Asus quietly introduces new ZenBook UM425 and VivoBook Flip TM420 14-inch laptops with Ryzen 4000U CPUs

[Redaktion]

Asus is expanding its Ryzen 4000 portfolio with the Zenbook 14 UM425 ultrabook and the VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 convertible. Users can choose among the Ryzen 3 4300U, Ryzen 54500U and Ryzen 7 4700U processors plus there are PCIe NVMe SSD options. What sets these models apart are features like LPDDR4x-3733/3200 memory support, bright high quality screens and Wi-Fi 6 support.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-quietly-introduces-new-ZenBook-UM425-and-VivoBook-Flip-TM420-14-inch-laptops-with-Ryzen-4000U-CPUs.477159.0.html

[Lucian]

CPUs with no SMT are a deal breaker for me. Also, why are they still on 16:9? And what's up with that ugly touchpad/numpad thing? Who wants that? I want more AMD laptops, that's for sure, but not half baked products like these.

[neblogai]

LOL, 16:9 and numpad are a bonus for me, and I could not care less about  SMT, as Renoir CPUs is already really powerful, and games will only be limited by iGPU:)
What I want though- is an option for a very bright (does not have to be crazy color accurate) screen.

[sdafl;dsjkl;]

That's the largest battery in a Ryzen U-series laptop so far. With LPDDR4x and a 400 nit, 1 watt screen! Can't wait to see the battery life. Such a shame it doesn't have an audio jack. And the extra wide trackpad that's not centered on the space bar is triggering me. But at least it's a proper attempt at a thin, premium Ryzen laptop.

[kornenator]

*sigh*
Do this in a 16" form factor, with normal size SD card reader and audio jack, and i'm buying.

[Knowitall]

It comes with usb-c to audiojack plus tws headphones are quite popular these days.
You can also turn off the numberpad so it's not visible when not in use,.but it's quite handy when you want to excel in, you know excel.

[er]

Does it support two PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs? Offical spec says one..

[sldfnm,]

Does it support two PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs? Offical spec says one..

I think that's a mistake by notebookcheck. I'm pretty sure is two PCIe 3.0 lanes for one SSD.

[sldfnm,]

It comes with usb-c to audiojack plus tws headphones are quite popular these days.
You can also turn off the numberpad so it's not visible when not in use,.but it's quite handy when you want to excel in, you know excel.

Right, but there are only 3 usb ports. If I am using one usb-c to charge, and another for audio I only have one usb-a port for peripherals. And yes, a usb-c hub would solve this, and so would wireless headphones, except now my portable laptop has become a lot less portable than it would be if it was 1 mm thicker had 1 or 2 more ports.
It's not the numberpad that bothers me, it's that my right hand will be sitting on the touchpad while I'm typing.

[Bogdan Solca]

Does it support two PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs? Offical spec says one..

I think that's a mistake by notebookcheck. I'm pretty sure is two PCIe 3.0 lanes for one SSD.

Yes, my bad, it's PCIe 3.0 X2, not 2x SSDs. I updated the info, thanks for pointing this out.

[Knowitall]

It comes with usb-c to audiojack plus tws headphones are quite popular these days.
You can also turn off the numberpad so it's not visible when not in use,.but it's quite handy when you want to excel in, you know excel.

Right, but there are only 3 usb ports. If I am using one usb-c to charge, and another for audio I only have one usb-a port for peripherals. And yes, a usb-c hub would solve this, and so would wireless headphones, except now my portable laptop has become a lot less portable than it would be if it was 1 mm thicker had 1 or 2 more ports.
It's not the numberpad that bothers me, it's that my right hand will be sitting on the touchpad while I'm typing.

Yet there are several laptops that are at same thickness or even a bit thicker without HDMI port or even only USB-C ports so your are forced to use a dongle in several scenarios, while for this Zenbook you have among the biggest selection of ports in its class.

Yes an audiojack would be nice, but a USB-A and HDMI port is also nice.
Personally I use my tws most of the time with my current laptop.

[cdiff]

Is the 4800u a surfacebook exclusive, I'm sick and tired of nobody including it!

[tinycrazyfish]

Is the 4800u a surfacebook exclusive, I'm sick and tired of nobody including it!

I agree on this, why? And why has Intel CPU equivalent ZenBook 14 UX425JA better options:

• up to 32GB of RAM versus 16GB, more cores should come with more RAM (it's clocked faster though, because AMD requires RAM speed to be in sync with the CPU counterpart, async mode comes with a big performance hit)
• up to 2TB NVMe SSD x4 versus 1TB x2 (doesn't have ryzen more PCIe lanes than intel anyway??)
• thinner screen bezels, 2.5mm versus 4.65, the visible screen seems the same making the ryzen body a bit bigger
• 40Gbps USB-C versus 10Gbps (maybe 20Gbps if its dual-lane); ok that one may be a patent issue, we'll have to wait for USB4

[LeoB]

Come on this is just becoming ridiculous...I *WANT* to buy a premium Ryzen-powered ultrabook - but the manufacturers are either retarded or squeezed by their balls by Intel:

- we'll release it "sometime later this year", although Ryzen has been around for 6 months already - in the meantime you can buy these latest Intel-based ones no problem

- we'll give you good build quality, but no 4800U

- we'll give you a large battery, but only 16GB of RAM max

- we'll give you gen 2 USB-C ports, but only an x2 NvME drive

- we'll give you a bright screen, but no audio jack

I know there's no perfect laptop for everyone and manufacturers have to balance their product lines - but COME ON already...