Asus’ Zenbook line might be its no-fuss, professional and stylish answer to Apple’s Macbook but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t tried to throw some twists and turns at what’s otherwise a comfortably consistent formula. Think dual-screens or 360° hinged displays. Now it’s upping the ante once again with the new Zenbook 14X, which features an OLED display.
Asus gives the Zenbook a graphics upgrade
Now, this isn’t the first Zenbook to get the OLED treatment. The Zenbook 13 was released earlier this year sporting an OLED display, but only in a mildly disappointing 1920 x 1080p. The 14X will come in two flavours: 4K with a 60Hz refresh rate, and 2.8K with a 90Hz refresh rate. Magnificent.
The Zenbook 14X also has a slightly larger display than the 13, at 14 inches. Under the hood, you can expect to see an 11th gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a TB of SSD storage. On the ports side (ha) of things, the 14X sports two USB Type-C ports, a USB type-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a headphone jack (which was sorely missed on the Zenbook 13), a microSD reader, and one HDMI output.
Both of Asus’ new panels, 4K and 2.8K, fit the entirety of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, and apparently offer a 0.2ms response time, which is pretty dang fast. Asus also promises that the OLED displays emit 70 percent less blue light than a standard LCD display, making them easier on the eyes.
There’s also a convertible version of the 14X coming out, with all the same kit to brag about plus a 360° hinged display, a touch screen display, and stylus support.
As much as we’re excited about the bright range and depth of colour an OLED adorned Zenbook can put out, we’re wondering what effect it might have on battery life. LCDs are traditionally much more power-efficient than OLEDs, even if they aren’t quite as glamorous.
The Zenbook 14X starts at $1,400 in the US (R20,000 here), which isn’t cheap but is still a decent asking price for these OLED displays. Local pricing will obviously vary to some degree, but we’ll let you know about that as soon as we do.
