Asus Zenbook 14 UX433F
THE 14-INCH LAPTOP THAT’S ALMOST ALL SCREEN.
THE WORLD’S SMALLEST 14-inch laptop. That’s Asus’s sock-it-to-you sales pitch for the new Zenbook 14 UX433F. It’s not the only thing this slick Intel-powered laptop has going for it, of course.
There’s powerful quad-core processing, just for starters. Claimed all-day battery life and Harmon Kardon audio sweetens the deal, too. But it’s that slim-bezeled ‘NanoEdge’ display and the extremely compact proportions it enables for a laptop in the 14-inch segment that most defines the Zenbook’s proposition.
What’s on offer here, in effect, is a laptop that feels like it’s from the segment below in terms of size, but delivers a larger, more ergonomic 14-inch viewing experience.
That means this 14 incher is barely any bigger than many 13-inch ultrabooks, like Dell’s XPS 13, while 14-inch Ultrabooks including the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon are tangibly larger. Whether that’s enough to stand out in a seriously crowded market of premium portables, is another matter.
The Asus Zenbook 14 UX433F is all about that screen. Or rather the lack of anything much around it. The side bezels measure just 2.9mm, while the bottom clocks in at 3.3mm and the top 6.1mm.
The net result is a pretty staggering 92% screen-to-body ratio. Most notable is that slim bottom bezel. It’s what allows the Zenbook 14 to match the depth of 13-inch Ultrabooks with relatively hefty chin bezels, like the Dell XPS 13, for overall depth, while only being slightly wider in width.
What the Asus Zenbook is not, however, is a truly ultra-thin and ultralight laptop. The likes of the aforementioned Dell XPS 13 is noticeably slimmer if no lighter and the super slim Acer Swift 7 is a 14-inch alternative in a whole different ballpark for thinness, clocking in at 0.89cm to the Zenbook’s 1.59cm.
That said, there are upsides to a little thickness, including space to fit a pair of full-sized USB A ports. It’s just a pity that only one of them is full 3.1 speed while the other only offers the ancient and slow 2.0 spec.
If the Asus Zenbook 14 UX433F is all about that screen, it’s a pity it isn’t slightly more impressive beyond those headline grabbing minimal bezels. However, it’s not a dud of an LCD panel, to be sure.
The performance of the other core components is more impressive. The Intel Core i7-8565U quad-core CPU will be plenty for all but the most demanding mobile workflows. Ditto the Intel 512GB NVMe SSD, which delivers desktop class storage performance.
If there are exceptions to all that, they involve the graphics subsystem and the mere 8GB of RAM. The former is no surprise for an Ultrabook, just be aware that like any current laptop that utilises Intel’s integrated graphics, it’ll be pretty useless for all but the least demanding games.
The impact of the 8GB system memory limitation is less clear cut. Much will depend on your typical usage.
For all its slim-bezel goodness, the Zenbook’s screen is also merely OK. It’s not the highlight it would have been with a punchier, higher resolution panel. All of which makes the Asus Zenbook 14 UX433F a solid choice worthy of your shortlist but not necessarily a no brainer.