ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED Review – Eco-friendly Strength

Unboxing the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED

The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED comes in a dark gray box with some lines strewn across it, resembling the lid of the laptop itself. Inside it, I found the following items:

• Power cable
• 65W Charger
• Product leaflets
• Carrying case
• ASUS Pen 2.0
• The ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED laptop itself

Specifications

CPU	Intel Core i5-1340p, 12C(4P+8E)/20T @ 1.9GHz (up to 4.6GHz Turbo), 28W TDP, Intel 7
RAM	16GB LPDDR5-4800 (on-board, dual-channel)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphic, 96EU @ up to 1.4GHz
Storage	512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Software	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Intel Graphics Command Center MyASUS Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019 (included) McAfee Personal Security (McAfee LiveSafe)
Connectivity	Wireless Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3) Wired 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 40Gbps, supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, USB-PD 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A), 10Gbps 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
Display	14″ 2.8K (2880 x 1800) 16:10 90Hz OLED Pantone Validated glossy display, touchscreen 400 nits, 100% DCI-P3, DisplayHDR 500 True Black, 87% screen-to-body ratio 70% less harmful blue light, TÜV Rheinland-certified, SGS Eye Care Display 2 x DisplayPort Alt Mode over Thunderbolt 4 1 x HDMI 2.1 TMDS
Audio	Stereo speakers, tuned by harman/kardon (premium) Array microphone, Cortana voice-recognition support AI Noise-Cancelling Mic + AI Noise-Cancelling Speaker
Power	75WHrs Li-ion battery, 2S2P 65W power adapter
Dimensions	311.5 x 223.4 x 15.9 mm
Weight	1.5kg

Performance

Starting off our benchmark suite with CrystalDiskMark, the SSD inside the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED showed pretty good speeds. While we’ve seen faster SSDs for this type of laptop even from ASUS themselves, it’s still more than enough for most consumers anyway and the difference won’t really be felt in real world use.

Moving on to Cinebench R20, the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED had a relatively strong showing. Sure, it’s not on par with the performance-based chips but the fact that it outperformed the previous generation i7’s chip in multi-core (while the single core difference is negligible) is impressive.

In Unigine SuperPosition’s 4K Optimized benchmark, the lower score isn’t a surprise since this test is very GPU-focused. As such, there’s only so much the Intel Iris Xe can do. Even a laptop running an older CPU can do significantly better if it had a decent discrete GPU.

A similar pattern can be seen in 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark. There really isn’t much you can do here without a discrete GPU, and it further proves my recent theory that 2,000 is the ceiling for these types of laptops.

As for Novabench, it’s notably stronger than the Dell XPS 13 Plus, making it the better choice for daily use. It is however dwarfed by the Zenbook 14X OLED and the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Ultimately, it depends on your needs and the budget you have in mind.

Lastly on PCMark 10, the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED had a strong showing across the board. Unsurprisingly, it’s weakest point is Digital Content Creation, but it seems to be the norm with the 12th and 13th Gen Intel Core machines without a dGPU. Regardless, it proves that it’s a reliable daily driver if you’re not planning to game or run graphics-heavy applications.

In case you’re wondering about its battery life, the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED isn’t great. In PCMark’s Modern Office endurance test, it lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes (450 minutes) before the battery died. While you should be able to use it for a decent amount of time without a charger, you’d definitely need to carry one around with you wherever you go unless it’s just a short trip outside.

Looking for a different ultraportable laptop instead? Check out our ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED review by clicking right here.

The Good

There are a number of good reasons that will make you consider getting the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED. For starters, it’s light and portable at just 1.5kg at 15.9mm thin, which makes it easy to carry around with you. Added to the fact that it has a 360° hinge to it makes it versatile as you can turn it into tablet-mode if you just want to show / view things, further emphasizing its convenience.

Then you have its build quality, which is military-grade MIL-STD-810H as it underwent a 26-test procedure, one of the strictest in the industry. Furthermore, it’s made up of 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics, which amazes me since it manages to be that durable even with the eco-friendly materials. Personally, I dig the futuristic look and its matte finish as well, which is a bonus, but there is one trade-off which I’ll get into the next section of the review.

Next up, you have yet another eye-candy of a display just like recent Zenbooks. It’s a 14-inch 2.8K resolution OLED display with paper-thin bezels which gives bright, punchy colours for you to easily immerse yourself with. The 90Hz refresh rate is an added bonus for extra smoothness. Furthermore, the 16:10 aspect ratio gives you a bit more screen real estate to see more on the display. The icing on the cake here is the 4,096 pressure-level stylus support, and while many might end up using the ASUS Pen 2.0, just the mere fact that it has touchscreen support feels like a huge blessing to me.

This shouldn’t be a surprise at this point but in case you might be new to Zenbooks, then it’s still worth noting; the ASUS NumberPad 2.0. In shorts, it doubles the trackpad as a numberpad whenever you enable it, which is great as it’s hard to include that in a compact laptop without cramming up the keyboard. Furthermore, the ErgoSense feature lets you use gestures to make actions on the touchpad, like switching between apps using three fingers. You just need to take a bit of time to get used to it, and then it will be hard to live without.

One thing I’m surprised here is that you do get a decent array of ports. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports which supports PD charging and DisplayPort Alt Mode, a USB-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and HDMI 2.1. It may not have a memory card reader but you essentially have everything you need to get the laptop up and running without feeling like you’re going to run short of ports from the get-go.

One thing I was surprised with, albeit it’s not the biggest surprise, is the built-in speakers. It’s bottom-firing but it pumps up a decent amount of bass (for built-ins speakers) while the clarity is one of the best in any ultraportables around. Volume is more than adequate too, which is a plus. I wouldn’t use this to listen to music unless I have no other choice, but it is definitely great for conference calls and the sort.

For those looking to use it for conference calls, the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED has a pretty decent built-in microphone. While it’s not comparable to a cheap condenser microphone, it manages to capture relatively clear vocals, albeit with a bit of echo, instead of sounding like a traditional mobile phone call. I’ve included a microphone sample right above here for you to listen. Just a fair warning, it is rather sensitive to sounds in the environment, so you will need to be in a quieter room for a better conference call experience.

The Bad

As much as there are good things, there are also bad things of varying degrees on the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED. For starters, while the design is something I personally like, the fact that it’s a fingerprint magnet makes it a bit of an eyesore at times. You will need to wipe it down every now and then, otherwise it will look dirtier than it seems.

Next up, while I’m happy with the performance of the laptop, the CPU does run relatively hot. During the benchmarking process, thermal throttling does occur, but not often. For general use like web browsing and office application, it does heat up still but not to the point where you’d get worried about it. Ideally, use it in a cooler place and not outdoors right under the sun, especially in weathers like Malaysia.

While I did praise the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED for having a good array of ports, the placement is a bit odd. You have a single USB-A port on the left side, which makes sense as a mouse can be connected from here and have the wire run around the back of the laptop to reduce clutter. Having everything else on the right side is what I find weird as it feels to cramped on this side if you make use of most of the ports. If they at least moved one of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side, it would be significantly tidier.

The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED has all the makings of a productivity laptop that can last you a long time but one crutch in its longevity is the inability to upgrade the RAM yourself. After all, it’s onboard RAM so if any issues arise from it, you will need to take it a service center. This also means that if you plan on using this laptop for a long time, you wouldn’t want to skimp out on RAM upon purchase as once you get that, you will be stuck with it until the end of its lifespan.

ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED Verdict

The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED is a solid ultraportable productivity laptop, thanks to its vibrant OLED display and versatile nature. Given its asking price of RM5,499, the Zenbook 14X OLED is the better buy but it ultimately boils down to your needs and budget.

At the end of our ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED review, I award this laptop with our Bronze Pokdeward.

Big thanks to ASUS Malaysia for sending us this laptop for the purpose of this review.