ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED Review - Mid range OLED laptop with Intel Core Ultra Q415MA / Q425MA

[@NaturalHalfling]

Appreciate you actually doing midrange reviews rather than going for the latest and greatest configuration.

[@SanicTheHidgehag]

Thank you for the review! I've been enjoying your reviews for many years (possibly more than a decade), and I'm so glad you reviewed this laptop. I had trouble finding good reviews, if any, on this laptop, and the amount of detail you put in your review didn't let me down!

[@Andykev]

I knew you would get to reviewing the Zenbook with the OLED! I bought the same unit, and love it! Mine came with the Intel 17-13700H with 16 gb of RAM and the 512 Samsung SSD. The display can be 60 or 120 mHz (selectable). The laptop is dark gray vs your light color. This was a special for $699 around Christmas. I think I lucked out on the price, as the specs are a bit higher than the review example. That said, the Asus Zenbook 14 is one of the best laptops, it looks fantastic and very fast.. Great review!

[@chrisallegretta]

Non-upgradable RAM is the worst thing that happened to laptops. With storage we haven't totally lost the fight yet at least.

[@mzamroni]

the trade off are speed, cost and power consumption though. soldered lpddr today is significantly faster than sodimm ddr while consuming less power and (on paper) cheaper

[@andyH_England]

It is not an issue. I suspect most people complaining want to upgrade to save money, that is, buy and upgrade the base with cheap modular RAM. The problem is that Core Ultra chips run the best, and LPDDR5X is the one you cannot buy modular. So why would Intel make it modular? As for upgrading to after RAM in 3-5 years, the reality is that it will also be soldered or based on a new design that is more efficient than the very ancient modular DIM. As for repairability, RAM is one of the most long-lasting components in PCs and will outlast most PCs by many years. Tech has to advance as well. Otherwise, we would not see the wonderful speed and performance we can achieve now.

[@TrusteftTech]

@@andyH_England It's not just about saving money, it's about what will happen if the RAM goes bad. It can happen, I have personal experience, and that is not going to be fun to deal with if you have soldered RAM. Not fun at all.

[@andyH_England]

@@TrusteftTech The rule in tech is that if the RAM does not fail in six months it is likely to last for as long as you need. As we have warranties, in the UK two years, then RAM failure is not something we should ever worry about in 2024. This is not the 1980s and component longevity of SSDs and RAM is now excellent. The failure rate is about 0.7% in the first year, yet afterwards, nominal. We could worry about dying in a motor accident, the chances in the US are about 1%, yet we still drive and do not worry about that low possibility. Sometimes you have to stop worrying about low possibility outcomes.

[@TrusteftTech]

@@andyH_England I am into computers since the early 80s. RAM from the 80s till now can fail at any time. Whenever that happens, if it is soldered you are FRAKED. You can't just replace it yourself and keep on working. You have to send it for repairs, if it is under warranty, or if it is not under warranty pay who knows how much to have it repaired/replaced. Which means far more money than if you just bought new RAM, and definitely far more time wasted. If it is even possible of course. There is no real advantage for the end user. Any possible speed difference is a joke compared to the potential problem and at the very least time wasted waiting. You don't have to agree with me. It's fine to disagree. You buy what you want, I will continue not buying what I want.

[@ikjadoon]

That is an amazing price for such a quality laptop and with OLED to boot. Really impressed. Would love to see similar laptops and prices for Qualcomm and AMD laptops one day.

[@StaceyAyodele]

Disappointed that they soldered the RAM. Shame that more companies are doing that with these laptops. It's so sad.

[@ihave7sacks]

Yep, thank Apple for the courage to do that.

[@andyH_England]

ASUS did not do this. Core Ultra uses the fastest LPDDR5X, and it is impossible to manufacture it in a modular form. Intel chose the fastest RAM as part of the new chipset so that they could highlight its performance. OEMs can use 14th-generation Intel chips if they want modular and slower RAM. Still, for obvious reasons, every OEM chooses Core Ultra for their ultrabooks, as most people value speed>upgradeability.

[@2geik]

Thank you for the video. I wasn't know the rams are not upgradable before the video and i was almost buying it.

[@mattsanchez4893]

Nice review Lon, will most likely be my next laptopm however, I'd be getting the 16gb version with a 2 or 4k resolution. It doesnt't make any sense in this day an age to have a laptop with less than 16 GB or ram, particularly given the low price of ram these days...

[@MackenzieHorn]

Looks solid. My last 2 laptops have been ASUS and I have had a great experience.

[@bbgarnettTotallyNotABot]

Keep up the great work

[@asan1050]

Lon! Thanks for posting this video.

[@r1r8m8]

thank you for this review, really helped!

[@seyfcode]

For the driver issue on Linux, you need to manually compile and use kernel v6.7.12 on your distro.

[@ericB3444]

Me Gardner Raul approved YOUS video. He said he loves yous ASUS BOOK PLANT.

[@spladam3845]

I've been playing NMS again, great game. Good review, pricey laptop.

[@BackyardniJuan]

Is there any “burn in” issues?

[@michael_c2]

Honestly, this compares pretty favorably to something like the surface lineup in terms of value anyway. Seems to be trying to compete with those business grade ultra books.

[@TrusteftTech]

The limitation, or worry about burn in, would easily make me not want to have such a panel. Just having that in my mind all the time it would drive me more crazy. Otherwise it looks like a fine laptop, as long as you get it with more RAM. Good video.

[@banepigeon]

Burn in is usually not an issue as long as you follow the recommendations. My 2020 Vivobook 15 OLED with relatively heavy daily use has no signs of burn in to this day, still looks a beautiful as ever.

[@TrusteftTech]

@@banepigeon I am not good with following any recommendations. If it doesn't work as I want it to work, it's not for me.

[@michael_c2]

I've never had burn in in my life and I've probably owned a dozen OLED devices. Obviously that's not a big enough sample size to say it never happens or anything but wouldn't be a huge concern of mine

[@abdullahbasith3073]

How would this perform on a game like Minecraft

[@tayabali9155]

What about trackpad? It is available numeric key functions like other zen books model

[@GraspingLife246]

I just got this laptop with the 16gb memory. It usually runs half of its memory with normal usage, 8 - 9gb/16gb

[@PortalPatroller]

Does it support pen?

[@RuralLifeKH]

the real problem is it run as intel Arc or not with only 8gb ram?

[@AngeloRoncallioficial]

Thank you very much for your video. Could you confirm 8gb version does not come with arc igpu, instead comes with Intel Graphics? I was not able to confirm this information and what igpu is that. Thanks

[@mythutsho4861]

No this 8 gb variant doesn’t come with arc igpu,I recently thought of buying this model but when I came to know about this fact,I skipped this model…

[@AngeloRoncallioficial]

@@mythutsho4861 I have skipped this model too. Not good at all.

[@pierreduard]

Si it good for Revit and 3DsMax?

[@mohdnihalcs]

Is the touch screen can be turned off ?

[@MikeEarwood]

I've used this laptop for several months now and it's been very disappointing, Especially at this price point. The Zenbook runs very hot even with minimal use. The CPU does great on benchmarks but my older 11th Gen Intel i7 runs much cooler and seems faster on most tasks. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in the Zenbook stutters and lags constantly. The battery life is also disappointing. The reviews I read/saw implied the Zenbook had great battery life but that's not been my experience. It does have a beautiful OLED screen but that's the only positive it has going for it.

[@joltdude]

Little disappointed in Asuss current warranty practices

[@jaralara6429]

What are they doing? I'm a little out of the loop

[@5DiFika]

Lon, it is a scam that every laptop manufacturer sells soldered to motherboard memory , not upgradeable and 8gb is not enough, they want us to trash it in 2 years and that is NOT how people think when they take their money to buy a new laptop. Win10 just stock with a browser and a couple of tabs consumes more than 6gb or ram. I think 32gb of ram should be the right number if you want a laptop that lasts for 5 or 6 years or even more. If a laptop does not have 32gb of ram...i would not even consider to buy it, it is a scam

[@Ockv74]

❤❤❤

[@rushmore3927]

Doom Eternal works now and plays great. Surprisingly so.

[@shadyhajjeh-ro3gn]

also to get intel arc you need 16gb ram at 8 its only intel graphics. not arc

[@damienretro4416]

It's unfortunate that these 90Hz OLED panels don't support VRR or Freesync.

[@andyH_England]

This is a mid-range laptop. To get to this price, there are sacrifices. You have to step up to premium ultrabooks if you want better.

[@michael_c2]

There's some available on the resale market as well. For closer to 550 600

[@LonSeidman]

wow already! I think it just came out the other day.

[@kiligkiligkilig]

where?

[@banepigeon]

Anything with 8GB of non-upgradable ram or less should simply not be considered… Most midrange laptops in 2020 had 16GB paired with i5s and that was usually upgradable as well. This is a 2024 laptop with 8GB of soldered on RAM, it’s borderline e waste.

[@CS_1989]

they can keep the touchscreen option, waste of resources on a laptop

[@5DiFika]

From my experience with laptops with soldered to motherboard memory, i would just stay away, specially because you are paying more than 800 dollars for something you can´t fix easy, sadly every manufacturer is doing the same thing and leaves no options to consumers. I had really bad experience with a ryzen lenovo E14 laptop where a ram chip went bad and you were not even able to finish the windows 10 install!. There are ways and tools to skip the bad sectors using memtest and linux, but windows is a different thing because you are required to install windows10 first and then run the tools. A complete cat and mice situation where i had to do a win10 install on virtualbox , clone image it in virtual box, restore to nvme using another desktop PC with an nvme to usb adapter, just to prepare it to make it work on the lenovo with bad ram areas. After all that i just hate soldered to motherboard memory

[@RLleeo]

@@5DiFika Heyy. I'm confused, I've a budget of 1000-800$ for laptop.. Which would be better ( engineering student)

[@0Zero0-y2f]

🟥🟩🟨