ASUS ZenBook 14 Core i5 11th Gen UX425EA-BM501TS

Update after 6 weeks——No complaints so far. I haven’t experienced any issues and all my comments in the original review below continue to be valid.Battery life is consistently strong at 10 hours workday average with some video streaming. I don’t do any heavy work on this machine and keep brightness around 40% so this is probably the best you can get from this battery pack. Recharging is awesome and I love the battery protection features that only charge the battery to 60%/80% to improve its life. Charging is rock solid and it generally charges from 10% – 80% in around 1 hour with the supplied charger.I’m enjoying the screen also. The extra 0.7 inches over a 13.3 laptop doesn’t sound much on paper but in practice it makes a significant difference. At Full HD resolution it means I don’t have to scale the display size in Windows and everything remains readable at 100% scale. On the 13.3 inch Zenbook I always set the scale factor between 105-107%. I don’t have to do that on this 14 inch UX425.Other great things that I’ve seen since the original review. The microSD card reader is so much faster vs. the one in my old Zenbook UX305. This one gives 70mbps / 50mbps with UHS-3 cards which is awesome.The speakers are louder than I initially thought. In a quiet bedroom I only need to keep them around 60% to be comfortably audible. At 100% they can be loud enough for a moderately noisy environment. Works perfectly for calls and for occasional audio-based work tasks.I disabled the Intel graphic app from starting up on launch and that has fixed the auto-dimming feature which was an annoyance. The idea of that feature is to improve battery life, but even after disabling it the batter stays the same for me. It’s probably because I keep brightness between 30-50% anyways. However, by disabling the auto-dimming feature the display remains more comfortable for me.The ports are awesome. Perfectly placed and they suffice for me without any extra dongles or docks.The form factor continue to be awesome. The 1100gm weight means I often use the laptop balancing it in one hand for short tasks and it’s great because I can move around. Obviously not for anything over 10 mins, but often that’s enough to do short tasks.No complaints and I would recommend it if you find it at the right price.Asus launched the new Zenbook range globally, and it should hit India by early next year. For now, I think this is the best fit for my purpose from a price/performance/feature/reliability standpoint.Original review – Aug 2020——-I have been waiting to upgrade my 2016 Zenbook but in the last 2 years ASUS has been disappointing with their Zenbook line features. This release finally gets the combination of most important things right.Core i7 with 16GB RAM, bright enough screen, matte anti reflective screen, smallet form factor, lighter weight than 2016 version.Most importantly, they finally have universal USB-C fast charging, Thunderbolt 3 ports, and an excellent keyboard+touchpad. I have been using the laptop for 3 weeks and I made the right choice to wait for this 2020 line to be launched.When you spend nearly 1 lac on a laptop you don’t want to compromise on little things. And this new Zenbook makes very few trade-offs.1. The screen is nearly perfect – 14-inch screen provides enough real estate for efficiency on the go. The color balance is decent. The matte anti-reflective coating is fairly light so it stops reflections but the picture quality remains fairly high. Brightness is good at 300nits but Asus also have a 400-nit 1W screen which unfortunately wasn’t launched in India. 400 nits would be a better option at this price. I don’t like 4K screens on my work laptop because they cut the battery life significantly so this is fine. I also don’t need a touchscreen on a work laptop.2. The form factor is ideal for travel ultrabook – small, light at 1.13kg and fairly durable. There is some flex in the middle of the frame which feels strange as the 2016 Zenbook felt rock solid with its metal unibody. But overall the laptop feels durable enough and helps with the lighter weight. Metal unibody designs are more solid of course but they are also heavier.3. The battery is superb. After about 2 weeks of use I have consistently seen around 10 hours in Windows battery report. This is with 40-50% brightness, office work and some video playback. The Corei5 version should give better endurance but this is perfect for my use case. The 2016 Zenbook Corei5 was giving around 7-8 hours so this is a good jump for Core i7.3. The charging is fantastic. I can plug any USB-C charger from 5V to 20V and the battery will charge (at proportionate speed). That’s an amazing convenience when traveling. I tried a mobile power bank, a mobile charger, an Anker 45W PD charger and they all charge the laptop (at different speeds). The charging brick from Asus is compact but is a 2 piece so there is a rather bulky power cord for India. The 2016 Zenbook was a single piece charger that plugged directly in the wall socket. It’s not a huge problem because this charger is going to stay at home and for travel will carry a universal mobile charger. Fast charging is also super useful for traveling.4. The keyboard is top-notch. The main reason I chose the 14-inch version over the 13-inch is because of the more spacious keyboard. Again essential for a work laptop if you don’t want strained fingers. There are 3 levels of white backlighting and the touchpad is classic Zenbook – big, wide and feels premium. I don’t use the integrated number pad too often but when I do it works well.5. Sound – Good enough to watch a movie or take a call in a quiet room and that’s all I need. I use Bluetooth headphones/speakers at other times so the lack of a headphone jack doesn’t bother me. Asus does include a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box, so that’s great! The speakers are reasonable for an ultrabook so I am happy with the performance. They are not dismal like you will see on Vivobook X403 for example.6. Fan speed – this may not be a huge deal for most people but I absolutely needed a quiet laptop. I was spoilt by the 2016 version and the 2020 Zenbook doesn’t disappoint. The fan is mostly quiet for 80% of the workday and spins up only when you are doing any demanding installs, editing etc. I tried a Yoga 640 and damn that thing was noisy as hell!7. Webcam – fine for doing work calls but is pretty average quality. At least it’s in the right spot and the mics are high quality.8. Color – I would have preferred the silver color but Asus only offers this Pine Grey color in the 14-inch version. I wasn’t willing to make that trade-off because the keyboard is slightly more cramped on the 13-incher. It’s a premium looking color but silver does look more premium on an ultrabook.That’s all! I’m very happy with my upgrade after 3 weeks of use. Asus also offers an 1 year extended warranty (total 2 years) for $20 so that’s useful.I tried a Lenovo Yoga in June and was sorely disappointed. The build quality was average, the fan was damn noisy, battery life was unpredictable, the ports were a disaster (no thunderbolt, no charging, no HDMI) and I received a faulty screen from Lenovo.com.Asus Zenbooks have MUCH higher quality specially for professional use so I am never buying or recommending LENOVO if you are spending more than 60K on a laptop.I was finally happy to let my old Zenbook go for this new model! It’s almost perfect.

Amazing laptop!Most amazing thing: Battery life!!I get 10-12 hours on medium to heavy use Wifi and Bluetooth On!!! This is insane! I use it like a phone. Charge it at night and use it for the entire day! Charges very quickly in under an hour.Performance wise there’s obviously no complaints. Its more than enough for most of the people doing serious work. Its incredibly fast. Face unlock works well. Screen is absolutely amazing. Its incredibly lightweight. Speakers are the loudest and clearest that I have ever heard on a laptop.Webcam quality is surprisingly good considering this is a laptop! Its comparable to macbooks.You get manual control of fan (kind of). Laptop can get warm if you are working and fast charging at the same time but you can set fan performance to max and it really helps with the cooling.I don’t think any other product is available at this price with these specific features in India. Just go for this one.PS- before buying this, I had an asus Vivobook 14. loved it and used it for a long time. Had no problem. So I think Asus as a laptop brand is very reliable.