An ultraportable laptop doesn’t have to be boring, nor does it have to be completely alien to our work-life balance. Get style, power and exceptional battery life with the ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX425), designed for users who enjoy a touch of luxury for both work and play in mind, even in these unusual times – whether you're adhering to a #WFH arrangement or preparing for the eventual re-opening of school or workplace.
Thick bezels are so yesteryear
The ZenBook 14 (UX425) does not skimp on features essential to awesome entertainment needs. The laptop's 14-inch display is as functional as it is dazzling. The incredibly slim 2.5mm NanoEdge display bezels – which give the notebook a 90% screen-to-body ratio – and allows for a larger visible screen without an enlarged chassis, while the anti-glare screen is ideal for wide-angle viewing experience - be it sharing a screen during work huddles, or watching movies and the latest serial comfortably at night. Especially during these unusual times.
This laptop also comes with Harman Kardon certified speakers supplying crystal clear audio, while ASUS’ SonicMaster audio technology helps pump out strong audio presence.
With bold audio capabilities and sharp, high fidelity images, the ZenBook 14 (UX425) gives you the best visual and aural experience available for all your productivity and content-related needs in a compact package, and then some.
But wait till you hear about the webcam
Slimming down the screen bezels and retaining the webcam was no easy task. According to ASUS, their engineers and designers used a unique method to bend and rearrange the display's circuit board to make the bezels thinner. This meant having to redesign the camera module to make it the thinnest ever and engineered a new cable placement, which allowed for the reduction of the top bezel’s width without sacrificing the camera placement.
The ultra thin camera module has a four-element lens that produces sharper images and results in lower noise. The embedded advanced infrared (IR) camera features see-in-the-dark capabilities that enable fast, reliable hands-free face login with Windows Hello — even in dim environments.
Now that’s sexy technology.
It’s powered by Intel’s latest wizardries
The ZenBook 14 (UX425) is all beauty with brawn too. It comes equipped with the latest Intel 10th-gen Core "Ice Lake" processors, with 8GB of memory, Wi-Fi 6 support, and up to 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD as well as a wide array of port options like Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, along with a microSD card reader. It is quite a mouthful here, admittedly. But the TL;DR version of it is that the ZenBook 14 (UX425) has plenty of input options to ensure comprehensive connectivity, which not many other slim and light laptops can boast of.
Crucially, it is equipped with a 67Wh battery that can provide up to 22 hours of battery life — more than enough to cover a day of work or Netflix unplugged. The laptop also offers a fast-charge function, charging from 0% to 40% in just 30 minutes. You’ll literally never have to use the “my laptop’s battery is dead” excuse again (if that’s a good or bad thing).
It was cut with a diamond. Sort of.
With so much cutting-edge technology inside, no expenses were spared to ensure the innards of the ZenBook 14 (UX425) are well protected – and to make the laptop looks good at the same time.
The chassis and lids are made of aerospace-grade diamond-cut aluminum alloy. As with the rest of the ZenBook family, such as the ZenBook 14 UX434 reviewed here, the unique concentric-circle ZenBook finish is featured on the ZenBook 14 UX425 lids as well. This construction blend allows the laptop to weigh just 1.17kg and features a side profile of less than 14mm, achieving not only a thin and lightweight design but also a sleek form factor that makes it easy to carry.
It’s not fragile by any means as well. The ZenBook 14 (UX425) has been tested to meet the ultra-demanding MIL-STD-810G U.S. military standard for reliability and durability. These tests consist of a punishing regime designed to ensure survival in harsh environments and usage scenarios which include power-on drop tests and operation at extremes of altitude and temperature. That is on top of the stringent ASUS laptop stress tests that far exceed the standards set by the industry. It’s unlikely you’ll ever put your laptop in such situations or environments, but don’t you feel assured knowing your ZenBook 14 (UX425) will have a far higher survivable rate than you in an unwanted incident?
Now that’s a tough ultra portable.
A laptop with convenience for everyone
The ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX425) makes sure you’re always taking the least steps going from A to Z. For example, the ErgoLift design of the laptop results in the keyboard automatically tilting when the laptop is opened. This design allows users to type more comfortably and increases the ventilation space under the chassis for improved heat dissipation.
Because of its compact form factor, the ZenBook 14 (UX425)’s edge-to-edge keyboard design utilises all of the space available here. This gives the keyboard a 19.05 mm pitch (the distance between the middle of a key to the middle of its adjacent key), which is similar to that of a desktop PC’s keyboard and allows users to type comfortably with accuracy. The keyboard is also backlit for convenient typing in dark environments.
The second-generation ASUS NumberPad 2.0.
The ZenBook 14 (UX425) is also available with the second generation ASUS NumberPad 2.0, an LED-illuminated numeric keypad integrated into the touchpad that makes up for the lack of physical numeric keypads in compact laptops. A single-touch sensor at the top-right of the touchpad turns NumberPad on and off, and a tap on the icon at the top left lets you choose one of two brightness levels. You can also swipe from the top left icon in any direction on the NumberPad 2.0 to activate the Calculator app on the main display. An especially useful tool, and only available with the ZenBook 14 laptops, if you spend a lot of time with Microsoft Excel.
How does it really fare in actual use? Check out our full review for more hands-on experiential notes, benchmarks and more!
The new ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425 is available now at the ASUS online store and comes in these two configurations:-
ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425 configurations | ||
Processor | Intel Core i5-1035G1 | Intel Core i7-1065G7 |
Memory | 8GB | 8GB |
Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics | Intel Iris Plus Graphics |
Storage | 512GB | 1TB |
Price |
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.