Customer Ratings & Reviews

As other reviews mention, the color of the keys can make it tricky to see under certain lighting conditions. It's not a deal breaker if you are familiar with a keyboard layout. I have experienced some odd quirks where the fan goes on full blast after waking up from sleep mode. I also experienced an issue where the network connection would drop after waking up. However neither has happened recently and I'm hoping it's resolved. I use it for work, which involves mostly writing documents and virtual meetings these days. Does well in both areas. It's very light, which is probably the best part. It's also fairly fast, although I don't really have a lot installed. Overall I'm satisfied.

I purchased the Zenbook 14 back in July and still believe it's probably the best package you can get for a laptop of this type.  And as I write this, it's on sale for $499.99 which is an absolute steal.  For the price, you're getting a very small, very light, aluminum ultrabook with a great 6-core Ryzen 4500U, 8GB of fast RAM and discrete graphics in the form of the MX350.  You really can't beat this for the price. Since there are numerous thoughtful reviews on this laptop, and since I've owned it for a while now, rather than write a typical review, I thought I might just mention a few things that might help people enjoy the laptop a bit more. 1) Let's start with USB-C charging.  Many people are disappointed that the laptop does not charge by USB-C. I was one of them - I think any laptop that is not precluded from USB-C charging because of its power requirements should do so.  But this is easy enough to fix.  USB-C to barrel charger adapters are very inexpensive and work very well.  This is the one I use: Cablecc USB 3.1 Type C USB-C to DC 19V Adapter PD Emulator Trigger 90 Degree Angled (4.0x1.3mm) Couple that with a USB-C charger capable of 60W Power Delivery (PD) or more, and bingo - now you can charge via USB-C.  I also have a portable power bank that supports 60W PD so I can power the laptop even if I'm completely away from any outlet.  The one I use is this: USB C Portable Charger RAVPower 20000mAh 60W PD 3.0 Power Bank 2-Port Power Delivery Laptop Charger 2) Now let's talk about using this laptop for gaming.  With a laptop this small and powerful, I like to use it as a portable gaming machine. The MX350 graphics card is essentially a cut down GTX1050, and there are plenty of games that will play great with this. But, if you try something like CS:GO, you'll quickly find out that there are some serious frame rate spikes and slowdowns that make the game unplayable on battery (note - this is *never* and issue when plugged in.) There is an easy fix for this, however.  The reason this happens is because the laptop can't supply enough power on battery for the graphics card.  But you simply don't need the graphics card to be working so hard to pump out frames that you can't see because they are beyond the refresh rate of your display.  The fix is to simply cap the FPS at the refresh rate of your monitor. Specifically: Go to NVIDIA Control Panel Click "Manage 3D settings"Click on "Program Settings" under "I would like to use the following 3D settings:" Under "1," select CS:GO Under "2," I keep it at "Auto-select", which defaults to the MX350 over the integrated Radeon graphics Under "3,", scroll until you find the "Max Frame Rate" feature, and set it to 60FPS, which is the refresh rate of the Zenbook 14 MX350's monitor. Make sure you hit "Apply"Close the window, fire up CS:GO and enjoy 60 FPS on battery power. :) (Note - some people have suggested setting the cap slightly below the refresh rate, say 59 FPS, to reduce any screen tearing, but I haven't found this to be enough of an issue for me.) 3) If you read reviews of this laptop here at Best Buy and elsewhere on the internet, you'll see that some people have come across an issue where the laptop wakes from sleep and the fan starts spinning at full blast, with only a full power down/up correcting the problem.  There are at least two different fixes for this that a quick google search will turn up.  I had this issue, fiddled with some power management settings in Device Manager and the problem has not returned. 4) If you don't like the auto brightness setting that is constantly changing the display intensity, you can easily turn this off. AMD calls this "Vari-Bright" and you can find it by going into the AMD Radeon settings, and clicking "Display."  Once there, simply locate the Vari-Bright setting and switch it to "off." 5) Upgrade-ability - the RAM is soldered on, but you can replace the SSD (and if I remember correctly, the WIFI card, but don't quote me on that since I haven't been inside this laptop since July).  The visible chassis screws are Torx T5.  There are also two screws under the circular rear rubber feet.  My memory is that those are Phillips head screws (P0 or P1).  Be careful when taking out the Torx screws - mine were on very tight.  Use a good screwdriver so you don't strip them.  Also, be careful when prying up the rubber feet.  Whatever glue Asus is using for these is incredibly strong, and it took quite a bit more effort that I would've thought to pry them off.  Once off, they can be put back into place (ie, you don't need to buy replacement rubber feet - reuse the ones you have. They will still stick again.). So...those are just a few things I found useful with this laptop and I hope others might also.  As I wrote above, this laptop is really a fantastic package - very portable, and quite powerful for its size.  At the current sale price of $499, it is an absolutely steal.  Enjoy it!

Good machine, lightweight, good spec for price i bought: $435 black Friday open box. Wish back light on keyboard was brighter, letters harder to see in full lite room unless u get right on top, noticed this with other asus in store as well. Ram is 8gigs but cannot but upgraded since its soldered on the board, biggest draw back, since i was hoping try out some video editing on it, but has a graphics card to help (though a basic one). Processor had higher clock speed than some of the more expensive ones. For the price i paid did pretty good.

So far, so good! I love the size and ease of starting up and getting on line. Keyboard is becoming easier to use as it is smaller than what I am used to on my old HP laptop. I do miss having a touch screen and numbers pad though, but, here again, am slowly getting used to those issues. The keys are hard to see in a low light setting though. Have only had this for a few months but I have improved my typing skills back to when I was typing for a living so that is a big plus for me! I love the convenience of my 14" Zenbook!

For the price you really cant beat this, I picked it up when it was on sale for $550 and I am not disappointed. Even for its regular price of $700 I think it is a great value. It doesn't have the best specs but when you sub $1000 for a laptop you don't really expect the best. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the backlit keyboard. Incomplete darkness it works well so I don't really all that many complaints about it because I only generally turn it in darkness but if you leave it on during the day it can get kind of tricky to see the letters in some lighting. With that being said other than that I have no issues with this laptop. The small size and rather large screen for being so compact is great, I upgraded from a 15.6 ASUS laptop because I wanted something smaller and lighter and this fit that perfectly.

This is a really solid mid range laptop and an excellent value for the price. Besides a couple small cons, I'm very happy with the purchase. The pros: it's incredibly light and very easy to transport. I upgraded from an old 5 pound Asus professional laptop that I never wanted to use because it was such a pain. I'm happy to open this up to browse Facebook or check my email, which I used to do only on my phone. So it gets major pros for lightweight, compact performance. It's also very snappy, and doesn't lag noticeably. It starts up really fast. The screen is a decent resolution for the price, and it gets plenty bright. My old Asus also had a matte screen, which I hated, and was worried this would be similar, but it's much higher quality. It does have a dedicated graphics card, which wouldn't be helpful to any serious gamer, but I find it really improves media. The build quality is really impressive for a laptop at this price. I think the chassis is metal, and it's cold to the touch when the computer is off. The keyboard is not mushy, and is very easy to type on. My cons: The TouchPad is so large that its easy to accidentally hit when you're typing. The letters on the keyboard can be really hard to read, but I know the keyboard by feel so it's not the worst thing in the world. There is a weird thing that happens every once in a while where the fan starts running CONSTANTLY whenever the lid is open, and the only thing that turns it off is a hard power cycle. The biggest issue for me is that the the speakers are pretty crappy. They're barely audible when there's any white noise, so it's just a pain to have to use headphones almost all the time. Other than that, I'm very happy with this laptop and it works very well for me.

Amazing laptop. Performs well. I get a solid 6hrs of battery life. I bought this as an open box. I can do some decent gaming. Hitman 2, Grid 2019, mass effect 3. Does get a bit warm around the keyboard. Not the best camera but it works. Overall this is a solid machine for the price oh and backlit keyboard

I bought this laptop as an upgrade to my old zenbook that I bought in 2014. Overall for the price and for it being a laptop it is good quality. However it doesn't have 5 stars for several reasons. The main one being the keyboard. Because it has the additional buttons on the right side the overall size of the keyboard is smaller and makes it uncomfortable to type on. I find that my hands are more curled compared to the previous keyboard. The lighting on the keyboard is also off as some reviews have stated. If you are in dim lighting with the keyboard lights on it makes it difficult to see the keys. The fan can be loud sometimes but I think that's just a matter of elevating the laptop. I do appreciate that it has a regular sized HDMI port compared to the previous one that had a mini-HDMI port since its not as universally available. I do enjoy playing games and I can say that it works well. I'm more of a simulation gamer, so I play games like The Sims which don't require too much.

This laptop an all around amazing laptop for the price. I bought the Zenbook on sale for 499$ and this is a great laptop! The mx350 allows this laptop to do some light to moderate gaming with medium to low settings flawlessly. There was an issue with the fans and the battery life, but windows updates fix most of the issue present. When you receive a laptop, make sure to keep checking for updates everyday to make the experience better. The ram could be better, but for school work and light gaming, it works perfect! Battery for me is about 6-8 hours of screen on time, which is good enough for most people.

After using a 15" laptop, I decided I needed something a bit more portable and lighter for what I needed it for. And this does just that, it's very light, small, compact, and powerful. Paired with a 4500u and nvidia MX350, you can't really go wrong with this laptop. The keyboard lighting is not the greatest, but in a dark dark room, I think it'll be fine. The keyboard itself I think is pretty good as well. The screens 300 nits and color accuracy is what makes this laptop shine...big time. Other brands, including Asus themselves on other laptops? Pay attention. This is the standard that people want, so give the people what they want. That said, this laptop does not have a touch screen which some may want and others may not care. One of the biggest gripes about this laptop and others alike is the fact that the RAM is soldered at only 8gb. Meaning you cannot upgrade it. For whats going on in the world right now? I think that's fine...but for long term in the future? This may be a problem for some. Increasing the laptop to 16gb, people would have gladly paid for that price increase, I guarantee it, and this would pretty much be an almost perfect laptop. Speaking of almost perfect? Another ding on this laptop is to do with it's performance due to it's cooling solution. Both included processors inside are pretty powerful yet they appear to be gimped because the laptop is not the greatest with keeping them cool or because artificial throttling in wattage is applied to them. This is really where I am dinging that one star for, for me. If Asus would have provided a better cooling solution to make sure the laptop can remain stable or get even higher clocks that these processors are capable of, it would've been the almost perfect laptop. As for the build itself? The build is pretty solid in some aspects, and others, like the bottom, feels a bit flimsy, making some question if it's plastic or aluminum. I believe it's aluminum, just really thin. Overall laptop, very thin. The type C port can only be used for storage and does not provide charging or monitor support. In my eyes, type C ports are supposed to be universal for all of these things to be put in one. ALL companies should use these ports to the fullest regardless of price, the customers will thank you a lot more for it. That said, if you really wanted to use type C charging, this is possible with 3rd party adapters. The barrel size you're looking for, DC TO PD 4.0mm x 1.35mm in size with TYPE C. Some might be mislabeled as 4.0mm x 1.3mm in size of which I actually ordered one of these and it still works WITH a 65w+ type C charger. The provided NVME ssd drive provided, 256gb, is gen3 x2. I doubt most people would notice the speed increase, but upgrading the SSD is also possible as this laptop does have a single nvme M2 slot that actually supports gen3 x4 speeds. I tested this myself as I upgraded this laptop with a bigger, faster, better quality NVME M2 SSD. All things considered, although with a few dings, for the on sale price of this laptop? I think is still a great deal.

I bought this laptop on sale for $499.99. At that price it is a fantastic price to performance ratio. It is very fast, lightweight, CNC aluminum body, LED screen provides vibrant colors and clarity, good speakers. This laptop technically has dual GPU's, they are not super powerful by any means but they can still run some games. I definitely recommend this laptop.

Wonderful laptop simple to use and compact for easy toting

It is a very good laptop, light and handy. However, it is hard to see the letters on the keybord, and the power code is too short, which I read in the review. I thought that it would not be a big deal, but as soon as I started using it, these two points become bothersome. I should have purchased the Dell laptop whose price went down for the similar range for the Labor Day sale. I prefer lighter this Zen book than the Dell laptop, but how many times do I have to carry this laptop for my trip? Also, the one at the Best Buy display had the calculation on the laptop panel, but the actual product that I received did not have the same function. I am a little bit regret not choosing the Dell for the similar price with more memory, etc.

This laptop is a nice lightweight laptop. With the AMD Ryzen 5 -8GB is fast especially when paired with linux. I have tried to linux distros on this laptop. Mint and Ubuntu. Mint the most recent one -20.2 rocks. When you install it comes with Linux kernel 5.08. but it will upgrade the first time to 5.11. With the power management within Mint without doing any fancy stuff you can easily get 9 plus hours on this guy. This makes it a winner for me. With linux I can do all the stuff I need to on this laptop such as web browsing, running Wine32/64 for windows apps. PDF editing and commenting, word processing, playing light weight games, doing work in Google Earth (linux version), and watching videos. The screen on this is great. Some people complain about being able to see the letters on the keyboard under certain lighting conditions and I agree. But a cheap Keyboard Cover you can find on line for $7 takes care of that problem. Caution if switching to linux make sure you update the bios before switching or look at setting up dual booting soe you can update the bios . All and all a very good laptop. Good value for the price. I enjoy using it.

This laptop has a very nice build quality. Very light and compact. My father loves it. Battery life is around 6 hours and it is fast. Too bad it only has 8gb non upgradable ram. For $500 (I bought it for $435 open box) new it is a STEAL. Trackpad is amazing. Nice IR camera but no fingerprint. USB C is data only, no charge or displayport.

Fantastic laptop and powerful for the price. So far, no issues, crashes, slowness. The new AMD processors work like a dream. Great computer for light gaming (League, FTL, CS, etc). My only complaint is the speaker quality being fairly lacking. It’s good enough that I’d certainly buy this same model again if given the choice.

LOVE my laptop! I've had it for two years now and it works perfect! No issues! Image and sound is great! I use it for graphic design daily and it runs Adobe apps with no issue. Only thing i don't like so much is the keys don't light up enough so it's hard to see the letters.

This is exactly what I needed lightweight fast quiet! Backlit key board difficult to see but at night as long as you adjust backlit keyboard it is brighter wish the lettering of the keys were black Or a more visible color white on grey kinda not a good plan

Great Computer for people on a Budget. Nice design and great performance for the money. Light weight and great for school and college students. I would say the only let down are is the color of the keyboard which doesn’t let you see the letters or numbers in a illuminated area. Overall great Computer for the money.

Screen is good, but not amazing Battery life is good, but not amazing Very Light Weight and Portable - Amazing Issues - keyboard won’t work after it wakes up from sleep mode - have to reset Too easy to make gestures by accident on the track pad which affects work flow Other than that - overall good purchase