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

Considering I have a MacBook Pro that I just purchased, this is on par with it. I needed a windows laptop to replace my aging Toshiba from 2007. Yes I know why do I need 2 computers well I actually have 5 kids and their homeschooled so there!!! I love the features, light up keyboard, hdmi port, etc. it’s sleek lite and perfect for lite gaming as well. I looked up for many accessories and couldn’t find many but this laptop is exactly similar to an Asus Zenbook 14 UX425 if your looking for screenguards, keyboard cover etc. It charges pretty fast with the supplied charger. Lasts about 9-10 hours with mild internet surfing. When using it heavily ( coping files from external hdd to hdd and downloading huge files ) it lasts about 6-7 hours from 100% to 27%. It already comes with Windows 11 not 10. In my opinion is way easier to use than Windows 10. Hope this helps anyone looking to an Asus. Also might I add I paid under $500 Oh if you see the photos, I know I was attempting my own custom cover skin so it’s not perfect.

Nice compact size and lightweight. Not too big or too small. Works great! Have not had any problems. Had this laptop for about a year or more. Processing speed is quick, no lags. Works well for watching movies, videos, email, word processing, and much more. Bought it at a great price! Employee helped me narrow down which laptop to buy from the few I was considering. Employee was super helpful, patient, and knowledgeable. I would definitely recommend this laptop.

This laptop is great, been using it for school for about 2 years at this point and it hasn’t failed me once. As long as you’re not doing any heavy work on it, then everything runs pretty smoothly. This laptop won’t be for you if you need to any heavy work though because of its specs, but otherwise, it works pretty well and is really smooth.

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.

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.

I was in dire need of a laptop for business that could handle light gaming for when I'm on the road; unfortunately, there was not much to choose from around the $1,000 range that sounded like it would meet my needs. Knowing that this only has 8GB of RAM (in 2021, why is this still a thing? My laptop from 2010 had 8GB of ram from the factory!) and 256 GB of hard drive space, I purchased it. First, during setup I had to not only accept Microsoft's telemetry, but was surprised to see Asus had their own telemetry and EULA. Seriously, why? I do not need my information going to another 3rd party who may or may not have a data breach. Second, it feels slow. I was using a Ryzen embedded system V1605b from Gigabyte and it was significantly more responsive than this "full" Ryzen 5. There have already been times where I try to click something and the system pauses for a few seconds and the window becomes unresponsive. Third, no where in the onsite listing or at Best Buy, itself, did they list this as having an iGPU. From the advertisement, it was listed as having a "Dedicated" MX450, which is fine for my light gaming. This issue lead to my fourth problem. Fourth: There is no option to choose "High Power" in the power settings! There is only "Balanced" and "Asus Recommended". This means that I cannot ever use the full power of the MX450. I have to manually choose via the limited NVIDIA panel program by program; I hate this feature with a passion and would have never bought this laptop had I known that it had a gimped graphics system. I tried to create a "Performance" profile, but I was only able to choose from the ones I listed above. So while my screenshot says "Performance" (I named it that being hopeful), it is nothing but "Asus Recommended". Fifth, I'm severely disappointed in the 256GB. To get this to a functional level, I have to buy another NVMe SSD, which is $200-$300 for the 1TB - 2TB models. My music collection takes up more than 256GB, so I can't have my music with me when I travel. My documents, without my ebooks, are at 20GB (business PDFs and such); with my books, that's another 100GB (again, PDFs take up a lot of room). Forget about videos, family or otherwise. And luckily, my game is less than 5GB. To be fair, I knew that I would have to buy another NVMe immediately; however, given everything else above, this became a deal breaker. All in all, I've been underwhelmed and disappointed, and I've yet to own it for 24 hours. I'm heading back to the store to return it today and will hopefully find something more suitable. To Asus: I have my own business and I try to give people more than they expect. I do not feel as if I got that with this system. In fact, I got way less in terms of ability to configure and use my system, and, way more in terms of telemetry. I was not given an option to deny your spying.

I absolutely love my little laptop. It's smaller than any other laptop I've ever owned but it works flawlessly! It runs smoothly, it has great sound, it has a great display! The only downside is the size but there is a lot of power packed in this small machine!

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.