ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 OLED is part of its new Qualcomm Snapdragon X range for Windows Copilot+ PC. It promises long battery life and AI power.
It comes with the Snapdragon X Plus in the UX3407QA and X Elite in the UX3407RA models. This is not ASUS’s first entrant – its VIVOBOOK S55O7Q was released in July last year, and it also has Intel Core and AMD Ryzen AI Copilot+ PCs.
I am sitting here pondering how to review this device. Yes, it is hardware, so there will be some ‘speeds and feeds’, but how do I do justice to the Copilot part? So, tolerate me as we explore more of the hardware side.
What is a Copilot+ PC?
In April 2024, we wrote that AI PCs are coming. What does that really mean? The short version is that such PCs have a neural processor unit (NPU) in addition to the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU). Think of it as a third engine to do some heavy lifting for the other two that used to do everything.
The other short version is that only AI-aware apps know there is a third engine, and these are slowly emerging. For example, Microsoft 365 apps, Bing, Copilot, and new MS apps like Image Creator, Studio Effects, Live Captions, and more. MS says that most of its daily apps will support some AI. It has an AI blog that is interesting reading (not recommended for non-tech savvy).
Think of it as a more powerful mobile phone processor because it is based on that – not the traditional x86 Intel/AMD processors and instruction sets, although these companies now offer AI processors that meet or exceed 40 TOPS.
It runs many x86 apps in emulation (which can be slow) but mostly prefers x64 ARM apps. Microsoft has mandated that most popular x86 apps must be rewritten to support 64-bit ARM.
Read our new guide – What is Microsoft Copilot – the unthinking person’s guide.
Australian Review: ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 OLED – Windows Copilot + Snapdragon
Note: Prices as of 15/3/25. QA model has Snapdragon X Plus X1 26 100 8-core 2.97GHz or X1P 42/100 8-core 3.2GHz. RA model Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 12-core 3.4GHz and faster GPU (as tested). Both have 45 TOPS.
| Website | Product page |
| Price | $1999 UX3407QA-QD105 16/512GB $2399 UX3407RA-QD008W 16GB/1TB $2599 UX3407RA-QD011W 32GB/1TB |
| From | ASUS Online and reputable computer specialists. |
| Warranty | 1-year ACL |
| Made in | China |
| About | Asustek Computer is a Taiwanese company that produces motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, PDAs, computer monitors, notebook computers, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems. |
| More | CyberShack ASUS news and reviews CyberShack computer news and reviews |
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
First Impression – very light
Zenbook is the ultimate ASUS laptop series. This is a fine representation of that minimalist zen heritage.
It’s incredibly light, under 1kg, and has substantially upgraded the 14” OLED screen. It may be 1920 x 1200, but at last, it is a 10-bit/1.07 billion colour OLED with 100% DCI-P3 and 400/600 nits typical/peak HDR.
The deck, cover and base are made from Ceraluminum, an oxidised layer that forms on aluminium submerged in an electrolytic bath of pure water and minerals. It is not a ceramic coating, which makes it 100% recyclable. It has the lightness and durability of aluminium with the anti-scratch properties of ceramic, resulting in a unique, matte, and tactile finish.
While this and every OLED is Pulse Width Modulated (dimmed), it is considered low-risk at 492Hz with a relatively low modulation depth. Read PWM—Is your phone making you sick?
Brief Specs
| Screen | 14” 1920 x 1200, 16:10 Non-touch OLED 60Hz, 10-bit/2.07 billion colours, 100% DCI-P3 400 nits (600 peak HDR) |
| Processor | QA model Snapdragon X Plus X1 26 100 8-core 2.97GHz or X1P 42/100 8-core 3.2GHz RA model Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 12-core 3.4GHz and faster GPU Both have 45 TOPS. |
| Comms | QA – Wi-Fi 6E AXE, BT 5.2 RA – Wi-Fi 7 BE, BT 5.4 ALL USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps 2 x USB-C 4.0 40Gbps with Alt DP, audio/video/data/charge (no Thunderbolt 4) HDMI 2.1 TDMS 3.5mm 4 pole audio/mic |
| Memory | 16 or 32GB LPDDR5X |
| SSD | 512GB or 1TB PCIe 4.0 |
| Battery | 48Wh or 70Wh battery and 65 or 90W AC adapter (can use passthrough power). Claim up to 32 hours, 70W battery 150nits, and balanced mode. |
| Size | 31.07 x 21.39 x 1.34 ~ 1.59 cm x between 900-1009g US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard Ceraluminum lid, desk and base |
| Other | Windows 11 Home IR Windows Hello 1080p Camera and mic Dolby Atmos stereo speakers Iceland Gray or Zabriskie Beige Backlit Chiclet Keyboard, 1.3mm throw and touchpad My ASUS app |
Display – Pass+
This is a 1920 x 1200 16:10, 60Hz non-touch OLED screen. It is one of the first ASUS OLED panels with 10-bit/1.07 billion colours, 100% sRGB, 100% DCI-P3, and 90% Adobe RGB colour gamuts.
The panel is ATNA40CT06-0. It claims 400 SDR Typical nits (test 385-392 across the screen) and 600 peak HDR (test 604 in a 2% window with HDR content), which means it’s pretty bright and capable of ‘faux’ HDR. However, the MyASUS app needs to be manually set to sRGB, DCI-P3, or Display P3.
OLED means intense, deep, inky black! Windows recognises it as supporting HDR video streaming and HDR content, but you must manually change this setting.
Delta E varies depending on the setting from <1 to <2 (<4 is excellent).
Viewing angles are superb—our only minor issues are quite a glossy screen in bright light and a 130° screen fold back (typical of non-touch screens).
It does not decode Dolby Vision or HRD10/+ but downmixes any such content to HDR, where 600 nits provide adequate HDR definition in high and low lights. In any case, movies on this screen with 100% DCI-P3 are excellent.
Processor – Pass
Don’t get me wrong – I really appreciate the concept of Windows on ARM, and the UX3407RA test unit with Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 is very good. But it is not the powerhouse you may be used to with Intel Core laptops, and it’s certainly not very good for games.
As previously mentioned, look for 64-bit versions of the x86 software you use. This is not for you if you rely on speed and performance and can’t get 64-bit apps.
Windows has three power modes: Best Power Efficiency, Balanced, and Best Performance. These don’t seem to make much of a difference.
My ASUS has four fan modes: Whisper, Standard, Performance, and Full Speed. These modes affect fan speed and CPU MHz, and they make a difference.
The GPU supports three monitors (including the panel).
SoC Tests
The tests use mains power with the full-speed fan (unless indicated). Battery tests don’t differ much from mains power but drain the battery faster. Fan noise can reach 47dB.
You can read more benchmarks here. We have included a comparison with the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2, which has an i7-13700H Core processor and 64GB RAM but no dedicated NPU.
Geekbench
Typical synthetic test. The Surface Studio has far greater GPU power that would typically handle most AI tasks.
| Full Speed | Battery | Surface Laptop Studio 2 | |
| Single-core | 2434 | 2393 | 2577 |
| Multi-core | 14,430 | 14,500 | 11,034 |
| OpenCL GPU | 20,867 | 20,621 | 95,169 |
| Vulcan | 29,497 | 28,693 | 22,297 |
Geekbench AI
There are no consistent methods of measuring AI/NPU performance at this stage. TOPS is the standard, but we cannot find an app to measure it.
Geekbench AI is new and, at this stage, looks like the best option moving forward. The battery gave the best performance, and we are at a loss to know why. You can see here how an NPU makes a difference for AI compared to an Intel i7-13700H Core.
Mains power full-speed fan. CPU/QNN (Quantum Neural Network).
| ONNX | Efficiency | Balanced | Performance | Battery | Surface Laptop Studio 2 |
| Single Precision | 2005 | 1807 | 2172 | 2190 | 2757 |
| Half precision | 3223 | 2590 | 3370 | 3383 | 1098 |
| Quantised Score | 6351 | 5546 | 6389 | 6840 | 4731 |
ANTUTU
This ranks performance again, showing lower GPU Performance.
| ASUS A14 UX3407RA | Surface Laptop Studio 2 | |
| CPU | 404,072 | 487,146 |
| MEMORY | 317,893 | 308,720 |
| GPU | 125,537 | 497,111 |
| Windows | 56,681 | 87,968 |
| Overall | 904,183 | 1,380,945 |
Disk Tests
It uses a Micron SSD 2500 232-layer 3D QLC 7100/5800Mbps—no DRAM cache—OEM class single-sided MTFDKBA1T0QGN-1BNA1AABGA 1024.2 GB PCIe 4×4. Details are here.
No cache means it slows down on large files, as you can see from CPDT results.
| Mbps | Seq Read | Seq Write | Other |
| Crystal Disk Mark (Peak) | 7005.35 | 6082.07 | |
| CPDT (sustained) | 3780 | 1490 | |
| AS SSD (rating) | 4813.81 | 3167.80 | Score3995 |
Battery – Pass+
It has an 11.67V/5.99A/70W, 500 full charge cycle battery.
- Video loop 1080p 50% volume/brightness, aeroplane mode, balanced CPU, fan standard. 22+hours 3W
- 100% load discharge: 1 hour 3 minutes 68.7W
- Typical use: 9 hours 13 minutes 7-10W
While ASUS claims 32 hours, that would be a <2Wh drain, and we can’t find a test that gives this result. Video time is good at 22+ hours. General use with Wi-Fi and a brighter screen should be 9-10 hours.
Charging was tested with an Anker 250W GanPrime 6 port – super fast and safe USB charging as well as the ASUS 21V/4.5A/90W charger
- Maximum charge rate 19.6V/4.4A/86W (both where similar) with 5W cable
- Full charge: Approx 2 hours
Ports – Pass+
- USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps
- 2 x USB-C 4.0 (40Gbps) with Alt DP, audio/video/data/charge (no Thunderbolt 4)
- HDMI 2.1 TDMS (Transition Minimised Differential Signalling) is 18Gbps (not 48Gbps) and supports a maximum of 4K@60Hz, SDR, and 8-bit/16.7m colours).
- 3.5mm 4 pole audio/mic
USB-C 4.0 compared to Intel Thunderbolt 3 and 4
Intel 11th-gen or later processors have Thunderbolt 4, 40Gbps ports. As this is not Intel, it has USB-C 4.0, 40Gbps ports.
The key differences are (TB4 in brackets)
- USB-C 4.0 supports 5V/1.5A/7.5W downstream (5V/3A/15W)
- 40Gbps speed maximum 1-metre cable (2m)
- Daisy chain devices not supported (6)
- No support for downstream hubbing (Yes)
- DisplayPort video output 1 x 4K@60Hz (2 x 4K@60Hz or 1 x 8K)
- 16Gbps PCI Express tunnelling (32Gbps PCIe).
- 100W upstream charge (same, but the limits are increasing)
- Does not support Ethernet, wake from sleep and more (Yes)
We tried a selection of TB4 docks and USB-C 3.2/4.0 hubs, all of which worked well with dual 4K@60Hz monitors.
Comms – Pass+
- QA – Wi-Fi 6E AXE, BT 5.2 Fast Connect 6900
- RA – Wi-Fi 7 BE 2.4/5/6GHz 2×2 MU-MIMO, BT 5.4 using Qualcomm’s Fast Connect 7800 system.
The maximum connect speed is 5764/5764Mbps on our Netgear Orbi 970 RBR973S Wi-Fi 7 Quad-band BE27000 mesh router—excellent. However, it does not appear to support MLO, which could see it max out at 6453Mbps.
BT 5.4 LE supports Windows Swift Pair and multi-point. We understand that an Auracast driver is coming. As a bonus, you get Qualcomm aptX Voice, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, SBC, and AAC. It also supports Qualcomm True Wireless-based earphones and Snapdragon Sound.
Camera – Pass+
It has a 2.1MP, 1080p, IR, Windows Hello camera. Video conference apps can reduce the video resolution to 720, 480, or 360 at 15/30fps.
The dual array microphone is effective to about a metre. You can also use Windows Studio voice effects, including noise reduction.
Keyboard – Pass
It has a 3-level backlit or off. Despite the 1.3mm throw, its squarish keys are not the best for typing, offering a mushier feel and a solid stop. It is not a significant issue, but ASUS does have better 1.7mm throw keyboards. It has the obligatory Copilot key but no fingerprint sensor.
The big 12.7 x 7.9 cm touchpad is excellent, but the glide is affected by perspiration (it is 37° here at the moment)
Speakers – Pass
It has two left/right down-facing speakers using Qualcomm’s Aqstic amp, which can decode Dolby Atmos spatial sound and downmix to 2.0 speakers.
Presets include Dynamic (DA), Game, Movie, Music, Voice, and three custom settings.
| Deep Bass 20-40Hz | Nil |
| Middle Bass 40-100Hz | Nil |
| High Bass 100-200Hz | Slow build to 500Hz |
| Low Mid 200-400Hz | Linear build to 500Hz |
| The down-firing speakers on each side of the keyboard have a 5-10cm sound stage. Sound is not projected up to the screen. | Flat |
| High Mid 1-2kHz | Flat |
| Low Treble 2-4kHz | Flat |
| Mid Treble 4-6kHz | Flat |
| High Treble 6-10kHz | Choppy and flat |
| Dog Whistle 10-20kHz | Choppy and flat |
| Volume | 76dB (below average) |
| Sound Signature type | Bright Vocal (bass recessed, mid/treble boosted) – for vocal tracks and string instruments but can make them harsh. |
| Soundstage 2.0 | The down-firing speakers on each side of the keyboard have a 5cm sound stage. Sound is not projected up to the screen. |
| Comment | Excellent sound. The 3.5mm jack delivers quality stereo and good volume. |
| BT 5.4 (headphones) | We assume SBC, AAC, and all aptX codecs (unable to test) |
| Read | How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide). |
Dolby Atmos (DA) – Passable
It has a DA decoder that downmixes the metadata of the 128 sound objects to the speaker’s 2.0 capability.
It widens the sound stage a little—maybe an extra 5-10cm on each side—but this is still a laptop. It also gives it some 3D vertical height just above the keyboard.
Be aware that DA is not always suitable for MP3 music, and we found it much better to disable it using the Dolby Access app.
DA works best with headphones.
ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 maintenance – Pass
The bottom plate is easily removed. User serviceable parts include:
- M22.80- SSD
- Battery
- Possibly fan/heatsink
- Motherboard (total replacement)
The screen and other parts are likely available to order.
ASUS Apps – listed for convenience (not tested)
StoryCube – an AI Media hub that is the best way to quickly consolidate and organize a big, unorganized collection of files. It helps you to efficiently, rapidly, and intelligently complete your creative tasks.
ScreenXpert – manages apps across multiple displays.
GlideX is for cross-device screen sharing and control on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
MyASUS – controls most aspects of the device and can overwrite Windows settings.
- System Diagnosis
- Battery health charging
Fan Profile - Splendid
- Function key lock
- Wi-Fi SmartConnect
- TaskFirst
- Live update
- ASUS OLED Care
- AI Noise Cancelling
- And much more
CyberShack’s view: ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 Copilot+ PC is a Windows 11 on Qualcomm-based ARM laptop
OK, here is the personal view. I have used Windows on x64-ARM devices for years as content consumption devices. Why? Small, light, excellent battery life, usually an OLED screen, and supports Microsoft 365. But it won’t run so many of my regular x86 test programs, and those it does are slow. In other words, travel for pleasure – yes. Travel for business – no.
Jump forward, and there is no doubt that the ASUS Zenbook A14 UX3407 Copilot+ PC is a leap forward propelled by Microsoft’s determination to get us using ARM-based machines. It is not so gently persuading developers to produce 64-bit ARM Windows apps – a good thing.
Fortunately, there is now one VPN – Private Internet Access for Windows on ARM, which makes it more appealing.
We did not cover Copilot in detail as you will want an AI PC or not. Here is Microsoft’s take.
If you have the choice of buying a Snapdragon-based ASUS, Microsoft Surface, Lenovo, HP, or Dell, the ASUS Zenbook A14 UX3407 RA model with Snapdragon X Elite and 32GB/1TB is the one to buy.
Buy the ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 OLED Windows Copilot + Snapdragon if:
- Your main apps have native x64 versions
- A terrific build quality
- Light – mandatory if you travel
- Good battery life
- Meets productivity needs
- Windows Hello is a natural way to sign in
- Adequate sound but use headphones
- You have a use for Copilot – it is interesting and can only get better
If not, let me ask a rhetorical question or three.
- Is WOA better than Copilot on the coming Intel and AMD chips – No, Copilot is the same
- Can WOA run all the full-fat x86 Windows apps and devices – No
- Is WOA for a particular niche – yes, and I am unsure what that is yet.
The ASUS Zenbook A14 UX3407 OLED Windows Copilot + Snapdragon is excellent for content consumption and general office productivity using Windows x64 ARM apps.
We have done our job as long as you realise that Windows on ARM still has a way to go.
I might wait until the new Intel Core Ultra hits the stores to see how it performs.
ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 rating
- Features: 85 – 1920 x 1200 OLED screen, good (not great) laptop keyboard.
- Value: 85—It is well ahead of the specs of the LCD Surface Laptop and touch-screen Lenovo Slim 7x (which all use the same processor).
- Performance: 80 – NPU aside, it is not faster than the Intel 13th-gen i7 Ultra. However, it will be quicker if you use Apps with AI/NPU awareness.
- Ease of Use: 85—It is easy to use as a Windows 11 laptop, but Copilot may require some work.
- Design: 90 – Zenbook lightweight style
CyberShack Verdict
ASUS Zenbook UX3407 A14 OLED - Windows Copilot + Snapdragon
From $1999 to $2599
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