Asus ZenBook 14 UX435 vs Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)

Please select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
Display
2560 x 1600
CPU
Apple M1
RAM
Storage

Review

Evaluation of Asus ZenBook 14 UX435 and Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020) important characteristics
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Portability
Design, materials, durability and usability
Pick the usage scenario that best matches your needs
Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Please input up-to-date prices for the selected laptop configurations to get an accurate value-for-money index.
Currency
VS
31.9
(Mediocre)
Value Index
86.7
(Very good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between the notebooks
Advantages of the Asus ZenBook 14 UX435
  • Includes an old-school USB-A port
  • Slightly easier to carry: weighs 100 grams less (around 0.22 lbs)
  • Thinner bezels and 7% higher screen-to-body ratio
  • Features a bigger (~26%) battery – 63 against 49.9 watt-hours
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
  • Around 2.2x better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench 2024 test
  • MacBook with the Apple M1 chip maintains its performance even when running on battery power.
  • 45% sharper screen – 227 versus 157 pixels per inch (PPI)
  • Provides 33% higher max. screen brightness: 400 vs 300 nits

Tests and Specifications

Comparison table of test results and technical specs

Case

Weight 1.19 kg (2.62 lbs) 1.29 kg (2.84 lbs)
Dimensions 319 x 199 x 16.9 mm
12.56 x 7.83 x 0.67 inches
304.1 x 212.4 x 16.1 mm
11.97 x 8.36 x 0.63 inches
Area 635 cm2 (98.3 inches2) 646 cm2 (100.1 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio ~85.1% ~79.4%
Side bezels 4.6 mm 8.8 mm
Colors White, Gray Silver, Gold, Gray
Material Aluminum Aluminum
Transformer No No
Opening angle 150° 130°
Size comparison
Cooling solution
Cooling system Active Passive
Vapor chamber No No
Liquid metal - No
Number of fans 1 -
Noise level (max. load) 41.6 dB -

Display

Size 14 inches 13.3 inches
Type IPS LCD IPS LCD
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate - No
PPI 157 ppi 227 ppi
Aspect ratio 16:9 16:10
Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels 2560 x 1600 pixels
HDR support No Yes, HDR10
Sync technology No No
Touchscreen No No
Coating Matte Glossy (Antireflective)
Ambient light sensor Yes Yes
Screen space comparison
ZenBook 14 UX435
14″ (16:9 ratio) = 83.8 in2
MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
13.3″ (16:10 ratio) = 79.5 in2
~5% more screen space
Display tests
Contrast 897:1 1069:1
sRGB color space 100% 99.8%
Adobe RGB profile - 85.9%
DCI-P3 color gamut - 98.6%
Response time 33 ms 35 ms
Max. brightness

Battery

Capacity
Voltage 11.6 V 11.4 V
Full charging time 2:00 hr 2:23 hr
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Fast charging Yes Yes
Charging via USB (Power Delivery) Yes Yes, 65 W
Charging port position Left Left
Charge power 65 W 30 W
Cable length - 2 meters
Weight of AC adapter 215 grams 172 grams

CPU

CPU name
Base frequency 0.9-2.4 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo frequency 4.2 GHz -
Cores 4 8 (4P + 4E)
Threads 8 8
L3 Cache 8 MB -
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EU Apple M1 GPU
Fabrication process 10 nm 5 nm

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

Graphics Card

GPU name
TGP 12 W 15 W
Nvidia Optimus Yes -
Type Dedicated Integrated
Fabrication process 12 nm 5 nm
GPU base clock - 450 MHz
GPU boost clock - 1278 MHz
FLOPS 1.8 TFLOPS 2.6 TFLOPS
Memory size 2 GB System Shared
Memory type GDDR6 LPDDR4X
Memory bus 64 bit 128 bit
Memory speed ~10 Gbps 4.27 Gbps
Shading units (cores) 896 1024
Texture mapping units (TMUs) 56 64
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) 32 32
GPU performance 1.8 TFLOPS 2.6 TFLOPS

GPU Benchmarks

Steel Nomad Lite Score
Blender GPU 142 235
Solar Bay - 6004
Expected FPS based on average performance across 9 popular games. Details

RAM

RAM size
Channels 2x4 GB 2x4 GB
Clock 3733 MHz 4266 MHz
Type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Upgradable No No

Storage

Storage size
Bus PCI-E Gen 3.0 (4x) Custom
Storage type SSD (M2) SSD (M2)
Channels 1x256 GB 2x128 GB
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 1 -
NVMe Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 2.0 2.0
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Loudness ~58 dB ~79.6 dB
Microphones 2 3

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard v6 v6
Bluetooth v5 v5
Fingerprint No Yes
Infrared sensor Yes No
Optical drive No No
Webcam Above the display Above the display
Webcam resolution 1280 x 720 1280 x 720
Ports
USB-A 1x USB 3.2 No
USB Type-C 2x USB 3.2 2x USB 3.1
Thunderbolt Thunderbolt 4 Thunderbolt 3
HDMI 1x HDMI 2.0 No
DisplayPort No No
VGA No No
Audio jack (3.5 mm) Yes Yes
Ethernet (RJ45) No No
SD card reader Yes No
Proprietary charging port No No

Input

Keyboard
Keyboard type Island Island
Numpad No No
Backlight Yes Yes
Key travel 1.35 mm 1 mm
Touchpad
Size - 12.1 x 8.1 cm
Surface Glass Glass
Windows Precision Yes No
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.

Cast your vote

So, which laptop would you choose?
55 (19.3%)
230 (80.7%)
Total votes: 285

Comments

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Neela October 15, 2021 at 06:00 PM
hello! carrying on from earlier, I would also like a comparison of the support when things fail. Asus has been very poor in my opinion... I don't know about Apple Resale price would be interesting too. Battery- your comparison seems to just evaluate the numbers. I suspect that ASUS with its onboard fan which always seems to be running, means the battery is being used more and does not last as long as the Apple despite being a bigger battery
0 Reply
Avatar
Neela October 15, 2021 at 05:53 PM
Hi, thanks for the comparison, I loved the easy way to get an overall view. I would like a better comparison of the webcam-virtual meeting performance. In particular How easy is it to replace the webcam if the item failed. The webcam is a MUST in 2021 virtual working. My top of the line Asus (zenbook 390UAK) has just had the webcam fail, which makes the whole device unusable. Which is the main reason I bought it (top end performance, super light, remote working) in the first place. So reliability of the webcam / microphone is now VERY HIGH on my list of things that must work for a long time, and are replaceable. I would also be interested to know how to connect an external webcam + preferably via bluetooth!
+2 Reply