ASUS has updated its new 2022 laptops during CES 2022 with the latest Intel 12th Alder Lake processor and one of them that caught our attention is their special edition; ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition. This exclusive special-edition laptop was built to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ASUS P6300 laptops’ 600-day space mission and to represent the ASUS ‘In Search of Incredible brand spirit.

Thanks to the folk from ASUS Malaysia, I get to have a hands-on review of this out-of-the-world laptop.

ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition UX5401

For unboxing and what is included in this laptop, you can check the FastView video;

Design

Aside from the cosmic-themed elements, the internal is the same as the regular ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED. The showy would be the secondary 3.5″ monochrome POLED display on the lid. Dressed with all sorts of space-themed elements, a location coordinate, morse codes (AD ASTRA PER ASPERA which translated to “To The Stars, Through Hardships“, and the use of titanium-gray color which ASUS calls; Zero-G Titanium.

Constructed with aluminum and metal, ASUS Ergolift hinge design, and hot-air exhausts on both sides and one below the screen. ASUS went all in with the theme by having this laptop comply with the US Space Systems Command Standard SMC-S-016A testing protocols. It is capable of withstanding extreme vibration, four times that of standard Military Grade durability, and operates in extreme climates, above and beyond the Military Grade capabilities. This will be the laptop to bring up to space.

When you think you have seen it all, the webcam is equipped with a mechanical privacy shutter which looks cool but kinda “Lebih” – Malaysian favorite quote

The Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition has a plenary ports array; a full-sized HDMI 2.0b and two USB Thunderbolt 4 ports that support display and Power Delivery on the left. A USB A 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5mm combo audio port, and a microSD card reader on the right.

ASUS ZenVision

The ZenVision display is a 3.65-inch Monochrome POLED with a resolution of 256 x 64 pixels. The content interface is customizable through the MyASUS app to show time, battery, animations, themes, messages, and even a personalized name card with a QR code next to it. I did question whether the QR code previewed on the ZenVision actually works as I failed to scan any even with different smartphones and QR code reader apps. I bet would be the low pixels counts that are unable to handle high details images.

Keyboard & NumberPad 2.0

ASUS also matched the backlit chiclet keyboard with the Zero-G Titanium color which looks neat. The matte finish and short 1.4mm key travel is pretty comfortable to type. The bright bronze color power button double-up as a fingerprint scanner that supports Windows Hello.

There’s a tiny issue similar to silver keycaps mixed with white illumination keys, the poor contrast create a poor viewing at certain angles or situation.

The touchpad has the NumberPad 2.0 baked into it instead of a secondary touch display found on the earlier ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX5400.

OLED Display

The glossy 92% screen-to-body ratio 14″ OLED touch display doesn’t only sport a high 2,880 x 1,800 2.8K resolution, it also features a smooth 90Hz refresh rate. The panel rated 550 nits peak brightness, produces 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, VESA Certified Display HDR True Black 500, and SGS Eye Care Display.

The excellent bright and color-accurate display is suitable for content creators like me to edit photos and videos.

Watched 3 episodes of Happiness on Netflix and I would say it offers an immersive movie-watching experience with rich colors, inky black, paired with Harman Kardon tuned stereo speakers that are Dolby Atmos certified.

Performance

My test model here is the mid-tier specced configuration with an Intel 12th Core i7-12700H processor, Intel Xe Graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 4,800MHz of RAM, and a speedy 1TB Samsung PM9A1 PCIe 4.0 SSD.

Instead of using an ultra-low voltage processor like the P-series or U-series, the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition is powered by a more powerful Intel Core H-series processor with 6 performance cores, 8 efficient cores, and 20 threads.

The Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition is far more capable handle demanding multi-threaded loads than the older generation Intel Tiger Lake and the introduction of higher performance LPDDR5 RAM and PCIe 4.0

ASUS has redesigned the internal with a new thermal system where it now has a dual-fan and two large heat pipes where ASUS called it IceCool thermal technology. There are three thermal profiles to choose from; Whisper, Standard, and Performance. In whisper mode, the fan noise is barely audible, when I set it to performance to perform some stress tests the fan speed ramped up with noisier fans at around 50 dB

Here are some synthetic benchmark test results compared to ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX4500 (Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB LPDDR4x RAM, and 512GB SK Hynix PCIe 3.0)

Even though it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card, the Intel Xe is quite powerful for casual content creators. With the Intel Quick Sync, I am able to edit, render and export 4K videos on Adobe Premiere Pro without an issue.

Breaking the boundaries of performance for thin and light laptops – with 12th Gen Intel® Core i7 H-series processors.

Battery Life

The 63Wh battery is fairly larger than normal in this form factor, consider the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition using a rather high-performance Intel 12th Gen H-series processor compared to U or H-series.

Based on my usage, I’m getting around 6 to 7 hours of casual use and 3+ hours with intense CPU and GPU usage like video editing. It also supports 100W USB PD charging for quick juice top-up.

Price

The ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition is available now in Malaysia with two configurations;

• Intel 12th Gen i7-12700H, 16GB LPDDR5, 1TB PCIe 4.0, 14″ 2.8K OLED 90Hz Touch Display – RM 6,499
• Intel 12th Gen i5-12500H, 16GB LPDDR5, 512GB PCIe 4.0, 14″ 2.8K OLED 90Hz Touch Display – RM 5.599