ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405) review – premium 14-incher with superb OLED panel and Meteor Lake-H CPU options

Design and construction

The ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405) is a new notebook but its design with geometric lines on the lid is very similar to the one of the ASUS Zenbook 14 (UM3402) or ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED (UP3404). The Ponder Blue and Foggy Silver are the color options. Based on our previous experience with other ASUS laptops with similar-looking chassis, we can say that the Foggy Silver option is the way to go if you don’t want to clean the machine frequently. The surface of our blue machine is a true fingerprint magnet. The gadget impresses with a 1.20 kg starting weight and a profile thickness of just 14.9 mm.

The lid opens smoothly with a single hand and can’t be flexed too much if you try to twist it on purpose. The whole zone below the keyboard can be bent a bit but nothing too serious.

The base houses many stickers. The “Intel Evo edition” label reminds us that the battery life should be boosted because of the additional optimizations.

The bezels that surround the high-end display are as thin as possible.

The top bezel is home to a 1080p IR Web camera with a privacy shutter.

This fella can lay flat on your desk. The two small rubber feet on the lower side of the lid protect the unit against scratches. That’s because the lid raises the back of the laptop but that happens only when the angle of the opening is too wide for comfortable work (or at least that’s our humble opinion).

The profile of the device may be thin but the backlit chiclet keyboard has a long travel and clicky feedback. The smooth and accurate touchpad can be transformed into an ASUS NumberPad (option) with a touch of a virtual button.

On the bottom panel, we can spot three rubber feet, a big ventilation grill, and the cutouts for the speakers. The hot air is pushed on the back of the device through a two-level vent. Its upper part aims at the display hinge while the bottom one blows the heat to the ground. There is another vent on the left side of the laptop.

Ports

On the left, you get just one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. The other side houses the majority of the ports – an HDMI 2.1 TMDS, an Audio combo jack, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort and power delivery capabilities.

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

Subscribe

Notify of

new follow-up commentsnew replies to my comments

I allow to use my email address and send notification about new comments and replies (you can unsubscribe at any time).

{} [+]

Name*

Email*

Website

I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

The comment form collects your name, email, and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.

{} [+]

Name*

Email*

Website

I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

The comment form collects your name, email, and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments