building
This new design is also accompanied by a new barrel hinge that crosses the frame from side to side. The set is elegant, but the dark blue paint tends to accentuate the fingerprints.
Opening the hood reveals a 14-inch Oled panel framed by a slim bezel.
The backlit keyboard on 3 levels provides enjoyable and well-characterized typing. The piano is rigid and the pumping effect is absent. The start button on the top right of the keyboard houses the same fingerprint reader as the VivoBook Pro. Compatible with Windows Hello, the computer starts or opens the session with a simple press of the index finger; The computer stores the fingerprint when the session is opened, so there is no need to put your index finger on the fingerprint reader.
The large touchpad provides smooth gliding and Windows gestures are well taken into account. Our version is equipped with a number plate. Pressing the upper right corner displays a numeric keypad overlaid on the touchpad. The response is there and it’s a lot more fun to use than the first versions released a few years ago.
The numeric keypad and its number pad. © The Digital
The vast majority of connectors are on the right side of the keyboard, with an HDMI 2.0 port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a mini-jack, and a microSD card reader. The USB 3.2 port is located on the left side of the chassis, between the hinge and the cooling system air outlet. An unbalanced distribution can annoy right-handers, especially when all ports are occupied.
Wireless connectivity is provided by the Intel AX211 chip that supports WiFi 6E at 2400Mbps and Bluetooth 5.2. Finally, a poor quality 720p webcam sits on top of the Oled panel. It clearly lacks detail, both in low light and in the brightest environments.
As for the cooling, Asus has completely changed its tunes and returned to the side air outlet. With its new hinge, air is no longer flowing in front of the screen, but in a double hatch on the left edge. Inside, a fan and heat pipe are activated to evacuate calories fired by the Alder Lake processor.
After 15 minutes of encoding that required all processor cores, we observed approximately 43°C at the level of the K, L, and M keys. The Z, Q, S, and D keys above the fan, remain perfectly fresh. Noise pollution in normal ventilation mode is 39 dB, which translates to an acceptable hum. However, if you want to cool the processor better, it is possible to push the ventilation via the MyAsus software. In this case, the noise pollution increases to 44.5 dB and risks disturbing your office neighbors with much more present noise, and without providing better performance.
Disassembly is done by removing 6 Torx screws and 2 Phillips screws hidden under anti-slip pads. Once the screws are removed, simply unscrew the cover to access the interior of the ZenBook 14 Oled. The battery, SSD and wifi card are removable, but the RAM is soldered to the motherboard.
performance
ZenBook 14 Oled (UX3402ZA) features an Intel Core i7-1260P processor paired with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD. The Core i7-1260P is a hybrid processor consisting of 4 so-called “performance” cores overlapping and 8 so-called “effective” cores, all for a 28W thermal envelope. During our tests, the P cores ran at an average of 2.42 GHz, with peaks at 3.9 GHz, while the E cores ran at an average of 1.92 GHz, with a maximum of 2.71 GHz.
Performance index (bigger is better). © The Digital
The ZenBook 14 Oled and Core i7-1260P get a score of 108, which places it between the HP Pavilion Aero 13’s Ryzen 5 5600U (95) and the Acer Swift X’s Ryzen 7 5800U (112). Core i7-1260P provides significant gains over the previous generation, with a 24% higher indicator than Core i7-1185G7 of the framework laptop.
A word about the SSD that offers fast speeds of up to 6.8 GB / s in reading and 5.1 GB / s in writing. We didn’t notice any slowdown that could indicate possible cache saturation while moving our video bursts for the purpose of testing.
Screen
As its name suggests, Asus has equipped the ZenBook 14 Oled with a 14-inch Oled Samsung panel with a width of 2880 x 1800 pixels at 90Hz. Thus, the screen is in a 16/10 format, which helps productivity, although Oled is ideal for multimedia use. Elegant breadboard integration. It occupies 82.6% thanks, among other things, to the low minimum.
ZenBook 14 Oled shows its qualities in our analysis test. Now it seems that the Taiwanese manufacturer has mastered the Samsung panel perfectly. Thus Delta E does not exceed 1.7, which is well below the threshold (3) for the perception of chromatic drifts by the human eye. The color temperature (6537 K), so to speak, is constant on the video standard (6500 K) and the contrast is almost infinite thanks to OLED technology. Thus, the black is too deep for our probe to measure. The only downside to this tile’s two-tone, anti-reflective treatment is the absence of subscribers. The average reflectance (rate of light reflected) measured is 51.3%. For comparison, the MacBook Air’s panel, which is also glossy, has a 26% reflection rate. The brightness of 396 nits will be enough indoors to counteract any reflections, but is very fair for working comfortably outdoors.
strength point
-
Well calibrate the Oled plate.
-
Provided connectors.
-
Core i7 performance.
-
Wi-Fi 6E ready.
Weak points
-
There is no anti-reverse treatment for slab.
-
Modest webcam.
-
contact distribution.
-
soldered memory.
Conclusion
How does grading work?
Asus ZenBook 14 Oled offers a particularly compelling version. Its processor gives it top-notch performance, and how about an Oled board that borders on perfection; It just lacked a decent anti-reflective filter. And to be really upset, we can also point the finger at the questionable distribution of conductors, without that tainting the stellar balance sheet.
