Intel struggled for three years to be able to reach the productivity level of its processors of Apple’s M series; From the end of 2020 until just a month or two ago, the 11th, 12th, and 13th generations were launched one after the other; But none of them could even compete with M1 in terms of performance to power consumption ratio, let alone the next generations of this chip; But it seems that finally, after three years, it is going to go down the throat of Windows users!

Intel’s 14th generation Core Ultra processors are the beginning of a trend in the world of Windows laptops that Apple launched for the first time more than three years ago with its own chips in Mac laptops. Intel says Meteorlake processors are the biggest change in the company’s 40-year history of processor architecture.

Earlier in the article ” All about Meteor Lake; Intel’s revolution in laptop processors with tiles! » We talked in detail about the architecture of Mythurelik processors; But in summary, I must mention that things like island design with separate CPU and GPU tiles, the addition of neural processing unit for AI processes, focus on improving the performance of integrated graphics, improving productivity and of course, the new naming format are among the most important changes of Mythorlik compared to Reptorlik.

Asus offers the Zenbook 14 OLED laptop with three models of Mitolake processors including Core Ultra 5 125H, Core Ultra 155H, and Core Ultra 185H. These processors differ in terms of the number of powerful CPU cores, the number of GPU cores, and the base and maximum frequencies of the cores. We had the Core Ultra 7 model on hand for review, which rivals Apple’s entry-level M1, M2, and even M3 chips.

We had the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED laptop with 32GB of high-speed LPDDR5X-7467 RAM from SK Hynix and a 1TB SSD with a 4-lane PCIe Gen 4.0 interface from SanDisk available for review. We obtained the reading and writing speed of the device’s SSD as 4964.69 and 3292.99 MB, respectively, which is not a very favorable speed compared to the price tag of the product and the PCIe Gen 4.0 interface of the SSD itself.

Let’s talk a little about the technical specifications of the processor that powers the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. The Core Ultra 7 155H processor can be seen as a weakened version of the Core Ultra 9 185H, the highest member of the 14th generation of the Metierlik family; Because all the technical specifications are the same from the number of cores to their graphics processing unit, only Core Ultra 7 cores work at a much lower frequency; A difference that also leads to a reduction in chip consumption.

Mythurelic chips consist of Compute and Graphics tiles and SoC along with IO; The Compute tile hosts high-power cores (P Core) and optimized cores (E Core), the Graphics tile plays the role of the graphics processing unit, the IO tile hosts the communication paths of the chip including Thunderbolt, and the SoC tile houses very low-power cores for background processing. (LP E Cores), neural processing unit (NPU) and communication units with the display and media encoding and decoding blocks; Therefore, the CPU is placed in two tiles and is a combination of three types of cores.

The Core Ultra 7 155H chip consists of 6 P-Core cores, 8 E-Core cores, and 2 LP E-Core cores, with base frequencies of 1.4 GHz, 900 and 700 MHz and turbo frequencies of 4.8, 3.8, and 2.5, respectively. It uses GHz as a CPU, and in total, 22 processing threads are processed at the same time; Therefore, only high-power P-Core cores benefit from multithreading. Compute tile is produced with Intel 4 7nm lithography.

The Graphics tile in the Core Ultra 7 155H chip is powered by 8 ray tracing units and 8 Xe cores including 128 Vector engines with a maximum frequency of 2.25 GHz. Intel allows companies to name the integrated Core Ultra 7 155H graphics in laptops with at least 16 GB of RAM, reminiscent of the Arc series desktop graphics cards. Graphics tile is produced with TSMC’s N5 5nm lithography.

Manufacturing companies can use the Core Ultra 7 155H chip, depending on the cooling capacity of their laptops, with a thermal design power of 28 to 115 watts; So on paper, this chip will be a good choice for both light and thin ultrabooks like Zenbook and powerful gaming laptops.

Asus has developed software called MyASUS for Zenbook family laptops, which is considered a device management hub. With MyASUS, you can get firmware and software updates and change performance profiles or display profiles. A number of AI-based features such as removing microphone noise are also available in this software.

Asus provides performance profiles in a part of the MyASUS software called Fan Profile and in three modes: Whisper mode (lowest possible mode), Standard mode (default mode and suitable for daily use), and Performance mode (suitable for heavy use). Asus says Performance mode is only suitable for when the device is plugged in.

In the upcoming review, we put the performance of the laptop under the microscope in different scenarios, including the state connected to the power and disconnected from the power outlet, with Performance and Standard modes, so that you can have a good view of the capabilities of the 14th generation and expensive Asus ultrabook.

It is not surprising that Asus used the Core Ultra 7 155H chip with a TDP of about 28 watts in its thin and slim Ultrabook; But with this TDP range, what performance can we expect from the ZenBook 14 OLED?

When all the cores are involved in rendering or calculations, the Intel chip shows a brighter performance compared to the Apple chips; In this situation, thanks to the number of more cores and its more updated architecture, Core Ultra 7 takes the M1 and M2 chips ahead with a difference of 50-60% [rendering benchmark] or 30-50% [computing power benchmark]; Of course, in comparison with the previous generation, we see a smaller improvement of 25%.

It seems that this year Intel has focused most of its focus on improving the integrated graphics performance of its chips; In our tests, the Core Ultra 7 155H integrated graphics outperformed its previous generation by a stunning 100% in both computing power tests and game simulator tests.

If you think that the excellent performance of the integrated graphics of the Core Ultra 7 is limited to benchmarks, I must say that you are wrong. Intel’s integrated graphics processor now handles AAA games at Full HD resolution and medium graphics settings. The idea that one day with a thin and light ultrabook like the Zenbook and integrated Intel graphics, it would be possible to play games like Forza Horizon 5 or Cyberpunk 2077, seemed very unlikely until just last year.

Thanks to the Core Ultra 7 155H chip, the Zenbook 14 performs up to 10% better than the MacBook Pro M1 and M2 in Photoshop and beats the previous generation by 35%.

The performance of the new Zenbook in the Premier Pro software is more than 40% better than the previous generation and even beats the MacBook Pro M1 by more than 10%, But it is left behind the MacBook Pro M2 with a difference of 20%. Note that this laptop, just like its Apple competitors, can at best be a starting option for editing 1080p videos, nothing more.

The interesting point for us was the performance of Zenbook 2024 in running Python codes; While in previous generations, even expensive laptops with Intel’s H-series processors were behind the MacBook M1 in this regard, now the 28-watt Core Ultra 7 155H processor is about 20% faster than the M1, and if it runs from the Linux Subsystem (WSL) instead of the PowerShell environment for Use coding, the advantage of Zenbook reaches 40%.

Apart from discussing the performance of the device in benchmarks and professional uses, we need to measure the state of the cooling system in uses that constantly put pressure on the processor.

To evaluate the state of the central processing unit (CPU), we put the laptop under a multi-core processing load continuously for 30 minutes. We performed this test in two modes connected to electricity and disconnected from the power outlet (Plugged/UnPlugged) with the Performance mode performance profile.

As you can see in the graphs above, the laptop uses the CPU with the same frequency and the same power consumption in the Elixir of Science stress test, whether it is connected to the power or disconnected from the power outlet; Only when connected to power, the CPU has longer momentary jumps to higher frequencies, and in the initial moments it achieves a higher power consumption (60 W vs. 53 W) for a fraction of a second.

Apart from the power consumption and frequency, the temperature of the hottest CPU core also remains below 90 degrees Celsius in the rest of the moments, except for the initial moments when it reaches about 107 degrees Celsius. During the stress test, the fan of the device also works with a low noise and the temperature of the device itself does not reach an annoying level.

In the past three years, Apple has always had the upper hand in terms of productivity and the ratio of performance to power consumption; But this year, Intel has changed the situation in its favor, at least in part of the story.

The central processor (CPU) in the Dell Core Ultra 7 155H reaches a power consumption of about 65 watts while performing multi-core processing in very short periods of time; But its power consumption fluctuates stably in the range of 26 to 29 watts. This issue makes its productivity significantly improved compared to the previous generation and even equal to M1 and M2.

As much as the Intel chip appears stunning in multi-core processing, it is still far behind Apple’s chips in single-core processing. In this situation, the power consumption of Core Ultra 7 155H is in the range of 22 to 24 watts; While the power consumption of the Apple chip is around 6 to 8 watts and the performance difference between the two chips is not much different; Therefore, we see a 70% weakness of Intel chip productivity in single-core processing compared to Apple chips.

In order to measure the performance status of the cooling system in continuous graphics processing with Performance mode performance profile and in both Plugged and UnPlugged modes, we put the Core Ultra 7 155H GPU under continuous processing pressure for 20 minutes.

The Core Ultra 7 155H graphics processor consumes about 18 watts in plugged mode and 16 to 17 watts in unplugged mode, and the graphics frequency fluctuates between 1900 and 1700 MHz, respectively.

The device’s graphics behave more aggressively compared to the CPU; So that in plugged mode, the temperature of its hottest point increases continuously and reaches about 100 degrees Celsius; But in UnPlugged mode, the graphics temperature remains in the range of 90 degrees Celsius.

In continuous graphic processing, the temperature of the body, especially the area above the keyboard of the device, reaches about 45 degrees Celsius; Of course, overall, the temperature doesn’t rise so much that it becomes difficult to work with the device, although the fan noise is a bit louder during heavy GPU processing than when the CPU is stressed.

The 14-inch Zenbook 14 OLED laptop provides the energy it needs with the help of its 75-watt-hour battery; Considering the 28-watt thermal design power of the device’s processor, this battery is considered an optimal capacity; Especially, the changes made in the architecture of Core Ultra processors have improved their productivity dramatically.

Asus Zenbook 14 has very low consumption in standby mode; so if you disconnect the device from the power outlet at night with a 100% charge, the laptop battery will be reduced by 4-5% by tomorrow morning.

The excellent charging of ZenBook 14 is not only limited to video playback, this laptop continuously charges for 9 hours and 9 minutes in daily use with 200 nits brightness, a constant refresh rate of 120 Hz, and a Performance profile, which is an admirable result.

Asus provides a compact 65W charger with Zenbook 14 that charges the laptop through the USB-C port; The weakness of this charger is the lack of ability to separate the USB-C cable from the adapter.

If you think that all the charms of Zenbook 2024 come back to its very good performance and exemplary charging, you must be very wrong!

Asus laptop has a very minimal and attractive design. The entire body of the device is made of aluminum and is very strong, despite such strength, the weight of the laptop reaches only 1.2 kg and its thickness reaches 14.9 mm, which makes the 14-inch Zenbook an attractive option for those who are constantly moving.

Diagonal lines can be seen on the laptop door, which, while simple, add to the attractiveness of the device. The 14-inch Zenbook is sold in two colors, gray and blue. We had the blue color available for review, which, despite its beauty, has one of the weaknesses of the laptop design: the blue laptop body easily absorbs the user’s fat and fingerprints and reduces the beauty of the device.

In addition to absorbing stains and hand fat, another weakness of the Zenbook design in my opinion is its hollowness; It seems that Asus designers, unlike companies like Apple or HP [in the Specter series], did not carve the body of the device from a block of aluminum and used thin aluminum sheets in the construction of the body. Not premium.

Although the thickness of the laptop does not exceed 15 mm; Asus engineers have been able to fit the operating ports in this slim body. The right side of the device hosts HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 support and DisplayPort and PowerDelivery standards, and a combo audio jack; But on the left side, we only see the USB 3.2 Type-A port with a bandwidth of 5 Gb/s.

Zenbook 14 uses an island keyboard; The keys have a standard arrangement and a suitable distance from each other. The movement depth of the keys reaches 1.4 mm, and their feedback is considered favorable and quiet; The ZenBook 14 offers one of the best typing experiences we’ve had in a while. Within a short period of time, you can get used to typing with the device’s keyboard.

ZenBook 14’s trackpad is made of glass, has a decent area, and supports Microsoft’s precision drivers. We evaluate the performance of the trackpad as very accurate and smooth, and the feedback of the left and right click mechanism is also appropriate; But hopefully next year Asus will join the handful of manufacturers that use a MacBook-like haptic mechanism for their devices’ trackpads.

One of the weaknesses of the Zenbook 14 design is the lack of a glass cover on the display panel and the plastic edges around the panel. These plastic edges reduce the premium feel of the device; Of course, Asus says that the model is equipped with a touch screen, but it uses Gorilla Glass to protect the panel; We had the non-touch version available for review.

On the upper border of the screen, we see a lot of openings for the webcam and facial recognition sensor, which are clearly visible due to the plasticity of the borders and negatively affect the appearance of the device. To protect the user’s privacy, Asus has also included a slider that physically covers the webcam.

The Zenbook’s less-than-pleasing plastic bezels are compensated by its stunning OLED display. The device uses a 3K or 1800 x 2880 pixel OLED panel with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and supports HDR, which produces extremely attractive and accurate colors, covers color spaces very well, has excellent brightness, and displays extremely high contrast.

OLED panels usually use PWM technology to achieve low brightness; In the sense that the pixels turn on and off at a high speed and if this speed is not higher than a limit, it will cause a headache in the user. To fix the problem, Asus suggests that you set the brightness slider in Windows settings to 60% and adjust the brightness of the device with the OLED Flicker Free Dimming function in MyASUS software to achieve low brightness.

In my tests, the ZenBook 14’s display was able to cover 89.6% of the extremely wide Adobe RGB space, 99.7% of the DCI P3 color space, and 100% of the sRGB space. The accuracy of the display in producing colors was also exemplary; So the color display error in the sRGB color space reached a stunning number of 0.6 and in the DCI P3 space it reached an excellent number of 1.3.

In long-term use, OLED panels are in danger of encountering the problem of burn-in, or in simple words, image burn. Asus suggests that you make the Windows taskbar semi-transparent or set it to Auto-Hide to reduce the possibility of burn-in. In addition, the ability to renew pixels is also available in MyASUS software.

In general, whether you are a web surfer, whether you use Photoshop software to edit photos and create graphic designs, whether you are interested in watching movies, in any case, the Zenbook display will satisfy you.

Asus has paired the Zenbook’s attractive display with powerful stereo speakers tuned by Harmon/Kardon, projecting sound to the bottom of the laptop, producing loud and clear sound, and supporting Dolby Atmos surround sound technology.

The 14-inch Zenbook 2024 has been one of the best ultrabooks of the past few years; Currently, the Core Ultra 7 155H model with 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 120Hz OLED and 3K screen is sold at a price of about 75 million Tomans, which is almost the same as the price of the MacBook Air M2 with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD. For years, Windows enthusiasts have been looking for a high-quality ultrabook that can provide them with the same experience as the MacBook Air. Currently, Zenbook 2024 is the closest option to what these people want, at least in the Iranian market.

ZenBook 14 feels similar to Apple’s MacBooks in everyday use with excellent charging, fast performance, and quiet cooling. In Elixir of Science tests such as Photoshop and running Python codes, this ultrabook came close to the MacBook Air M2, in editing FHD videos at the level of the MacBook Air M1, it showed the same performance when connected to electricity and relying on the battery, and its 75 watt-hour battery was responsible for a day. It was a perfect job.

Intel’s Meteorlake processors gave a boost to the stagnant Windows laptop market and made the competition with Apple’s MacBooks a little more serious. I hope that this trend will continue in the next few months with Arrow Lake processors and of course with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips; Because more and more serious competition will ultimately benefit the consumer.