S-Tier Entry/Mid-Range Laptop | Asus Zenbook 14X OLED Q410 Review 

That's very kind. Welcome to the family Juicebox. I'm very glad you are here.

If you go with this machine I highly recommended going with the Q420 instead of the Q410 (the one in this video). They are the same laptop, but the Q420 has 16 GB of RAM, a slightly better CPU, and I think the SSD is a bit bigger for $200 more. And it also goes on sale quite significantly.

Glad it was helpful. I am to please.

Appreciate you checking out multiple of my videos and commenting! Truly means a lot.

facts

Appreciate the supportive words.

Sometimes it is best to not know. lol. But in general I've been very impressed with how well Apple manages RAM. On all of their devices.

I'm excited for you!

@@ThomasMuehler I'm a little torn about the 8gb soldered ram though, what are your thoughts? I'm a computer engineer and I also work as a graphic designer so I'm using photoshop and illustrator a lot. Would you still recommend this laptop for me? Since my budget is pretty tight do you think the Ram is going to be a problem? Thank you so much thomas!

​@@afnandanish Man. Tough Question. If I were in your position. I would wait for the Q420 (the one with 16 GB RAM) to go on sale (as this is the Q410). As with you being a computer engineer and most importantly doing graphic design 8 GB will NOT be enough. Ideally, I think 32 GB would be more ideal for you. But that can dramatically increase cost. Or you'd have to look for a laptop that has upgradable RAM and buy less RAM then upgrade later. Or honestly, go with an M2 MacBook Air/Pro with 16 GB of RAM. As their memory management is better. There were some good sales going on. But would be a lot more money. But also tend to hold their value better and last a long time. Along with have way better battery life. Same performance on/off battery. With some other things. But I think the best bang for your buck would be the Q420 on sale. Or saving longer. Or with Intel/Snapdragon they are releasing new PC's that are similar to Apples M silicon (more power efficient, while being more powerful, and do better graphics wise as well). I know Asus Zenbook has a variant of that. But I don't remember the cost. But would say that would be most ideal. As the old intel chips are going to be phased out. Assuming these new chips are everything they are marketing them to be. But are in the infancy so there is some early adoption tax (both monetarily and bugs/etc.) But I think those would last longer as we have kind of gotten to a stagnation point with laptops from a performance standpoint. Where yearly upgrades have been minimal for a while. Plus most people don't push their machines to max. But with you being a more advanced user think a higher end machine would behoove you. Over the base model like this laptop. Which is for your light/average user (due to the RAM). Otherwise, does well from a performance/battery/screen/build quality/etc which I go through in the video. That was a lot. Also, didn't give you a clear answer. But hopefully it was helpful. But to sum up. 1. Q420 on sale w/ 16 GB ram best bang for buck. 2. With your usage/profession/goals. Buying a M2 MacBook Air/Pro would likely benefit you in the long run but be more expensive. 3. If you don't like Apple then go for the new Intel Ultra/Snapdragon laptop chips over older Intel/AMD chips. As will give better performance/graphics and battery life (ideally, if marketing is true). As I haven't had an opportunity to try them.

That is awesome! Definitley a great price. Agree there are no perfect laptops. What are the downsides for you out of curiosity?

@@ThomasMuehlerI am coming from a MacBook Pro so I would say that the battery life is a disappointment. The only other thing that I would say is I would like a bigger track pad if possible and upgradeable RAM. I’m sure changing anything else would just run the price up. I prefer the screen on this over the MacBook Pro’s Promotion Mini LED. I don’t have a use case that could justify keeping the MacBook as it cost as much as 3 of these.

@@leekappes I've always wanted a MacBook Pro but just can't justify the cost. As talk about getting destroyed with any kind of upgradability. Interesting to hear about the ProMotion Mini LED. As I've always wondered how this stacks up. All great points. 100% agree with battery life. I would love to see way better battery life from Windows. Hopeful about their System on Chip they are developing with Snapdragon I think. As that should help a lot if the performance is there like it is on Apple Silcon. Also, completely agree with lack of upgradability. Track pad I wouldn't mind. But I guess I'm used to most WIndows laptops being pretty limited in that regard so find this one bigger than normal.

I'm sure that there is some type of software or some things you can do behind the scenes to help. But that isn't in my wheelhouse or something that I'd probably do anyways so can't give any direction. In general operating systems have gotten pretty smart at swapping out RAM and with SSD speeds being faster it has helped. So, if you are really noticing a difference perhaps switching to a faster SSD would be beneficial. Regardless, 8GB of ram needs to die off. As this would be a banger with 16 GB.

Happy to try and help. Recently with Black Friday I upgraded to a new SSD that is dramatically faster and I found that RAM issue improved because the SSD speed was faster and therefore able to handle that same load better. But getting more RAM would still be the best fix.

That's awesome man! How is the battery life with the 3050 in there?

@@ThomasMuehler it's quite good surprisingly, the pairing with Ryzen is very power efficient. I'm never 8 hours away from a plug and it never died on me when I'm using it normally

@@Mo-bz4if That's good to hear. I do like how much more efficient Ryzen is. It will be interesting to see the new Snapdragon or whatever they are calling it (Non-Apples version of Apple like Silicon) and what that will do for laptops, especially those with dedicated graphics cards.

With the Q420 it will have 16 GB of RAM. Along with a slightly better CPU. Making the day-to-day task easily taken care of. This should be able to handle 90% of tasks. With the last 10% being hardcore tasks that most users don't do. Video editing shouldn't be a problem either assuming you aren't dealing with hardcore workflows (Multiple instances of 4K/8K, bunch of effects, color grading, complicated timelines, etc.). As at that point you should be looking at a much more expensive machine. And even then you may still be able to get by on this machine. But you'll notice slow downs from the Iris Xe, CPU, and limited RAM. But that isn't common. Additionally, codecs can make a huge difference. With some machines having them and others not. Which is one reason why Apple does so good at video editing as they have specific codecs and parts to handle those tasks well. I'd have to look into Iris Xe a bit more to see what specific codecs they have. I think at minimum it will come out equal in performance to most other laptops on the market. Especially, those in the same price range and will compete well with those that are more expensive. But that can be a difficult answer. As laptops can have the same CPU/GPU but depending on voltage and other things can have very different performance. I'm not a channel that deep dives the unique aspects of that so can't say for certain how this CPU compares to other laptops with the same CPU. You could probably look it up. But I don't think that would be all that important for most users. As again we are getting more into the enthusiast level of detail here. As the price to performance here is great. As often when you pay more for a laptop you are paying for better build quality, better screen, more ports OR higher quality ports, better upgradability, but the CPU tends to be the same, sometimes you get a dedicated GPU instead of integrated graphics (Iris Xe), and more/faster RAM. Along with it being more lightweight with smaller bezels. I think at the $1000 price point or on sale $699 it would be difficult to find a laptop that provides as much complete (RAM, CPU, GPU, build quality, ports, keyboard, trackpad, screen, speakers, etc.) value. Are there better machines out there. Yes. Is this THE BEST laptop for this price bracket? I don't know. As I haven't tried all of them. But again, think this would compete well against the best of the best. I would love to hear your thoughts on it once you try it out. Both positive and negative so I can give better responses to others with similar questions.

That is a good idea. I think I haven't done that as to a certain extent it is subjective paired with a certain amount of skill. There is research to back it up. But a video like that takes a lot of work. And I'm not sure how successful of a video it would actually be. And currently my free time is like non-existent in my life right now.

I haven't tried the Yoga so I couldn't do a proper comparison. With that said I still think the Asus is the better buy. As the 13700H is a more powerful processor. Additionally, the OLED screen is going to be more color accurate, brighter, and just better in every regard. It is also touchscreen so if you were trying to take notes and stuff it should still work. Just not as well as on the Yoga. Last, the keyboard/trackpad are excellent. Making it so the entire device is just solid. Which is hard to find on a laptop. However, with more powerful CPU and the OLED screen (which is also 120 Hz) it will use more energy making it so the battery life won't be as long. But I think wholistically, it is extremely hard to beat. And from the quick reviews I watched on the Yoga 7 it doesn't look to be performing at the same level (wholistically). While I've liked the idea of a tablet/computer I've never felt like it works super great (from when I've tried it). And getting an actual tablet tends to be better (like an iPad). But from a cost perspective is a terrible idea.

Yes, during normal use where I’m not going nuts I rarely notice any issues. And with windows not having as good of battery life tend to close out of programs I’m not using which helps. But if you’re doing photo editing that can cause issues. As windows takes about 6 - 7 gb to run with normal things open. Giving you not a lot of overhead. If your set on this laptop. I’d go with the Q420. Sometimes it also goes on sale. And comes with 16 GB ram among some other upgrades that makes the $200 or whatever more worth it in my opinion. As I think pushing past 16 GB is the sweet spot for all laptops. Also, recently upgraded my MacBook as im about to be needing one for not being at home and wanted insane battery life along with power. Was using the MacBook Air M1 but traded it in. Then tried the base M2 15 inch. Then settled with the M3 15 inch 16 GB ram with 512 GB SSD. Did some testing. I found a big bump from M1 to M3. Moderate to M2. Apples memory swap is extremely impressive. And the 8 GB variant definitely out performs my Q410 when doing a lot of things at once due to the memory swap. Also, found that the color accuracy of the 15 inch is very similar to the Q410. Where honestly I would take either. I think the colors and sharpness are a bit better on the 15 inch. Whereas, the blacks with it being OLED are way better. Also the 120 HZ display feels so much more smooth. And surprisingly I think I prefer the Q410 trackpad. Keyboard I can’t make a decision on. Windows Hello is great. But man the battery life is so much better on the MacBook. And I think the MacBook is more powerful in general. Due to incoders and stuff. But still trades blows well. That was a long explanation. But if you already have a MacBook (depending on variant), unless you really need a windows laptop I’m not sure why you’d need to go with this guy.

My favorite SSD's are the Western Digital SN850x or Samsung 990 Pro. Which are the two that I use. Which isn't me saying go buy them. But they do tend to go on sale for about $100 for 1 TB and about $130 - $150 for 2 TB. And are fast and do a lot of things right. Probably better out there. But in general are top performers and trade blows with the best of the best. As for your other question. No, an SSD won't help increase your lack of RAM. As RAM is still faster than an SSD. I suppose theoretically the faster the SSD you have the faster it would be at switching from the SSD to RAM. But I don't think the differences are going to be noticeable in real world use. But could be wrong. I also, don't think the Iris Xe is eating away half of your RAM. I could be wrong. I'm wondering if you are mixing up Apple's Unified Memory. Which does use the RAM for both CPU and GPU. But Windows is different. Where usually the RAM is separate from the VRAM (which would be coming from the Iris Xe). Again, could be wrong. I think Windows just uses a lot of RAM these days. Which is why I think it is ridiculous that PC's still come with 8 GB stock options. When it should at least be 12 GB, ideally 16 GB, for the basic user.

I don't know why they are claiming that. As I don't see where that would be. Are you sure that is the Q410? There is also a Q420 which does have 16 GB of RAM. Also, you can upgrade the SSD. Unless if they have it all underneath the shielding. Which I doubt. But I'd love to see it be upgradable. Here is a post so you can see the internals and look for yourself. (x.com/ThomasMuehler/status/1774228544098275609?s=20)

Yes, using it while plugged in is just fine. They are made to be used that way. Especially, if you are doing demanding tasks. Now adays there is usually also an option to limit charging to 80% which will help with battery longevity I would recommend using that when you are using it plugged in. And then switching that off when you are going to be on the go with it. I believe the option to limit is under the Asus settings. One of the things about old laptops and batteries is that I don't think they had the ability to talk to each other. So, your laptop when plugged in would go from 100% -> 99% then back up to 100%. At the edges of these batteries (0% or the opposite 100%) it does more wear and tear on the battery compared to say (20 - 80%) which is the goldilocks zone. But with new tech it will see that it is at 100% and then just turn off the battery and just work off the plugged in power. But keeping a battery near the edges again (100% or near 0% will still cause more wear and tear). All that to say I wouldn't worry a tremendous amount about that. As it takes a lot of time for issues to arise. But trying to keep your battery between 20 - 80% is ideal. So the more often you can do that the better. As it will lengthen the health of your battery. But a battery is supposed to be something that is used and will need to be replaced eventually. So I recommend not obsessing about it. But those would be the two main things. Also, lower brightness, volume, load, etc. will all give you a longer battery life. Trying your best to not allow the battery to get super hot will also help. As heat destroys electronics. Most of them are made to get quite hot. In general I think this laptop does a good job at cooling. But making sure you aren't suffocating the fans or similar will help a lot.

Thank you so much brother. I appreciate the information. Glad I'm subscribed. @@ThomasMuehler

@@ishanhpradhan9300 I'm glad you are subbed too! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Yes, but I would go with the Q420 which as you mentioned is the upgraded 16 GB RAM variant. From a Windows standpoint I think this would be exceedingly hard to beat. Especially, around that $1k mark. I still think if you can afford it MacBooks are the best laptops on the market. But tend to be a lot more expensive (about twice as much). There have been some good sales recently where you MAY be able to find a MacBook around the same price point. I know the M1 MacBook Air isa bout $800 (if you can find it). I prefer this laptop over the M1 MacBook Air. From a power standpoint I think it is a trade. MacBooks come with some nice encoders which help a bit for video stuff. Also, their QuickSwap (that’s not the term but close) makes the 8GB of RAM perform better on Mac than on Windows. But DOES NOT make it so 8GB feels like 16 GB. Personally, I found the M1 Air to be too small at 13 inches. And this has a lot better screen. The touch pad on this is also excellent. I think the biggest thing you are getting with the M1 Air over this is smaller, more lightweight, feels slightly better build quality wise, and will have a lot longer batter. But I think this laptop has a dramatically better screen, equal keyboard, better touchpad, as good of build quality even though it is thicker and doesn’t feel as solid is still made from aluminum. Plus you can upgrade the SSD. Has a few more ports. Personally, I just bought the M3 15” MacBook Air and absolutely love it. But it was expensive AF. If I was sticking to Windows only and didn’t already have the Q410 I would buy the Q420 over anything else. But some would also bring up the Dell XPS, LG Gram, and ROG Zephyrus which I’ve heard good things about. But haven’t tried. But ideally, I would look to see if you can find an Asus ZenBook 14 with the new Intel Ultra chips. Which are supposed to be more energy efficient like the M series from Apple. But we are still at the infancy of those chips. So there isn’t a lot known about them. But they seem to be pretty awesome and is the future.

What do you mean by confused about 8 GB of RAM? At this point I would recommend a minimum of 16 GB of RAM. I do not recommend 8 GB at all anymore. Thankfully, we are in a good spot from a laptop perspective as we are having a "MacBook M1" moment with Windows PCs. Put very simply, new laptops with new CPUs are coming out that are more powerful, while being more energy efficient leading to much longer battery life and are coming with a minimum of 16 GB of RAM. While they are around the $1000 - $1500 mark (don't know how that translates in your country) I think are worth the investment. And more importantly, think there will be a lot of sales as all the big players are going to be pushing them hard so you probably will be able to grab one for a lot less than that on a sale. They will last you at least 5 - 10 years at least. Depending on how demanding you are on your PC. With you going into University and if you can afford it, investing in a nice laptop will help you a lot. As you'll not have to worry as much about plugging it in for power along with just having a lot better user experience. But unfortunately, money dictates a lot. Where if you can't afford to do that then you can't do it. I'd be looking at the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13 or 15 inch version) with the Snapdragon Plus/Elite processor. But there are some problems with that. Whereas, the new one from AMD is the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370 with the last bit there being HX3xx (meaning they have say HX365, HX370, HX375). As those processors are 100% the future. And will also unlock more AI features which may or may not actually be something neat in the future. But also think that can help with the learning process. As you can bounce back and fourth with it to get better understanding of concepts. You can do that on a normal PC too though.

No. Hard to explain why without going into a masterclass. But put simply it is a very complex answer that essentially ends with I think it would be negligible. And technically, if Windows 11 is doing what it is supposed to be doing it should be using less RAM. But real-world and theoretical are two different things.

No…there might be some better options

@@thearcangle0_0 the OLED is a huge deal for me apparently

So, I'm going to lay out some generalities. And hopefully that will help in making a decision. But from my experience, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better laptop. Yes, I’m sure there may be some better options. I don’t know them. Also, in general with laptops it is all about trades. I think this laptop has the least amount of the trades for the most amount of positives which is why I recommend it. Other laptops may do some other things better. But I think wholistically will be hard to beat for the price point. I’m blessed that I have multiple computers. But if I only could have one. This would be an easy choice for me to go with. Especially, for what you are wanting it for and for the price. Like even if someone were to send me another computer for free it would need to have something special for me to say yes. As this one fully satisfies my needs (except for the RAM which is solved in the version you are thinking of buying at 16GB). 1. In general a laptop will perform similarly as long as the class of CPU is similar. Most laptops come with essentially the same CPU. I've found the CPU in this laptop to perform quite well in comparison to others. However, how much wattage and cooling does effect how good/bad it performs. But I'd say for the majority of users this isn't going to matter much. In general with a laptop everything is a trade. By that I mean if you want more power you sacrifice battery life. If you want more batter you sacrifice power. The new Intel chips are supposed to be competing against MacBooks. But is still in the infancy so we don't have a lot of information on that quite yet. Where Apple is still going to be the best battery life for the best performance (when talking laptops only). With this laptop you have a more powerful CPU which means you are trading a bit less battery life. 2. Cooling. This is incredibly important. But hard to do correctly. As people don't like loud fans. But it is hard to not have a loud fan on a thin device that generates a ton of heat. With laptops being as powerful as they are they make a lot of heat. Having integrated graphics (over dedicated like a 4060, 4070, 4080, etc.) is going to use less energy and produce less heat which requires less cooling. If you have a dedicated graphics card they require more cooling so you get a thicker more heavy laptop to accommodate that. This laptop has integrated graphics so will run basic games just fine. May even run older Triple A games. And may even run some new games at very low frames (30 or less frames with low settings). However, the cooling isn’t meant to be used for gaming which means it may not be able to dissipate heat effectively. The cooling for normal use (such as your use cases) should be perfectly fine. I haven’t had any issues with the cooling. And rarely hear the fan noise. So, I think they nailed it. With having enough cooling to get great performance for normal tasks without annoying you with a fan. Also, more intensive fans will use more energy which leads to less battery life. 3. Keyboard. This tends to be personal preference. I think they did a lot of things right though. In the sense of space between keys, the size of keys, travel of keys, backlighting, etc. 4. Trackpad. In most laptops this is trash and I hate them. I can tolerate them but I hate using them even though it is my preference when on a laptop as I hate having a mouse when using a laptop. This one is glass (I believe you could look it up if you really care). Haptics like Apple uses tends to be the best of the best. Then I’d say glass. And then plastic and other crap that laptops use. This one again, tends to be excellent. Very smooth, accurate, nice clicks. I have zero issues using it for all of my tasks and usually just enjoy my time on it. As it doesn’t hold me back at all. Which is rare for me to say about a trackpad. 5. The Screen. Most laptops screens are not great. They have gotten A LOT better in recent years (like the past two). But I still have a lot that I’m very disappointed with. As the color accuracy for sRGB should always be 100%. But most laptops struggle to hit that. Much less the P3 or other color gamuts. This laptop screen does an excellent job at multiple color gamuts along with being pantone validated. Ontop of being an OLED with 600 nits peak brightness (which is rare). So, if you can find a better screen especially at that price range I’d be shocked. My Acer Predator Helios 16 has a very nice screen as well. But that laptop is closer to 1600 - 1800 dollars here. Is a lot bigger and heavier as it has a dedicated graphics card. I prefer the OLED over my Macbook Air screen. And honestly, think this OLED compares to the rest of my monitors that I use for my desktop PC which are in the high end category ($600 - $1000). With you wanting to mostly RU-vid and Movies I think this is an easy choice. As it will be hard to find a better screen for that type of stuff. Any time I’ve watched anything on that laptop I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. However, OLED uses more energy than some other types of screens. Meaning your taking another hit to the battery life here. 6. Weight. I like a laptop that is portable. This is thin enough and light enough and built strong enough that I could easily take it with me. USB-C for charging. Which it does quickly. I think I can get back to a full charge in less than 60 minutes. Battery life for a Windows laptop is in the better side of things. I get about 6 - 7 hours with normal use (word, emails, web surfing, videos, 50% screen brightness, backlight keyboard off, medium power settings. 7. Windows Hello is way better than a finger print scanner in my opinion. 8. Port selection on this guy is excellent. It also has a touch screen. I think I’ve essentially said everything. @@princeumaiyrr4825

@@ThomasMuehler wow thank you so much for this detailed review, highly appreciate it. i think you just sold me for the zenbook haha, i am definitely ordering it tomorrow. have a great day thomas :)

@@ThomasMuehler one last thing, do you think the battery life significantly increases with lowering the refresh rate from 120hz to regular 60hz?

The CPU is powerful enough. The screen is excellent for this. However, the Iris Xe graphics cuts it off at the legs. As it is going to be the biggest limiting factor. Ideally, you'll want a laptop with dedicated graphics (3050, 3060, 3070, 3080 or even better 4050, 4060, 4070, 4080). But that will zap your battery life. So there are trades. It should do fine with basic photoshop. Along with 1080p video editing. But I think it would struggle with 4K video editing. Or very complicated timelines. As again, it will just overwhelm the Iris Xe graphics.

@@ThomasMuehler Thanks brother

Yes, I do think it is. I guess it also depends on what you are trying to do with it. The only negative I have is the 8 GB of RAM. Which you're going to find in all other laptops in a similar price range. Or maybe not all but nearly all. And at that point would likely be making a trade for something else.

@@ThomasMuehler yeah just personal stuff maybe some excel. I was able to snag a new one at $450 I’m hopping I don’t end up selling it in a year or so

@@DownWithSocietyDWS Definitely think that is an amazing price for this laptop and it will be perfect for that kind of stuff. I would love to get your opinions on it once you try it out.

That's totally fair. What happened with your Asus'?

I did not know that. That is crazy. At that price point I'd look for alternatives. Unless if the alternatives are even more expensive.

@@ThomasMuehler I went for the 14 flip AMD version it still costed me 880€ during black friday but better than the 1200€ regular price

DANG!. That's freaking awesome. Well done. That's a fantastic price.

You're not wrong. It is highly disappointing.

Pretty sure the Q410 only has Windows Hello. The Q409 has a fingerprint reader. Where are you seeing a fingerprint reader on this one?

@@ThomasMuehler actually as you’ve provide a link in the description there i find that information.. but i just confirmed it has no fingerprint scanner... btw does it comes with windows 11 home and student version? i mean office 2021 are pre installed?

@@ThomasMuehler actually I'm willing to buy it in this week...will it be great? or do you suggest any other laptop like this?

I don't remember the exact thing I said in the video. I think you'd be surprised at how many tabs people have open at a given time. Also varies wildly depending on workflow. So, I don't know how to reply to this comment. But will say 8 GB is not enough. And computer companies need to grow up and start with a minimum of 16 GB.