Special version laptops not often depart an enduring impression. Most add a brand new colour scheme to an current chassis or slap some hideous promo branding on the lid to entice followers of a preferred film franchise. Asus’ Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition isn’t a type of half-assed entries. In the 14X OLED, the Taiwanese laptop computer maker crafted an genuine pocket book stuffed with enjoyable Easter eggs house lovers will geek out over. It additionally paired that placing design with a surprising OLED show, rocket-fueled efficiency, and a beneficiant collection of ports. These traits—minus one main flaw–show the 14X OLED to be a real contender amongst transportable laptops, and never just a few advertising gimmick.

It’s clear the Space Edition is essential to Asus, which isn’t merely leaping on a pattern however commemorating a second in its historical past. 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 whole 600-day mission with none points, so in remembrance of this feat, the corporate designed a particular house version model of its flagship transportable laptop computer.

Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition worth and configurations

The 14X OLED Space Edition is at the moment accessible in a single $1,999 configuration with an Intel Core i9-12900 CPU, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, and Iris Xe graphics. It has a 14-inch, 2.8K OLED show.

Morse and Mir

Boy, did Asus lean into this idea. Scattered throughout 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 signify the Mir station and the arced strains symbolize an area capsule. To me, the lid offers off main Star Wars vibes, with the drawings considerably resembling a TIE fighter.

Glass panels appear to be Asus’ new factor, and I’m not complaining. The window on the ROG Flow Z13 revealed a piece of the motherboard, illuminated in superb RGB. On this space-themed lid is a 3.5-inch, 256 x 64 decision OLED panel that may be personalized to indicate messages, indicators, or animations. You can add graphics on the panel or cycle a GIF, just like the dot AniME Matrix on the ROG Zephyrus G14.

By default, the panel exhibits an astronaut floating between three related circles (planets?) with stars within the background subsequent to blinking and flashing symbols. I discovered different enjoyable choices within the customization part of the MyAsus app. My favourite is an overview of the photo voltaic system that exhibits the place every planet lies in relation to the solar, although a detailed contender is a fast animation of the Mir station being pieced collectively. As whimsical as these are, I’d most likely go for a extra useful animation, just like the preset that exhibits the time, date, and battery life icon if you shut the lid. There can also be a easy textual content editor the place you may write a customized message (let’s hold it stylish, of us).

Stray from the house themes and issues get actual funky. More a celebration trick than a reputable job looking methodology, the OLED panel might be become a enterprise card with a QR code. I submitted my identify, title, and web site, and the software program created a new-age enterprise card that might flip Patrick Bateman right into a pacifist. I think about, and hope, zero folks scan the again of my laptop computer, however even when they tried, the gradual refresh charge of the OLED panel makes it virtually inconceivable with out manually slowing down your shutter pace (as I did above). And if a digital enterprise card wasn’t unusual sufficient, you may go full customized and add your personal picture. I examined it with a selfie I shot on the webcam and instantly regretted the choice.

More cosmos-themed design components proceed onto the deck, the place house capsule and morse code themes return. To the left of the palm relaxation is a MIR house station sample, whereas two strains on each side of the touchpad are supposed to resemble a cockpit. It’s not for everybody, however as somebody rising more and more bored of understated minimalism, this chassis speaks to me.

Designed for house nerds

But what do I learn about house? I’m simply the laptop computer man. To provide you with an skilled opinion, I Slacked Gizmodo’s resident house consultants and requested them what they consider the Zenbook 14X’s chassis.

Here is what they mentioned:

Isaac Schultz, science author:

“My immediate reaction is that if something is truly a space computer, it should have a glaring red eye and a desire to exterminate humankind. This laptop evidently lacks those features. That said, highlighting the space bar is a nice, punny touch, and I think it is a pretty machine.”

George Dvorsky, senior reporter:

“Space nerds should get a kick out of this laptop, especially while showing it off to their jealous space nerd friends—but they do need to hide the shipping box, which regrettably portrays Pluto as a planet. The colored spacebar with the Saturn logo is a nice touch, as is the patterned Mir space station. The dynamic, customizable display on the lid is super cool, too.”

“That said, the space-themed design is a bit cryptic, and it might take some explaining. The message in Morse code, a format that’s only very rarely used in space, translates to a latin phrase, which itself needs translation into English. And it’s not completely obvious that the arced lines represent the surface of a space capsule. Still, the laptop looks sleek and futuristic, and certainly something that should appeal to spaceflight junkies.”

Kevin Hurler, breaking information reporter:

“It looks like it was ripped from the pages of a science fiction novel—its awesome. I can’t stop looking at it.”

Passant Rabie, information reporter:

“It feels like it’s perfectly nestled between the past and the future, paying homage to the historic space age while also keeping up with where spaceflight is headed with its futuristic and sleek design.”

So yeah, general, you’ve accomplished good, Asus. Anyway, ignore the glitz and glam and you’ve got a modern, light-weight system with a contemporary design. At 12.24 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches and three.1 kilos, the Zenbook 14X is transportable, practically matching the scale of the Lenovo Yoga 9i (12.5 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches, 3.1 kilos). It additionally feels well-built, and Asus claims the Zenbook handed not solely military-grade exams, however the space-grade vibration and temperature exams used to check if a laptop computer can function in an area capsule.

Asus deserves applause for squeezing in as many ports because it did. On the left edge are two Thunderbolt 4 ports for as much as 40 Gbps charging, subsequent to an HDMI 2.0 port. On the alternative aspect is a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB 3.2 Type-A enter. A USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter comes within the fancy space-themed field, which might be origamied right into a laptop computer stand. How neat! Lastly, a microSD card slot blends into the vent cutouts on the best edge. You additionally get the most recent Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 assist, however no IR digicam.

The Harmon Kardon-tuned twin bottom-firing audio system sound good. There was a surprisingly meaty thud to the bass notes in half alive’s “still feel.” and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” whereas the treble and midrange have been crisp. Not each style or tune sounded nice; extra treble-heavy tunes can get piercing at louder volumes, as I found listening to Yahritza Y Su Esencia’s “Soy El Unico,” and Jessie Reyez’s “Apple Juice.” You can get room-filling sound out of those, however they’re greatest within the 50-70% vary.

Traditional keyboard, space-age touchpad

I just like the keyboard’s appears to be like greater than the way it feels. Immediately grabbing my consideration was a dusty purple (Mars impressed?) energy button (and fingerprint sensor) and housebar, the latter of which has a cute little planet emblem on the best aspect whereas the previous is trimmed in chrome. The different keys match the deck’s “Zero-G Titanium” colour, a type of grayish silver with hints of brown, relying on the lighting.

There is nothing particular in regards to the typing expertise. As per regular on transportable laptops, the keys are quite shallow and are missing that satisfying tactile click on you get on bigger laptops or exterior peripherals. On the plus aspect, the backlit tiles are an honest measurement and properly spaced, so my fingers felt proper at house from the beginning. The whole deck is tilted at a 3-degree angle, a shift Asus claims will enhance consolation, although I didn’t discover a lot profit. Either means, I did properly on a standardized typing check, hitting a 96% accuracy at a charge of 118 phrases per minute.

The touchpad can also be acquainted. It’s a superb measurement, at 5.1 x 2.9 inches, and its clean glass floor was conscious of my erratic swipes and gestures, together with three-finger swipes as much as change between home windows. It appears to be like like a traditional touchpad till you faucet a tiny icon within the top-right nook and allow an LED-illuminated numpad overlaid atop the oblong floor. The nifty contact sensor reliably registered the numbers I tapped. I simply needed to keep in mind to show the numpad off to keep away from by accident punching in numbers when making an attempt to left-click.

Enter the abyss

What higher method to mark Asus’ journey into house than to equip its laptop computer with a display that achieves excellent darkish ranges. Yes, the 14-inch, 2.8K (2800 x 1800-pixel) show is OLED, and it’s simply as magical as these LG or Sony TVs you lust for at your native electronics retailer.

Naturally, I watched Interstellar on Paramount+, and its cinematic brilliance was on full show on the 14X’s OLED panel. Space was an inky darkish abyss, illuminated solely by distant stars. Conversely, the snowy white planet on which Matt Damon loses his thoughts was a crisp white. Every colour popped off the panel with splendid hues, and with a peak of 365 nits, the display will get vibrant sufficient for out of doors use. One oddity I’ve famous with all OLED laptop computer panels is {that a} pixel lattice is seen on white backgrounds; it was distracting at first, however I finally discovered to see previous it.

Asus claims the show covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour house, is verified for VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black, and is Pantone validated to have correct colours out of the field. Also fascinating to notice is the declare that this OLED display emits 70% much less dangerous blue gentle. While this isn’t a gaming laptop computer, the display has a 90Hz refresh charge, a small movement improve from the usual 60Hz to associate with its 0.2ms response time.

It’s good to see Asus reply a number of the considerations folks rightly have about OLED panels, specifically round burn-in. The imprinted “LG” emblem on my TV proves this isn’t some conspiracy idea—burn-in is actual, nevertheless uncommon. To stop photographs from being completely engrained within the Zenbook’s show, Asus is delivery the laptop computer with darkish mode enabled, and together with an auto screen-diming characteristic after idling for five minutes.

Also, a particular burn-in-prevention screensaver will activate when the panel is idle for longer than half-hour. If that wasn’t reassurance sufficient, Samsung’s burn-in refine know-how is onboard and the display comes with a 7,000-hour (at 200 nits) guarantee.

Rocket powered

If the Zenbook 14X is a spaceship, its Intel Core i9-12900H CPU is the Saturn V. It’s a strong rocket of a processor, able to operating demanding duties with out shedding thrust, particularly when aided with a beneficiant 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB PCIe 4.0 payload. I’m frankly baffled by how a lot energy Asus crammed on this small chassis, and it paid off. I ran a couple of dozen Chrome apps, a few of which have been streaming music or movies, enhancing the images you see on this evaluation on Affinity Photo, and loading Champion’s League highlights. The laptop computer didn’t budge, taking pictures via my demanding workloads with out overheating.

It backed up its real-world achievements with some spectacular benchmark scores, together with a Geekbench results of 1,817 for single-core and 11,649 for multi-core. With a full-blown H-series processor and twice as a lot reminiscence, the Zenbook 14X dismantled the Yoga 9i (Core i7-1260P), which hit a multi-core rating of 9,516. The Zenbook nearly matched Asus’ Flow Z13 (11,358) gaming pill and put up one hell of a battle in opposition to the MacBook Pro 14 (12,663).

It took the Zenbook 14X OLED 3 minutes and 26 seconds to render a 3D picture in Blender, a robust consequence that outpaced the Yoga 9i by a number of minutes, and saved up with a number of the quickest notebooks round, together with the MacBook Pro 14 (3:21), Alienware m15 R5 (3:27), and the Razer Blade 14 (3:48).

Creative execs utilizing the 14X for video enhancing can count on speedy efficiency; the Zenbook 14X took solely 6 minutes and 48 seconds to transform a 4K video into 1080p utilizing the Handbrake app. It defeated the Yoga 9i (9:02) by a large margin and simply topped the Razer Blade 14 (7:26) in a nail-biter. Gaming laptops just like the ROG Zephyrus G14 (3:15) lead the rankings on this explicit check.

It would appear applicable for an area version laptop computer to be able to enjoying video games, however sadly, the Zenbook disappoints on this space. Equipped with built-in Iris Xe graphics, the Zenbook 14X OLED hit 44 frames per second when enjoying Sid Meier’s Civilization VI at 1080p on High graphics settings. That’s not a nasty consequence, however Civ isn’t precisely a demanding recreation.

Running out of thrust

On to battery life, the place we witness a devastating crash. The Zenbook 14X OLED had a brief flight time of solely 5 hours and 19 minutes on our battery check, which includes video playback with the display set to 200 nits.

This disappointing consequence misses Asus’ 8-hour estimate (additionally not nice) and locations the Zenbook 14X behind most of its rivals, together with the Yoga 9i (8:41) and Blade 14 (6:41).

Should you purchase the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition?

I wish to love the Zenbook 14X OLED, a pocket book with a captivating space-themed chassis and a enjoyable customizable OLED window on the lid. Even if it’s not for you, Asus deserves credit score for the care put into this tradition design. And it paired that look with some premium elements, together with a beautiful OLED show, a strong Intel processor, and a formidable array of I/O.

Unfortunately, the Zenbook 14X is extra Apollo 13 than Apollo 11. Preventing the 14X OLED from reaching the moon is one misfire: poor battery life. At simply over 5 hours, the 14X OLED Space Edition isn’t a laptop computer you wish to take to a restaurant with out a charger, and regardless of its identify, you positively wouldn’t need it in your subsequent worldwide flight. I want I might erase its dismal runtime from my reminiscence, and provides this splendidly overdesigned pocket book a robust advice, however I can’t.

While they won’t be fairly as highly effective, different transportable laptops in the marketplace, just like the Yoga 9i or Razer Blade 14, final a number of hours longer on a cost, making them a better alternative for most individuals. But not everybody outlets with their brains, and when you let your coronary heart name the photographs, then make a journey with the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition—simply you should definitely pack a charger.