ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED (2022) First Impressions: OLED with 12th Gen CPU

ASUS has officially launched their 2022 refresh of their ZenBook lineup in the Philippines. Among the arrivals is the ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED UX5401. As its name suggests, it comes with a 14-inch OLED display but the brand is layering on additional extras like 90Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3, and a Pantone Validated panel. Performance is boosted as well thanks to Intel’s 12^th Generation processors.

A Gorgeous OLED Display

ASUS has been equipping its ZenBook lineup with OLED panels in recent years and this does not change with the 14X. The notebook has a beautiful 14-inch OLED screen, which has a slightly taller 16:10 2880 x 1800 resolution. They are also throwing a faster 90Hz refresh rate compared to the usual 60Hz.

Its display looks gorgeous thank to the OLED panel. Blacks are really deep and there is good contrast especially between black and white. Colors look deep as well with ASUS promising 100% DCI-P3 coverage and Pantone Validation. The step up in resolution ensures that everything coming from the screen remains crisp and detailed.

Thin but Robust Chassis

The ZenBook series has always had a thin profile and that remains true with the ZenBook 14X. The chassis is only 15.9mm thin and weighs at around 1.30kg, which makes it small and light enough to be carried all day. It is made from aluminum so while it is lightweight, it still feels premium to the touch.

The keyboard is your traditional backlit chiclet keyboard that offer good tactility and travel distance. The NumberPad returns and is still integrated to the smooth touchpad. Toggling the numbers is easy is long tapping the pad icon at the top right of the touchpad.

Powered by Intel 12^th Generation Processors

ASUS ZenBooks are now equipped with Intel’s 12^th Generation Alder Lake-based CPU. It is a far cry from Tiger Lake CPUs from last year since Alder Lake is Intel’s first implementation of the big.LITTLE-style platform. This means that instead of several discrete cores, Intel 12^th Generation CPUs now come with P Cores for performance and E Cores for efficiency.

The ZenBook 14X OLED can be packed with an Intel Core i7-12700H processor and 16GB RAM in the Philippines. The i7 variant comes with a total of 14 cores – 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. Based on our short time with the notebook, performance does seem smoother in taxing programs while battery drain appears to be lower whenever we are just browsing the net or writing articles.

The new 12^th Generation platform allows for additional improvements like support for DDR5 memory as well as additional PCIe lanes for faster PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs. Connectivity also adds two Thunderbolt 4 ports allowing for faster transfer speeds and even external GPUs.

We’ll need some more time with the device to see what kind of performance it can bring in our suite of benchmark programs.

First Impressions

As with most entries in the ZenBook series, the ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED UX5401Z has great potential for a relatively high-end notebook. Its 12^th Generation CPU adds some oomph to its performance while its chassis and OLED screen both remain gorgeous in this new iteration. It seems that ASUS has mastered their cadence with their yearly ZenBook iterations.

We’ve only had a short time with the laptop, but it feels like a natural upgrade for the ZenBook series. It still has all the premium benefits from previous generations with slight improvements here and there.

ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED Price and Availability

The ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED is now available in the Philippines starting at PhP 74,995. Two variants will be at hand: an Intel Core i5-12500H for PhP 74,995 while and an Intel Core i7-12700H for PhP 89.995

These notebooks and more of ASUS’ offerings are available through ASUS’ official Lazada and Shopee flagship stores as well as their concept stores and participating retailers nationwide.

ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED (2022) Specifications