Asus ZenBook 14 Review: Thin, Light, Powerful, and Surprisingly Fun

Laptops have always come in all shapes and sizes, but recently I’ve seen ultrabooks become super popular. Maybe it’s just me who’s been drowning in work with my other colleagues, but wherever I go, I only see these thin and light laptops. A big part of this push can be attributed to efficiency gains, which mean we can fit more power into these chassis and get serious performance out of them. There’s one brand that’s always bet big on ultrabooks, and that’s Asus. Their ZenBook lineup is probably what comes to mind when anyone thinks about a serious laptop for professionals, at least in India.

I’ve tested several of these ZenBooks in the past, and they’ve always passed my tests with flying colors. However, 2026 has been proving to be a big challenge with rising memory prices driving costs up and value down. The latest iteration of the ZenBook 14 landed on my table a couple of weeks back. Asus has refreshed it with the latest Ryzen processor and a new OLED touch display option. To do the laptop justice, I switched my MacBook (it’s easy, my work is on Chrome, mostly) and made the ZenBook 14 UM3406GA my daily driver. Here’s how it stacks up in 2026.

Design & Hardware

If you remember the last ZenBook 14 (which we reviewed previously), then the new iteration would feel right at home. The laptop is available only in stealth black, and I’m a fan. It’s super elegant, and I’m a bit biased towards stealthy machines. The ZenBook 14 would fit perfectly for a corporate meeting or a quick stop at the nearby cafe to catch up on some work. Sadly, if you like experimenting with colors, there’s no other option. For some fun, the Vivobook lineup should come in handy.

The new Asus logo adds to the premium appeal, and everyone whom I gave the laptop to loved the design. There’s just one small problem, though: fingerprints. Asus has yet to fix this problem, as the black finish picks up sweat and grease from your palms and leaves them printed on the surface unless you use a cleaning cloth. It’s not a major problem, but something worth mentioning.

Minor complaints aside, what the Asus ZenBook 14 does best is portability. The 14-inch form factor is best for people who are constantly on the go but still need enough screen space to multitask. To put this to the test, I took the laptop on a recent work trip to Delhi, where the 1.2 kg weight didn’t put much stress on my shoulders. I took it out to work at the airport, and everything went fine without hiccups. The metal construction meant I wasn’t worried about putting too much pressure on the backpack. I also tested the build myself and observed no flex in either the keyboard deck or the display panel. The hinge holds the display firmly enough, though it’s a little stiffer than I’d like. It lifts the laptop ever so slightly, which can be annoying, especially coming from a MacBook.

As far as ports are concerned, Asus has your back. The left side houses a couple of Type-C ports, with one supporting USB 4.0 Gen 3 (40 Gbps data bandwidth, DisplayPort, and Power Delivery). Beyond that, there’s a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, an audio combo jack, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port on the left. I had no problems connecting accessories to the laptop.

Keyboard & Trackpad

A good keyboard is one of the cornerstones of an ultrabook, since most people spend hours typing documents (like me writing this review). Fortunately, the one on the ZenBook 14 is quite good. Coming from a MacBook, my keyboard standards aren’t that high, and I got used to this one quickly. The keyboard is generously spaced, so there’s no cramped action. Typing feels clicky enough, and there’s good feedback in the end. Backlit support is present, and, thankfully, Asus hasn’t gone with gray keycaps for contrast, which would make them visible at night.

The same praises can be carried to the touchpad as well. Sure, it’s not the haptic one I’m used to, but I’ve seen plenty of people who love physical touchpads. If that’s you, you’re in luck: the one on the ZenBook 14 is quite large, and I didn’t find any dead zones. Instead, Asus has bundled a few extras with the trackpad, including a light-up number pad that turns on when you press the button on the top right.

Display & Camera

Last year’s Asus ZenBook 14 came with arguably the best display ever, with a 3K OLED 120Hz panel. This year, though, Asus has decided to switch things up. The new one gets a 14-inch FHD+ OLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate. If that sounds underwhelming, there is now support for touch. This adds a whole new dimension to using the laptop, and I’d much rather have this functionality over the tad bit of extra sharpness. Beyond that, watching content is an absolute breeze on the ZenBook 14. I was catching up on Better Call Saul (I know I’m late), and the 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space kept everything stunning with vibrant yet natural colors. The contrast was excellent, and I could make out the different details on the faces.

The ZenBook 14 is also VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500-certified, so HDR content should pop out a bit. In everyday use, I measured a peak of around 450 nits, which is plenty for working in a bright cafe or on a cloudy day outdoors.

As for the camera, the 1080p webcam performs as you might expect. The sensor is sharp enough not to make the videos look muddy, but it struggles in low-light environments, with noise creeping in. Aside from the basics, Asus has bundled several AI features, including 3D noise reduction and AI Noise Cancellation. Both of these work fine, and I actually enjoyed my time giving presentations on the laptop.

Performance & Gaming

Performance is another pillar of the ultrabook experience since nobody wants to deal with an underpowered processor that hangs up during an important call. With the Asus ZenBook 14, you get the latest AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 processor, running on the Zen 5 architecture, along with 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM and 512 GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD. Right off the bat, the everyday performance of the ZenBook 14 is excellent. I write reviews, so my work mainly happens in Chrome, with about 20 tabs open for research. The laptop handled all that blissfully well, without a single hiccup. I could have multiple apps running in the background, too, and it wouldn’t break a sweat.

Sadly, I’m no coder or video editor, but I did try my hand at both. I downloaded VSCode and edited a 4K Instagram reel, both of which went surprisingly well. Sure, you cannot expect the laptop to handle ten 4K streams, but for casual editing and reels, it’s perfectly fine. Large coding projects are compiled in seconds, so if you’re a college student, this could be worth a look.

But what about the actual numbers? I know benchmarks don’t often tell the whole story, but they do help paint a picture. Keeping up with that spirit, I turned on performance mode and ran Cinebench R23, where the ZenBook 14 scored 1,098 in the single-core and 7,032 in the multi-core tests. In 3D Mark’s Wild Life Extreme test, the laptop scored 2,655 points. Finally, in the Night Raid test, the number reached 20,792.

Given the very decent benchmark scores, I thought we should play a few games on the ZenBook 14. But before that, please note that this is not a gaming laptop, by any stretch of the word. Still, if you only play eSports titles like Counter-Strike and Valorant, the ZenBook 14 might surprise you. At medium-to-high settings, I got over 100 FPS in both games, and the experience was jitter-free even during high-intensity matches.

Battery Life & Speakers

AMD has made quite a few gains in efficiency with its newest chips, and they help a lot with battery life on the Asus ZenBook 14. On a typical workday, which involves using Chrome, editing spreadsheets, and watching tons of YouTube videos, I get roughly 12 hours of SoT. This is almost MacBook-level battery life, and something I quite frankly didn’t expect. Charging is handled by a 65W fast charger, which gets the laptop from 20% to 80% in under an hour.

Usually, I’m not a fan of downward-facing speakers, since they inherently limit output depending on the surface’s hardness. While that factor is in play here, the speaker quality is top-notch. Compared to my aging MacBook Air, the ZenBook 14 sounds more full, with an emphasis on the mids. The vocals sound super clear, and the treble is nice. There’s Dolby Atmos support for the people who watch a lot of movies without headphones.

Verdict

At ₹114,990, the new Asus ZenBook 14 has everything a professional needs, and in my two weeks of testing, I couldn’t find anything that made me go, “Oh, I wish they had done this better.” The design is sophisticated yet stands out, with premium materials. The OLED panel is bright and colorful, and the touch functionality adds a new way of using the laptop, especially for kids. Performance keeps up with anything you might need, even demanding tasks, and a little dabble in the gaming world. Honestly, the ZenBook 14 gets a solid recommendation from me.