Work All Day, Anywhere – ASUS Zenbook S14 Review

The ASUS Zenbook S14 is perfect for people who work on-the-go. Check out this Zenbook S14 review to see why.

ASUS has actually managed to fit decent hardware on such a thin and light device. It might be an excellent ultraportable laptop for professionals who work all day, anywhere.

Inside the Box

Out-of-the-box, it just comes with the ASUS Zenbook S14 (UX5406AA) itself, a leather sleeve, and its USB-C charging brick. This is a review unit though and package contents might be different from the retail units.

Design and Build Quality

The laptop is seriously thin and light. It has a thickness of only 1.1cm and weighing at just 1.2kg. It’s the kind of laptop that you wouldn’t mind carrying around all day with getting burdened by its weight.

The lid’s Antrim Gray finish gives it a very clean and premium look and feel. ASUS used its Ceraluminum material for it. It’s a ceramic-aluminum hybrid that’s designed to resist scratches and smudges. It’s also tested with MILD-STD-810H durability test, so it should be super durable. Its build quality did gave me peace of mind while bringing it with me every day.

Display Quality

Equipped with a 14-inch 3K OLED display, it offers 2880×1800 resolution screen with up to a 120Hz refresh rate. This makes sure images look sharp and noticeably smoother. It is also an OLED panel, offering vivid colors and true black. For users who work with photos, videos, or any color-sensitive content, this would be perfect. It is also a touchscreen display, making navigation more intuitive and easier accessibility. It would be a huge plus if the screen was matte to prevent glare, but unfortunately it’s glossy.

When I was first testing its screen, I was wondering why it only showed 60Hz refresh rate when it says it can go up to 120Hz on paper. Turns out it was set to 60Hz by default. You have to navigate to Display Settings and manually set it to 120Hz.

Audio Quality

The Zenbook S14 has a four-speaker system tuned with Harman Kardon and supports Dolby Atmos. This combination has made watching movies and listening to music more enjoyable. It also sound clear during video calls or conferences. I wasn’t expecting much on the audio since it’s a very thin laptop after all. But it seems ASUS didn’t skimp on the audio experience.

It also has a decent microphone, which captures your voice clearly on video calls. But I would still prefer using a headphone (even a wireless one) during calls or meetings.

Keyboard and Trackpad

For a laptop this thin, it’s no surprise it uses backlit chiclet keys with 1.1mm of key travel. It is perfectly fine for everyday typing. Although I hate the location of the power button that’s in the corner right beside the Delete key and just above the Backspace key. This position tends to be accidentally pressed.

The keyboard is paired with a large trackpad, at 127x79mm. I personally like a large trackpad, but some large trackpad are sensitive to palms, which results in accidental inputs on the trackpad while typing on the keyboard. But not this trackpad though, it doesn’t register the touch of my palm as I typed along.

It’s also important to note though that it’s a traditional mechanical-click trackpad rather than a haptic one like some premium laptops. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, just something to keep in mind in case you’re expecting the more consistent feedback of a haptic trackpad.

Webcam Quality

The S14 has a 1080p FHD IR camera with Windows Hello facial recognition. Having an FHD webcam is certainly preferable, especially for WFH, hybrid work, online class, as well as video meetings. It captures clear and bright images. Windows Hello is also convenient for signing in by just using facial recognition.

However, I didn’t like that there is no physical webcam privacy shutter included. It does have dedicated function key to turn off the webcam. Still, I would have preferred a physical webcam shutter/cover.

Connectivity

For connectivity, we get 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1 USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 port, 1 HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On paper it says it can support up to 3 external displays, but I only tried connecting it to two displays (HDMI and Thunderbolt). For wireless connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0.

Day-to-Day Performance

Powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H along with an NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, the device is certainly a great workhorse. It also has 32GB of RAM and 1TB M.2 SSD, perfect for everyday productivity.

What I don’t like though is its RAM, it’s soldered and can’t be upgraded. This should be noted before buying if ever you plan on upgrading the laptop’s RAM down the road. You can, however, upgrade its SSD. Although ASUS specifies that it supports a single-sided SSD only.

During my Zenbook S14 review, I’ve used it as my daily driver to see its day-to-day performance, and I had no problem with it so far. I can comfortably work with multiple applications and browser tabs. I’ve used it mainly for my usual work: writing articles, editing photos, editing videos, and even on my financial advisor workload. I haven’t had any hiccups while working remotely, even when there are multiple browser open and with music playing sometimes.

If you want to see benchmark scores, you can check them out below.

• Cinebench:
  • CPU (Multiple Threads) = 2,804
  • CPU (Single Thread) = 478
• PCMark: 6,722
• 3DMark:
  • Steel Nomad = 1,686
• Geekbench 7 CPU:
  • Single-Core = 2,526
  • Mulit-Core = 15,240
• Geekbench 7 GPU:
  • OpenCL = 22,756
• Geekbench AI:
  • Single Precision = 3,961
  • Half Precision = 1,382
  • Quantized = 7,461

Is it Good for Gaming?

It’s important to note that this device is not meant for gaming. Even so, I wanted to test how it would fare. It only has an Intel integrated graphics so it can’t run graphic intensive games. It handle casual titles on low to medium settings though. You can check out the 3DMark benchmark result below.

Battery Life

The Zenbook S14 (UX5406AA) is powered by a fairly large 77Wh battery, even though it has a thin chassis. Battery life differs per the user’s preferred brightness, application usage, and even wireless connectivity. But it was fairly long-lasting on my normal daily use. I usually bring it with me and work in cafes or even in my car in between errands. I don’t usually use it when I get home, so I was able to work with the device for two days with no problem.

And even if you’re worried about its battery life, you can easily charge it with a PD Powerbank we usually bring with us to charge our phones. No need to bring the bulky charger/powerbrick.

Our Verdict

The ASUS Zenbook S14 (UX5406AA) know exactly what it needs to be; a stylish, ultraportable productivity machine. It’s perfect for users who needs a machine where they can focus on their tasks all day, wherever they are. There are a few caveats, like the RAM being un-upgradable. But not as big as to be a deal breaker.

If you want a powerful device which you can work and play games with, this might not be the laptop for you. But you your priority is having a powerful, portable laptop that you can carry comfortable carry with you everywhere for work, school, content creation, and everyday computing, then the Zenbook S14 is a very compelling choice.

ASUS Zenbook S14 (UX5406AA) Specifications

Price and Availability

The ASUS Zenbook S14 (UX5406AA) has a retail price of ₱129,995 here in the Philippines. You can get the device at ASUS Concept Stores and authorized dealers nationwide. You can also get it on ASUS’ official online stores.