With the launch of the iPhone Air, svelte devices are all the rage at the moment, so there’s no better time to introduce you to the subject of this review, the Asus Zenbook A14 (2025) with the Snapdragon X processor. 

Laptops that weigh 1 kg or less are not new. Examples like the LG Gram and the HP Pavilion Aero have been around for some time, but this is the first of the breed that also promises real-world all-day battery life, and this is a combination that has the potential to set new standards in the laptop industry. 

I’ve had the Asus Zenbook A14 with me for a few weeks, and at the outset I can tell you that it’s not a Macbook killer. But the good news is that it doesn’t need to be. It has its own strengths and weaknesses, which I’ll get down to explaining in a bit. 

The models

This particular Asus Zenbook A14 comes in one or two variants, depending on how you look at it. The nomenclature covers both the model with the Snapdragon X chipset, which I have with me for review, and the one with the considerably more powerful Snapdragon X Elite chipset, but there’s enough of a gap in the price and performance for me to consider them as different machines, for all practical purposes. 

This particular Asus Zenbook A14 with the Snapdragon X sells for Rs 83,990 with 16 GB of LPDDR5X (fast) RAM and 512 GB of PCIe (also fast) storage. So far, so standard. The pricing puts it squarely in the same bracket as the M4 Macbook Air. 

They come in two colours – Zabriskie Beige, and Iceland Gray. I have with me the Iceland Gray. 

The hardware

I must admit that when I extracted the Asus Zenbook A14 from its elaborate packaging, I couldn’t help but go “ooh”. It felt really nice to the touch. Asus calls the material they have used for this laptop’s chassis “Ceraluminium”. To the best of my understanding it’s some kind of aluminum that has been treated in such a way that the outside feels like ceramic. 

And it feels fantastic. The surface of the laptop has the texture of a river-smoothed pebble. It’s not cold like regular aluminium, and it doesn’t feel cheap like plastic. It hits a hand-feel sweet spot that I didn’t know I was missing. 

Then, of course, there’s the matter of the weight. The Asus Zenbook A14 clocks in at 980 grams. For comparison, the M3 Macbook Air I have at home weighs 1.24 kg.The Mac is 26 percent heavier and the difference is stark. 

After using this laptop for a few days, picking up the Mac felt like I was going back to a brick phone after using the Nokia 3310 (if you’re old enough to get this reference, please schedule your periodic health check). Carrying around the Asus Zenbook A14 in your bag, you sometimes have to double-check that you packed the laptop. 

The screen is a 14” OLED with a peak brightness of 400 nits. Asus are now the masters of putting in good OLED screens in a lot of laptops, and this one is no exception. The blacks are pitch, the colours are punchy, the contrast is (theoretically) infinite. The brightness isn’t class-leading  (even cheaper Asus laptops have featured brighter screens) but it’s not a deal breaker. 

The backlit keyboard is great to type on, with responsive keys and good feedback. It’s not the very best you’re likely to find, but you’ll have absolutely no complaints. The touchpad is spacious and smooth, and while the clicking is no match for the haptic goodness of the Mac, I am much more of a tap person with touchpads, and therefore this doesn’t make much of a difference to me. 

The speakers on the Asus Zenbook A14 are acceptable, but at this price point they feel like a real miss. Especially when I compare it to the Mac, the contrast is stark. While they get reasonably loud, the sound is somewhat thin and insubstantial. Mostly I would use laptop speakers only to listen to talking videos, and for that these are good enough, but could and should have been much better.

The port selection is good, with two USB-C 4.0 ports, a USB-A 3.2 port, a full size HDMI port, and a headphone jack. I hope Apple is taking notes. 

The battery is rated at 70Wh which, when combined with the Snapdragon X processor, gives the Asus Zenbook A14 one of its top selling points – its longevity. 

There is a 1080p webcam, but the image is just about okay. The Macbook Air’s webcam looks much better.

In use

Let me get the few negatives out of the way first. Somehow, the power management on the Asus Zenbook A14 is not quite as good as what I’ve encountered on other Snapdragon laptops. Unlike the Macbook Air which always instantly starts up when I open the lid, the behaviour of this machine is a bit unpredictable. Sometimes it’s instant, sometimes it takes a few seconds. For people used to Windows machines in general, this won’t be anything new, but it’s still worth keeping in mind. 

The elephant in the room, of course, is compatibility. The first Snapdragon X series laptops came out well over a year ago, and there are still many applications that do not have a native version for Windows on ARM. My primary work software, Lightroom Classic, runs using emulation. While it’s responsive enough, the lack of a timeline for such (common) apps to be natively available is at least mildly concerning and is important to keep in mind while evaluating this machine.

Apart from these two aspects, the Asus Zenbook A14 has been a good laptop to use. For most day-to-day tasks it’s speedy and responsive, handling multiple browser tabs, WhatsApp, some music etc without breaking a sweat. It is of course worth remembering that the Snapdragon X processor is more feeble than even the original Apple M1 from 2020, so you can occasionally discern that weakness when you put the machine under some load, although you’re unlikely to be bothered by it often. 

The screen looks beautiful, but it is also quite reflective, and this is especially evident when compared to the Macbook Air which has a very nice anti-reflective coating that makes it a lot more usable when you’re outdoors. Also, do remember that if you’re going to watch some Netflix, you better plug in your headphones, because the speakers won’t cut it.

The battery life on the Asus Zenbook A14 is stellar. Even compared to the M3 Macbook Air and other Snapdragon laptops I’ve used, this one seems to stand out, consistently delivering around 15 hours of usage or even more, on a balanced power profile. That is proper all-day battery life – you can take it off your charger in the morning and not worry about plugging it back in the whole day. 

This is what you gain for having a less performant chipset, and if your usage is mostly light, it may be the perfect tradeoff for you. Needless to say the laptop also runs reasonably cool, and overheating is not something you’d need to worry about much.

Should I buy it?

Early on in this review, I had mentioned that the Asus Zenbook A14 running the Snapdragon X is not a Macbook killer. In fact I would compare this machine to the very early Macbook Airs – remember Steve Jobs demoing it by slipping it into a manila envelope? The very same way that the original Macbook Air set new standards for slimness and lightness, the Asus Zenbook A14 leaps well ahead of the Macs with its form, and I am hoping Apple and others take a leaf out of its book. 

But the trade-off is in function. Both in terms of sheer power and compatibility with professional apps, the Asus Zenbook A14 is handily beaten by the current crop of Macs (as well as several other Windows laptops) which are available at comparable price points. 

Laptop purchasing decisions are all about weighing the various tradeoffs that come with each option, and for many users the Asus Zenbook A14’s combination of light weight, stellar battery life and adequate performance might strike the perfect balance. And if that’s you, then definitely add the Asus Zenbook A14 to your consideration list.   

Contact the author on X at @vinayaravind.

This Asus Zenbook A14 was sent to the reviewer as a loaner unit for review purposes. The unit will be returned on completion of the review. Asus has been given no advance information about the content of this review and exercises no copy approval.