I tested the Asus Zenbook S14 UX5406 OLED: we worked on the Lunar

So I adopted this little Zenbook S14 for more than six weeks. It replaced my trusty MacBook Air M2 as my daily workstation. The period being conducive to professional travel, he followed me on long trips during the fall.

Did he survive the ordeal? Do the promises from Asus and Intel hold up? Rather than carrying out a traditional test, I preferred to give my opinion here by addressing the points that I appreciated… and the others!

Discover the Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED UX5406

Contents hide

1 A beautiful object

2 Parisian warm-up

3 Massacre a carbon footprint

4 Flawless on the move

5 Return home

6 In conclusion

7 Zenbook S14 UX5406 Oled

7.1 Design & ergonomics

7.2 Performance/price ratio

A beautiful object

There’s no denying it: the ZenBook S14 is a beautiful object. Its light weight (1.2 kg) and low thickness (11 mm) make it easily transportable. Asus designed it around a chassis made of an elegant and solid ceramic and aluminum alloy.

Its designers have not skimped on comfort of use either. The machine thus has a 14″ OLED screen displaying 2880 x 1800 pixels in 16:10 format, a backlit keyboard with pleasant keys and a satisfactory set of connectors. I find 2 USB-C, 1 USB-A, an HDMI port and an audio input/output jack.

Asus ZenBook S14 UX5406 — © Marc Mitrani for Presse-citron

The generously sized, clickable trackpad is centered under the keyboard. It leaves enough space to place my palms on either side of my hands when typing.

Finally, the exterior face is crossed out with a few carefully engraved streaks. They bring welcome relief to the clean lines. You will have understood, I was seduced during the first contact with the Zenbook S14.

Another reason for satisfaction, the supplied power adapter is quite compact – a little larger than that of a smartphone. It does not represent a disproportionate overload and has followed me without problem during my travels. So far, so good.

Parisian warm-up

I don’t know about you, but before leaving on a trip together I like to know my traveling companion a little. So I decide to install my usual working environment on the Zenbook S14 in order to evaluate it. It’s not that I don’t have confidence, but you can never be too careful, right?

In terms of equipment, I have no complaints. The OLED screen produces a stunningly beautiful image, the 1 TB SSD is amply sized for my use and the 32 GB of RAM ensure great fluidity for the most demanding software.

In my case, these are Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications and DxO PhotoLab 8, essential for editing photographs. It goes without saying that everything office-related also works smoothly, just like the various utilities I’m used to.

I am a little confused by the absence of a fingerprint reader, security being carried out using facial recognition. It works well, even in low light thanks to the infrared transmitter coupled to the camera.

Unlike traditional notebooks, those equipped with Lunar Lake architecture do not require constant cooling. The machine’s fan is often inactive and remains very discreet when operating.

Of course, the Asus is not yet as quiet as my MacBook Air (without a fan), but it is really pleasant. In any case much more than the Intel notebooks that I have tested so far and whose fan starts to whir as soon as you move the mouse (OK, I’m exaggerating a little).

Massacre a carbon footprint

It’s time to massacre my carbon footprint by going for a trip to the USA, with no less than four flights on the program. 20 hours of travel on the outward journey (including 9 in transit at the airport) and 22 hours on the return journey. I fully intend to use all this time to work and watch videos.

Just to protect myself, I fully charge the battery before heading to the airport. The outward journey gives me the opportunity to see that the promise of longevity is indeed there.

Even though I didn’t time the battery life, I was able to work for almost 4 hours and binge the first season of Dexter (I’m into vintage at the moment). Better yet: after an 11-hour flight to Los Angeles, the battery gauge read a glorious 40%. I was able to last another 5 hours of flying to Hawaii, my final destination.

I still took a few precautions to save energy: reducing the screen brightness, switching to airplane mode, turning off the keyboard backlight and adjusting the performance settings.

In this aspect, it is flawless for a machine with x86 architecture. Intel finally seems to have succeeded in controlling the energy consumption of its processors. They are finally getting closer to the performance of Apple and its Silicon Mx. Using a Bluetooth headset didn’t seem to have a big impact. So much the better.

Flawless on the move

Arriving at Uncle Sam’s, I can finally recharge the battery. I take the opportunity to switch to performance mode to process some photos taken while traveling. Everything is going well and I can send the result in a few clicks.

I appreciate the presence of a Wifi 7 connection: although it is not yet very widespread, it guarantees a certain durability of the machine. I’m just bothered by the somewhat weak connectivity of the ZenBook S14. It consists of an HDMI port, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, two Thunderbolt 4 and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

I would have appreciated the addition of an additional USB-C port. This would have allowed me to charge the computer while keeping my SD card reader and an SSD plugged in. And the USB-A connector, you ask? I’ve banned it for years, this relic of the 90s having no place on a modern machine.

The only solution is to use a USB-A to USB-C adapter which is a bit poor in terms of ergonomics and noticeably slows down the flow rate. We’ll make do with it until it completely disappears!

Return home

During the return trip, which is a little longer, I can still work as I wish and especially watch videos (season 2 of Dexter is great). Clearly, this ZenBook S14 keeps its promises.

Another positive point, its lightness and finesse allow it to be forgotten between two magazines. So much so that I almost forgot it two or three times before going to work! In this aspect, it has nothing to envy of my MacBook Air 13″ whose screen is smaller for the same weight.

Ultimately, its Achilles heel is the moderate performance of the Intel ARC GPU. It’s not bad, far from it, but struggles a little when it comes to recent video games. This is hardly surprising, the graphics chips in Intel’s chipsets are not known for their processing power. And truth be told, the ZenBook S14 wasn’t designed for gaming.

Discover the Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED UX5406

In conclusion

The ZenBook S14 has everything of a seducer. Its elegant ceramic and aluminum alloy chassis contains everything you need to work in good conditions. Its processor is powerful, the amount of RAM is more than sufficient and the 1 TB storage is more than sufficient.

I also really liked its beautiful OLED screen, the comfort provided by the keyboard and its giant trackpad as well as the presence of a Wifi 7 connection. Although it is not currently essential, it reassures about the sustainability of the machine. What is most surprising is the remarkable battery life for an x86 architecture laptop.

As exciting as it is, the ZenBook S14 is not perfect. Its connectivity seems a little too tight to me and I would also have liked to find an SD card reader. The Intel Iris GPU is certainly sufficient for everyday tasks, but will struggle for gaming. This is not the purpose of the machine, but at this price level, we would have liked a little more effort.

There remains the delicate question of price. In the configuration we received, the Zenbook S14 UX5406 is sold for 1800 euros. At the time of writing this test, it is priced at 1650 euros on the Asus website. This price, although high, seems justified to us given its characteristics. A Dell XPS 14 with the equivalent configuration is 200 euros more expensive.