Hands on with the ultralight Asus Zenbook A14 at CES 2025: MacBook Airs should be scared

Reading an article about the Asus Zenbook A14 is doing a disservice to all parties involved. You really need to hold this thing yourself.

The new 14-inch ultraportable laptop made a splash at CES 2025 in Las Vegas this week as the "world's lightest Copilot+ PC," earning an Innovation Award in the tech show's Sustainability & Energy/Power category and multiple "best of" nods (including one from us at the CNET Group). Made from an innovative material called "Ceraluminum" that's elegant and eco-friendly, the Zenbook A14 combines a flyweight frame with next-level Qualcomm power efficiency, a bright OLED display, and a gesture-controlled trackpad — all for as low as $899.99.

I'm old enough to remember when Steve Jobs slid the first Apple MacBook Air out of a brown envelope. And after spending some time with the Zenbook A14 in Asus' private CES showroom, I'm tempted to make the bold claim that it feels like the new standard-bearer of ultraportable laptops — barring any Windows on ARM compatibility issues. (I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the digits in its name look a lot like the word "Air.") It's a competitively priced, full-featured AI PC that also happens to be an absolute beaut.

The scoop on Ceraluminum

Ceraluminum is Asus' trademarked name for "plasma ceramic aluminum," a strong magnesium-aluminum alloy that's scratch-resistant, shock-resistant, and 100 percent recyclable. A company rep told me it's frequently used to make luxury watches and aviation technology, and that Asus was the first to employ it in consumer electronics. It premiered in the lids of a few previous Zenbooks, but the Zenbook A14 takes things a step further with a fully Ceraluminum chassis. It has a smooth matte texture in person.

According to Asus' rep, finishing the Zenbook A14's chassis involves a unique aluminum anodization process where its two halves are dipped in a water bath and blasted with high-voltage electricity. The color of the chassis depends on the amount of time it spends in the water — the longer it marinates, the darker it gets. Asus says its method is better for the environment than traditional aluminum anodization, which requires an acid bath. It also eliminates the need for dye.

Asus will sell the Zenbook A14 in two light hues called Zabriskie beige and Iceland gray, which are modern, minimalist neutrals that are ever-so-slightly grainy up close. (Both have a metallic Asus Zenbook logo on the back of their lids for some nice contrast.) Per Asus' rep, no Zenbook A14s look exactly the same due to the nature of its finishing process.

I can't wait to fully test this thing

The biggest takeaway from my limited time with the Zenbook A14 is also the most obvious one, which is that it's remarkably light and sleek. Everyone who strolled up to the counter where it sat at the front of Asus' showroom spent a good minute just lifting it up and down in amazement (myself included). For reference, it's up to half a pound lighter and a little under a tenth of an inch thicker than the current 13-inch MacBook Air lineup.

The Zenbook A14's build quality and portability alone should make it a finalist among students and on-the-go workers shopping for a new PC, but its battery life will be one of the things that close the deal (the other being its price). Asus has rated it at over 32 hours of video playback per charge, which beats the longest-lasting laptop Mashable has ever tested by a whopping nine hours: "If you leave the house for the day, you can confidently not bring a charger," the company's rep told me. I look forward to testing this claim in a future in-depth review.

Other Zenbook A14 highlights include a vivid FHD, non-touch OLED display with a nice-for-entertainment 16:10 aspect ratio and 600 nits of peak HDR brightness. (That's 100 nits brighter than the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs, FYI.) Its keyboard is comfortable and deliciously clicky, and its touchpad supports Asus' Smart Gestures feature — you can slide your fingers to adjust the laptop's screen brightness, change its speaker volume, and fast-forward or rewind videos. It's equipped with two USB4 ports, a USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port for connecting an external monitor, and a headphone jack.

Asus offers two different configurations powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series processors. The Iceland gray model is the lighter of the two at 2.18 pounds. It features a Snapdragon X CPU with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a $1,099.99 price tag via Best Buy and Asus' online storefront. It's set for the soonest release on Monday, Jan. 13.

Coming in at 2.4 pounds (or exactly the same as a modern MacBook Air), the Zabriskie beige model will be a Best Buy exclusive with a Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. It will retail for $899.99 when it launches sometime in March.