an ultralight PC at low price

An ultra portable PC which weighs less than a kilo and which does not cost an arm, it is possible! Asus proves it with its Zenbook A14, a featherweight model designed to work everywhere and for a long time.

With each arrival of new processor, whether signed Intel, AMD or Qualcomm, Asus is still among the first manufacturers to take care of it and integrate it into its wide range of PCs. A habit that continues at the start of 2025. Qualcomm, the SOC giant for smartphones and tablets installed for almost a year also on the PC market, had presented its new processor at the end of 2024 Entry level Snapdragon X. A cheaper chip, always under Arm architecture, making it possible to drastically lower the final cost of a laptop while maintaining a performance level sufficient to do Turn most of the common applications and of course, AI.

Qualcomm had even estimated a fork of 600 to 800 dollars for PCs with its Snapdragon X. We are almost there. And it is Asus who opens the ball by welcoming a new Zenbook in its range by inaugurating a new family: the Zenbook A. And for a first, the Taiwanese strikes hard. It is not satisfied with a cheap PC but of a real ultraportable featherweight, cut for most uses and with stunning autonomy. An ideal machine for students who are constantly mop or all users who wish to be able to work everywhere and for a long time. An idyllic table, however, enamelled with some youth flaws.

We were able to test this Zenbook A14 for a few days. Here is our verdict.

Design: a featherweight at the price of a few concessions

What strikes first when you grasp this Zenbook A14 in your hands, or rather between two fingers with one hand, it is its lightness. 980 g only. And there are few ultraportable PCs to be able to claim a weight below the kilogram. LG with its LG Gram, Huawei with its Matebook X Pro or Lenovo with its ThinkPad X1 Carbon are the main contenders. But there is a problem. None of them descends below the symbolic bar of the 1000 euros. This is Asus’ tour de force.

The Zenbook A14 is therefore very discreet. He quickly gets forgotten in a small backpack to lug it everywhere without difficulty. And it can also be resistant. To reach this featherweight, Asus did not bet on plastic but a variant of its home material, the ceraluminum. It is this ceramic and aluminum alloy that allows it to resist stripes while retaining a light weight. Be careful however. The Zenbook A14 is not a backpacker. If the chassis seemed to us rather solid, the hood, on the other hand, marks a certain unreasing flexibility. In addition, there is a hollow between the relatively flexible hood and the oled slab it covers. During transportation, it will therefore be necessary to monitor that no object comes to press on it. A little more rigidity would have been welcome.

Furthermore, it is clear that the ceraluminum, with a very soft touch, greatly retains fingerprints. The Iceland Gray (gray) model that we had in hands were covered in a few days with a multitudes of fingerprints. A phenomenon probably less visible with the other beige Zabriskie color.

If it is very light, the Zenbook A14 is not the most slender in its category. At the thickest point, near the hinge, it displays 1.59 cm. An evil for a good when you take a look at the connection. Unlike many other ultraportable PCs, everything is there. We have one side of two USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 socket and a 3.5 mm jack headset. On the other, there is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port. Enough to easily connect any type of device.

Once opened, the Zenbook A14 unveils a keyboard with keys fairly close to each other. Nevertheless the strike remains comfortable with a rather short race and a good retro lighting on three levels. As for the touchpad, it turns out to be wide enough for comfortable use. Only the resistance to click surprises. But it should reduce over time.

At the top of the screen, Asus has placed a rather efficient webcam. It offers a largely sufficient 1080p definition for videoconferences. It is also compatible with Windows Hello for the biometric identification.

Screen: OLED, which shines brightly

It has been a few years since Ausus swears by the OLED. It is therefore without surprise that we find this type of slab on this new Zenbook. But for the tight price, you have to be satisfied with a Full HD+ definition, 1920 x 1200 pixels, far from the 2.5K or 3K of the Zenbook higher -end. This remains very comfortable for working on a surface of 14 inches but we are however disappointed by the refresh rate wedged at 60 Hz. When we tasted 120 Hz, difficult to go back for visual comfort. Too bad.

Also disappointment with the shine of the coating. If the screen can show 600 nits of maximum brightness in HDR (400 nits in SDR), it struggles to compensate for the reflections. Indoors, everything is fine if it is not subject to direct light, but outdoors, it becomes difficult to read what is displayed there.

Performances: a pc carved especially for the office automation

Technical sheet

Asus therefore relies on the new Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon X (here in its version X1-26-100). A SoC equipped with 8 cores and 8 threads with a maximum rate of 2.98 GHz. The neural processor (NPU) reaches 45 tops which allows this Asus to join the Colliot+ PC family. To support it, Asus is satisfied with the minimum desired by Qualcomm with 16 GB of RAM LPDDR5X The Snapdragon X is not a chip cut for the game. That’s good, this is not an area on which this Zenbook is positioned . Rather, it is office automation, web browsing, video streaming and other everyday tasks of everyday life. Photo retouching is of course within reach like light video editing. But do not ask him to do complex 3D calculation.

The scores obtained with the various benchmarks to which we submitted this Zenbook agree with the specifications of the Qualcomm SoC. It is less good than its elders X Plus and x Elite but the performance race is not the priority here.

The ZenBook A14 therefore presents itself as a good daily companion for the most classic uses. In addition, it remains very silent. When it is subjected to heavier tasks, its fans set in motion without twisting the eardrums. The dissipation of heat is also very well managed.

Autonomy: an impressive endurance

If there is one area where the Excellent Qualcomm PC processors, it is autonomy. And while we would have thought that the small size of this Zenbook could force him to a few sacrifices on the battery, it is not. The resting machine on a 70 Wh battery quite classic after all. But the SOC of Qualcomm and the 60 Hz of the Oled slab play in its favor. With our PC Mark 10 video reading test, the Zenbook A14 dropped out after 10 p.m. and 17 minutes. An excellent score that classifies it among the best students. Enough to win everywhere and for a long time without having to spice up on the slightest electrical outlet available. Reassuring.

As for recharging, the 65W charger supplied in the box allows you to find 35 % autonomy in thirty minutes. Allow a good and a half charge to display 100 % battery.

Asus Zenbook A14: an ultraportable PC for all?

He has many advantages to seduce this little Zenbook A14. It must be said that Asus worked his copy well. The featherweight below the kilogram of the kilogram remains a major argument that hits the users who are moving. The finishes are neat even if we would have appreciated a little more rigidity in the chassis and more particularly the hood. The presence of an OLED slab does not spoil anything at the party, especially at this price. Gargantuan autonomy makes you forget the small weaknesses of its Snapdragon X processor. With this Zenbook A14, Asus does not pretend to go into performance.

Before falling for this ultra -portable PC very cute, keep in mind that it is not designed to perform heavy tasks with heavy graphic calculations. It’s not his thing. Rather, it is stored in the category of daily companions for office automation or streaming. If these activities correspond to the majority of the tasks you ask for your computer, then for 1000 euros, this ZenBook A14 will do the trick with the added bonus, the compactness and lightness of a much more expensive model.

For a little more fishing, you can orient yourself towards the version equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 to 3.4 GHz and 32 GB of RAM/ but the bill then increases 700 euros all the same . Note that the ZenBook A14 in testing in this article (under the reference UX3407QA) has just been released and that it is still difficult to find it on the department.