ASUS ZenBook 14 UM433 is the 14.0″ ZenBook with an AMD processor. It’s powered by the Ryzen 7 3700U processor, has 8GB of RAM and a whopping 1TB of PCle 3.0 SSD. And it only costs S$1,398, making it one of the cheapest ZenBook you can buy.
Unboxing
Out of the box, you will receive the following items:
- ZenBook 14 UM433
- Laptop sleeve
- Charging brick
- Documentation
Tech specs
| Display | 14” LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080), non-touch |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700U Mobile Processor (4C/8T, 6MB cache, 4.0GHz Boost) |
| RAM | 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 onboard |
| Storage | 1TB PCle 3.0×4 SSD |
| Graphics | Radeon RX Vega 10 Graphics |
| Wireless Network | Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
| Ports | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (up to 10Gbps) 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (up to 10Gbps) 1 x USB 2.0 1 x Standard HDMI 1 x MicroSD card reader 1 x Audio combo jack 1 x DC-in |
| Weight | 1.15 kg |
| Dimensions | 31.9 cm x 19.9 cm x 1.69 cm |
| Warranty | 2 Years international warranty |
The ZenBook 14 UM433 comes in one colour which is ‘Icicle Silver’.
Build quality and design
The ZenBook 14 UM433 has the typical ZenBook design with its concentric-circle design and a gold strip accent running along the top of the keyboard, like on the ZenBook 14 UX434FN. By now, you should already be acquainted with how small ASUS makes its ZenBook series of laptops. The 14-inch models have the the same footprint as a regular 13.3″ laptop. It weighs 1.15kg which is pretty light to carry around daily.
As for build quality, is is pretty good as expected from a ZenBook. There is hardly any flex on the keyboard deck. ASUS even has the ZenBook 14 UM433 meeting the MIL-STD-810G military standard for reliability and durability.
Display and webcam
The ZenBook 14 UM433 has a matte FHD (1920 x 1080) screen which looks sharp, and supports 100% of sRGB colour space. Note that this isn’t a touch enabled display, which might be a deal breaker for some. There is a 720p webcam which supports Windows Hello login.
Keyboard and ErgoLift
ErgoLift continues to be on all ASUS laptops. ErgoLift makes the keyboard at the back tilt up a few millimeters when you lift the lid. This provides a comfortable typing position and helps with cooling.
Keyboard layout is nice, with convenient hotkeys and the ability to lock your Fn keys easily. Despite being a thin laptop, the key travel is great. One small annoyance is sometimes I accidentally press on the power button when wanting to hit the ‘Delete’ key.
Trackpad
Trackpad on the ZenBook 14 UM433 is accurate and responsive. It uses Windows Precision and is made of glass. Scrolling and navigation are quite smooth, but don’t expect the quality of MacBook trackpads. the size of the trackpad is great too, it is wide and spacious, much bigger than on the ZenBook 14 UX434FN
There is the innovative NumberPad on the trackpad as well which you can activate by clicking the top right of the trackpad. Personally, I think it is quite useful and there isn’t much input lag.
Ports selection
There is a variety of port options on the ZenBook 14 UM433 but it sadly does not come with any ThunderBlot 3 supported USB-C port. On the left, you have the DC-in, full size HDMI, USB-A Gen 2, USB-C 3.1 Gen 2. And on the right, you have a 3.5mm audio jack, USB-A 2.0, and a micro SD card reader.
Battery and speakers
ZenBook 14 UM433 packs a 50Wh one. Based on my normal usage, I’m getting around 8 to 9 hours which is long enough to last a whole day of work or school. As for speakers, they sound pretty decent despite being bottom flaring speakers. Sound signature is generally on the bright side, with little focus on bass.
Performance
It was interesting of ASUS to go for AMD’s old 3000 series laptop CPU instead of the newer Ryzen 4000 series. The ZenBook 14 UM433 has a AMD Ryzen 7 3700U CPU with a AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 integrated graphics.
On Auto power mode and running GeekBench 5 tests, single-core score was 850, while Multi-core score was 3041. Scores on the GeekBench 5 is not as impressive as its Windows counterpart running on the newer Intel 10th Gen CPUs, but is expected. Also, converting a 30 seconds 4K video (120Mbps) to 1080p in HandBrake took around 1 min 25 secs to complete.
I also ran a benchmark test using ‘Hitman: Absolution’ on Medium settings for all, and got an average FPS of 30.87, which isn’t too bad considering there is no discrete GPU in this laptop. As for real world use, surfing the net and having multiple tabs on Chrome is not much for the ZenBook 14 UM433 to deal with. However, as the ZenBook 14 UM433 only comes with 8GB of RAM, so you might not want to push many RAM heavy programmes at once. Having said that, the laptop generally runs cool and quiet unless you push it through heavy tasks and loads.
Conclusion
The ZenBook 14 UM433 has all the typical goodness of a ZenBook laptop and will be great for work on the web, photo editing, or even some video editing or games. The usage of 3000 series Ryzen 7 chips means that it will definitely lose out against Intel 10th Gen laptops. But if you are on a budget, the ZenBook 14 UM433 presents really good value especially if you tend you use up a lot of storage space.