The Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 is one of my favorite laptops to hit stores this year. Featuring a versatile design that combines style, performance, and portability. With its sleek design, impressive display, powerful processor, and advanced features, it is suitable for both work and entertainment purposes. No wonder it has managed to quickly garner a reputation amongst shoppers as one of the best notebooks of the year.
The laptop features a 14-inch FHD display with ultra-slim NanoEdge bezels, an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, Intel Iris Xᵉ graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Today we set out to uncover everything there is to know about this laptop so that we may offer you an in-depth review that helps you determine whether this is the right laptop for you. Are you ready?
Design, Display, and Keyboard
Much like the Asus VivoBook 14 F415EA-AS31, the Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 features a sleek and modern design that is both visually appealing and highly portable. With its slim profile, sturdy build quality, and lightweight construction, this laptop is easy to carry around, making it a great choice for students or professionals on the go.
The laptop's 14-inch FHD display with ultra-slim NanoEdge bezels is certainly one of its standout features. The slim bezels not only enhance the aesthetics of the laptop but also provide a more immersive viewing experience.
With an 82.5% screen-to-body ratio, the display offers a wide viewing area, allowing you to focus on the content without distractions. The vibrant colors and sharp details of the display deliver an enjoyable visual experience, whether you're watching movies, editing photos, or working on spreadsheets.
In addition to the slim bezels, the display also boasts wide viewing angles, ensuring consistent image quality even when viewed from off-center angles - it's an IPS panel after all -. This is particularly useful when collaborating with others or sharing content with a group of people.
It also has our beloved Asus BlueLightShield technology which reduces blue light emissions significantly so that you can work on your laptop late at night without straining your sight.
The keyboard of the F1404ZA-AS51 is designed for comfort and efficiency and we must say it's quite comfortable once you get used to it. With its full-sized layout, the keyboard offers a fairly satisfying typing experience. The keys are well-spaced and provide responsive feedback, allowing for accurate and comfortable typing.
Specifically, the keyboard's design is actually optimized for ergonomic use, with features such as a key pitch of 19.05mm, dished keycaps, 1.4mm key travel, and 0.1mm key cap relief. All of this basically means it's pretty comfortable and efficient when it comes to reducing strain on the fingers and wrists during long typing sessions.
Overall, the F1404ZA-AS51 combines aesthetics, functionality, and comfort. The slim and lightweight design makes it easy to carry around, while the impressive display enhances the visual experience. The ergonomically designed keyboard ensures comfortable and efficient typing, making it suitable for extended periods of use.
Performance
The Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 is a laptop that offers solid performance for everyday computing tasks. Powered by the Intel Core i5-1235U processor, this laptop provides a reliable and efficient computing experience.
With a base clock speed of 1.3 GHz and a turbo boost up to 4.4 GHz, the processor delivers enough power to handle tasks ranging from web browsing and word processing to light photo editing and multimedia streaming.
The 8GB of DDR4 RAM ensures smooth multitasking, allowing you to run multiple applications simultaneously without experiencing significant performance slowdowns. The fast and responsive RAM contributes to quick data access and retrieval, enhancing the overall system responsiveness. Whether you're working on documents, browsing the internet, or streaming media, the laptop can handle these tasks without breaking a sweat.
In terms of storage, the laptop features a 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD. The SSD storage provides fast data transfer speeds and quick boot times, allowing the laptop to start up quickly and launch applications swiftly.
While the storage capacity may be limited for users with large media libraries or extensive file storage needs, it is sufficient for storing essential files, documents, and software.
On the graphics side of things, the Intel Iris Xᵉ graphics integrated into the laptop offer decent graphics performance. Though not designed for heavy gaming or resource-intensive graphics tasks, the Intel Iris Xᵉ graphics can handle casual gaming, multimedia playback, and light photo or video editing.
Again, this is an integrated graphics so don't expect to play any AAA games on this laptop but it definitely gets the job done for those that aren't looking to buy a laptop for graphically intensive tasks. Such a crowd would benefit much more from notebooks such as the Acer Swift X SFX14-42G-R607 we recently covered here at 9to5gadgets.
Ultimately, the Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 offers a reliable performance for everyday computing tasks. It provides enough processing power and memory to handle typical productivity applications, web browsing, and multimedia tasks. The fast SSD storage ensures quick data access and application loading times. While the graphics capabilities are not designed for high-end gaming or professional graphics work, they are sufficient for casual gaming and multimedia playback.
A pretty good combo, especially when we take into account the fact that this is actually a budget laptop with an extremely tight price point.
Connectivity and Battery Life
The laptop offers extensive connectivity options, including a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, an HDMI 1.4 port, and a 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack. These ports allow users to connect various peripherals, external displays, and audio devices. The inclusion of a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port ensures high-speed data transfer and compatibility with modern devices.
As you would expect, the laptop also packs the latest WiFi standard and comes with advanced Bluetooth support to easily connect peripherals. So far, so good.
As for battery life, the Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 provides a decent runtime. The laptop is equipped with a lithium-polymer battery that offers enough power to get through a typical workday or extended browsing and multimedia sessions. On that front, you can expect roughly 7 hours worth of battery life with this notebook depending on your usage.
The fast-charging capability is a welcome addition, allowing users to quickly recharge the battery to 60% capacity in just 49 minutes, ensuring minimal downtime. We love this feature and believe it's even more important than actual battery life.
Special Features
The F1404ZA-AS51 comes with several special features that enhance the overall user experience. One of these features is the audio system developed in collaboration with Dirac, a professional audio solution provider. The result is a balanced and immersive sound experience, elevating the audio quality beyond what is typically expected from a laptop.
To be fair, it sounds alright, don't expect it to have the sound quality of a high-end MacBook or anything of the sort but the sound quality is a smidge above what we're used to amongst budget laptops.
Another noteworthy feature is the ASUS Antimicrobial Guard Plus technology, which is applied to frequently touched areas of the laptop. This technology inhibits the growth of viruses and bacteria, making the laptop more hygienic and reducing the spread of germs. This is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion but I guess it can't hurt.
Finally, the laptop offers ASUS NumberPad 2.0, a very useful feature that consists of an integrated numeric keypad that can be activated with a simple tap on the touchpad. This feature simplifies number input and enhances productivity, particularly for users who work extensively with numbers. The optional keyboard backlight is also beneficial when working in dimly lit environments.
It also has a military certification so don't be fooled by its "delicate design" it's actually quite tough and can withstand all sorts of situations, making it perfect for children or elders.
Oh, and as we've come to expect from budget laptops as of late, it also comes with a physical shutter for your webcam to further protect your privacy.
Wrapping things up!
Wrapping up this review, we can say that the Asus VivoBook 14 F1404ZA-AS51 is a well-rounded laptop that delivers a satisfying user experience at a killer price. Its sleek design, impressive display, powerful processor, and advanced features make it a versatile choice for both work and entertainment.
While the storage capacity may be limited for some users, the laptop compensates with fast performance, excellent connectivity options, and special features like the ErgoSense keyboard and ASUS Antimicrobial Guard Plus technology. Overall, the F1404ZA-AS51 offers great value for those seeking a reliable, different, and interesting laptop for all sort of scenarios.