Xiaomi’s Mi 10T Pro has a 144Hz screen and a 5,000mAh battery

..

Asus has therefore many ZenBook 14 models it stresses me out. There's the UX433, a 2.6-pound slim-bezeled affair. There's the Flip 14, an embroiled convertible. There's the UX431, a mid-tier $900 option. And there's the UX425, which Asus quietly stamped out beforehand this summer, that included a few tweaks to the unstinting ZenBook design. Spoken beforehand this ages were the UX435, with a tiny sidekick exhibit in quarters of the touchpad, and the UX425EA.

For the past few days, I've been testing the ZenBook 14 UX425EA (specifically, the UX425EA-SH74). You can't buy it yet -- Asus is eyeing a mid-October release. There's not opulent that differentiates the UX425EA from the horde of ZenBooks atop -- it's got the aforementioned prismatic metal lid, the fold-under hinge, and the meaty build. Except optics are on this photographic ZenBook for one reason: the processor. The UX425EA is one of the headmost production machines to integrate Intel's quad-core Core i7-1165G7 (of the 11th Gen Tiger Natatorium line).

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

You can get it in "pine grey" or "lilac mist." This is the pine one.

. .. .

.

I got to try the flagship Core i7-1185G7 in an Intel advertence design beforehand this month, and the waves I saw from Intel's new integrated graphics were excellent. Therefore I had loftier expectations for the actual similar 1165G7 as well, particularly on the gaming front. I went into this review with two main questions: does the 1165G7 engender its Intel progenitor (the 1065G7, which presidium the preponderant recent Dell XPS 13) and does it engender AMD's Ryzen 7 4800U (part of Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 7)? The apologia to both of these questions is yes -- supposing not as crudely as I expected.

The demand of the ZenBook is in its portability

First, a quick ZenBook 14 crash course. The demand of this strap (and the UX425 in particular) is in portability over performance. The UX425 is mirrorlike for a 14-inch palmtop at 2.49 pounds (1.13kg) and twing at 0.54 inches (13.72mm). Asus has managed to work the exhibit into a chassis that doesn't feel too opulent limitlessness than that of preponderant 13-inch rigs -- there's a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio, topper to the twing (2.5mm) bezels on the sides of the display. (The top and googol bezels are supplemental withstanding than those of the Emoluments XPS 13, except they're not terrible -- 6.2mm and 10.9mm, respectively.)

..

..

..

. ..

. .. Our review of . .. Asus Zenbook 14 (late 2020). ..

.

. Verge Score. 8 out of 10. ..

. ..

. .

. ..

.

. ..

Good Stuff

. ..

• Strong integrated graphics performance
• Light and portable
• Touchpad becomes a numpad
• 1W tegument option

. ..

. ..

. ..

Bad Stuff

. ..

• No audio jack
• No fingerprint sensor
• Not-great webcam

. ..

.

.

Two supplemental gloss help differentiate the UX425 from the field. The headmost is a 1W tegument option, which should theoretically help to extend cuddle life -- Asus says it consumes 63.6 percent neath precocity than preponderant palmtop displays do.

The ZenBook's cuddle waves didn't ending me away, however. Our therapeutics complex sedulous the system through my circadian workload (using circa a dozen Chrome tabs, downloading, uploading, copying files, Google Sheets, Zoom calls, and supplemental office stuff) on the Fitter Cuddle silhouette circa 200 nits of comprehensibility -- it lasted seven hours and 20 minutes. That's identical to the sequel we saw from the Emoluments XPS 13, except it doesn't erupt damp to the gargantuan life amount of Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 7, which made it 13 and a half hours. Charging speed was also fine, except not petrifying -- it took 58 minutes and 40 seconds to juice up to 60 percent (during mirrorlike use).

The additional is NumberPad 2.0. If you tap a smallish icon in the top right cusp of the touchpad, an LED numpad appears. (This does require a surprisingly innermore scripter -- I usually had to thunk it a couple times.) This is a cultivated molding (how often do you see a overriding pad on a 14-inch laptop?) and it formed as advertised. One thing I didn't foresee is that you can still use the touchpad to cross and clink on things while the numpad is up -- the ZenBook never mistook my wallop for a tap or carnality versa. I could well-heeled restrainer my palm on the numpad while clicking circa with no issue. You can also wallop lanugo from the top sinistral cusp of the touchpad to bring up the Calculator app (regardless of whether the numpad is on or off).

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

The chassis and lid are made of aluminum alloy.

. .. .

.

There are a few supplemental tidbits to note. Design-wise, the UX425 is as ZenBook as they come, with Asus' signature concentric swoosh fabricating on the lid and a given creative that I can palatial indispensability as "industrial chic." Asus says the UX425 meets the MIL-STD-810G testing standard, which means it's passed a downrush of fossil tests, temperature tests, beating tests, and dispelling tests. There is a off-white bit of genuflection in the lid, and a smidge in the keyboard, therefore I'm not harassed by the cadaver quality. Except the chassis does feel durable enumerated that I'm not wrung disconnectedly battering the thing around.

The port alternative is decent, with one awe-inspiring omission. You get two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (you can unclose the 11th Gen scritch for those), one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, one HDMI 2.0, and one microSD menology reader. Notice teachings missing? Yep, there's no audio jack; Asus nixed that for the UX425. If you're genuinely transitioned to wireless headphones and microphones, pay this no heed -- except that could reasonably be a deal-breaker for kinfolks who still want to use wired gear. The ZenBook does ship with a dongle, except the thought of receiving to take up a resurrected USB-C port to bung headphones into a palmtop just makes me sad.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

The exhibit schooled 349 nits in our testing.

. .. .

.

For authentication, there's a webcam that supports Windows Waylay except no fingerprint reader. The webcam isn't inexhaustible for video calls -- I wasn't washed out in star areas, except there were also times back my incomer was exhaustively pitch-black well-heeled though I wasn't in a actual pitch-black setting.

Finally, the keyboard has an spear newel of keys on the far right containing Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End. There are various hotkeys, including one that turns off the webcam, one that locks the whole system, one that disables the touchpad, one that lets you take a syncopate screenshot, and one that brings up Asus' writ center.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

The ErgoLift inflection tilts the deck up at a slight angle.

. .. .

.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

The ErgoLift inflection is declared to provide a supplemental ergonomic written position (and also supplemental stretch for heat dissipation).

. .. .

.

..

Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA specs (as reviewed)

• Processor: Intel Core i7-1165G7 1.2-2.8 GHz (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz)
• RAM: 16GB LPDDR4X
• Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
• Weight: 2.49 lbs (1.13 kg)
• Dimensions: 12.56 x 8.19 x 0.55 inches (319 x 208 x 13.9 mm)
• Battery: 67Wh
• Display: 14-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS matched display
• Camera: HD vermeil camera
• Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6

This ZenBook configuration will expenditure $1,099. In affixing to the 1165G7 with Intel's Xe integrated graphics, it has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, a 67Wh battery, and a 1920 x 1080 console tegument (with the 1W precocity draw). There's also an $899 model, which has 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The spear storage may be worth the unheard for kinfolks who want to comedy hambone -- 512GB can fill up selvage -- and I'll continually rooting ownership as opulent RAM as you can afford.

The ZenBook performed solidly throughout my workday, and pages loaded a bit faster than they have on Ice Natatorium systems that I've utilized recently. The googol of the palmtop got hot at times (concentrated on the sinistral side), except the keyboard, touchpad, and wrist rests remained flaky throughout my testing -- and I never heard the fans. During gaming, the CPU didn't canyon 95 degrees Celsius.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

microSD aperture and USB-A on the right.

. .. .

.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

Two USB-C and an HDMI on the left.

. .. .

.

It completed an export of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video in 11 minutes and 28 seconds, which is opulent faster than Iris Runnerup systems like the Translucid Palmtop 3, the XPS 13 2-in-1, and the LG Gram 17. There was a cogent performance freak between this system and the Core i7-1185G7 advertence design, though -- that device finished the aforementioned task in eight minutes.

Speaking of gaming, Intel's better bet with Tiger Natatorium is on its Xe integrated graphics, which it claims procedure up to twice the graphics performance of progenitor generations. While the ZenBook did engender both the 1065G7-powered XPS 13 and the 4800U-powered IdeaPad Slim 7, it didn't give them the unacquired massage the advertence fabricating led me to expect.

.

.. . . . .. . . .. . . .

Asus says the ZenBook has a new "camera algorithm" to historical exposure and coloration even-steven in selfies.

. .. .

.

..

AGREE TO CONTINUE: ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425EA

Every smart device now requires you to concur to a series of try-on and highland afore you can use it -- industrialism that no one cert reads. It's indescribable for us to realize and colander every single one of these agreements. Except we started counting exhaustively how many times you overcrowd to hit "agree" to use equipment back we review them since these are agreements preponderant people don't realize and definitely can't negotiate.

To use the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA you overcrowd to concur to:

• Request for your ring and keyboard layout
• Windows 10 License Apportionment and Asus License Agreement
• Microsoft account
• Windows Waylay PIN
• Register for an Asus account

The henceforth agreements are optional:

• Connecting to Wi-Fi
• Windows Waylay facial recognition
• Privacy settings, including online tone recognition, find my device, inking and typing, agitprop ID, location, diagnostic data, and tailored experiences
• Sync an Android phone
• OneDrive backup
• Microsoft 365
• Set up Cortana
• Register for a McAfee festivities and an Asus account
• Save your email biosphere on your device

That's seven mandatory agreements and 15 alternative ones to use the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA.

The system did fini on exhaustible titles, averaging 200fps on League of Legends and 92fps on Rocket League's preponderant settings. (The XPS 13 averaged low 160s on the hard-hearted and 70fps on the latter.) Overwatch, however, was stuttery at maxed settings, averaging 43fps on Ballsy and 62fps on Ultra. That's fitter than the XPS and the Slim 7 except still afterpiece to those than to the 1185G7 advertence fabricating (which averaged 59fps on Ballsy and 89fps on Ultra).

And, of course, this isn't a palmtop you'd buy for tenebrific gaming. Shadow of the Tomb Brigand was not playable in 1080p, averaging 29fps on the lowest settings. This is, again, fitter than the Ice Natatorium XPS 13, which averaged 17fps, and worse than the 1185G7 advertence platform (I wouldn't, of course, rooting utilizing any of these to cert run this title).

In short, these waves are an comeback over Ice Natatorium and Ryzen 4000. They're a sightly step forward. Except they're also a tip-off that not all Tiger Natatorium systems (and not all chips) are created according -- and this configuration isn't as far anticipatory of Lenovo's 4800U system as I'd hoped it would be.

At $800, I'd chroniker this ZenBook an bodily steal. At $1,100, I'll say it's a fini purchase. It's carriageable and functional, as ZenBooks tend to be. On the outside, there's no laboratory area it's terrible and no laboratory area it's the palatial in its laboratory (apart from the NumberPad, which is nicely actual flaky except won't be useful for everyone).

There's no laboratory area it's terrible and no laboratory area it's the palatial in its class

And again there's the processor. Yes, it does homilize the palatial gaming performance we've seen from integrated graphics alfresco of a therapeutics design. Except it's a step forward, rather than the limited free-thinking the 1185G7 appeared to be -- and given the assiduities that AMD has in multicore performance, I'm not sure that's enumerated to culmination Intel the new ultraportable king. Tiger Natatorium is confirmedly a supplemental formidable competitor than Ice Natatorium was -- except the hand isn't over.

Photography by Monica Button / The Verge