The Cupertino company has recently released an updated version of the iconic MacBook Air that brought a breath of fresh air to an aging line. The competition hasn’t stayed dormant as years passed and there are several notebooks that have passed by the MacBook when it comes to design and performance.
One of them is the Asus Zenbook 14 UX433. Using an innovative design, it is able to squeeze a 14-inch display in a chassis that was made for 13-inch panels.
Looks
The display sets the ZenBook apart. Apple has reduced the bezels on the MacBook Air but the ZenBook packs a bigger display while making the device thinner by half an inch.
Apple dreams of the future, offering two USB-C ports that also deliver Thunderbolt 3 support. Asus is more conservative and the ZenBook sports a full selection of USB-A 3.1, USB-A 2.0 and USB-C, along with a HDMI port and a microSD card reader.
More power
The ZenBook 14 is powered by Intel’s finest Whiskey Lake 8th-generation CPU, a quad-core beast that is faster, smarter and better. A unit using the i7-8565U crushed the dual-core i5 8250Y present on the MacBook Air. The Air does feature a better SSD but the sheer speed of the ZenBook is able to handle even taxing tasks like video rendering without breaking a sweat.
Hit the road
Both units were built with mobility in mind and that is something that can be clearly observed. The ZenBook is a bit thicker by 0, 02 inch but it is also lighter with 2.62 ponds against 2.75. They are both exceptional when it comes to autonomy.
Price matters
Asus delivers premium performance at affordable prices. A unit packed with the i78565U, 16GB of Ram and 512GB SSD for $1,200. For $100 less the SSD gets halved but the rest remains the same. An Air begins with $1,000 for a core i5, 8G RAM and a 128GB SSD. Bump it up to $1,800 and you will enjoy 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
ZenBook brings some great specs and a larger display. Those that already use Mac OS X and don’t need the extra power will enjoy the Air.
