The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 (2023) is a thin and light workstation laptop. It's available with Intel 13th Gen H-series CPUs, ranging from a Core i5-13500H to a Core i9-13900H, paired with integrated graphics only or with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (Core i9 model only). RAM and storage max out at 32GB and 1TB, respectively. It has a 120Hz 2.8k OLED display, a 1080p webcam, a facial recognition IR camera, Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity, and a 70Wh battery. Ports include one USB-A, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4s, an HDMI 2.0, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can get it in an Inkwell Gray or Sandstone Beige color.
See our unit's specifications and the available configuration options in the Differences Between Variants section.
Our Verdict
The ASUS Zenbook 14X is good for school use. This 14-inch model feels incredibly well-built and is easy to carry around, thanks to its compact design. It also provides a fantastic user experience with its sharp OLED display, spacious keyboard, and large, responsive touchpad. It's available with Intel 13th Gen H-series CPUs, which are more than fast enough to handle light workloads, like text processing, web browsing, and video playback, as well as more demanding tasks like programming and simulations. You can also get the top-end Core i9 model paired with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, making this laptop suitable for students in fields like 3D animation. The RTX 3050 isn't exactly the fastest GPU around, so you might experience some slowdowns or stutters if your work is highly complex. Unfortunately, the battery lasts only around six hours of light use on a Core i9 model with discrete graphics. You'll get longer battery life on models with integrated graphics only, though you may still have to plug it in for a quick charge to get through a typical day.
- Compact design.
- Sharp, colorful OLED display.
- Intel CPU and RTX 3050 GPU can handle some demanding workloads.
- Comfortable keyboard, responsive touchpad.
- Great port selection includes an HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Sub-par battery life.
- OLED is susceptible to permanent burn-in.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X isn't designed for gaming. Although its Intel 13th Gen CPU is quite capable, you can only get the laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU. This last-gen, entry-level GPU can only handle 1080p gaming, and even then, you'll have to play with the lowest graphical settings to get playable frame rates. Its OLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate, which improves motion smoothness and input responsiveness; however, its slow response time causes visible ghosting, and it doesn't support variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing.
- 120Hz refresh rate.
- Fast, user-replaceable SSD.
- Doesn't get hot or loud under load.
- No VRR support to reduce screen tearing.
- Only available with integrated graphics or entry-level RTX 3050.
- Display's slow response time causes visible ghosting.
- Soldered RAM.
- OLED is susceptible to permanent burn-in.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X is great for media consumption. Thanks to its compact design, it's very portable, and its battery is pretty decent for video playback, lasting around six hours of light use. Its 2.8k OLED display looks sharp and colorful, and it produces deep, inky blacks for a fantastic dark room viewing experience. Screen visibility isn't an issue in most indoor environments, but because it has a glossy finish, you may get some distracting reflections if you have bright lights shining directly on the screen. The speakers get reasonably loud but have very little bass or treble, so they're better suited for speech-heavy content. Unfortunately, while the display supports touch input, this isn't a convertible laptop, so you can't put it in tent mode or use it as a tablet.
- Compact design.
- Sharp, colorful OLED display.
- OLED produces deep, inky blacks for a better dark room viewing experience.
- Speakers get reasonably loud.
- Speakers lack bass and treble.
- OLED is susceptible to permanent burn-in.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X is great for use as a workstation. It's available with Intel 13th Gen H-series CPUs, up to a Core i9-13900H, paired with integrated graphics only or with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU. CPU performance is great, considering the chassis size and cooling system. As for the RTX 3050, although it's better than integrated graphics and can handle some demanding tasks, it's an entry-level GPU from NVIDIA's previous generation running at a low wattage, so you'll likely experience stutters and slowdowns in highly complex work. Also, you can only get up to 32GB of soldered RAM, which might not be enough for some people. The display is suitable for color-correction work, as it has full DCI P3 and near-full Adobe RGB coverage. The SSD is user-replaceable, and there are tons of ports for peripherals and external displays, including two Thunderbolt 4s and an HDMI.
- Intel CPU and RTX 3050 GPU can handle some demanding workloads.
- Fast, user-replaceable SSD.
- Display is suitable for color work.
- Great port selection includes an HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Doesn't get hot or loud under load.
- Only available with integrated graphics or entry-level RTX 3050.
- Soldered RAM.
- Some CPU throttling.
- OLED is susceptible to permanent burn-in.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X is great for business use. It has a sturdy build and a compact design, making it well-suited for those who travel a lot for work. The overall user experience is great; it has a sharp OLED display, a spacious keyboard, and a large, responsive touchpad. There's an excellent 1080p webcam for video calls and a Windows Hello IR camera for quick logins. Intel's 13th Gen H-series CPUs can easily handle productivity tasks like text processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can also get the laptop with a discrete NVIDIA GPU if you need to do some video editing for your business. Battery life is its main weakness, as it lasts only six to seven hours of light use.
- Compact design.
- Sharp, colorful OLED display.
- Comfortable keyboard, responsive touchpad.
- Great 1080p webcam.
- Great port selection includes an HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Sub-par battery life.
- OLED is susceptible to permanent burn-in.
Changelog
- Updated Jun 05, 2024: Added mention of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) as an alternative with faster GPU options in the GPU section.
- Updated May 22, 2024: Updated the Build Quality section to include information regarding user reports of screen cracking due to various reasons.
- Updated May 17, 2024: Added mention of the Dell XPS 14 (2024) as an alternative with more RAM configurations in the RAM section.
- Updated May 10, 2024: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED (model UX3404VC-BS91T-CB) with an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The CPU, GPU, memory, and storage are configurable; the available options are in the table below. This review applies to the 'UX3404', 'Q410VA' (Core i5), and 'Q420VA' (Core i7) models.
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See our unit's label here.
Popular Laptop Comparisons
The ASUS Zenbook 14X is a great laptop overall. It has a sturdy build and provides a good user experience with its sharp display, comfortable keyboard, and responsive touchpad. Although you can get significantly more performance on laptops with newer CPUs and better cooling, it's still a good option if you're willing to sacrifice some performance for its thin and light design. Its main weakness is battery life, as it's shorter than most models in its class.
See our recommendations for the best workstation laptops, the best video editing laptops, and the best laptops for music production.
The ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) and the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 (2023) are near-identical in design and provide a similar user experience. However, they differ in performance, as the Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 is available with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, giving it more graphical processing power to handle more intensive tasks, while the Zenbook 14 from 2024 is only available with integrated graphics, which are only suitable for general productivity. The Zenbook 14X UX3404 also has a more robust cooling system, so it doesn't lose as much performance during heavy, sustained workloads. One feature difference between these two laptops is the addition of an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and low-power efficiency cores on the 2024 Zenbook 14's Intel Meteor Lake CPUs. The NPU speeds up AI-based tasks, like background blurring on video calls and image processing in photo editing apps, while the low-power efficiency cores help prolong battery life.
Though similar in design and features, there's a big difference between the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED (2023) and the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 (2023). The former is a 2-in-1 convertible designed for general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback, while the latter is a thin and light workstation with more processing power to handle demanding tasks like video editing and 3D graphics.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 (2023) and the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022) are both premium laptops; however, the ASUS is more of a content creation laptop with more processing power, while the MacBook is an ultraportable designed for general productivity tasks like web browsing and text processing. Thanks to its M2 SoC's media engines, the MacBook can handle some video editing. Also worth noting is that while the ASUS has more processing power, its performance is still at the lower end compared to other workstations on the market, as it's only available with an entry-level NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU running at a low TGP (Total Graphics Power) of 45W. The ASUS has arguably a better display, sporting a 120Hz 2.8k OLED panel, but it doesn't get as bright to combat glare, and unlike the MacBook's Retina (IPS) panel, it flickers, which might bother those sensitive to flickering.
The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3403 (2023) and the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 14 (2023) are both 14-inch thin and light workstation laptops. The ASUS is available with Intel 13th Gen H-series CPUs and an optional NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (4GB VRAM), while the Lenovo is available with AMD Ryzen CPUs and an RTX 3050 with 6GB of VRAM. The ASUS provides a better user experience overall (better screen, touchpad, and webcam). However, the Lenovo has better performance, especially the Ryzen 7 7840HS variant, and it doesn't throttle as much under load, thanks to its superior cooling system. It also has better graphical performance because its RTX 3050 GPU has more VRAM and runs at a higher TGP of 73W.
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