When it comes the family of Asus notebooks, at this stage we are fairly well versed with the Zenbook range and its different iterations. The latest is the Zenbook 14X OLED, which as the name suggests delivers a 4K-resolution sporting OLED panel to serve a significant bump in visuals.

While any improvement to an already premium Windows notebook is welcome, we have to wonder, is the OLED panel necessary?

We ask this as the recent iterations of Zenbook, whether it be a Pro Duo or Flip, have all served up great displays that help bring content to life. As such, is the new addition here overkill?

We spent the past few weeks with the Zenbook 14X OLED (UX5401E) to find out if the newly upgraded display is a niche offering or a must have feature for your work from home setup.

Retaining the DNA

Starting with design, is we often do with reviews, the Zenbook aesthetic is heavily present in the new 14X OLED, with Asus unwavering in that department.

The chassis is relatively slim at 15.9mm, with a unique hinge (Ergolift in Asus terminology) that facilitates the opening and closing of the lid as expected, but also allows the screen to rotate 180 degrees if you wish to make use of the NandoEdge touch-enabled display from a different angle.

If you do choose to do so, you’ll need to be careful about how much pressure you place on the lid, as too much will lead to screen moving out of position. As such, it is unclear how much a graphic designer with stylus in hand would make use of such a feature over a model like the Zenbook Flip 15, which can rotate into a full tablet orientation.

Sticking with the panel, content genuinely blooms into life on this screen, with the move to an OLED panel yielding more vibrant and crisp colours.

Available in up to 4K (3840×2400) resolution options, the display on offer here is not worth the price of admission, but certainly a level above what we have encountered on other notebooks this year.

The NanoEdge design, which yields 92 percent screen-to-body ratio thanks to its narrow bezels is also welcome and we are leaning into marketing speak here, but it does make videos, movies and in other media-type content more immersive on the Zenbook 14X OLED.

Looking at the rest of the device and some of the elements we’ve to know from Zenbook are still present.

The keyboard proves the level of clicky-ness that we like, the trackpad is responsive and can double as a numpad when needed (although we did not use it outside of review purposes) and the build quality of the 14X OLED is definitely up there.

We also like the brushed aluminium finish of the notebook lid, which offers up some subtle elegance in the Pine Grey colour option of our review model, although we found that it was not averse to attracting smudges, as the images lower down will attest.

All in all though, the Zenbook 14X OLED looks as good as the visuals it delivers.

Peak performance short lived

In terms of performance, our review model is running the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7, with i5 and i3 options from the 11th Gen family also available to speak, but the latter option might prove a little underpowered given the display on offer here and the likely use in creative work.

Added to the i7 is an Intel Iris Xe graphics setup, 16GB LPDDR4X RAM and 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 Performance SSD. As such, the 14X OLED is fairly well appointed, with its benchmarking yielding similar results.

In Cinebench (R23) for example, it yielded an average score of 5 286, which is more than this year’s Zenbook Pro Duo and Zenbook Fip 15 mustered, both of which are powerful devices in their own right.

From a processing perspective then, the 14X OLED can handle quite a bit being thrown at it.

One area it may struggle though is battery life, which is becoming an increasingly important decision given the current plight of our power utility, coupled with the fact that most are still working from home during the week.

Here the 63WHrs Li-ion battery on offer only yielded a little over five hours of use from a fully charged battery under the optimal settings, which means screen brightness was bumped all the way. You could eke out another 45 minutes to an hour should you go lower, but overall, the 14X OLED is not going to win any awards in terms of how it manages power.

As such, if you plan to use this on the go, a plug point needs to be close at hand or sizeable power bank should be at the ready.

Final verdict

In many respects, you know precisely what you’re getting with the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED. This latest addition to the lineup features all the hallmarks we’ve come to know from the brand, including a premium design, handsome chassis and a bevy of ports to ensure connectivity and functionality are never a concern.

Added to this is a new panel which brings content to life and truly a step above what we have encountered previously from Asus. This comes at the cost of battery life, which was far less than we have seen on past Zenbooks we have reviewed.

As such, while the enhanced panel is welcome and this Zenbook ticks all the usual boxes, it will need to be plugged in a lot of the time, which is only a problem if you do not plan to work remotely or need to be on the go often.

Starting at R29 999 (RRP), the Zenbook 14X OLED delivers plenty, but if you’re swayed by the new panel alone. it might be best to wait to see if Asus can nail the battery performance on a future OLED offering. If you are desk bound most of the time though, it is a truly premium piece of hardware to work with.