Asus’s New Space-Inspired ZenBook Is Beyond Excessive

We might have simply suffered by way of the yr the billionaires traveled to house, however Asus needs you to understand it made it there first, and it’s commemorating the achievement with a laptop computer that appears prefer it was designed for one more planet.

Revealed at present at CES 2022, the ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition is likely one of the oddest units I’ve seen in latest reminiscence, and admittedly, I feel I’m in love. Before I describe what’s occurring with the design, I ought to point out the origin story (I promise, it beats Fantastic Four).

It seems that in 1997, Asus despatched P6300 and P6100 laptops to orbit on the Soviet Union-built Mir house station, the primary modular house station and the primary inhabited long-term analysis station in house. Asus claims the laptop computer lasted the complete mission with out dealing with defects, so in remembrance of this feat, the corporate designed a particular version model of its newest ultra-portable laptop computer.

On the lid and deck of the ZenBook 14X are etchings impressed by the house age. The dots on the lid are morse code for the Latin “ad astra per aspera” (which means “through hardships to the stars”) whereas the patterns symbolize the Mir station and the arced traces symbolize an area capsule. To me, the lid provides off main Star Wars vibes, with the lid drawings considerably resembling a TIE fighter.

Anyhow, you is likely to be questioning what’s occurring with that rectangular window on the lid. Asus calls it ZenVision, and it’s apparently impressed by the spaceship’s datasheet. The little 3.5-inch OLED panel has a 256 x 64 decision and can be utilized to point out customizable messages to the folks round you. Or you set an fascinating graphic on the panel or cycle a gif, much like the dot matrix, or AniME Matrix, on the brand new Zephyrus G14.

I’m counting the times earlier than I can see this laptop computer in particular person, not solely to get a better glimpse at these design parts, however due to the distinctive colour that Asus calls Zero-G Titanium. It seems like a matte taupe to me however the photographs counsel the shade shifts drastically primarily based on the lighting.

Keeping with the house theme, the two.9-pound ZenBook 14X handed U.S. Space Systems Command Standard SMC-S-016A testing protocols, which Asus claims are 4 instances extra stringent than the usual MIL-STD testing most laptop computer distributors use to make their merchandise sound indestructible. These acronyms imply the 14X can stand up to temperatures between -24 Celsius and 61 Celsius, so be at liberty to take the ZenBook on that Antarctica journey you’ve been planning.

You’ve most likely already made your thoughts up in regards to the ZenBook 14X by now, however I’ll listing the important thing specs right here anyway. The ZenBook 14X Space Edition has a 14-inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED show at 90Hz with 550 nits of peak brightness. Powering this machine is the laptop computer equal of a rocket engine: as much as a Twelfth-gen Intel Core i9 H-series CPU with Iris Xe graphics, as much as 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and as much as a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD.

Asus didn’t reveal pricing (count on a really massive determine) however stated the ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition will probably be obtainable in Q2 of this yr.

Asus ZenBook 14 OLED

If you possibly can do with out all of the house stuff, Asus additionally launched the brand new ZenBook 14 OLED, a conveyable 14-inch laptop computer powered by both an Intel Core i7 P-series chip or an AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor (not the newer Ryzen 6000, curiously). One of the highlights, moreover the smooth design, is a 2.8K OLED show with a 90Hz refresh price.

Like the Space Edition, the ZenBook 14 handed sturdiness exams, although these had been your typical military-grade ones. The laptop computer will probably be obtainable in Aqua Celadon and Ponder Blue (on sure fashions) or Jade Black.

The Zenboook 14 OLED will probably be obtainable within the coming months; pricing has not been revealed.