidedly in, with what the company claims to be the lightest Copilot+ PC on the market (at least in the 14-inch form factor).

Photograph: Christopher Null

In an industry where manufacturers are always searching for something thinner and lighter, Asus’ claims are far from bluster. At just 2.1 pounds, the Zenbook A14 (the model I tested is the UX3407Q) is the lightest 14-inch laptop I’ve ever seen. The next-closest device is the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon, weighing 2.2 pounds. All the others hit a minimum of 2.4 pounds. At 20 millimeters thick at its widest point, it’s not particularly slim—plenty of laptops of various sizes have the A14 beat on that metric—but an extra millimeter or two isn’t nearly as noticeable as an extra third of a pound of heft.

The secret sauce is mostly thanks to Asus’ Ceraluminum material, a compound of aluminum and ceramic, which the company rolled out with the Zenbook S 16 in the fall of 2024. But while the S 16 just had a Ceraluminum lid, the entire chassis of the A14 is built from the stuff—as are the keycaps. The powdery finish on the A14 is different than I remember on the S 16, which was smooth and plastic-like. On the A14, the light roughness still comes across on the fingertips as plastic-like, but the texture adds just a hint of refinement.

Photograph: Christopher Null

The A14 is available only in dark gray and in one configuration: a Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) CPU with 32 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 14-inch screen (nontouch) has a 1,920 x 1,200-pixel resolution. Ports include two USB-C jacks with USB 4.0, a single USB-A 3.2 port, and a full-size HDMI jack. One of the USB-C ports is used for charging.

All of those specs are fairly entry-level for a laptop of this pedigree, but it’s the CPU that should draw some amount of your attention. The Snapdragon X is Qualcomm’s newest microprocessor, and it’s also its cheapest and least powerful, a dialed-back version of the Snapdragon X Plus, which already felt sluggish in use.

Photograph: Christopher Null

The good news is that the Snapdragon X-equipped A14 doesn’t perform significantly differently from laptops outfitted with the Snapdragon X Plus. The bad news is that performance is not terribly impressive, and these laptops (including the A14) all tend to drag a bit. It’s not the end of the world if you’re browsing the web and typing emails, but it would be nice for a machine of this svelte stature to show off a little power—small but mighty. The A14 is particularly sluggish when it comes to graphics and video performance, and buyers shouldn’t dream of using it for creative work. Fortunately, Qualcomm has made strides in software compatibility in recent months, and previously unusable apps like Google Drive are now working fine.

Asus specifies a maximum battery life of a whopping 32 hours for this device, and while I didn’t approach that level with a full-screen, full-brightness, YouTube playback test, I was able to squeak out just over 20 hours of uninterrupted run time. (I tested this twice just to make sure.) You’ll surely be able to stretch that further by turning off Wi-Fi and dialing down the brightness—which is solid when dialed up—but even at a “mere” 20 hours, the machine is record-breaking on the longevity front.

The audio is better than expected, surprisingly rich and plenty loud. That’s aided by a dead silent machine. There are fans inside the A14, but I never got them to fire up, even under the heaviest load I could throw at it. Usability is likewise solid, as the keyboard has plenty of action, and the trackpad, while spacious, is short of being overbearingly large.

Photograph: Christopher Null

It’s a solid machine altogether, but the CPU choice does give me some pause. Qualcomm positioned the new Snapdragon X line at CES 2025 as a CPU intended to help manufacturers hit a $600 price point for laptops. That’s an honorable goal, but at $1,100, the A14 costs nearly twice that. I don’t know if these sub-$600 Snapdragon PCs are going to materialize in the real world or if that was just trade show bluster, but the pricing here nonetheless feels high considering the bare-bones processor and lack of a touchscreen.

That said, the featherweight stature and insane battery life here are both showstoppers—and together they provide plenty to make this laptop a no-brainer recommendation for those who aren’t looking for earth-shaking performance.