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This ultraportable Asus laptop is my favorite MacBook Air alternative (and it's better in some ways)

The Asus Zenbook A14 is one of our favorite laptops of 2025, with a gorgeous OLED display, long-lasting battery, and lightweight form factor. And it's on sale right now.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETOnce the display is turned on, however, whatever jumpscare you just saw is quickly forgotten, as it delivers a brilliant image: contrast is crisp, colors are vivid, and it's bright, at 600 nits and a full HD+ (1920 x 1200) resolution that pairs well with the speedy performance. Comparing this laptop's numbers to HP's OmniBook X with the Snapdragon X Elite, for example, suggests the device is outclassed at the higher end of performance but is highly optimized for everyday tasks and able to deliver a faster, more efficient experience in those use cases. To top it all off, the starting price of $999, when not on sale, is fairly competitive -- if Asus succeeds in selling this laptop's brand story in a way that positions it as an alternative to other ultraportable, such as Apple's MacBook Air.

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