Asus Zenbook A14 vs Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4): close, but no cigar

The Zenbook A14 only has two configurations. The base model costs $1,000 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch FHD+ OLED display. You can upgrade to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for $1,200.

The MacBook Air 13 is a more configurable laptop. The $1,000 base configuration has a 10-core CPU/8-core GPU M4 chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13.6-inch Retina IPS display (the only option). Upgrading to a faster 10-core CPU/10-core GPU M4 adds $100, while upgrading to 24GB RAM is $200 and to 32GB RAM is $400. Storage can be upgraded to 512GB for $200, and the largest 2TB SSD adds $800. That makes the most expensive MacBook Air 13 cost $2,199.

The Zenbook A14 is better configured at the low end and costs significantly less at the high end. You do get more storage with the most expensive MacBook Air 13, but you’ll pay more for it, as well.

I’ve lauded the MacBook Air 13 for its near-perfect design. It’s the thinnest laptop you can buy today, and yet it manages to feel incredibly solid in hand with a kind of density that excudes quality. And it looks great, with a simplistic yet elegant aesthetic that benefits from several attractive colors. The hinge is remarkably smooth and holds the lid in place, and carrying it around proves Apple’s meticulous attention to design given its amazing balance. Obviously, I like that laptop a lot.

But it’s not alone. The more I handled the Zenbook A14, the more I liked it. The Ceraluminum material felt strange to me at first, with its odd yet comfortable texture. And the laptop’s extremely light weight was a little surprising, but I pretty quickly realized that it’s a well-built laptop and not at all flimsy, unlike some other very light laptops I’ve carried around. It doesn’t have quite the same overall feel as the MacBook Air 13, and it’s not quite as cohesive in its aesthetic. Even so, it still felt great in hand and it quickly grew on me. I like it a lot, as well. I did have one complaint, and that’s that the hinge was way too loose and it didn’t hold the display firmly in place.

In comparing these laptop designs, I’m reminded that it’s the littlest things that can make a big difference. And while I still prefer the MacBook Air 13, I can imagine many people disagreeing. Both laptops have their charms.

Speaking of little things, the Zenbook A14 has one of the better keyboards I’ve used on a Windows laptop. The layout is spacious and the keycaps are large enough. But the switches, while reasonably light and snappy, had a bottoming action that just didn’t feel quite right. Apple’s Magic Keyboard, on the other hand, is just perfect in its layout and consistency, and the switches let me type at full speed, without errors, for a long time without getting fatigued.

Switching to the touchpad, Apple’s Force Touch haptic version with its Force Click feature is large and perfect. It’s the best touchpad on a laptop today, no matter the size. The Zenbook A14’s mechanical touchpad was okay, but it really couldn’t compare. The difference is a little larger this time around.

In terms of connectivity, the Zenbook A14 has legacy ports that the MacBook Air 13 lacks. Also, it has two fast USB-C port, one of which is used for charging. The MacBook Air 13’s  dedicated MagSafe 3 charging connection leaves both its Thunderbolt 4 ports available, but overall, the Zenbook A14’s connectivity is better. Both have wireless connectivity that’s one generation behind. For logging in without a password, the Zenbook A14 uses Windows 11 facial recognition while the MacBook Air 13 has Apple’s Touch ID built into the power button. Both methods worked well.

Finally, the MacBook Air 13 has a higher-resolution 12MP webcam with support for Apple’s Center Stage and Desk View videoconferencing features. Its image quality was better overall than the Zenbook 14’s 1080p webcam. But, the Zenbook 14 has a faster Neural Processing Unit (NPU) than the M4 chipset’s Neural Engine, and right now, Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative has more AI-powered features than Apple Intelligence. If you’re into AI, then the Zenbook A14 will provide a more complete experience.

The Zenbook A14 uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus chipset, which is an 8-core ARM architecture aimed at balancing efficiency and performance. Its Adreno integrated graphics aren’t the fastest, and the Zenbook A14’s version doesn’t impress in terms of its graphics performance. It’s pitted against Apple’s latest M4 ARM-based architecture with 10 CPU cores and eight graphics cores (a 10-core GPU is available).

In our benchmarks, the MacBook Air 13 was significantly faster. That’s in both single-core performance, which will show up most in common productivity tasks and image editing, but also in multi-core tasks like video editing. And, its graphics cores were a lot faster, making it a more viable lightweight gaming machine (although not in the same class as Windows laptops with discrete graphics or the faster M4 Pro or Max chipsets).

Overall, the MacBook Air 13 is snappier and more responsive. I noticed the difference in my day-to-day usage. But the Zenbook A14 would likely be fast enough for a lot of users. I should add that the MacBook Air 13 has no fans but still stays cool, making it a more silent option than the Zenbook A14.

The Zenbook A14 is notable for the very intelligent choice of compromising with a lower display resolution in an OLED display that has that technology’s bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks. While its 14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED display isn’t the sharpest around, that might matter less to many users than just how awesome it looks when displaying photos and streaming high dynamic range (HDR) video. The MacBook Air 13’s 13.6-inch 16:10 2560 x 1664 IPS display is a lot sharper, and it’s also a good example of that technology, it can’t quite match the Zenbook A14 display’s vibrancy.

You can see that in our objective colorimeter results, both taken with a Datacolor SpyderX Elite. The MacBook Air 13’s display is brighter, but the Zenbook A14’s has wider and more accurate colors. With near-perfect blacks, the Zenbook A14 also had much higher contrast.

These are both very good displays. But, the Zenbook A14’s display is just better for more users.

The Zenbook A14 is incredibly light, while the MacBook Air 13 is incredibly thin. Overall, in part because of its slightly smaller display, the MacBook Air 13 just feels like the more portable laptop. In fact, though, both are easy to carry around.

One of the MacBook Air 13’s primary strengths with the advent of Apple Silicon has been its incredible efficiency. It’s been the class leader for a while, with few peers. However, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipset has given Apple Silicon a run for its money.

The Zenbook A14 was surprisingly competitive, especially considering its OLED display. The MacBook Air 13 lasted a lot longer when you push it really hard, as in our Cinebench R24 battery test, but otherwise the Zenbook A14 did quite well. Both laptops will last you more than a full day’s work, and that’s impressive.

The Zenbook A14 is a great lightweight laptop, with solid productivity performance, great battery life, and a bright, colorful OLED display with inky blacks. It’s a solid representative of a new wave of much better Windows laptops.

Even so, the MacBook Air 13 has just enough to keep it at the top. It’s a lot faster, for one thing, and it runs perfectly silently. It’s more balanced and has a more elegant feel. And it lasts longer when you’re working it harder. It remains the best laptop in this class that you can buy today.