Throughout the entirety of CES 2025, I’ll be carrying around a MacBook Pro in my backpack, and even just one day into the event, I’m already tired of it. Maybe that’s why Asus is coming for Apple’s throne with a new laptop that’s not just lighter than the Pro, but lighter than even the smallest MacBook Air.

Named the Zenbook A14 (you can guess what the “A” stands for), this laptop comes in at a starting weight of 2.18 pounds and a max weight of 2.4 pounds. Yes, there are “featherweight” laptops that technically beat that, but what’s impressive here is the weight-to-performance ratio.

While other laptops bearing similar chips usually weigh in at about 2.6 pounds to start, this laptop manages to pack the totally respectable Snapdragon X and Snapdragon X Plus mid-range chipsets into the smallest form factor I’ve held yet, and to be honest, I think my (significantly weaker, but admittedly a little old) iPad might be heavier. 

What makes this possible is the laptop’s “ceraluminum” chassis, which is basically just a fancy way of saying it’s ceramic and aluminum, with a little bit of Asus secret sauce thrown in. Marketing terms aside, whatever they’re doing is working, because aside from feeling like I’d need to lift 10 at once to get a half-decent bicep curl in, the Zenbook A14 looks pretty cool, too.

Rather than being painted, ceraluminum is colored via a dip in electrolytic water and minerals during manufacturing. That also leaves it with a mild porousness that adds some light texture and visual detail without getting overwhelming, giving the whole thing a premium effect. Ceraluminum isn't new, but the A14 is the first Asus laptop to have the whole body made out of it, rather than just the lid.

Only two colors are available right now—gray and beige—and each comes with a distinct cost and configuration. The beige is the cheaper of the two, and paradoxically, has the more advanced chip with the Snapdragon X Plus. Coming in at $899, what holds it back compared to its sibling is its 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. While not meager, the $1,099 gray Zenbook A14 has 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, plus it’s the lighter model, coming in at 2.18 pounds rather than 2.4.

If you're curious, while its dimensions are not as standout as the weight, the A14 is also quite thin, measuring in at 12.23 x 8.42 x 0.53-0.63-inches (with the exact thickness depending on the configuration).

Still, regardless of model, Asus is claiming this is the lightest Copilot+ PC yet. While I’m still not sold on the AI features that come with Copilot+, the Snapdragon PC chips are a good get for this price point, although if $899 is still too much for a thin and light, there’s also a refreshed series of plastic Vivobooks that offer the Snapdragon X starting for $200 less.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/IoEAOm0