Venom BlackBook Zero 14
A compact but tough professional ultraportable... with a bit of bite.
The BlackBook Zero 14 isn’t quite the thinnest ultrabook we’ve seen, nor is it the lightest. It isn’t the most expensive, the most affordable or, really, the most anything. What the Zero 14 is, however, is the measured realisation of a clear and desirable design concept. From the unusual inclusion of two power adapters, the lightweight design and the power efficient seventh-gen Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, it’s clear that the Zero is aiming for the title of best ultraportable pro laptop.
Honed from a black sandblasted metal alloy composite, this 1.4kg clamshell is around 15% heavier than most 2-in-1s and ultrabooks that you’d generally pit it against. This higher weight might seem counter-intuitive, but when you consider that it’s largely due to that sturdy metal chassis combined with a slightly bigger screen (it’s 14.1 inches rather than the usual 13.3), that’s a trade-off we reckon many will be willing to take.
Its black-keyed chiclet keyboard feels notably deeper and has a stronger, firmer key feedback than almost any laptop we’ve tested. While we have no complaints with the powdery temperament of the BlackBook Zero 14’s trackpad, it’s still a little shy of MacBook or even ASUS levels of performance.
Things get a little less clear when it comes to the CPU. If CPUs weren’t confusing enough, with its seventh-gen Core parts, Intel has decided to adopt the naming convention of its traditionally more powerful mobile units (Core i3, i5 and i7) in the efficient but lower performing Core M range, as seen in the laptop’s Intel Core i5-7Y54. This CPU allows Zero 14 to get away without internal fans — stressing to a conservative maximum of just 86ºC — and that allows the screen and bottom chassis to slide in at under 14mm apiece.
When running PCMark 8’s general home usage and work benchmarks, the Zero hits 3,088 and 4,210 — scores that are almost identical to the ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360UA’s (see opposite) more powerful Core i5-6200U chip. Where the Core M chips don’t hold up so well is in intensive multimedia work, like Cinebench’s multi-threaded and single core CPU benchmarks where the UX360UA’s older Core i5 came off better with scores of 268 and and 112, against the BlackBook’s 174 and 71. The same held for GPUheavy tasks, with the UX360UA’s Intel HD Graphics 520 netting 38fps in Cinebench’s OpenGL graphics benchmark, to the Zero 14’s Intel HD Graphics 615, which only managed 25fps. So the BlackBook Zero 14 isn’t quite as versatile as it could be, but it at least manages to keep up in the most important areas.
The Zero 14 stretched the demanding PCMark 8 Home (Accelerated) battery benchmark out to a decent 4 hours and 51 minutes.
Venom has, overall, done a good job keeping the Zero to the ‘professional user’ brief. If you’re looking for a compact Windows machine for getting stuff done, this super-sturdy 14-inch clamshell deserves your attention.