ASUS - Zenbook 14" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce MX450 - 256GB SSD - Light Grey

I picked this up on sale for $569.99 and at that price I recommend it. I also have the previous version (4500U and MX350) and thought I might compare the two before I sell that off this weekend. I should mention that the first thing I did with each of these laptops is put in a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. This new laptop is like the old one in that the screws are torx 5, and there are two more hidden under the rubber rear feet of the laptop. Once open, getting to the SDD is straightforward with the typical single PH0 screw (see pics). Also, the rubber feet on this new laptop are much easier to remove than those on the old one. Compared to the older model, this new one is a little larger and a little heavier. Both are noticeable. It charges via USB-C and comes with one more USB-C port and one fewer USB-A port. The audio is better on the new one as well. It also runs much hotter when I compare the same loads between each at the same time. It benchmarks a little higher than the old one, mainly because the 5500U supports SMT/Hyperthreading (so it’s 6-cores, 12-threads, vs the 6-core, 6-thread 4500U) and the Vega 7 integrated graphics are slightly better than the older Vega 6 integrated graphics on the 4500U (clocked 300MHz higher), but quite honestly, in day to day use there is no real noticeable difference. (Note that in the photo of benchmarking results, both computers list integrated graphics, but the benchmarking was done with the NVIDIA cards, that just how the program displays.) One odd thing is that microSD cards are inserted upside down in this MX450 version, while they are inserted right-side up in the MX350 version of this laptop, so take notice and don’t force. It’s an easy thing to forget. Where you do see a bit of performance difference is in the graphics capabilities, for *some* tasks. The MX450 implementation in this new version seems to give about 20% more performance on average. It’s nice, but it’s not earth shattering for gaming – it’s not enough, for example, to suddenly allow you to play a class of game that you couldn’t already play on the MX350 (but it allows you to turn up a few more graphics options). It’s worth noting that the MX450 implementation in the Zenbook 14 is the lowest performance variant of the MX450. (It performs about on par with the 96EU integrated Xe graphics in my Yoga 9i. That laptop has 16GB ram compared to the Zenbook’s 8GB, and therefore allocates more to vram than the 2GB on the MX450.) The new Zenbook is noticeably better than the old one for creative applications that can take advantage not only of the faster GPU, but of the hyperthreading of the 5500U. Unfortunately, this is not the greatest screen for such work, as it simply does not get all that bright (it’s 250 nits compared to the old one at 300, and yes, that difference is noticeable.) A tip about brightness – make sure you go into the Radeon Graphic settings and turn OFF Vari-Bright so the laptop is not constantly dimming its screen to save battery depending on what’s being displayed. In the end, I would probably advise anyone looking into this laptop to also look at last year’s model, see what the price difference is, and then decide where you want to make your compromises. Either can be great choices.

Ok so this isn’t too bad. I like the overall design, feel, quality and weight. There’s no fluff straight out of the box. Straight out of the box there was no charge, so did a full initial charge (usb c) and got it up and running. It turned on and the screen was bright and setup was nice. I was hit with a loud voice instructing me and then signaling that I could answer her questions to get through setup instead of touching the laptop when it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t like that I had to go through the Microsoft account setup. Let’s just get back to adding accounts without the fuss please. The build quality is premium. It has a nice solid weight to it without being heavy. Which is great because I want this to be for my son as a replacement to his older laptop that weighs 2 tons. The material seems to be metal and I did notice fingerprint smudges on the top but it wasn’t too bad and barely noticeable due to its design. It’s easy to open and lift the screen with one finger. Upon opening the body of the laptop rises off of the surface, which is nice for ergonomics even though it’s a slight degree of change, but the lifting also helps to improve the airflow between the fan and surface. That’s a great edition that none of my laptops offer, especially when it’s on a sofa or bed surface. The screen is great. The bezel is super thin and little to no distortion when pressed from behind or touched in the front. The screen is definitely a fingerprint magnet. The facial recognition is always a nice feature. It’s fast and hardly misses even in lower light. The camera is ehhhh, underwhelming. If you’re in low light, forget about it. The lag is crazy and you look and feel like your in one of the Matrix trilogies. In bright light it works way better no to very little lag, but it’s not as crystal clear as I would of hoped. It seems like I have a softening skin filter on. Which could be a good thing for those who like that sort of thing. The display and color renderings are great, bright, crisp and clear. No complaints there. Videos play flawlessly. The letters/numbers on the keyboard are big and visible to those who may have trouble with smaller lettering but the key backlights are not as bright as they could be if you need it in lowlight. There is a button to adjust how bright they get or turn it off altogether. However, in the dark I think the backlit keyboard is great. I can see it with no problem whatsoever. If you like to feel or hear the clicks on the pad, this will suit you. The keys are nice to press. They aren’t hard or noisy. Videos and games play great. I didn’t witness any lag during play time. My son plays games, but not ones that are extremely graphic heavy. So I was unable to test or compare those speeds. The speakers are located on the undersides of the laptop which I’m not a fan of since not everyone sits at a desk every time they work on a laptop, so I figured the sound would be muffled. It actually sounds amazing. It was natively at 70 and I was nervous to turn it up because it was already so loud. There is a small difference in sound on the bed vs desk but nothing noticeable. There were a couple times where I would tap the mousepad and it wouldn’t recognize the clicks. I would have to physically hit a key. And once where I was in the middle of typing and the screen went black. Very strange. Other than those times the computer is solid. It works just fine for my sons needs at this time and it’s powerful enough for his gaming and creating his short tutorial videos, as well as, any work that he needs to complete. It’s a great computer for just about anyone.

Even though I have only had this little jewel of a laptop for three days, I have found many things to love about it. To start with it a heck of a notebook/laptop for the price. You cannot find a laptop that has all of the amenities that this does that even comes close to this laptop for anywhere near the cost of this one. The design is beautiful, and overall, it seems to have all of those things that really matter in a computer that is used for work and play on an everyday basis. To start with it is thin, sleek, lightweight, and solid in design. It weighs under 3 lbs. and is very similar in weight to a larger tablet in a keyboard case. But because it is sleeker, it is so much easier to use as a mobile device. The case is very well designed with little to no plastic. It seems to be manufactured of all metal and is designed for durability to US Military Grade standards. It has a backlite keyboard with three levels of brightness and a 14” LED screen whose resolution of 1920 x 1080 produces beautiful full HD graphics. The sound system is by harman/kardon (a well-established name in the audio industry) and it has a large trackpad that is a tad over 5” wide. The laptop has the feel of a much more expensive laptop model that runs on an iOS operating system, rather than Windows. Key placement is very good and the feel of the keys, for me, is very natural in size and spacing. I can type very fast on this keyboard. It is equipped with one of the very best processors that you can buy – the AMD Ryzen 5 5500U. The NVIDIA Geforce MX450 is a good graphic card even if it is more on the entry level, but for typing and speed it is great. The operating system is 64 bit and is based on the X-64 processor. RAM (memory) in this computer is only 8 GB which is ample if you are just using it for word processing and simpler software programs that do not run a lot of graphics. The computer has a total storage capacity of 16 GB with additional storage space of 256 GB that is available on one of the best Solid-State Drives (SSD) that you can install in a computer. The type of RAM or memory is an LPDDR4X. This is the latest and greatest and it has specifically been designed for mobile devices. It seems to work very well on this low powered ultra-book and contributes to the longevity of the battery. The laptop’s battery, another real plus of this laptop, can actually run 12 hours because of the laptop’s overall design. A front facing camera gives one the ability to participate in Zoom meetings, produce You Tube videos, etc. without an additional camera. You can even log in with facial recognition and it works every time. Just about everything that is on larger, much higher priced laptops is equipped on this model: Asus ZenBook 14” Laptop Q408UG. Modern interface technology is all here too. I have an HDMI port, not one (1) but two (2) Thunderbolt ™ 3 USB-C ®, a USB Type-A, a MicroSD card reader, and just in case I still need it – an audio jack. The laptop does not have a touch screen or use a pencil which to some prospective buyers might be a detriment. But for those that are energy conscious it is Energy Star Certified and is backed by Asus with a 1-Year Warranty on both Parts and Labor. I really love this little laptop. It is so easy to tuck under my arm or into a satchel and go wherever work takes me. With it I have the ability to do just about whatever it is that I need to produce for a client. When I think back to traveling by car or air with a 25 -35 lb. laptop in a roller case, I cannot now believe that I have something this nice to take with me that can do all the things that I needed older laptops to do for me while away on the job-- either for the day or for a week. I really appreciate that it and its charging cord hardly weigh anything! If you are researching a computer for a new graduate, needing one that you can transport to and from work, or just need a new home computer, you should really look at this one because it is capable of doing a lot and buying it will give you many computing opportunities for a very reasonable and great price.

Asus ZenBook Q408UG is an affordable slim powerful notebook pc with no compromise on build quality or performance. This laptop has 14-inch full HD frameless Nano edge display that provides great picture quality. AMD Ryzen 5 processor with GeForce MX450 is good for everyday work with multitasking. What is in the box: Asus ZenBook notebook pc, 65 W USB C power adapter, Manual/warranty sheets. Measurement & Weight: It measures 12.6 x 8.25 x 0.62 inches (32 x 21 x 1.59cm) and weighs 2.95 pounds (1.34kg). Display: 14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) Color: Light Grey Design: This 14-inch NanoEdge display has a thin bezel with ASUS logo on the front. Due to its thin bezel on all four sides the videos are more impressive. Brushed silver on the top edge and large track pad is good. Asus used the ErgoLift hinge where the bottom of the laptop lifts up at a slight angle when opened fully. This is a great design to open the laptop in one hand and very useful for typing both ergonomically (optimal typing position) and for air flow/heat expulsion, enhanced audio performance. Notebook quality looks attractive with its ultra-tough aluminum alloy(military-grade) for the price point and is light weight and durable to withstand harsh environments and accidental drops. Windows 10 was preinstalled and upon initial boot and with few questions like country and keyboard selection it asked to login to my Microsoft account and once done, it started downloading firmware and updating windows. With Wi-Fi 6(11AX) it Charger/Ports: On the left side of the laptop, you have the HDMI port, 2 USB Type-C ports. You can also use any of the USB C ports to charge the laptop battery using a 65W power adapter. On the right side, one USB Type A port, MicroSD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack. Compared to previous gen, this notebook uses no proprietary cable for charging and uses USB- C easy charge for quick charge Battery: It is advertised that include lithium-ion polymer battery will last up to 12 hours and in my testing, it was pretty close to 11 hours of video playback under minimal brightness without the need to charge or connect to power source. Very impressive. Keyboard and Trackpad: Zenbook has a great full functionality keyboard with right amount of key travel during typing. Has dedicated hotkeys for instant access. Got a large Touchpad and is surprisingly good and has a tactile click when pressed. Harmon Kardon sound speakers delivers good audio experience with loud sound and minimal distortion. Compared to other laptops at this price range, this delivers ultimate sound audio experience with the built-in speakers and microphone for the online meetings. Camera/Face Login: Features an advanced IR front facing camera great for all video calls and online meetings. Also, face login is fast when using Windows Hello. Performance: Comes with Windows installed, this notepad has Ryzen 5- 5500U AMD processor, GeForce MX450 NVIDIA graphics card, 256gb SSD storage, VRAM 2GB, RAM of 8GB LPDDR4X delivers good performance for this ultraportable form factor. No issues with browsing multiple tabs, playing online games, watching videos and no lag during testing. Pros: +Ultra Portable, +Military grade durability, +Great Battery life (approx. 9.8 - 10 hours); + Wi-Fi 6 for smooth video chats and large file transfer + Large Track Pad + Face Login + Harmon Kardon Audio + Dedicated hotkeys. Cons: -Not effective Keyboard backlight. Bottomline: This is a great slim ultra-portable notepad with all the ports required for anyone to achieve excellent performance. High quality built, audio, display, screen size and battery life. If you are in the market for a notebook that delivers better performance and not looking for a gaming configuration and need a laptop for everyday use, then you will not be disappointed at the price point it offers. Highly recommend for its performance, price and compact size over other brands in the market.

I was looking for a notebook that was both attractive and could withstand the occasional drop. The Asus Zenbook 14 is just such a device. It's smaller in footprint than my old unit yet has a wider screen that's both brighter and clearer regardless of the fact that both are 1080p resolution. What attracted me to it was the ability to upgrade the storage capacity by adding a MicroSDXC card of up to 1TB. That coupled with the inclusion of a full size USB and HDMI port rather than just USB-C (there's 2 of those as well) meaning I don't have worry about losing the adapters. The long battery life is impressive; they claim 12hrs, with normal usage, I squeezed about 9.5hrs. I could see how you might be able to reach the claimed number if you ran it on full battery saver mode with the backlit keyboard off. I love having a full width keyboard with semi-soft press buttons, my fingers are quite long and need the space. The backlighting doesn't offer just one or two settings, but 3 which is great because when I'm catching up with work in bed while it's pitch black, it's nice to not have the keyboard outshining the screen! This computer has 2 graphics processors, a Radeon processor embedded in the AMD Ryzen 5 chipset and a separate Nvidia GeForce MX450 which really enhances game play and refresh rates. Asus recommends plugging in the computer to make full use of the graphics processors. It has a quick boot up thanks to the 256GB SSD and the super quick face recognition. I clocked it at about a second quicker than my old pc. The only thing I don't much like is the way the screen opens and folds slightly under the base, it's a great feature to haveand props up the keyboard on a flat surface, however it pokes my legs quite a bit when on my lap. A notebook pc is useful when the form factor provides both the necessary and the desired specs, but also follows through with claims. I am quite a bit more comfortable using this Asus Zenbook and may be a little more productive as a result.

So far, I think I made the right decision to purchase this laptop, Asus Zenbook. Performance wise, I don't have anything to complain, it's fast enough for me and no tech problems encountered so far. I had a hard time shopping for a new laptop with too many choices laid out in the market. Good thing I got help from one of the Best Buy's tech expert and recommended this Asus Zenbook to me. I got it on sale which is a great thing, I think I got a good deal. For the price I paid, I think it's worth it and I'm really happy with my purchase. The only downside I can tell is there's no number pad on the side but then again, it's a 14" laptop. Still, I'm happy with my new laptop.

In the past, regarding PC laptops, I've owned Toshiba, Lenovo, and Dell. This is my first Asus experience, and this model has an impressive build and on the top of the lid, a radial gradient finish from behind the Asus logo; That is some uniqueness right there. The trackpad is wide, rectangular like, rather than just short I guess; think of it as a newer standard, like a 16:9 aspect ratio type widescreen TV vs 4:3 standard TV back in the 90s. The quality i think is brushed nickel or metal rather than shiny, which is fine by me. Decals say its a US military grade durability. So I think it should withstand a good amount of stress; But rather just baby the laptop regardless. Looking into the Asus brand, I feel these are one of the most reliable brands. As going off of research I have googled, there's less repair/failure rate on square trade statistics so Asus' brand is less likely to have an issue. Specs wise, this is also first experiencing an AMD processor, a Ryzen series. And I always wanted the "top of the line" processing speed, though I don't even do much work; I'm no music producer or video editor, or intense 3d gaming (on pcs that is), but just a basic surf the net, streaming movies and shows, online learning and training type of guy. The laptop I had before this was an old 2012 with an Intel i7 3632qm, 4 cores and 8 threads. This ASUS however has a good 6 cores, and 12 threads!! and speeds 2.1 - 4 GHz turbo clocked. A Ryzen 7 i 8 cores 16 threads, but heck I don't think I'll need to go that extreme for what I do. Nonetheless, I think this Ryzen 5 Asus will just do the job fine. Of course its faster than my old 2012 i7 laptop, and I think its perfect in the midrange category, that could beat some certain intel i7 based laptops, if not match up to the same performance. I have played a simple, not much graphic intense Telltale series The Walking Dead story based game, and the fans don't ramp up high during gameplay, but stays at a constant either medium or in between medium-high speed, and doesn't appear to be too loud at all. but again the game isn't much graphic intense, but with the discreet GeForce MX450 the graphics on this game shows some good quality, and smoothness without any stuttering frame rates. Great stereo speakers by harmon kardon and they can be loud also. Keyboard is great to type on; backlighting is great and convenient, but most of my time if the laptop is at home on a riser stand, I'm using an external keyboard mostly. I plan to just use this laptop for basic streaming use, and take along when traveling. I can see this laptop as a work laptop especially from home; though most businesses rely on Dell and Lenovo, I think they should try an Asus brand.

First of all this laptop looks and feels amazing to use! Build Quality is excellent and very premium at this price point mouse HP's or Lenovo's still use plastic. This one is all aluminum and a stunning silver color which I personally love! Specs, It's packing a Ryzen 5 5500U (6C/12T) CPU that completely crushes Intel Core i5-1135G7 in multi-core performance due to have those extra two cores, it even beats the i7-1165G7 at times! 8GB RAM LPDDR4X at 4266MHz, Unfortunately the RAM is not upgradable but 8GB is plenty as this just a school laptop can even do some light gaming. GPU- This laptop has a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX450 2GB which is about about as good as mobile GeForce GTX 1050. So therefore you can do some light gaming, Genshin Impact on high runs flawlessly at 50-60FPS very playable (plugged in). Keyboard is very pleasant to type on, the silver keys are kind of a downside but I go used to them, just have the backlight turned off during the day and on at night it gets the job done. Trackpad is glass and definitely one of the better Windows trackpads I've used, still far from MacBook trackpads (only thing I like about MacBook's lol) I'm a Windows guy. Screen is beautiful and very portable, 14" 1080p and 100% sRGB color gamut. This laptop is so compact it smaller than a 13.3" MacBook Pro mid 2012 (non-retina) and fits nicely in a incase MacBook Pro 13" sleeve! Battery life is nuts, all the laptop I've had in the past would be drained of all 100% in 2-4 hours, but not this one, ASUS advertises 12 hours. Well I get around 9-11 hours with full brightness, keyboard backlight off and doing school work (not really utilizing the MX450 GPU. It also helps if you disable the MX450 in device manager to get about 45 minutes more of battery life! Also I went with ASUS this time because I've had HP and in the past and all of them had problems within 1 week! And they were just plain awful of an experience for me. So far this laptop has served me well for the 12 days I've had it and I hope that continues. I would highly recommend this laptop for school if you are in engineering and need a dedicated GPU that doesn't go into the bulkiness of a fully-fledged gaming laptop unless it's a ROG Zephyrus G14. This model is also the only one to have a headphone jack oddly enough. I also recommend this if you need a thin and elegant laptop for your business. Usually I see business' sourcing laptops from HP, Dell and Lenovo. I think they should give ASUS a try!