ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435 Hands-on

In September last year, ASUS announced the world’s smallest laptop with ASUS ScreenPad, the ZenBook 14 UX435, and now, it finally made its debut here in the country. It is a premium thin-and-light ultrabook with a bunch of productivity-forward features, surprisingly powerful internals, as well as style points. Check out our hands-on below.

Right from the get-go, it can be surprising to many people that this is a 14-inch laptop. It has quite a small footprint, which is great for portability as well as saving desk space. It looks very premium, given the spun-metal finish on the lid and the chrome ASUS logo.

We also have very slim bezels on display, a classy-looking chiclet keyboard, and a relatively big ScreenPad, a secondary 5.65-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080. It doubles as your trackpad. The glass surface makes tracking feel very smooth, and the addition of a second screen is always welcome for productivity-oriented users.

For the main display, we get a 14-inch NanoEdge IPS display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. It gets an amazing screen-to-body ratio of 92%, which explains how compact the entire laptop is. It has a really nice display with 72% of the NTSC gamut, roughly equivalent to 100% sRGB.

Taking a look at the keyboard, we get a compact TKL layout composed of chiclet-style keys. The keys themselves have a nice feel to them, with a good amount of travel, requiring just the right amount of press. There is a bit of space left on the keyboard’s sides, which makes us wonder why ASUS didn’t add more keys. However, we’re sure they have their reasons for this.

Opening the laptop shows a signature ZenBook feature, the ErgoLift Hinge. It utilizes the bottom portion of the lid panel to prop up the keyboard, resulting in a more ergonomic typing situation.

On the left side, we get a full-sized HDMI port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports that also double as charging inputs. We also get a couple of LED indicators for battery life.

On the right side, one USB 3.2 Type-A, one combo audio jack, and a microSD card reader. Considering that it has two Thunderbolt 4 ports and even an Ethernet dongle included in the box, this is a solid selection of I/O, already allowing for a lot of connectivity potential right out of the box– for most users.

The unit we have is packing an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, along with an NVIDIA MX450 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM at 4266MHz, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. However, a lower variant is available, which instead features an i5-1135G7 and a 512GB NVMe SSD. Either way, this configuration is actually pretty powerful, especially for a laptop that’s this thin and compact. It will be a huge enabling factor for productivity tasks and has enough horsepower for creative and even light gaming loads.

For battery, we get a 63Wh battery, which will enable the device to last for quite a long time, assuming low-power usage. The included charger is rated at 65W, so charging should only take a little over an hour.

Overall, the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435 is quite a promising ultrabook that packs a lot of punch for its compact size. It manages to fit in not just a 14-inch main display but also a ScreenPad. Its internals packs quite a punch for performance, and it’s all rounded out by solid battery life.

The ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435 is priced at PHP79,995USD 1,363INR 115,561EUR 1,298CNY 9,927 for the i7 and 1TB SSD variant and PHP64,995USD 1,108INR 93,892EUR 1,055CNY 8,066 for the i5 and 512GB SSD variant. Both of them come with 16GB of RAM and an MX450 GPU.

Now, what do you think about the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435? Let us know in the comments below.

ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435 specs:
14.0-inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9, IPS-level Panel, Anti-glare display, LED Backlit, 300nits, sRGB: 100%, Screen-to-body ratio: 92 ?
ScreenPad 2.0 (FHD+ (2160 x 1080) IPS-level Panel)
Intel Core i5-1135G7 Processor 2.4 GHz (8M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz, 4 cores)
Intel Core i7-1165G7 Processor 2.8 GHz (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 4 cores)
Intel® Iris Xe Graphics, NVIDIA® GeForce® MX450, 2GB GDDR6
8GB LPDDR4X on board, Memory Max Up to:16GB
16GB LPDDR4X on board, Memory Max Up to:16GB
8GB LPDDR4X on board, Memory Max Up to:8GB
512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD with 32GB Intel Optane Memory
1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD with 32GB Intel Optane™ Memory
1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 Performance SSD
256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
2x Thunderbolt™ 4 supports display / power delivery
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
Micro SD card reader
Built-in speaker
Built-in array microphone
harman/kardon (Premium)
63WHrs, 3S1P, 3-cell Li-ion
31.90 x 19.90 x 1.69 ~ 1.69 cm
1.19 kg (2.62 lbs)
1.29 kg (2.84 lbs)
Windows 10 Pro