Asus ZenBook 14X (2023) laptop review: OLED ultrabook at its limit

[Redaktion]

Asus' new ZenBook 14X comes equipped with the powerful Intel Core i9-13900H. With an above-average robust case, an OLED display with 120 Hz and very good battery life, the ZenBook impresses, but the processor has its limits. More about that in the following review.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-14X-2023-laptop-review-OLED-ultrabook-at-its-limit.726779.0.html

[Kenneth]

Idle state is consuming 7 watt on average. But the battery life test shows 10 hours in wifi web surfing. So, surfing the web and idle both consume the same amount of power.

[Alan]

I agree that the 70 Wh battery lasting 10 hours implies an average power consumption of 7 W, which is the same as the reported idle power.  I'm a bit jealous, because I have an HP 14t-eh, with a similar OLED display with 13500H, and 51 Wh battery, and it only lasts 5 hours under the same test.  This means the average power consumption is about 10 W.  I'd really be interested to hear what optimizations are being done by Asus to improve the battery life.  Two that come to mind are: 1) any special browser addons to make the screen background black while websurfing;  this would dramatically reduce the OLED power consumption.  And 2) if they limited the clock of the cpu while on battery, such that it can't go into turbo mode.  I believe turbo consumes more power per MHz than at lower clocks, and is therefore less efficient.       

[Alan]

...actually, it's kind of interesting:  Asus has somehow increased the battery lifetime of essentially the same laptop by 40% from 7 hours to 10 hours.

The older version of this laptop runs a similar Samsung Oled Display, a less powerful CPU 12700H, and the same 70 Wh battery, but only lasts 7 hours in WLAN mode (as reviewed by notebookcheck):
Asus-VivoBook-S-14X-S5402Z-review

Asus, who probably reads this criticism in notebookcheck, *increases* the cpu power consumption and now the battery lasts 10 hours in the same test.  I'd really like to know how they did it.

[SHAHNI]

I confirmed by reading up on dozens of comments and forums, that after probably a week or 2 of use the body creaks. This issue is with several zenbooks, don't know what they are using in the construction because brand new out of the box it doesn't ! I have this model zenbook 14x i7 creaky edition and the body creaks like a MF. It first started with the plastic covered hinge. it creaks no matter where u press it on. than the bottom plate started creaking. I know it has nothing to do with the functionality, but its embarrassing when in a meeting whenever you handle it and move it around, it creaks like a goat. I have become afraid of even picking it up Infront of other people!!! And I paid full price for it 999 USD. Had it been on sale or a deal i would have understood. but for a 1000 bucks you shouldn't have to deal with a creaky old Babushka ! Not recommended for business professionals at all. Students don't matter. And its always been carefully used and carried. I have a car so its not like its being harassed in a bad on public transport.

[Shahnawaz]

I've got the i7 and Iris Xe model and the battery life is beyond good. On whisper mode, 60Hz, Best Efficiency and Battery Saver it lasts a heck of a lot time depending on what you're doing e.g. low brightness chrome usage and word processing (mostly what I do). Unlike U series processors the H ones seemingly perform just as well as on standard TDP.

The only issue that I have with this model is creaky noise and sounds that come from the Plastic Hinge cover. Merely pressing it produces plasticky creaks and sound.

[tobias.r05]

Just got my Asus Zenbook 14X Oled. I have the i9 version, my battery life is terrible. The laptop lasts only about 4 hours even with light work load. Does anyone have an explanation?