Within today’s hybrid working environment, consumers want to invest in technology that offers them flexibility and mobility. Besides many South Africans having the ability to work from home at least part of the time, they may also on occasion have to go to a coffee shop when there is loadshedding for instance, or can even do some work right from the natural surroundings of their garden.
Consequently, you have more discerning buyers requiring a laptop that not only provides them with the collaboration and productivity tools they need in their jobs, but also addresses some specific challenges or adds additional value to the user experience. For us, a high-resolution display particularly an OLED one is really ideal to take our content consumption to the next level, whilst a thin and light-capable device with great battery life is also of paramount importance. ASUS’s Zenbook 14 OLED ticks all of these boxes.
The stylish chassis and lid are made of lightweight aluminum alloy, meaning that this Windows 11-powered notebook PC tips the laptop scales at just 1.39 kg while boasting a sleek slide profile of less than 16.9 mm. That model physique does not mean that you get an anorexic amount of computing power under the fashionable hood, with a 12th generation Intel Core i7 processor clocked at 2.5 GHz doing duty and supported by 16 GB of RAM (4800 MHz LPDDR5), and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. ASUS have also not left you wanting in terms of connectivity, since you get Thunderbolt 4, full-size HDMI 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, microSD card reader and an audio jack.
The star of this laptop show though has to be the 14″ 16:10 (2880 x 1800) 90 Hz OLED touchscreen, which features a peak brightness of up to 550 nits, and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The latter is important for content creators such as video editors and photo editors, whilst the rest of these particular specs make it ideal for consuming content too.
Whether it is a movie on Netflix or Google TV, a YouTube video or your favourite series on Amazon Prime Video or Disney+, the 2.8K 16:10 OLED HDR display will deliver fantastic detail, and amazing colours (certified VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black). Furthermore, the 4-sided NanoEdge design with really slim 2.8 mm bezels on its external borders provides an up to 90% screen-to-body ratio, making the viewing experience much more engaging. A unique hinge design allows full 180° movement, enabling you to lay the laptop flat, which allows for easy on-screen content sharing during in-person team meetings.
Accompanying the great visuals are the equally impressive sound thanks to ASUS providing an audio system for the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED that has been tuned not only by their own experts from the ASUS Golden Ear team but has also been certified by audio specialists Harman Kardon. Consequently, you get louder volumes, richer depth, and better surround-sound effects than a comparably sized notebook PC.
Sound enhancement features are also extended to the collaboration and communication functionality that we have all come to know quite well over the last couple of years, namely video calls and online meetings via Microsoft Teams, Google Meet/Duo and Zoom. Business travellers and other remote employees will appreciate this videoconferencing functionality that involves voice quality enhancements in the form of ASUS AI Noise-Canceling Audio. This ensures that users can hear and be heard clearly in any online meeting/video call scenario. A ClearVoice Mic function page lets users select from one of four modes: Normal, Balanced, Single Presenter or Multi-Presenter.
Additional features include the Zenbook 14 OLED series’ 75-watt-hour battery, which provides more than enough battery life to cover a day of work or play, a comfortable typing experience via the ErgoSense Keyboard, as well as a good trackpad that integrates NumberPad 2.0. This allows you to swipe from the top left icon in any direction on the trackpad to activate the Calculator app on the main display, which can be handy in certain scenarios.
Ultimately, for us and for anyone looking for a great all-round business laptop experience, it will be well worth the starting R24 000 recommended retail pricetag.
