Michael Crider
ASUS has a reputation for attractive and serviceable laptops in its ZenBook line. Though it sometimes dabbles in head-turning features like a secondary display, most ZenBooks are fairly typical ultrabook designs with stylish material and color options. So it is with the new ZenBook 13 and ZenBook 14, but the company is bucking trends by including plenty of ports, too.
While competing brands like Dell are removing the older USB-A ports, HDMI ports, and MicroSD card readers from their designs, the ZenBook 13 and 14 (latest model UX325, UX425) keep them around, despite bodies that are just 13.9mm (.55 inches) thick. They both have one of each, plus two USB-C ports for power, video, and data. ASUS claims that these laptops are the thinnest in the world with these port options, though strangely, there’s no headphone jack in sight. They’re on the lighter side, too, at 2.35 and 2.49 pounds for the smaller and larger models.
Other features include a hinge that’s integrated with the screen which lifts the keyboard deck, fast charging, an IR camera, and ASUS’s unique numpad/touch pad combo. ASUS claims 22 hours of maximum battery life, which seems extremely optimistic. The UX325 and UX425 come with Intel 10th-gen processors and a maximum of 2TB SSD and 32GB of RAM, but if you prefer AMD, there’s a Ryzen model of the ZenBook 14 (UM425) as well.
Both the 13″ and 14″ laptops will be available in Pine Grey and Lilac Mist (read: pink) colors, with ASUS’s favorite spiral metal finish on the lids. If you’d like to know the price or release date for these update models, then so would we: ASUS isn’t talking just yet. Sometime in the next two or three months seems likely. Historically, these laptop lines have started at around $800 and go to $2000 based on
