The Personal Review That Had Me Wishing I Could Say This Was Sponsored: The ASUS Zenbook 14

*All my reviews are my personal opinions and experiences, and not based on factual information about the the brand.

I am very particular about my things, often driving myself mad for no reason, but I have a certain way I need things to be, otherwise I will just spend my life overthinking, and it’s with absolutely everything. My husband's favourite story to tell about me is that he once found me writing the same sentence with different pens because I couldn’t start what I needed to because my pen wasn’t right, but I also have to park my car in the same space everywhere I go, and at home, everything has to be in a place and it has to go back in the same place because if it’s not done properly I won’t function until it is. Yes, I am aware that I am a complete nutcase to the point that I’ve banned him from packing the dishwasher because he can’t perfectly align everything when he packs it,  he is also not allowed to do laundry because I’ve arranged everything in a way and order that I need it to be in place for things to be 'perfect'. The reason I’m sharing this is because when it comes to something I do, I won't do something unless I do it properly, and nothing will infuriate me more than something being out of sync with me. This follows through with a lot of things in my life, I can feel if someone has driven my car because the seat won't be in a perfect position and the mirrors and steering wheel aren't at the exact position I need them at. When it comes to something like technology, my devices cannot all be different colours (I once had a green iPhone, blue iPad, grey MacBook and gold Apple Watch & I went into a depression because nothing matched). I’ve blatantly refused to use a work laptop because it was a 15-inch, very cheap and ugly-looking Dell, which made me dull, so it spent my time at that job in my top drawer. This might mean nothing, but you might understand at some point.

I was running late for a meeting, the meeting with ASUS, probably because I was too busy overthinking something like which pair of white sneakers felt better, or I was rushing to buy ice or ciabatta for a coffee shop (I'll write about this one soon), I can’t remember but I was not in a good mood as I waddled to tashas in Hyde Park, Longchamp in hand and a horrifically parked car on Level 5 (at least I adapt to the environment I’m in, I guess). I was even more annoyed at the fact that my Mac had crashed and I rely on my laptop way too much, but it threw my morning off. I have always been an Apple user, I like how it works in my lifestyle, it makes sense and  I’ve actually never owned a laptop that isn’t a MacBook and I’ve never really used a Windows laptop. 

The point I was trying to make is that I was already over the day at 10 am, and was not interested in much at this point. However, the moment I sat down my energy shifted and I felt a sense of ‘zen’, which surprised me because I had already planned my bad mood and actions. The meeting was one of the most refreshing I’ve had in a long time. The meeting was with one of the most genuinely beautiful people, inside and out, Kiara from ASUS South Africa. We were discussing a Windows laptop, and I genuinely was drawn to the brand for two reasons. The first being that for the first time in a long time, I felt a connection and had a genuine conversation with a person about their brand, and secondly, I fell in love with the brand's overall design and feel, I was intrigued at how a Windows laptop could be thin, sexy and have a screen that you can see on even if you’re not in a dark room (yes, I’ve been living under a rock and I’m very aware of it). I wasn’t interested in the two screens with a keyboard that detaches or anything completely extreme, I found the simplicity and sleekness of the ASUS Zenbook something desirable and very aligned to me and the very important areas of my life like will it fit in my Longchamp bag with the rest of my life, because a Dell doesn’t.

Somehow I managed to get my hands on a laptop for a bit to experience the brand, which excited me but not in the same way I feel now. My excitement was about experiencing something I wouldn’t necessarily buy for myself, or even think of buying for myself, which is where I learn a lot and get humbled often. I picked up the laptop and met with an energy I love and Kiara made an effort, which I always appreciate. The brown box that I carried down to the car, however, left me feeling unsure. I didn’t rush home to open it and set it up like I would with a Mac. However, that brown box I underestimated very quickly put me in my place because when I opened that box I took out the most beautiful box holding the lightest laptop I’ve ever touched. Including a very lush grey laptop sleeve that felt nothing less than perfect, especially because it all was the perfect fit from the laptop snug fit in the sleeve to the sleeve perfectly sized for my bag. 

I have to say, unboxing videos are popular for a reason and I really didn’t think Apple could be matched, but I really found the small details so well thought out, which I will always appreciate. 

I wrote about driving a Jaguar that made me want a sports car, but not just any sports car, a Jaguar. The same experience happened with me and the ASUS Zenbook 14, I’m sure there’s another laptop brand out there that’s all great and better than all of them, but it wouldn’t be the experience that I had, so I wouldn’t even consider it. I’ve purposely used “Windows laptop” in this because that’s all it was to me, it wasn’t Apple so it wasn’t a brand, it was just Windows. 

I won’t lie, I did not have a cooking clue about how to use anything in the beginning and I had to ask my technophobe husband how to take a screenshot, but the excitement of learning got the better of me and before I knew it, I had adapted to a non-Mac laptop, and it worked in every way I needed it to. OK, I tried copying something on my iPhone and it didn’t paste on my laptop, but I also can’t start my car with a button and have to turn a key so I think I could survive this. 

I don’t mind what processor it has or the fact that it has a  1TB hard drive (OK, fine, I was bloody impressed because I had expected a 128GB, if I was lucky,  with how thin it was), because I don’t only care about specs when it comes to what I need in my life - an example that makes sense to me: it’s the same reason I’ll choose a G350d over a G63 AMG, it doesn’t make sense but it works better for me and my world, which doesn’t always make sense but the feeling I get is what I go by. 

I expected everything in the upcoming days to be a bit of a stress, and that my Mac would be missed after about an hour, but I felt more stressed knowing I had to give it back. I didn’t want to, I had a lot more I needed to do with this laptop, and it probably needed to teach me a thing or two. I was fascinated by the smallest things, like the screen knowing when I was looking at it and dimming when I was not and then automatically unlocking the second I needed my computer - I’m not joking, I made my husband think I had something serious I had to tell him when I forced him to come see it. 

I was not expecting the few days I spent with this laptop to be the experience I had because I didn’t ever think another product could give me everything I obsess over. Regarding the small things, I like a laptop that is smaller than a 15-inch because I don’t find a 15-inch comfortable, I don’t like a screen that doesn’t get bright enough and that looks like it’s stuck in 2015, and the most satisfying thing for me is a keyboard that I can enjoy typing on. I can fall asleep listening to someone type on a keyboard, it’s calming, and despite the issues, the Butterfly keyboard was my favourite keyboard I had ever used. The ASUS did all of it, better in some instances. The screen quality and lack of a thick, cheap 'thing' around it was probably the one thing I felt the happiest about. I love that the charger was a USB-C because I can’t understand why anything isn’t, and when I plugged a dongle in to connect it to a second screen to saw that even with it being smaller, lighter and thinner than a MacBook Air it has an HDMI port - mind-blowing for someone like me, do you know how many dongles I’ve had in my life because who designs something so stupid and who is so stupid to pay Apple prices to use something my 2013 MacBook Pro had. 

I did battle with the trackpad, and it’s something I was often trying to swipe all over the place and not getting what I wanted, but when I swiped up and saw multiple desktops, I smiled. I also could not figure out how to get an e to be an é, because I ended up with ‘eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ and that too didn’t make me get angry, because I was just too lazy to even Google how to do it. 

I use a laptop for most of my day, and I rely on it for everything in my life. It’s a bad coping mechanism but it’s also my best friend because it’s with me everywhere I go. I carried a charger everywhere I went, because I did not expect the battery to last as long as it did and I will never use battery saver mode or dark mode on any device, and even with that switched off I did not have to say “sorry, my laptop is going to die” once.

 I wanted to be able to write something that I could use to convince myself that a MacBook is better so that when I have to go to the iStore I can justify the horrific service I’ve only ever gotten because I didn’t feel like I had another choice. Sadly, I am not giving up my iPhone ever again, but do I think I will buy an ASUS laptop in the future? Yes. I will always be comfortable with what I’ve known, but nothing makes me happier in life is to be proven wrong and to experience something I never would on my own, Jaguar gave me a first for many things in my life that can never be replaced, ASUS gave me something I can’t ever have again - an experience that made me think further than iStore Sandton Drive - which is what I thrive on. 

I was cheeky with my headline, but that’s who I am. I was not paid to write this I can’t thank Kiara and ASUS SA enough for giving me something new to experience, and all they did was take a chance on me for a review that could have gone so many different ways, but they gave me an experience that will make me think twice before I do something in the future, to think further than what is in front of me and they gave me an experience that made me fall in love with the industry I worked in and ended up resenting. 

In conclusion, I don’t know how much RAM it has and I don’t know what processor it has, and all the spec sheet information ChatGPT could give me very quickly, but I know that I feel very differently from the day before I picked up a brown box, because he was thinking of a new Macbook Air and not ‘How can I make R30,000 for an ASUS Zenbook’  like I am today.

Do yourself one favour, just look at this: https://www.asus.com/za/laptops/for-home/zenbook/asus-zenbook-a14-ux3407/