Best for: Peerless performance for price
Freshly launched, this is the ZenBook 14 from Asus (specifically, the UX3405) and, I have to say, it’s an absolute stunner.
A 14-incher that feels all the more spacious for its 16:10 aspect ratio, this all-new ZenBook is supermodel slim at 14.9mm thin and weighs in at 1.2kg, yet manages to be crammed full of all the latest tech.
Starting with the heart of the matter, here we find the very latest 16-core Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, complete with integrated NPU AI engine, clocking speeds up to 5.1GHz to make light work of any tasks you set it. On the graphics side, you get Intel Arc so no worries there, either. Memory comes 32GB strong and storage is a whopping 1TB, too, so performance power ‘grunt’ and speed in absolute spades.
When it comes to the display, there’s an ultra-vivid 3K Lumina OLED, coated in Corning Gorilla Glass, complete with a 120Hz refresh rate and adaptive sync to ensure you’re always seeing the right rate. With an 87 per cent screen-to-body ratio, even if you think a 14-inch laptop is too small for your small business needs, I urge you to try and look one right in the face in the wilds of John Lewis or Currys.
Super-linear speakers tuned by Harman Kardon with Smart Amplifier and ASUS Audio Booster handle the sound side of things, and to ensure you look and sound your best on video calls and conferences, there’s an AI-enhanced webcam that can blur your background, detect and correct your gaze so that you always appear to be making direct eye-contact, detect movement and follow you around accordingly. It can even automatically reduce image noise to upgrade the state of your online fizzog from fuzzy to crystal clear. Add to this an array microphone and all your video conference and calls are sorted.
Connection-wise, the natty ZenBook comes with solid Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 to ensure you’re always hooked up over the ether, and 1x USB 3.2, 2x Thunderbolt 4, and 1 x HDMI 2.1 ports to integrate into a full office set-up.
What’s more a true go-anywhere laptop, the ZenBook has been tested to US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standards, so it can resist extremes of temperature and even survive a drop, so if your small business sees a bit of rough and tumble out in the field, the Asus can roll with the punches.
An incredible little lappy that delivers power and performance that goes above and beyond, the new Asus ZenBook 14 is an essential asset for any small business.
- OS: Windows 11 Home
- Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9
- Screen size: 14-inch
- Screen resolution: 2.8K
- Memory: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB