ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition review: Coming right out of Space!

Finally, today ASUS has launched its highly anticipated ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition in India and if you have been waiting for it well, we have some good news for you! I have been using this device for over 2 weeks now and am one of the first to do so, here is our complete review you will get all your queries answered right away!

As you already know, this is a special edition laptop made by ASUS that celebrates a key milestone in the history of ASUS laptops. The out-of-this-world design embraces the ASUS spirit of innovation, encouraging users to start their voyage of discovery and explore beyond the limits.

Why this Space Edition laptop?

In 1997, ASUS launched its first laptop ― the P6300. The same model was chosen for a mission to the MIR Space Station. Victor, one of the astronauts on that mission, reported that ASUS notebooks were the most reliable of those taken on the mission, with zero issues during more than 600 days in space.

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“The ASUS notebooks never overheated like some of the devices made by other companies,” said fellow cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev. This was an early testament to our commitment to quality and engineering. To commemorate 25 years of the historic achievement, ASUS has created the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition ― its vision of what a laptop destined for space would look like, today.

Unboxing Experience

If you love special edition laptops you will love how precisely ASUS has made the unboxing experience of the ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition “special”. As ASUS says, the unique box of the laptop has been inspired by a metal spaceship door where there is a window on the lid of the box.

This allows users to see the ZenVision display before opening much like a peephole on a space capsule. Now, when the box is opened, it smoothly lifts the laptop up, making it easier to be removed. In addition, the smaller box with accessories can be folded into a laptop stand, offering a better typing experience as well as repurposing it.

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Complete Specifications of ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition

The variant we received is the top-end variant that comes with the flagship 14-cores Intel® Core™ i9-12900H processor and Intel Iris X^e graphics paired with dual-channel 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB PCI Gen 4.0 Performance SSD. Featuring a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and rocking a 63WHrs battery, this variant has been launched for ₹169,990.

Design & Build

From the unboxing, you will start getting that space vibe inside you and as you actually see this laptop I bet you will fall in love with the design. The minute design elements you see on the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition have been heavily influenced and inspired by the history of space travel.

Being entirely made out of aluminium alloy with a Zero-G Titanium finish, which is similar to the material used on space crafts, this has a strong build quality but is still pretty light. The arched lines on the lid symbolize the look of a space capsule, where one of the lines is a symbolic morse code of the Latin proverb ad astra per aspera, which means “Through Hardships to the Stars”.

The same design language continues on the palm-rest area, bringing references to space capsules and morse code. The pattern on the left is based on a schematic of the MIR space station, while the two lines on either side of the touchpad are inspired by a cockpit. The ErgoLift hinge does elevate the laptop for a better typing experience while also increasing the ventilation space under the chassis for improved heat dissipation.

I really do appreciate the design and build quality because even using a beefy CPU like Core i9-12900H the laptop weighs just 1.4 kg and has a thickness of 15.9 mm. Also, if you want a durable option, this ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition laptop is the epitome of high-end durability.

The laptop has not only been tested to meet the ultra-demanding MIL-STD-810H U.S. military standard for reliability and durability, which very few laptops pass but is also certified to pass standard Space-Grade tests such as extreme vibration of 2,000 Hz, low-temperature test at -25° and high temperate test at 61°.

The whole laptop has this Space Edition touch to it from top to bottom and for a collector who loves special edition laptops like this, this is indeed the best that money can buy you.

Display

Continuing its momentum to deliver the best OLED panels on laptops ASUS has again used a high quality display here and being a special edition laptop expect no compromise from the Taiwan giant. So, this ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition features a 14-inch 2.8K OLED touchscreen display which is practically the best you can get now on a laptop.

Not only that the display comes with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate which is far better than the standard 60Hz. Experience more screen with a taller 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2880 x 1800, so, as I used it mostly for browsing, entertainment and work, I felt the extra screen does make a difference.

Having used a lot of ASUS OLED laptops, the improvement in the panels year-on-year is a joy to watch and actually feel, this 2022 laptop does come with more screen real estate and higher resolution, and better color accuracy. Now, slimmer bezels on all four sides enable it to have an immersive 92% screen-to-body ratio and for this reason, it doesn’t feel like a typical 14-inch laptop.

We tested the laptop’s display with our Datacolor SyperX Pro and here are the results:

As you see, the results look good practice and the colour gamut is on par with ASUS’s claims of covering 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, one of the best displays you can get. From the tone response to the incredible contrast ratio, the quality of the OLED panel is great but the brightness is a lot less than advertised at 550 nits.

As per the tests here, the max brightness was at 353.4 nits and I did notice this was more of a 400 nits panel rather than the 550 nits advertised.

Not only this, the display even emits 70% less blue light than the standard ones, so, for a person like me who stares for hours in front of a laptop, this is an important thing to have. Without using my computer vision specs, I face no eye strain at all and this is true, last but not the least, I really enjoyed watching content on this OLED display.

I have used many of them already but this one has the best color accuracy, contrast and brightness, along with VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black certification, watching web series, YouTube, or even HDR movies look more realistic than ever.

For editing, photoshop, lightroom and even video editing, the laptop’s incredibly accurate display makes it easier while the high peak brightness ensures you can use the ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition even outdoors.

Overall, in terms of display, ASUS is still delivering the industry’s best offering and in this special edition laptop, expect the best OLED display that money can offer you.

ZenVision display

Another exclusive feature seen in this ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition laptop is the ZenVision display which comes with a fully customizable 3.5” OLED panel that’s inspired by a datasheet of a spaceship.

It supports 256 x 64 resolution and has a 150-nit brightness, now, by default it comes with this cute astronaut floating in space GIF but you can totally customize it according to your preference.

Though it drains some battery if you keep it on always but looks obviously cool and you can use this to show off anyways and comes in real handy. You can easily customize via MyASUS software to show the information you want including battery status, time and a lot more.

Performance

This is a premium laptop and is powered by Intel means you have a high-end chip inside it this time because these 12th Gen processors are very powerful. The 14-core Core i9-12900H processor inside this features 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, making this thin & light laptop one of the most powerful laptops out there.

In general day-to-day tasks, you will feel the laptop breezing away because of its high speed 32GB LPDDR5 RAM paired with 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. Also, for heavy applications like Photoshop or Premiere, the laptop works quite good but the lack of a discrete GPU makes a difference in graphics-intensive applications.

As you know, much like other ASUS laptops, this ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition also can be tuned as per your usage. Switch between Performance, Balanced, and Whisper modes in the MyASUS app inside the laptop depending upon your usage, I preferred using it in Whisper mode during light workloads and switched to Performance while gaming or during heavy work.

Here are some of the synthetic benchmarks taken on this laptop and how it stands against others:

As you see our ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition performed really well both in single-core and multi-core, leaving behind the older gaming laptops as well that too in this slim form factor. So, if you have applications that can crunch numbers using your CPU’s horsepower indeed the Core i9-12900H is a powerful offering used here.

The SSD speeds on this laptop are superb, reaching a peak of up to 7086MB/s for read and up to 5125MB/s for writes, considering the thin & light form factor having a 1TB high-spend makes this laptop even more valuable.

Overall, in terms of performance, you are covered with the latest hardware in this 1.4kg laptop but a discrete GPU option also could have helped a lot of people who need more graphical horsepower.

I/O & Connectivity

Talking about the ports on this ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, you get two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports at the left, each with support for up to 40 Gbps data bandwidth and 4K or 8K display output, also you can charge the laptop using any of the two. So, if you love the use of a Thunderbolt port for the high bandwidth this laptop is a great option.

In addition to this, the laptop offers an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an audio combo jack and a microSD card reader. For connectivity, you get both dual-band Intel Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 options, the Wi-Fi works flawlessly with good support in terms of speed when you are in the same room as the router.

I had minor issues in connecting with Bluetooth devices but after updates, connecting my mouse or the headphone was not difficult at all. Always update the drivers if you buy this laptop, just head over to the MyASUS app and you can simply update drivers easily.

Keyboard & Trackpad

ASUS does make comfortable keyboards for its customers and this ErgoSense keyboard used here is also a very friendly keyboard to type on. It comes with an edge-to-edge design to utilize all space in the compact form factor of the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition.

This backlit keyboard has a subtle 0.2 mm dish-shaped indentation and 1.4 mm key travel for a smooth typing experience, having used it for a long time now that you will too feel very tactile to use as well. Coming to the trackpad, this is much bigger in size compared to the standard ones you see on the Vivobooks and it’s like what you expect on a ZenBook laptop.

Also, you have ASUS’s signature ASUS NumberPad 2.0 built into the trackpad which is a nice option if you use calculator or work numbers pretty often.

Thermals & Upgradability

Thanks to ASUS’s IceCool thermal technology that combines two heavy-duty Ø6 and Ø8 heat pipes and two 87-blade fans that helps the laptop to sustain 45W TDP continuously in performance mode. Though the fans do get loud and the laptop gets hot in Performance mode, this is kind of expected from a thin & light form factor though.

Still, taming a 14-core beast inside such a small chassis is a commendable job and during normal work, if you keep this ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition in whisper mode you will hear almost no fan noise and you can work comfortably.

For mild work or keeping a lot of tabs open on Chrome use Balance mode which does get the laptop a bit hot but fans still do not make a fuss. There’s nothing to upgrade about much as you already have up to 32GB RAM and 1TB storage.

Audio & Webcam

I always love the audio on the ZenBook laptops and this ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition is no exception to that because the Harman Kardon certified speakers on this laptop deliver rich and loud sound. It features dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support which users can tune with a wide range of equalizer settings and the Smart Amp helps to increase the sound.

Also, I like the fact that ASUS has used this AI Noise-Canceling Audio feature in this laptop which helps business users, travellers, or people like me who join a lot of Teams calls to have efficient and clear communication, thanks to the ClearVoice Mic function.

Though someday I expect laptop webcams to be upgraded to 1080p soon but here you are again stuck with a 720p HD camera which is just ok nothing to brag about. But this ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition features an Electronic Webcam shutter that simply slides the shield, by pressing the F10 key, over the webcam for privacy.

Battery Life

Last but not the least, talking about the battery life of this ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition laptop, I did expect this 12th Gen Intel CPU to take a hit in terms of efficiency and it did. On average you can expect 4 hours of usage while you can extend it with lightweight tasks to max 1/2 to 1 hour.

Not the ZenBook class battery level you expect because of a smaller 63 Wh battery but if you do plan to use it for long then you probably will be a bit disappointed.

Verdict

This new ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition is a laptop one of a kind and deserves its place to be a special edition laptop, but is it worth it for ₹169,990? Now, it totally depends on your usage and the money you are able to spend, say someone is looking for a special edition to widen his or her collection then this is a perfect laptop.

However, from an average consumer standpoint, this is a luxurious laptop that deserves its high price tag because of its uniqueness. From the lid to the space bar, everything has been made such minutely to signify the Space Edition theme that I won’t complain about ASUS charging such a price for this laptop.

In terms of performance, display, keyboard, and connectivity, everything has been such thoughtfully taken care of that finding flaws becomes hard for us reviewers. Though the lack of a discrete GPU option does make me a bit sad though and the battery life could have been better, rest kudos to ASUS for making the new ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition something “out of space”.

Buy from here: https://amzn.to/3FMmrSP