Introducing the new ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX434), the World’s Most Compact Laptop Series

Our friends at Asus East Africa gave us a review unit of the Asus Zenbook 14 and we think you will like it.

For starters, its available at Bright Technologies in Nairobi Kenya for Ksh 140,000. And in its a sleek, stylish premium brand for both productivity and entertainment. Asus is great on gaming hardware.

The fact that it’s the world’s most compact 14” laptop, actually smaller than most 13.3” laptops in the market, this is a laptop you need during this COVID-19 season for both travel and remote work.

First Impressions

ZenBook has always been lightest, most beautiful and elegant laptop series with no-compromise performance.

ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX434) heralds a new era of thin, light, compact laptops with four-sided frameless NanoEdge displays that feature ultraslim bezels on all four sides, giving up to an unrivalled up to 95% screen-to-body ratio for a near-borderless viewing experience.
The NanoEdge display also allows a much more compact design, making each of the new ZenBook models the world’s most compact laptops for their respective screen size.

This is the first-ever ZenBook model that uses a four-sided frameless NanoEdge display, with ultraslim bezels and up to 95% screen-to-body ratio for near-borderless visuals.

It packs the latest ScreenPad 2.0 secondary touchscreen with a larger display, enhanced productivity and upgraded experience.
Embedded on its thin bezel, the webcam is optimally positioned at the top edge of the display, and now has 3D IR capability for fast face-login and sharper images.

Asus says this ZenBook has been torture-tested to military-grade (MIL-STD-810G) reliability standards and can survive extreme temperature and humidity, extensive drop, shock and vibration.

Quick Specs
ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX434)

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-10510U processor

Intel® Core™ i5-10210U processor

Display 14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) NanoEdge display, optional touchscreen 178° wide-view technology

Four-sided frameless design, up to 92% S/B ratio

Operating System Windows 10 Pro

Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250, 2GB GDDR5 VRAM. Integrated Intel® UHD Graphics 620

Memory 8GB / 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 onboard

Storage 1TB PCIe® 3.0 x4 SSD or 512GB/256GB PCIe® 3.0 x2 SSD

Connectivity Wi-Fi 5 (dual-band gigabit-class 802.11ac) Bluetooth® 5.0

Cameras 3D IR HD camera

Interfaces USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C™

USB Gen 2 Type-A (Up to 10Gbps)

USB 2.0

HDMI

Micro SD reader

Audio combo jack

Touchpad ScreenPad

5.65” FHD+ (2160 x 1080) Super IPS display

178˚ wide-view technology

Glass-covered for fingerprint and smudge resistance

Precision touchpad (PTP) technology supports up to four-finger smart gestures

Audio ASUS SonicMaster stereo audio system, certified by Harman Kardon Array microphone with Cortana and Alexa4 voice-recognition support

Battery 50Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery. Up to 14 hours of battery life

AC Adapter 65W power adapter, plug type: ø4 (mm)

(Output: 19V DC, 65W)

(Input: 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz universal)

Dimensions 31.9 x 19.9 x 1.69cm

Weight With standard display: 1.26kg

We hope you are still with us to this point. The Zenbook 14 is Powered by the new ScreenXpert software, ScreenPadTM 2.0 now. It packs an interactive secondary touchscreen that enhances productivity, allowing for a more efficient workflow.

Design
It packs a Four-Sided NanoEdge Display that allows the most compact size. It’s designed to give users the most screen area in the least physical space, the new frameless four-sided NanoEdge design of the new ZenBook is simply breathtaking: it makes any visuals more immersive, with less distraction for your eyes.

The ultraslim bezels are just 2.8 to 3mm2 thin at the sides, 3.3 to 4.5mm3 at the bottom and a mere 5.9 to 6.4mm4 at the top to accommodate the camera. The effect is truly stunning — it’s like an infinity pool for your eyes, creating up to an unrivalled 95% screen-to-body ratio that maximizes the screen area in the minimum physical space.

Featuring the four-sided frameless NanoEdge display, the ZenBook 14 is the world’s most compact 14- inch laptop in terms of their footprint.

Ideal Webcam Position
It comes with a new ultrathin webcam at the top-bezel location. The ultrathin camera module packs a four-element lens to produce sharper images and lower noise. Additionally, the advanced infrared (IR) camera on the new ZenBook series has see-in-the-dark capabilities that enable fast, reliable hands-free face login with Windows Hello even in dim environments. From wake-up to log in only takes a few seconds.

Elegant New Styling
The new ZenBook series heralds a new era of ultraportable design, with an ultracompact, ultralight chassis that makes it the world’s smallest laptop series. None of the traditional ZenBook styles has been lost, though: there’s the iconic Zen-inspired spun-metal finish on the lid and a choice of prestigious Royal Blue or sophisticated Icicle Silver finishes, both newly enhanced with a contrasting Rose Gold trim panel above the keyboard for an extra touch of luxury.

Best Windows experience
ZenBook 14 and Windows 10 put you in total control of your laptop. It packs advanced biometric hardware works seamlessly with Windows Hello and Cortana, so you can wake up your laptop and log in using just your face, and command ZenBook 14 with your voice.

The ASUS ErgoLift Hinge
The ZenBook 14 goes the extra mile with its exclusive ErgoLift hinge, an engineering masterpiece designed to automatically tilt the keyboard to the most comfortable typing position.

An intelligent touchpad, evolved-ScreenPad 2.0
Powered by the new ScreenXpert software, ScreenPad 2.0 now has a larger 5.65-inch touchscreen that offers many new features and benefits. This interactive secondary touchscreen enhances productivity, allowing for a more efficient workflow. It includes a collection of handy ASUS utilities to boost productivity: Quick Key enables one-tap automation of complex keyboard sequences, Handwriting for natural text input, and Number Key for rapid data entry.

The revised smartphone-like interface is more intuitive for improved ease of use. Third-party developers can also use ASUS API to optimize their software and user experiences for ScreenPad. The hardware is now also more energy-efficient than its predecessor, allowing for longer battery life when ScreenPad is in use.

Smarter Control
With built-in ScreenPad functions, your two displays now work seamlessly together, with adaptive apps, an improved touch interface, lots of handy tools and easy task management. ScreenPad upgrades your workflow in an instant.

Improved Energy Efficiency
The increased energy efficiency of ScreenPad 2.0 reduces the drain on the laptop’s battery, so users need not worry about running out of power when enjoying the benefits of ScreenPad on the go. When not in use, ScreenPad 2.0 automatically goes into a battery-saving mode.

Cutting-Edge Components
The new ZenBook series features up to the latest 10th Generation Intel Core i7 processor and a range of fast graphics options including up to NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete graphics on ZenBook 14. The processor features four cores and up to eight computing threads with up to a 4.9GHz boost frequency.

It is equipped with up to 1TB PCIe SSDs and up to 16GB of RAM, making it ideal for creating complex documents, mining data, retouching photos, editing videos, or simply taking a gaming break. The new ZenBook series lets you do more, and do it quicker.

It also features gigabit-class Wi-Fi and ASUS Wi-Fi Master technology, for ultrafast downloads and smooth streaming with greater range and more stable network connections than ever before. Additionally, the latest Bluetooth® 5.0 delivers all the benefits of the latest low-power peripherals and accessories. The ZenBook series gives you the freedom to work all day on a single battery charge —up to 13 hours.

NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete graphics
The GeForce MX250 discrete graphics chip in ZenBook 14 uses the groundbreaking NVIDIA Pascal™ architecture to give you desktop-level performance in a laptop. With its dedicated video memory, the MX250 is up to 3.5X faster than a standard integrated graphics chip using shared memory, so whatever creative graphics task — such as video and photo editing — ZenBook 14 delivers the silky-smooth speed you need.

Dual-band Gigabit-class Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
The new ZenBook 14 is equipped with gigabit-class Wi-Fi and Asus Wi-Fi Master technology, so users can enjoy ultrafast downloads and smooth streaming with greater range and more stable network connections than ever before. Additionally, the latest Bluetooth 5.0 brings all the benefits of the latest low-power peripherals and accessories.

ASUS Wi-Fi Master
The new ZenBook series incorporates ASUS Wi-Fi Master technology, so you can enjoy faster and more reliable Wi-Fi connections at greater distances. This exclusive technology offers up-to-12X-faster, MU-MIMO-capable dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi for speeds of up to 1734Mbps.

Wi-Fi- Master also allows you to enjoy streaming FHD YouTube videos at distances of up to 300 meters or even more. And even when you’re using USB 3 devices. You can still stream smoothly up to 225 meters or more away from the router, which is 65 meters farther than on standard laptops without Wi-Fi Master.

Advanced cooling performance
For maximum sustained performance, the new ZenBook 14 (UX434) uses an updated cooling system incorporating state-of-the-art components, including an innovative liquid-crystal-polymer fan impeller with 84 blades — an increase of 12% over previous designs — housed in an advanced 3D-curved aerodynamic shroud that can generate 15% more airflow than before.

Quiet Fan
The PC features an exclusive Quiet Fan app that lets you choose more performance with a slightly higher operating noise, or quieter operation when doing tasks that are not processor- or graphics-intensive.

Comprehensive Connectivity
The ZenBook 14 feature the latest USB-C port for superfast USB 3.1 Gen 2 data transfers. It also comes with the USB 3.1 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a full-sized HDMI port and a microSD card reader.

Ergonomic Backlit Keyboard
The new ZenBook series feature ergonomically-designed keyboards with large chiclet keys and long 1.4mm travel to make each keystroke discernable and precise for a more comfortable typing experience. Each key has a 0.2mm keycap curve, which helps to increase typing accuracy and comfort. The keys are also backlit for convenient typing in the dark.

Convenient new function key
The ZenBook 14 hosts a new function (Fn) key that acts as a toggle button which simplifies settings adjustments on the PC. For example, In the past, you would have to hold the function button down and simultaneously press the respective F1 to F12 keys to adjust settings like screen brightness, volume or keyboard backlighting. Now, you just need to press the Fn key once, then tap the respective F1 to F12 setting you wish to change.

Military-Grade Reliability
The new ZenBook series meets the ultra-demanding MIL-STD-810G military standard for reliability and durability. undergoing a punishing test regime that includes extended tests for operation in harsh environments including extreme altitudes, temperatures and humidity. ZenBook is the ultratough ultraportable, the perfect choice for discerning on-the-go professionals.

Amazing Audio
The audio system of the new ZenBook series produces a solid combination of the louder volumes, rich depth and surround effects compared to laptops of a similar size.

Volume-enhancing, distortion-suppressing smart amplifier
It packs twin speakers driven by the Asus dual-channel smart amplifier that allows the maximum volume possible while preventing long-term damage to the sensitive voice coils of the speakers.

ASUS SonicMaster audio technology
It packs the ASUS SonicMaster which comprises a mix of hardware, software, and tuning technologies to deliver the best possible audio and overcome the challenging size constraints of laptops PCs. The ZenBook 14 also comes with a professional codec ensures precise sound performance; while an optimized amplifier, larger speakers and resonance chambers deliver the powerful audio output and deeper bass.

Conclusion
The performance of the ZenBook 14 is quite impressive. The speeds are perfectly perfect not forgetting I used my battery for 13 hours non-stop without a recharge. This is definitely my biggest hook. I also like the fact that it’s light and smaller yet offers unbound performance.

This would be my ideal device to walk through my routine meetings without looking for charger plugs.

Convenience- The PC features a USB-C port ideal for any way-up connection and superfast data transfers. It also packs the USB 3.0 Type-A port, USB 2.0 Port, an HDMI port and microSD card reader for all your devices.

It also supports ultra-fast downloads, smooth streaming owing to the gigabit-class Wi-Fi and the ASUS Wi-Fi Master technology

ZenBook 14 is equipped with a full-size backlit keyboard that delivers a superb typing experience. And of course, the ErgoLift hinge ensures it’s always tilted at the perfect angle for comfort.

ZenBook 14 also introduces the exclusive new NumberPad, a touchpad with a switchable numeric keypad for speedy data entry. Even when the NumberPad is activated, the touchpad retains its cursor function.

Readers
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