Once I first picked up the Asus Zenbook A14, I believed I used to be holding an empty prototype. Then it turned on, and the good OLED show proved me flawed. At 2.1 kilos, it is not simply one of many lightest laptops I’ve used; it is also well-balanced — each bodily and when it comes to {hardware} — and epitomizes the skinny, battery-efficient class that is exploded over the past yr.
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It is my decide for the best lightweight laptop, and was additionally the primary laptop computer to earn the ZDNET Editor’s Choice award. The Zenbook A14 is on sale proper now — $200 off the conventional worth — for $799 at Best Buy, a extremely aggressive worth for a tool that’s mild sufficient to commute with you to the workplace and final all day after which some, with a quick and responsive Snapdragon X processor.
Store $200 financial savings on one of many first laptops to obtain ZDNET’s Editor’s Selection award.
The Zenbook A14 is available in two configurations: one with 16GB of RAM and one with 32GB. It is the 16GB model that is on sale for $799 proper now, and the model I like to recommend most, because it greatest aligns with the laptop computer’s use case: an ultrathin laptop computer for work or on a regular basis use with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus processor.
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The Zenbook A14 will not be essentially designed to deal with intensive workloads or demanding computing duties; it is extra for the on a regular basis duties of the fashionable skilled who lives within the cloud, works remotely, and values a pleasant show.
That being mentioned, the efficiency is stable. It is a quick laptop computer: It boots shortly, masses apps swiftly, and navigates the net with out lag. It runs silent and funky, producing virtually no warmth — even with the slim kind issue.
It additionally has an fulfilling bodily kind issue. The keyboard is without doubt one of the most comfy I’ve used, and I say that with out exaggeration. It isn’t resulting from something significantly costly or high-end; Asus simply hit the mark when balancing design and price.
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However palms down, one of the best a part of this laptop computer is the excellent battery life. Asus advertises as much as 32 hours on a single cost. Though that is the highest finish of the estimation, it is not far off from what you’ll be able to anticipate with on a regular basis use. Throughout my testing, a day’s work within the workplace did not take me down previous 50%.
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