Asus has introduced the Zenbook A14 to the South African market, and not only is it one of the lightest laptops around, but it also packs a punch.
The new Zenbook clocks in at 980g thanks to its all-Ceraluminum chassis. You can grab this thing with two fingers and pull it out of the laptop sleeve with ease, so for anyone looking for an ultra-portable 14-inch option, take note.
Under the hood, the A14 features a 14-inch FHD OLED NanoEdge display that delivers vibrant colors and deep contrasts, a Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 Processor, a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU to handle AI tasks, 32GB of RAM (LPDDR5X), 1TB hard drive, and a decent 3-cell Li-ion battery that can give you some decent hours of activity.
Asus AI
It’s obviously also got all the bells and whistles with an HDMI port, 3 USB ports, and everything you need, but one of the more interesting additions is the inclusion of a dedicated AI button on the keypad. This activates Asus’ Copilot+ integration, which is essentially the company’s own generative AI offering similar to that of ChatGPT or the likes, although a bit more integrated into the application you’re busy with.
Copilot+ can help you do things like edit an image with prompts rather than tinkering around with the tools, summarise a wall of text, help you find specific files on your PC, or translate a video in real time, amongst other things.
Satisfying to touch
As for the case design, the body itself has a matte finish that’s satisfying to the touch, leaves no fingerprints or smudges, and just generally helps with manipulating the laptop around. If you’re looking for a sleek and sophisticated laptop, the Asus Zenbook A14 should be on your radar.
It’s got all the modern aesthetic finishings you’d want paired with some solid hardware, with AI tricks injected into the experience without feeling superfluous.
The only drawback is that it does come with a price of R29 999. If it was slightly cheaper, we would have given it five stars. As it is, it scores four out of five.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
