This 5a is a newer addition to the Legion lineup for the year, a 15-inch and slightly less refined alternative to the Legion 7a discussed in a previous article.

It’s still a well-made and portable design built on AMD+Nvidia hardware, offering an OLED display and good inputs and IO. In fact, this 5a is similar in many ways to the 7a, but that one remains a higher-tier model.

At the same time, this Legion 5a is more affordable than the 7a, and even significantly so in most markets. All things considered, I expect many of you looking for an all-purpose laptop around 1500-1800 USD/EUR to eventually lean on this one. Follow this link for updated prices and configurations at the time you’re reading the article.

I’ve used this Legion 5a for about two weeks, alongside the Legion 7a, and have gathered my thoughts and impressions below in this review article.

Specs sheet as reviewed – Lenovo Legion 5a mid-tier laptop

Design and construction

This Legion 5a checks many of the right boxes for a mid-tier design with a competitive price in today’s environment. Sure, when you think about it, a device like this one used to sell for around 1K USD/EUR a few years ago, but inflation and RAMmageddon pushed the prices up significantly this year. Still, I expect you’ll be able to find this for around 1.5K USD or your local equivalent later this year, and for that amount of money, you’re getting yourself a pretty solid laptop overall.

This is in many ways a slightly less refined variant of the Legion 7a.

For instance, it’s somewhat thicker and heavier, but still under 2 kilos, while also being a more compact 15-inch design.

The main chassis and the lid are made out of aluminum with the same soft coating offered on the Legion 7 models as well, but with this series, the underside is made out of plastic. That, however, is rather an advantage, as that part is stronger and doesn’t creak, while the aluminum bottom on the Legion 7a did.

In fact, the overall build quality and feel of this series kick outside of this lineup’s price range and rival devices in the premium segments. At the same time, you should treat this device well, as painted aluminum of this sort can dent and scratch if not looked after. Unlike on the Legion 7a, the entire chassis is the same finish, including the edges, which looks better to my eyes.

Lenovo offer the Legion 5a series in two color options: either this Glacier White variant that we have here, or an opposite Cosmic Black model. I’d reckon most would prefer the latter, albeit this white is rather unique and intriguing. It’s also a far more carefree choice, as it doesn’t show smudges or finger oil nearly as easily.

The design is similar between the 5a and the 7a models, with the same clean interior and the same LEGION writing in the middle of the lid, in dark chrome. A bit much for my liking, especially on this white color.

As far as ergonomics go, this matches the 7a in nearly all aspects. The chassis and lid are well made, the hinges are even a little stiffer and still allow the screen to open all the way back flat, and all the edges and corners are friendly on the wrists.

The always-on power button that lights in various colors based on the selected power profile is still there under the screen, though, and just as annoying when watching a movie at night.

As for the IO, the 5a includes 2x USB-C ports with USB 4.0, a full-size HDMI, 3x USB-A ports, and an audio jack. There’s no card reader, unlike on the Legion 7a, and the USB-Cs are still all placed on the left edge, towards the middle-front of the chassis. Ideally, at least one of those would have been placed on the rear, alongside the other ports.

Before we wrap this section up, I’ve added some side-by-side images of the 16-inch Lenovo Legion 7a and this 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5a model, to better showcase the similarities and the minor differences in sizes, details, and IO between them.

Sure, the 5a is a little thicker, but overall the two look and feel very much the same in actual use.

Finally, here’s the black variant of this 5a series. I’d reckon most will preffer this over the white variant, as it looks classier and is better suited for most work/school environments. Just keep in mind that the smooth finish is going to smudge easily, and you’ll have to constantly clean it.

Keyboard, touchpad

The keyboard on the Legion 5a is more or less the same as the ones in the Legion 7a and 7i models.

It’s a standard Legion layout, with a NumPad Section and full-sized and properly spaced arrows. The main keyboard is shifted towards the left, alongside the touchpad.

This keyboard types well. The keys have a smooth matte finish, with a small dash in them and 1.6 mm of stroke depth. The feedback is fine, although I wasn’t able to type on it quite as accurately or as quickly as on some other laptops in this class. I also found it a little noisy.

The keys are RGB backlit, but with a single zone in this variant, unlike on the higher-tier Legions that offer multiple zones. The contrast is still limited on this sort of white keyboard with any of the available colors; that’s why I prefer manually disabling the lighting during the day and only switching it on when needed at night. There’s no auto-lighting function, and a fair bit of light creeps out from underneath the keycaps.

The touchpad is PTP (smooth plastic), not glass, but it worked just as it should during my time with the laptop. It’s a little smaller in size than on the Legion 7a, due to the overall smaller chassis, but still fine overall, and still leaves plenty of space at the top and bottom, so ghost touches and clicks when using this computer on the lap are never an issue. I preffer this basic function over design approach.

Finally, as far as biometrics go, the camera at the top supports IR, and there’s no finger sensor.

15-inch modern OLED display, non-touch

The display on this Legion 5a is a 15.3-inch 16:10 OLED in a non-touch glossy implementation. This is the same panel previously seen in the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition, a significantly more expensive series.

This is a recent-gen Samsung OLED panel, with 500 nits of sustained brightness and up to 1000 nits peak HDR brightness. Contrast and blacks are just as expected from a modern OLED, and the refresh rate of 165Hz and quick response times of under 1ms allow it to be a solid choice for playing games. The panel on the 7a/7i Legions is larger and offers a 240Hz refresh rate, but this one is similar otherwise.

The fact that this is non-touch is important, as text and light colors look clean and smooth, unlike on most touch OLED variants. At the same time, there’s no protective glass over the panel, like on touchscreens, but the finish is still reflective.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC421B (ATNA60HU02-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 94.3% Adobe RGB, 99.9% DCI-P3;
• Type: 2.5K 2560 x 1600 px, 10-bit, 165Hz;
• Measured gamma: 2.2;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 504.12 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <10 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6705 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes, to be discussed.

This is a good quality display overall, with decent brightness and clarity, and rich, punchy colors.

The reflective finish does make it somewhat annoying to use in bright light, so you’ll mostly want to keep it indoors. Furthermore, you should be aware of the potential quirks with OLED laptop displays, the most important being PWM flickering – this flickers at a frequency of around 1.3 GHz at any brightness level under 100% – so you need to keep it at max brightness to prevent the issue, which is rather impossible in most conditions.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is a mid-spec configuration of the 2026 Lenovo Legion 5a gen11, code name 15AGP11, with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB dGPU, 32 GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and 1 TB of fast SSD storage.

Disclaimer: Lenovo provided this retail unit for this review. It was tested on the software available as of mid-August 2026 (BIOS T3CN37WW, Legion Space 1.10.11.6, Nvidia Game Ready Driver 610.88). This is mature software, so little can change with later software updates.

Spec-wise, the 2026 Legion 7a is built on the latest AMD and Nvidia mobile hardware available to date.

The Ryzen AI 7 450 is a mainstream AMD Gorgon Point SKU for this year. It’s a hybrid design with 4x Zen5 Performance and 4x Zen5c Efficiency Cores, and runs at 80-90W of sustained power in this chassis, which is plenty enough for this platform.

However, as mentioned in previous articles, AMD’s Gorgon Point 2026 refresh is merely a minimal refresh of the existing Strix Point platform, thus more or less 2024 AMD tech rebadged under a new name. Nonetheless, the Ryzen AI 7 450 is still a solid mid-tier platform for general use and normal work/school/gaming use.

A minimally faster AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 platform is also offered with this series in some regions (with 4x Zen5 and 6x Zen5c Cores), while the highest-tier Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (4x Zen5, 8x Zen5c cores) is reserved for the Legion 7a lineup only. Nonetheless, they perform similarly for general use, and the differences in sustained CPU chores are small: the 465 is ~10% faster than the 450, and the 470 is a further 10% faster than the 465. Given the choice, I’d go with the 450 configuration on this Legion 5a.

For the GPU, this 2026 Legion 5a series is offered with a mid-powered, mid-range Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB (up to 115W). The design includes a MUX and either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.

The series comes with DDR5 memory, unlike the 7a, which is built on onboard LPDDR5x memory. That means there are two memory DIMMs inside, and the RAM is upgradeable. Most retail models ship with 16 GB RAM, but configurations with 32 GB are also available by default. This test unit is a 32 GB variant, with two memory sticks inside.

For storage, there are two M.2 SSD slots, both full-size 2280 format and with support for gen4 speeds. In fact, both slots support either 2242 or 2280 SSDs. One’s a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection, while the other is only an x2 connection. Our unit comes with a fast 1 TB SK Hynix SSD (and M.2 2242 format), a solid performer for general use.

The SSDs and the WiFi module are M.2 formats, upgradable. The RAM is upgradeable as well. To get inside, you need to remove the back panel, held in place by a handful of screws of two different sizes. Inside, you’ll notice there’s less unused space than on the larger 16-inch Legion 7a chassis, but still some towards the front near the battery. The speakers are even more measly, and the RAM slots are covered by a thermal shield that you’ll have to remove to get to the memory DIMMs.

This laptop bundles Lenovo’s updated Legion Space control software, offered with Legions since 2025. It’s still not the most intuitive piece of software, but it gets things done once you figure it out. The software offers the standard Legion profiles: Quiet, Balance, Performance, and Custom, with the latter offering various settings for the CPU/GPU and fan control.

Anyway, here are the power limits and targeted fan noise levels for each of the default profiles:

These are standard settings for recent Legions, and similar to the settings on the Legion 7a. Overall, versatile profiles for a device of this format.

Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Quiet profiles, unplugged.

Performance and benchmarks – AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop, with a 1-2 second delay between each run. For consistency with other reviews, we keep the laptop raised on a stand.

Here’s what we got for the AMD Ryzen 7 450 platform on this notebook:

• Performance mode – scores of 2650 points, 45 dBA fan noise, 85W sustained TDP, CPU temperatures around 90-92 °C;
• Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk – 5% lower scores as the TDP is thermally limited to around 80 W;
• Balance mode – similar scores of 2650 points, 38 dBA fan noise, 85W TDP, CPU temperatures around 95 °C (slight thermal throttling);
• Quiet mode – scores of 2150 points, <30 dbA fan noise, 45W TDP, CPU temperatures around 70-75 °C;
• Balance mode on PD – scores of 2350 points, <30 dBA fan noise, 40W TDP, CPU temperatures around 65 °C;
• Balance mode on battery power – scores of 1900 points, <30 dBA fan noise, 28W TDP, CPU temperatures around 55 °C.

Minor differences in performance between these modes. Balance mode on PD power is especially interesting, delivering excellent scores at lower power and thermals than the other modes.

The CPU runs hot on Performance and especially on Balance, due to the high applied power. Howver, as you’ll see in a bit, longer sustained loads trigger a TDP limit for both modes, which results in more acceptable thermals.

To put these findings in perspective, here’s how this AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 implementation fares in this test against other mobile platforms offered in similar devices.

It’s about 20% slower than the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 in this sustained CPU load and 10% slower than a Ryzen AI 9 465 due to having fewer Cores and Threads overall. That also makes it slower by a similar amount to existing Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 hardware and previous-gen Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra Series 200 or AMD Strix Point Ryzen AI 300 Series platforms.

These differences are small, though, within 10-20% between platforms, and shouldn’t matter that much in your decision. After all, if you’re after a CPU that’s truly capable in sustained multi-threaded loads, a Core HX or Ryzen HX platform would make more sense, albeit you won’t find it in this format or/and at a comparable price.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in slightly lower sustained power levels: 80W sustained on Performance, 65W on Balance, and 45W on Quiet.

We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Performance and Quiet profiles.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passes the test both when kept flat on a desk or when raised up on a stand, which means the performance is not impacted when the heat builds up inside the chassis. More on that in the gaming section.

Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Performance profile with the GPU set on Hybrid mode and running on Game Ready Drivers, and with the screen set at the native 2560 x 1600 px resolution. The laptop is placed on a stand for the best cooling performance and consistency with other reviews.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 8499, 16 – 8475, 8 – 6473, 4 – 4416, 2 – 2344, 1– 1186;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 28032 (Graphics – 31722, Physics – 29271, Combined – 14482);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 7951;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 3032;
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad: 2776;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 12315 (Graphics – 12650, CPU – 10711);
• 3DMark 13 – DLSS: DLSS Off – 16.68 fps, DLSS On – 69.26 fps, 415% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 7422;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 20819;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test – ;
• PCMark 10: 8811 (Essentials – 10652, Productivity – 14416, Digital Content Creation – 12088);
• GeekBench 6.6.0: Multi-core: 13799, Single-Core: 2900;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 3346, Half: 1816, Quantized: 8437;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2689 cb, CPU Single Core 299 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 18116 pts (best run), CPU 18173 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1972 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 958 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 117 pts;
• CineBench 2026: GPU – 47432 pts, CPU Multiple Threads – 3681 pts, CPU Single Core – 650 pts, CPU Single Thread – 478 pts.

And some work-related tests, on the same Performance profile.

• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 2m 04s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 20.06s (CUDA), 8.82 (Optix);
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 40s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 41.91s (CUDA), 19.48 (Optix);

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 108.52;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 71.54;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 114.19;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 40.36;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 411.38;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 37.88;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 24.34;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW 07: 257.38.

• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 33.06;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 54.30;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: 45.37;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: 102.03;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 39.96;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 38.33;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: -;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 37.48;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 21.91;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 71.08;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 11298, CUDA – 1641, RTX –  2558.

Somehow, this ends up performing a little better than the Legion 7a configuration tested earlier.

Sure, that Ryzen AI 9 in the 7a is faster in multi-threaded CPU loads, but this Ryzen AI 7 450 is still plenty competitive for general use, with similar single-core and IPC capabilities. With multi-threaded tests, however, this trails the Ryzen 9 470 by 15-20%. It also trails the Ryzen AI 9 465 configuration by about 10%.

On the GPU side, the system runs the RTX 5060 at higher overall power here in Performance mode than on the 7a, at around 105W TGP. That allows for 3-5% higher scores in the graphics tests, and minimally improves scores in the mixed-use and work-related tests.

You might have noticed that I tested the Legion 7a with Studio Drivers and this 5a configuration of Game Ready drivers. This could impact some of the scores in some tests, but for what it’s worth, the GPU in the 7a still ran at about 95W TGP on Game Ready drivers, so I’d still expect this 5a implementation to score a little higher regardless.

Overall, this is a capable mid-tier platform that should meet most demands for general use and multitasking, as well as occasional work/school/gaming that would require more resources. Nonetheless, your expectations should be realistic; you’re not getting this hardware for max sustained performance; there are better-suited options out there for that task. Not as compact or priced similarly, though.

Custom Mode – max power, 52+ dBA noise

Custom mode allows for a multitude of CPU/GPU power customizations and fan settings.

However, somehow I couldn’t max out the CPU/GPU settings while having the fans on Full Speed on this unit; the options just weren’t there as on other Legions that I’ve used. A weird software bug.

Nonetheless, based on what we’ve already tested on the Legion 7a, the gains in performance are minimal over the standard Performance profile, definitely not justified by the massive increase in noise, as the fans run closer to 52 dBA at full speed, up from 45 dBA on Performance.

Balance Mode – low power, 38 dBA noise

Balance mode is the mid-level profile that keeps fan noise low at only ~38 dBA, with still excellent performance and better thermals than on Performance mode. This is where the series excels.

Here’s what we got in this case:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 8397, 16 – 8426, 8 – 6555, 4 – 4514, 2 – 2347, 1 – 1186;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 25881 (Graphics – 28977, Physics – 29284, Combined – 13101);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10802 (Graphics – 10842, CPU – 10584);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 6287;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 17545 cb, CPU Single Core 1982 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 47s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 102.96;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 67.42;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 390.75;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 23.50;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 243.88.

We’re looking at 95+% of the CPU scores and 80-85% of the GPU capabilities possible in Performance mode, with the CPU/GPU temperatures averaging low-70s °C, despite the much quieter fan noise of 38 dBA.

Quiet Mode – lower power,~30 dBA noise

Quiet mode limits the CPU/GPU power more to keep noise levels at sub-30 dBA, with even lower temperatures than on Balance, with the CPU/GPU averaging around mid-60s °C with mixed use.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 6738, 16 – 6775, 8 – 4282, 4 – 2473, 2 – 1373, 1 – 776;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 23008 (Graphics – 26841, Physics – 23179, Combined – 11051);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 9603 (Graphics – 9655, CPU – 9319);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5707;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 14359 cb, CPU Single Core 1249 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 02s;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 94.78;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 60.10;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 360.86;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 21.26;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 224.77.

The CPU performs at about 90% of its capacity in multi-threaded loads, but the single-core scores drop significantly compared to the other profiles, at only about 60%; we noticed the same behavior on the Legion 7a as well.

The GPU runs at about 75% of its capacity on Performance mode.

Balance Mode on PD power

We also tested this laptop on PD power, with a 100W ROG PD charger. I don’t have a Legion PD charger to test if that would change things in any way, and haven’t tested with a 140W charger either.

Here’s what we got in terms of benchmark results on Balance mode on 100W of USB-C PD power:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 7118, 16 – 7166, 8 – 5583, 4 – 4276, 2 – 2311, 1 – 1174;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 15996 (Graphics – 17456, Physics – 25873, Combined – 7273);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 5996 (Graphics – 5620, CPU – 9661);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 3671;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 14722 cb, CPU Single Core 1990 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 24s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 67.47;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 45.44;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 270.37;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 23.07;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 154.00.

The performance on the CPU loads is very competitive, at about 80-90% in multi-threaded tests in Performance mode with the laptop plugged in via the main charger. Single-core scores are fine as well. Thus, using this laptop on PD power is a perfectly possible option for multitasking and general use, if you don’t want to bring along the main charger.

With the CPU only drawing around 40W TDP on PD power, the system shouldn’t pull energy out of the battery with casual use. There isn’t any proper PD pass-through as fast as I can tell, though, as mixed use that engages both the CPU and GPU trickle-discharges the battery. Furthermore, the GPU’s TGP is severely limited in this mode anyway, and the RTX 5060 only works at about 40% of its capacity.

Gaming performance – Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 + GeForce RTX 5060

With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this Legion 5a handles modern games.

We tested a couple of different games on the various available profiles at the native QHD+ (2560 x 1600 px) resolution, with the Nvidia GPU set on dGPU mode and running on Game Ready drivers. For consistency with other reviews, the laptop is raised off the desk.

Here are the results:

• Black Myth, Cyberpunk, Horizon FW – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
• Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings.

Much like with synthetic tests, the gaming framerates delivered here are 5-10% better than on the Legion 7a configuration.

That still means most games are running smoothly at 2.5K resolution and Ultra settings, but the 8 GB vRAM limit can interfere in some titles and force you to cut back on the graphics. With this unit, it happened when testing Black Myth: Wukong with the Multi Frame Generation option set to 2x/4x, but not in the other tested games.

With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.

First, Performance mode with the laptop raised off the desk. We measured fan noise of around 45 dBA at head level, with CPU/GPU temperatures in the high-70s °C.

However, flat on the desk, these temperatures rise by about 10 °C and end up in the high-80s °C, thermally throttling the GPU. That being the case, placing the laptop on a stand or at least raising it off the desk when running sustained loads is a must here, as the cooling module chokes otherwise. The impact is more pronounced than on the Legion 7a configuration.

Custom mode allows for higher CPU/GPU power levels and faster, louder fans. I didn’t get to properly test it here, as already explained earlier. Regardless, I wouldn’t consider running the laptop with max fans anyway, as it gets too loud at 52 dBA.

Balance and Quiet modes, on the other hand, are surely interesting options for this lineup.

Balance mode delivers about 80-85% of the framerates possible on Performance mode, with sub-38 dBA fan noise and excellent thermals in the lower-70s °C (as long as you keep the laptop off the desk, of course). As mentioned already, this is the profile I’d mostly use on this notebook for general chores, heavier work tasks, and gaming; it’s an excellent balance between performance, thermals, and noise levels.

Quiet mode delivers about 70-75% of the framerates, with fan noise of around 30 dBA and still fine thermals: low-70s °C on the CPU and high-70s °C on the GPU.

Finally, gaming on battery power is an option, with framerates about 25% lower than Quiet plugged in and less than 1 hour of runtime (although you could squeeze more with various tweaks, including gaming on the iGPU instead).

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The cooling module on this Legion 5a is rather simple, with two fans, two average-sized heatsinks, and three heat pipes.

For comparison, here’s the cooling module in the Legion 7a. Keep in mind the 7a is a slimmer chassis, so those fans and heatsinks are lower profile and capacity than on the 5a. This is why the 5a runs at slightly higher-power or/and slightly lower thermals.

This cooling module is adequate for this platform and chassis, with fair internal temperatures in mixed use, as long as you keep this laptop raised off the desk with sustained taxing loads. We’re generally looking at internal temperatures in the mid-70s °C for sustained mixed use.

Flat on the desk, internal temperatures jump out of control and the laptop overheats, in a more severe way than measured on the 7a chassis.

Much like on that chassis, pushing 80+W of power into the CPU in multi-threaded loads leads to high internal temperatures. But even at 80W, we measured CPU temperatures in the mid-80s °C on Performance mode, 10 °C lower than on the 7i in the same scenario.

As far as the noise levels go, expect 52 dBA on Custom mode, 45 dBA on Performance, 38 dBA on Auto, and sub-30 dBA on Quiet.

With daily use, the fans idle often when using the laptop on battery power, but remain more active when using it plugged in. Nonetheless, they spin quietly even when active, and you’d hardly notice them at all even with casual use and general multitasking. I haven’t noticed coil whine or electronic noises either, so overall a fine cooling design for everyday use.

External temperatures are excellent overall, with most surfaces keeping around 30 °C or lower.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Quiet Mode, fans at <30 dB

With demanding loads, most of the chassis still stays comfortable when using the laptop in Performance mode and raised off the desk. However, the hottest spot develops around the right side of the keyboard, close to the arrows keys, around high-40s °C. That means the laptop can feel somewhat uncomfortable to the touch, especially when used in a hot environment that might amplify these results. At the same time, the other parts of the keyboard, around the WASD keys and armrest, average in the mid-30s °C to low-40s.

Keeping the laptop flat on the desk leads to higher thermals overall and is to be avoided here.

As for the other profiles, both Balance and Quiet mode run slightly cooler all over the chassis, and develop a lower hotspot around the same area.

*Gaming – Balance mode – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~38 dB
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~45 dB

For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through a Realtek module on this laptop. Everything performed fine.

Audio is handled by a set of dual speakers. The overall audio quality is rather mediocre, with limited bass and average volume; these speakers are smaller and sound poorer than those in the Legion 7a and Legion 7i units. Lenovo should have put more effort into better audio with these lineups, as that is my main complaint about them.

Finally, there’s a 5MPx camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. It’s more or less the same camera implemented in the Legion 7a and various Yoga models this year, a wide-angle shooter with decent image quality in good light. The camera includes IR with support for Windows Hello. A kill-switch button is implemented on the laptop’s right edge, as on other Legions.

Battery life

There’s an 80 Wh battery inside this Lenovo Legion 5a, fairly sized for a device in this segment.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50% brightness) and the default 60Hz refresh rate (switches to 60Hz automatically when unplugged). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• 8 W (~10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10-12 W (~7-8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10 W (~8 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10 W (~8 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 12-20 W (~4-7 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 90 W (<1 h of use) – Gaming  – Cyberpunk, Balance Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

Decent runtimes all things considered, although browsing tends to be quite heavy on the efficiency here, with serious variations in power draw between tabs and apps. That means mileage with general use can vary greatly.

Here’s what we got on the Legion 7a for comparison, a similar Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 configuration with the larger 16-inch display. More or less the same runtimes.

• 10-12 W (~6-8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 9 W (~9-10 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 9 W (~9-10 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 12-20 W (~4-7 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 75 W (~1 h of use) – Gaming  – Cyberpunk, Balance Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

And here’s what we got on the Yoga 7i Pro on the Panther Lake platform with a similar 15-inch OLED display; this runs significantly more efficiently.

• 8-10 W (~8-10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 7-7.5 W (~11-12 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6.5-7 W (~12-13 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 9-12 W (~7-9 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Adaptive Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

This series ships with a 245W charger, a pretty bulky charger for a laptop of this kind.

USB-C charging is supported as well and is adequate for general use and multitasking; just don’t expect to run heavier workloads or games on PD.

Price and availability – Lenovo Legion 5a series

At the time of this article, the Lenovo Legion 5a series is widely available in most markets.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

The entry-tier configuration with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 processor, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD, and the RTX 5060 GPU, goes for 1799 USD in the US, 1800-1900 EUR in Europe, and 1600 GBP in the UK. These are competitive prices in all markets for 2026 standards, and don’t account for any discounts that will generally push the price closer to 1500 USD/EUR. And the RAM/SSD are upgradeable if you want to go that route.

You could also but extra RAM and a 1 TB SSD out of the box, in which case the price jumps a fair bit. And there’s also the option to select a Ryzen AI 9 465 CPU, but that upgrade makes little sense to me.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area, at the time you’re reading this article.

Final thoughts- 2026 Lenovo Legion 5a review

In many ways, this Lenovo Legion 5a is an even better-value notebook than the Legion 7a discussed in a previous article, although the choice between them comes down to how much less you’re paying for the 5a in your region.

On the US market, the difference is rather significant between the two, at around 300-500 USD or so. Over here in Europe, however, it seems to be only 200-300 EUR, and that makes the 5a less attractive.

All in all, the two are very similar in most ways. They’re built on the same specs, more or less, and deliver similar capabilities for general use, multitasking, work/school apps, and gaming. Having tested both, though, the 7a does offer a slightly faster CPU in sustained loads, while the 5a comes slightly on top on the GPU end and tends to run a little cooler internally, but at the same time warmer at the keyboard level. The 5a scores an extra point with the possibility to upgrade the RAM, while the memory on the 7a is onboard (albeit faster).

Then, both lineups are similar in looks and functionality, with minor differences in design between them. The 7a offers a card reader that’s not available on the 5a, and zone-RGB keyboard lighting, as notable extras. The 7a also offers a larger and faster 16-inch OLED display, but the 15.3-inch display on the 5a is almost there as well; furthermore, both are glossy, non-touch OLEDs.

Finally, they deliver similar runtimes on battery power, despite the 7a including a marginally larger battery, and both are rather lacking when it comes to the quality of their speakers – the audio on the 5a is just worse, though, with some tiny, tinny speakers inside.

Overall, the 7a offers a generally more polished experience, while the 5a pales in comparison, mostly for that hotspot that develops around the arrow keys with gaming.

All in all, both these lineups are solid offers in the mid-tier segment of compact lightweight all-purpose notebooks. They’re made well, practical, and sufficiently powerful and efficient to meet the expectations of most average buyers, both for casual and everyday multitasking, but also for tackling more demanding loads and games at times. You should be fine with either one, but I generally lean towards the 5a if the price difference is justifiable in your region.

At the same time, I’d also keep an eye on that Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i series. Over here in Europe, it slots in between the Legions in terms of pricing ( but that varies between regions, as the Yoga is more expensive than both Legions in other markets), and it’s a Panther Lake platform with similar RTX 5060 graphics and the same 15-inch OLED display, albeit running a little slower due to the lower TGP. However, the Yoga Pro is a much more portable design than both Legions, offers better runtimes on battery, and is arguably a better-looking and better-made chassis as well.

This wraps up my time with the Lenovo Legion 5a. Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.

The article Lenovo Legion 5a review (2026, AMD Ryzen AI 7 450, RTX 5060) appeared first on .

We’ve followed and tested the popular G14 series since its inception, as one of the most popular lineups of 14-inch premium and high-performance notebooks available in stores around the world.

This 2026 iteration refreshes on a chassis design used for the last two years, so the general aesthetics and ergonomics don’t change in a significant way. On the inside, however, this generation transitions to Intel Panther Lake hardware for the first time since its launch (has been an AMD platform so far), bundles higher-power graphics and beefier cooling, and offers an updated OLED display.

There are, in fact, two G14 main variants this year, one still built on the previous GA403 2025 chassis, which is still an AMD platform with lower-tier graphics, and this new GU405 variant that we’re discussing here. My review unit is a higher-level Core Ultra 9 386H + RTX 5070Ti 12 GB configuration of the Zephyrus G14 GU405, arguably the most interesting option available this year, but we’ll discuss the other configurations as well in the article.

Follow this link for details on the latest available Zephyrus G14 GU405 configurations and prices.

All in all, while not a brand new series, this G14 GU405 is an impressive refresh for the lineup. I’ve gathered my thoughts and impressions on it down below, as we’ll follow up with a comparison between the 2026/2025/2024 Zephyrus G14 models in a separate article.

Specs Sheet – ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GU405

The series is available in a multitude of configurations; just note that Asus implements two chassis versions across them. One lighter and thinner chassis with a more basic cooling module and lower power settings, implemented on the 5060/5070 variants, and the beefier chassis on the 5070Ti/5080 models that we’re mostly discussing in this article.

Design and ergonomics – slightly heavier, stronger built

This 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gu405 is identical in almost every way to the previous G14 iteration from 2025, reviewed in this article.

Even when having the two side by side and closely looking at every detail, the differences are minor: the bottom panel and rear-side of the laptop around the exhausts has been slightly refreshed, and the lightbar zone on the lid looks and behaves a little differently (it’s got a different darker coating that blends in with the general aesthetics and the LEDs can be controlled individually now, instead of in zones as in the past). And yes, the stickers on the updated version are updated as well, since this model is based on Intel hardware now.

Furthermore, Asus mention they have internally reinforced the CNC unibody chassis to make it firmer. I can’t really tell the difference, since the previous generations were already built well imo. This is one of the nicest laptops available out there; it doesn’t bend or flex or squeak, even if the chassis doesn’t feel quite as rock-steady as on a MacBook or a Razer Blade. But it’s very close, and I doubt anyone can realistically complain about the build quality in any way.

These aside, Asus still offers the series in two color variants, a darker one called Eclipse Gray, the one we have here, and a lighter one called Platinum White, which is rather a light gray design with a white keyboard.

I prefer the Gray variant; it just looks neater and more professional to me, although it does smudge more easily, so keep that in mind when choosing it. The white version is more blend-looking, and the silver chassis with a white keyboard isn’t that appealing or even functional for me. I’ve added some images of the two variants down below (the white one is a GA403 2026 in these images, but the Intel variant looks the same).

As mentioned earlier, the lower-specced variants of this G14 GU405 are slightly different, thinner and lighter: 1.55 -1.58 kg and up to 18.3 mm thick for this 5070Ti configuration, versus sub 1.5 kg and up to 16.3 mm thick for the 5060 variant. Minor differences.

Ergonomics are still mostly fine with the series, with smooth materials, well-made hinges, friendly edges and corners, and no annoying lights in the line of sight.

But there are still some things Asus can improve here. The display only opens up to about 130 degrees – I find that limiting for lap and on-the-go use, where a full 180-degree display would be greatly appreciated. Asus pretty much cloned the opening angle from MacBooks in 2024, and hasn’t bothered changing it ever since. Perhaps that might not be an issue for you, but it’s something that bothers me personally on a portable design.

I also find it a bit uncomfortable to quickly pry open the lid, since there’s no real notch or edge on the front lip for my fingers to grab onto. That means you’ll have to use both hands to open this up more often than not. Not something significant, but still worth mentioning.

Finally, the touchpad is just too large for its own good, and that impacts its usability. And the micro holes over the speakers that flank the keyboard can gather dust and first over time, so better make sure you’re keeping this tidy.

As for the IO, there’s a proper selection of ports around the sides on this generation, with USB-A and C ports, HDMI, an audio jack, and a full-size SD card reader as a novelty, replacing the microSD reader of the past. That’s an important update for a creator-targeted laptop such as this one. The USB-Cs are spread on both sides, but only the one on the left side supports Thunderbolt 4.

Keyboard and touchpad – excellent

Inputs haven’t changed in any way between the last 3 G14 generations either.

That’s fine when it comes to the keyboard, which is a proper ROG layout with excellent feedback and general feel to it. You get the extra macro keys at the top left and the decently spaced arrow keys, although these are short and not full-sized.

The typing experience is alright overall, with proper response and quiet clicks. The coating on the keys is a little weird, harsher than the norm, but I got used to it quickly. Overall, this is arguably better than the keyboard on the Blade and on par with a MacBook Pro for me.

The keys are RGB lit, with bright LEDs and good uniformity. There’s no zone or per-key light control, though; this is merely a single-zone RGB implementation. Doesn’t bother me, but might bother some of you – the Blade offers better light control.

Just keep in mind that the keyboard on this darker color offers excellent contrast, but the white keyboard on the other color can get quite frustrating, to the point where you’ll want to only use the lighting in dimmer conditions. One more reason why I prefer this color variant for the G14 series.

The touchpad situation hasn’t changed either, and that’s unfortunate. Asus implemented a huge matte glass touchpad here, which generally feels and works fine.

However, it’s just too large and doesn’t offer enough physical separation from the keyboard and from the laptop’s front lip. This is especially problematic when using this on the lap, as clothes can easily create ghost touches and clicks. Aesthetically, sure, this looks awesome, but the functionality is lacking, and I prefer a design that works over one that looks good. Hopefully Asus will change this in future iterations.

As for biometrics, the main camera supports IR with Windows Hello, but there’s no finger sensor in the power button.

Screen – updated OLED

The display on this 2026 Zephyrus G14 is still a 14-inch 16:10 OLED, but with a newer-generation panel that’s now noticeably brighter both in general use, where earlier OLEDs struggled the most, or in peak HDR.

So while older OLEDs peaked at around 400 nits max sustained brightness, this one goes over 500 nits. It might not seem like much, but it enhances the usability of this laptop in brighter environments, especially since the coating on the display is still a form of glossy, although with an anti-glare coating that limits reflections in bright light to a fair extent. This doesn’t seem to have changed between generations, so the extra brightness is the one making all the difference here. I’ve added an image of this G14’s screen next to a glossy OLED on a Zenbook, to showcase what the anti-glare finish does.

Just to be fair, though, this is still only a regular OLED, so not quite as bright as the Tandem OLEDs implemented in other notebooks. There’s no 14-inch Tandem that can match the speed/refresh requirements of this series for now, so perhaps we’ll get one in the future.

Other than that, this offers what you can expect from an OLED: rich, punchy colors, dark blacks and contrast, fast response times and refresh for games, with GSync support, and clean-looking images across the board, as this is a non-touch implementation.

Anyway, here are the technical specs of this OLED panel:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC422B (ATNA40HQ06-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 95.0% AdobeRGB, 100% DCI-P3;
• Measured gamma: 2.21;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 521.91 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6414 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes (discussed above).

Furthermore, this implements the standard technologies meant to reduce burn-in and flickering implemented across all Asus OLED devices, with the flicker-free dimming setting available in Armoury Crate. That’s going to prove useful if you plan on using your notebook in a dim room at night, at lower brightness levels.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is a higher-specced configuration of the 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 refresh, code name GU405AR, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti 12GB dGPU, 64 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, and a fast 2 TB gen4 SSDs.

Disclaimer: Our review unit was sent over by Asus. All the results were recorded using the software available in mid-July 2026 (BIOS 302, Armoury Crate 6.5.7.0, and GeForce Studio drivers 596.36). There’s a more recent BIOS 305 available in the meantime, as of late July.

In terms of specs, this Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GU405 series is built on the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware currently available.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 386H is the top mobile processor in Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 lineup. It’s a hybrid design with 4 high-performance cores, 8 efficiency cores, 4 low-power efficiency cores, and a total of 16 threads. It runs at 70-57W sustained TDP in this chassis, which is enough to deliver top performance. It’s still an H class processor, though, so make sure your expectations are set the right way.

On the GPU side, the 2026 Zephyrus G14 is available with a range of Nvidia Blackwell GeForce RTX 5000 chips: RTX 5080 16GB (130W), 5070 Ti 12GB (130W), or 5070 8GB and 5060 8GB (115W). Due to running at lower power, the 5060/5070 variant use a slightly more basic cooling module.

Asus have increased the GPU TGP a fair bit on this generation, to 130W, up from 100W on Turbo in the past. They’ve also increased the crossload max TDP as a result, which allows for a notable boost in performance in the graphics side. More on that in a bit.

This chassis still has a MUX switch, G-Sync support on the main display, and either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.

For memory and storage, the laptop features fast onboard LPDDR5x RAM and a single M.2 2280 SSD slot – not sure if this supports gen5 SSD, but it comes with gen4 only out of the box. Our review unit came with 64 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory and a fast 2 TB Sandisk Gen4 SSD.

You need to take out the back panel to get inside to the components, by removing a couple of Torx screw; two screws are hidden behind some plastic caps, towards the rear. These screws are of different lengths, so make sure you put them back the right way. And there’s a pop-up screw in the bottom right corner, which I don’t remember seeing before on this series.

Inside, the SSD and the Wi-Fi module are M.2 formats and user-replaceable, while everything else is onboard. The cooling module has been further beefed up to support the updated hardware settings.

On the software side, these laptops come with the standard Armoury Crate suite that you get on all ROG models. It gives you access to power profiles and various settings for the fans, keyboard, audio, OLED screen, and more.

Fair profiles overall, although set quite noisy to handle the aggressive power levels for a device of this caliber.

Silent mode is supposed to run at a higher 80W TGP according to the Asus materials, but that wasn’t the case on my unit. The newer BIOS might change that.

The 5080 variant pegs the same power limits, while the 5060/5070 support 10-15W lower settings on both the CPU and GPU.

Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Silent profile, unplugged from the wall.

Performance and benchmarks – Core Ultra 9 386H sustained use

With that out of the way, let’s move on to the performance testing.

We’ll start with the Cinebench R15 CPU loop test.

The differences in performance for the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor are minor between the power modes available on this Zephyrus. There’s about a 20% difference between Silent mode (40W) and Turbo mode (70W). The CPU runs hot on all modes, though, at 90+ C on Turbo and Manual and at 80+C on Performance and Silent. There’s also a difference in fan noise between these profiles.

Beyond that, this Cinebench loop test shows just how closely the current mobile laptop platforms are in performance, both Intel and AMD.

Here are a couple of other implementations of the 386H hardware, next to a Ryzen 9 Strix Point in the previous-gen G14 and a Ryzen 9 from 2 years ago. The Ryzen 9 HX 370 is the fastest performer in this test, while the Panther Lake implementations score 5-10% lower. So if sustained CPU performance is what you’re primarily after, a Core Ultra 9 386H isn’t necessarily the one to go for; especially when considering how much these 2026 cost these days.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in similar findings to what we explained above. We measured ~80 W for Manual, ~70W for Turbo, ~50W for Performance and 40W for Silent.

We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Turbo, Manual, and Silent profiles, to better showcase the minor gap in performance between these modes.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This review unit passes the test both with the laptop flat on the desk and with it raised on a stand to improve airflow underneath the chassis.

Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Turbo profile with the GPU set to Standard mode (Advanced Optimus), and with the screen set at the native 3K resolution.

All these tests are running on Nvidia Studio drivers.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 10544, 16 – 10538, 8 – 6538, 4 – 4229, 2 – 2284, 1– 1184;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 34444 (Graphics – 42045, Physics – 32954, Combined – 15054);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 10666;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 4138;
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad: 3677;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 16198 (Graphics – 16282, CPU – 15744);
• 3DMark 13 – DLSS: DLSS Off – 21.54 fps, DLSS On – 85.13 fps, 395% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 9704;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 29000;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test: 116735 MB/s read, 118892 MB/s write, – MHz latency;
• PCMark 10: 9642 (Essentials – 10751, Productivity – 17398, Digital Content Creation – 13004);
• GeekBench 6.6.0: Multi-core: 17440, Single-Core: 2931;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 4708, Half: 1672, Quantized: 7693;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 3408 cb, CPU Single Core 317 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 21579 pts (best run), CPU 21105 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 2118 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 1267 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 126 pts;
• CineBench 2026: GPU – 65660 pts, CPU Multiple Threads – 5084, CPU Single Core – , CPU Single Thread – 521 pts.

And some work-related tests, on the same Turbo profile.

• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 1m 55s ;
• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 13.86s (CUDA), 6.96 (Optix);
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 07s;
• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 27.25s (CUDA), 15.77 (Optix);
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 1m 44s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 13.23s (CUDA), 6.80 (Optix);
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 12s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 27.64s (CUDA), 14.65 (Optix);

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 169.15;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 84.81;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 118.25;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 53.91;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 518.71;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 50.26;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 32.07;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW 07: 342.02.

• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 68.39;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 78.45;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: 62.23;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: 110.23;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 52.67;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 50.10;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: 191.36;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 49.66;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 29.68;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 82.71;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 14681, CUDA – 2133, RTX –  3062.

On the CPU side, this is a higher-power version of the Core Ultra 9 386H platform, and it delivers the best this processor has to offer. Even if the CPU runs at slightly lower sustained power than in the Zephyrus G16, the two offers similar capabilities in sustained CPU loads.

On the other hand, compared to last year’s Ryzen 9 AI 370 HX Zephyrus G14 implementation, the scores in CPU sustained loads are actually about 5% lower for the Intel update, while on single-core performance the Intel variant has a slight edge of about 5-7%. So when it comes to overall CPU performance, the two generations are neck in neck, as the main benefit of this Panther Lake chip is efficiency, with an impact on thermals in sustained loads and runtimes on battery power.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5070Ti in this machine runs at up to 115W in Turbo mode and performs well at that power limit. It scores about 10% higher than the 5070Ti at 100W in Turbo mode in the previous-gen Zephyrus G14, although the gap shrinks in mixed loads. However, a notable benefit of the 2026 implementation is the 12 GB of vRAM on the 5070Ti, compared to only 8 GB on previous-gen models.

As far as the other configurations go, expect the RTX 5080 variant to score 10-15% higher, while the 5070, when available, is going to score roughly 15% lower.

Furthermore, the graphics performance increases somewhat in Manual mode, which allows the GPU to go up to 130W TGP with Dynamic Boost.

All in all, this Zephyrus G14 GU405 is arguably the fastest compact Windows laptop around 1.5 kilos available today.  Its main rivals either haven’t been updated to 2026 specs, or/and don’t match its power settings and/or are heavier and chunkier. And that main alternative is the Razer Blade 14 in the 14-inch Windows space, and the MacBook Pro 14. This is actually a faster performer in the M5 Pro/Max configurations, and is an option to consider for programming and creative work, but less so for gaming, where the Windows environment still holds and advantage.

Manual mode – higher power, but 52 dBA noise levels

This Zephyrus G14 laptop runs at around 48 dB on the Turbo profile, which is quite loud. Manual mode allows for higher CPU and GPU power settings, but with even higher fan noise at 52 dAB and higher overall temperatures.

Still, if you want to squeeze the best performance out of this device and you’re okay with using headphones to cover up the fan noise, here are the benchmark results for this profile.

We maxed out the CPU/GPU settings and maxed out the fans for these tests.

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10478, 16 – 10596, 8 – 6649, 4 – 4252, 2 – 2289, 1 – 1181;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 35750 (Graphics – 44669, Physics – 32642, Combined – 15183);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 11367;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 17118 (Graphics – 17377, CPU – 15789);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 10356;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 21326 cb, CPU Single Core 2091 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 08s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 177.04;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 91.55;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 537.01;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 32.42;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 364.95.

The CPU performance doesn’t change significantly for this profile, while on the GPU side, we’re looking at roughly 5% gains in scores, due to the higher TGP in this mode – 125-130W vs 115W on Turbo. possible here (up to 160W  – more like 150W in reality, vs. up to 135W on Turbo). However, the gains are minor for mixed sustained loads, as showcased by the Blender and Specviewperf tests.

Overall, not a profile I’d consider, given the noise, thermals, and limited performance gains.

Performance mode – mid level, at ~42 dBA

This Zephyrus G14 laptop runs at around 48 dB on the Turbo profile. Performance mode keeps fans quieter around 42 dBA, with still solid capabilities.

Here’s how this 2026 Zephyrus G14 GU405 scored on the Performance profile:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10370, 16 – 10478, 8 – 6716, 4 – 4255, 2 – 2307, 1 – 1193;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 30828 (Graphics – 38370, Physics – 29835, Combined – 12717);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 9632;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 14936 (Graphics – 14799, CPU – 15765);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 8584;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 19394 cb, CPU Single Core 2128 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 30s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 159.42;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 84.64;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: -;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 31.57;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 322.08.

We’re looking at 90% of the CPU scores on Turbo, which isn’t bad considering the CPU runs at lower power limits in this mode, and reaches notably lower internal temperatures.

On the GPU side, this profile scores about 85-90% of Turbo mode.

A competitive mid-level profile.

Silent Mode – still fast, and quieter at sub 35 dBA

Silent mode is quieter at sub-35dBA. Here’s how the laptop scores on this profile.

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10180, 16 – 10197, 8 – 6482, 4 – 3933, 2 – 2262, 1 – 1171;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 23019 (Graphics – 24563, Physics – 31520, Combined – 12272);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 4912;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8834 (Graphics – 8231, CPU – 15117);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5685;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 18215 cb, CPU Single Core 2106 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 45s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 115.22;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 62.82;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 372.67;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 29.95;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 210.20.

The CPU performance remains excellent, at around 80% of Turbo mode, despite this mode imposing a 40W power cap. Thermals are kept lower than on Turbo, even with the much quieter profile.

The GPU, however, performs at about 60% of Turbo mode, due to the aggressive power limit. The materials provided by Asus mention a higher sustained TGP for this mode, but our unit only ran at about 45W TGP, hence the lower scores. Perhaps a higher limit might be set with later BIOS updates, and there’s always the option for a custom profile (with GHelper) that would better balance thermals and performance at this sort of noise level.

Performance Mode on PD power

PD power on this Zephyrus G14 isn’t meant for sustained loads, as the system can only pull 100W of power via USB-C. However, here’s what we got on Performance mode hooked up via a 100W USB-C PD charger:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 9936, 16 – 9945, 8 – 6547, 4 – 4185, 2 – 2257, 1 – 1177;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 22665 (Graphics – 23953, Physics – 32574, Combined – 12189);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 4917;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8819 (Graphics – 8219, CPU – 15054);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 4999;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 18330 cb, CPU Single Core 2060 cb;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 43s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 98.72;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 59.65;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: -;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 30.34;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 216.98.

These results are close to Silent mode with the laptop plugged in via the main charger, so competitive on the CPU side, and not much on the graphics side, where this mode delivers about 50% of what the laptop does on Turbo when plugged in.

Overall, this mode is adequate for general multitasking, and it can handle heavier tasks if needed, within reason. It’s not meant for gaming or heavy GPU load, though.

However, I noticed that the system doesn’t seem to pull any energy from the battery on this G14, which could suggest there’s some sort of power passthrough offered here. That’s unlike other ROG laptops, which pulled from the battery with sustained mixed use. I didn’t get to properly test this, so you might want to check other sources as well if you plan on using the laptop with a compact PD charger more often than not.

Gaming performance – Ryzen AI 9 + GeForce RTX 5070Ti Max-Q

With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this Zephyrus G14 handles modern games.

We tested a couple of different games on the various available profiles at the native 3K (2880 x 1800 px) and at the QHD+ (2560 x 1600 px) resolution, with the Nvidia GPU set on Ultimate dGPU mode.

For consistency with other reviews, the laptop is raised off the desk. I also kept the laptop on Studio drivers and haven’t changed to Game Ready drivers for the gaming tests – doing that might change the results in some games.

Here are the results:

• Black Myth, Cyberpunk, Horizon FW – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
• Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings.

All games run great on this machine, and even Silent mode is surprisingly competitive. DLSS helps a lot, especially in titles that support DLSS 4.0+ and MFG.

Compared to the 2025 Ryzen 9 + RTX 5070Ti 115W configuration, this variant delivers up to 10% higher framerates in games when comparing Manual models with the highest GPU TGP settings (130W for this generation, 115W for the previous one). However, the gap gets lower on Turbo mode.

Now, the materials provided by Asus claim a TGP of 80W sustained for Silent mode, but that wasn’t the case on our unit, where the TGP was around 45W only. So there’s a chance your units might be able to run better on the default Silent mode later in the year, although I wouldn’t hold my breath for it given my experience with past ROG devices.

However, what you do get is the possibility to create custom profiles on these ROG laptops, either with Armoury Crate in Manual mode, or better yet with GHelper, which allows wider and more granular control over the fan speeds and temperatures.

On this unit, I created an Optimized 40 dBA profile with the following settings in Armoury Crate: 53% fans CPU/GPU, balanced sys fan, 85C CPU limit, 80C GPU limit. That translates to results of 104 fps (22 fps – 1% low) in Wukong with 4x MFG and 2.5K resolution, with a GPU TGP of around 100W. That’s better than the default Performance mode and with quieter fan noise.

If you aim for a lower noise level for your profile, you’ll have to use GHelper, since Armoury Crate doesn’t allow setting speeds lower than 49% for the CPU/GPU fans. I’d reckon a very competitive profile around 35 dBA can be comfortably set here, able to deliver about 70% of the gaming performance on Turbo, and with decent thermals around 80C on the internal components. I didn’t get the time to further pursue that profile, though.

Let’s go over some logs for the various profiles.

First, Turbo mode with the laptop flat on the desk. The laptop runs warm to hot in this mode, with temperatures in the 80-85 °C on both the CPU and the GPU. The performance, at least, is not impacted in significant ways, and these temperatures are actually a little lower than on the 2025 AMD-based G14.

Bumping the laptop off the desk to increase airflow underneath the chassis and into the fans allows lower thermals. We measured 75-80 °C on the CPU and GPU between the tested titles. Quite impressive for a device of this kind.

Then there’s Manual mode that allows you to max out the CPU/GPU and the fans’ speeds. That means the fan noise jumps to 52+ dBA for this mode. We measured ~75°C on the CPU and ~77-80 °C on the GPU with these settings, due to the extra power pushed into the hardware. Still fine temperatures, but the roughly 5% gain in performance isn’t necessarily justified by the louder fans. Not a profile I’d consider.

Performance mode allows the laptop to run a little quieter (42 dBA) and cooler, while the framerates take a 15-20% hit compared to Turbo mode. We measured temperatures in the low 70s °C on the CPU and GPU in this mode, with the laptop off the desk.

Finally, there’s Silent mode, which keeps the fan noise under 35 dBA and delivers about 60% of the gaming performance possible on Turbo.

We measured ~70°C on the CPU and mid 60s °C on the GPU in this mode, so there’s room for a bump in allocated power for this mode, which a potential increase in performance. Not sure if Asus is going to do that with future BIOS updates, but you can always pursue it yourself with GHelper, as mentioned earlier and as explained in this previous guide about optimizing quiet gaming on the Zephyrus G14 series.

Gaming on PD power is possible and offers framerates on par with Silent mode plugged in via the main charger. The system doesn’t seem to pull any power off the battery on this unit, unlike on the Zephyrus G16 tested recently.

We get similar results on battery power, but expect this notebook to only last for a little over an hour of gaming.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The cooling module on the 5070Ti/5080 variants offers two fans, two radiators, and a multitude of heatpipes over the main components. There’s no vapor chamber here.

The RTX 5060 / 5070 versions use a somewhat more basic cooling system with three fans (smaller main fans, extra system fan), two radiators, and fewer and slimmer heatpipes.

For comparison, here’s the cooling module in the 2025 AMD Ryzen 9 + RTX 5070Ti configuration. Not that different.

Overall, this generation runs cooler internally by a fair bit, in all modes. I still recommend keeping it off the desk for sustained gaming/work sessions though, for better airflow into the fans and overall lower thermals than when keeping this flat on a desk.

As for noise levels, I measured:

• 52 dBA in Manual mode
• 48 dBA in Turbo
• 42 dBA in Performance
• Under 35 dBA in Silent

In everyday use, the laptop is quiet and comfortable to the touch. The fans stay off most of the time in Silent mode, and while they keep active on Performance and Turbo, they’re hardly audible even on these profiles.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Silent profile,  fans at ~0 dBA

During heavy tasks and gaming, the chassis heats up a fair bit, but the areas you actually touch stay comfortable — usually around 35–40°C, which are excelent value for a device of this size and power. The hottest spot develops in the middle of the chassis, around the YUH keys.

Overall, the chassis temperatures on this generation are a few degrees lower than on the previous model.

*Silent – Performance, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~35 dB
*Gaming – Performance, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~42 dB
*Gaming – Turbo, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~48 dB

Connectivity is handled by an Intel BE211 solution, offering Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. They perform well.

The audio system uses six speakers (well, a pair of dual-sided main woofers, and an extra pair of smaller tweeters), and the sound quality on this series is really good for a smaller laptop. It’s not quite as clear or as punchy as the sound of the Zephyrus G16, though, and not quite a match for the MacBook Pro 14 either. But it’s close.

The webcam, placed above the screen, offers an FHD sensor that provides decent images in good lighting, but it struggles in low light. Asus need to upgrade their webcam modules on these ROG devices — the competition is ahead in this area. The camera comes with an IR sensor for facial recognition.

Battery life

There’s a 73Wh battery inside this laptop, which I’d say is fine for its format and weight, especially since the efficiency has improved with this Panther Lake series.

Here’s what we got on our review unit in terms of battery life, with the laptop on Standard GPU mode in Armoury Crate, Best Battery Efficiency in Windows power settings, and the screen set at a brightness of around 120 nits (~50% brightness).

• 7-9 W (~8-10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 5-6 W (~12-14 h of use) – 4K fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 5-6 W (~12-14 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 8-12 W (~6-9 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON.

The Panther Lake hardware platform delivers significantly longer runtimes across the board, but especially with casual, lighter use. This generation can run for nearly twice as long in certain loads as the previous AMD G14s did.

For comparison, here’s what I got on the 2025 AMD Strix Point Zephyrus G14 configuration.

• 12 W (~5-6 h of use) – idle, Silent  Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 15 W (~4-5 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent  Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 14 W (~5-6 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 17 W (~4-5 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 18 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 75 W (~1 h of use) – Gaming – Witcher 3, Performance Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, no fps limit.

The 5070Ti/5080 configurations of this laptop ship with a 250W charger, a dual-piece design with long cables, mid-sized by today’s standards. It comes with Asus’s square plug that sticks to the side.

There’s a smaller 200W charger on the 5060/5070 configurations.

USB-C charging is supported as well, up to 100W. PD is meant for everyday multitasking, but not for sustained loads. Here’s a comparison of the main 250W charger and a 100W ROG USB-C PD charger.

Price and availability- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GU405

The 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is available across the world at the time of this article, but only in the upper-tier configurations.

Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article.

Here’s what we mostly found at the time of this review:

• Zephyrus G14 GU405AW – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5080 16GB, 64 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD – from $4799 in the US, €4299 in Germany;
• Zephyrus G14 GU405AR – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5070Ti 12GB, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD – from $3599 in the US, $4799 in Canada, €3299 in Germany, £3099 in the UK;
• Zephyrus G14 GU405AR – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5070Ti 12GB, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD – from $3199 in the US.

Mind-boggling prices. The lower-tier specs are not yet available, but perhaps will be later in the year.

In the meantime, last year’s Zephyrus G14 GA403 sells for about 1000-1500 USD/EUR less, with the 5070Ti configuration available at the time of this article for ~2600 USD in the US and ~2800 EUR in Europe. Sure, there’s a brighter display, higher-power and more efficient hardware, and better cooling for the 2026 refresh, but the price increase between generations is insane.

Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article. Buying from our affiliate links helps support our work. Thank you!

Final thoughts- 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GU405 series review

Asus have refined the Zephyrus G14 lineup over the years, and much like with the 2026 larger Zephyrus G16 lineup, this refresh of the 14-inch model might not seem like much on a first look. Once you look into the details, though, here are the important advantages for the 2026 model:

• this gets a newer-gen and brighter OLED, with the extra 100 or so nits of brightness making this display more versatile and more usable in strong light conditions; It helps with HDR content as well, as a side benefit;
• this generation switches to Intel Panther Lake hardware – this offers roughly the same performance as the AMD Strix Point hardware in the previous G14, but runs cooler in this updated chassis and more efficiently on battery power;
• this design allows for higher GPU power than the previous generation, which translates in 5-10% gains in graphics performance;
• internal and external temperatures are lower on this 2026 refresh;
• runtimes on battery are way longer on this generation.
• pricing has gone up significantly.

So all in all, this is arguably the best 14-inch performance compact laptop available today in the Windows space, especially since Razer haven’t updated the Blade 14 this year. But it’s also hundreds and thousands of dollars more expensive than the 2025 generation for similar-tier specs, which means the older model is just a better value option at this point. It’s going to run warmer and won’t last as long on battery, and it comes with a dimmer display, but all things considered, I’d reckon many will accept these tradeoffs given the price gap between generations.

And then there’s the MacBook Pro 14 to discuss as well, which starts at $2000 for the M5 model and at $2500 for the M5 Pro. We’re living times where MacBooks sell for less than similar-tier Windows premium options. For general use and creator/programming/engineering work, there’s a good chance one of these MacBook Pros are better-value options than the 2026 Zephyrus G14. At $3699, where the 5070Ti G14 sells at, you can configure a M5 Max with the 20 Core GPU, 64 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD, which runs circles around the Zephyrus in raw performance. The G14, on the other hand, holds an advantage in games and specific applications that aren’t optimized for Macs, so there’s that to consider as well.

Long story short, the 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus is an excellent notebook in its class, just darn expensive, just like every other higher-specced Windows laptop today. This wraps-up my review, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions on this series down below in the comments section.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU606 2026 doesn’t seem like a huge update over the previous G16 generations at first glance. However, it is an overall more versatile offer in its premium portable segment of 16-inch all-purpose notebooks. The main selling points adding up to this refresh are the brighter OLED display, the updated cooling module and the versatility of the Intel Panther Lake hardware that offers improved efficiency, which translates in longer runtimes and potentially more comfortable general experience when looking to balance out noise, thermals and capabilities. Too bad 2026 laptop tech is so darn expensive, though.

The article Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review (GU405 2026 gen, Intel Panther Lake, RTX 5070Ti) appeared first on .

This follows up on the Intel Lunar Lake V and Arrow Lake H platforms, binding them altogether under a common platform. Panther Lake hardware still combines a complex processor with Intel’s latest cores and technologies with several types of Intel iGPUs.

That means the roster of Panther Lake CPUs is diverse, with three distinct sub-lineups meant for different types of devices:

• Core Ultra 5/7 300, up to Core Ultra 7 365 – meant for ultraportable ultrabooks; replaces Lunar Lake V hardware (Cora Ultra 7 258V);
• Core Ultra X7/X9 300H, up to Core Ultra X9 388H with Arc B390 graphics – meant for high-performance ultraportables without a dGPU;
• Core Ultra 7/9 300H, up to Core Ultra 9 386H – meant for high-performance portable notebooks, optionally paired with a dGPU; replaces Arrow Lake H hardware (Core Ultra 9 285H).

Thus, it’s essential to understand the specifics of each of these sub-lineups so that you can choose the one that best suits your requirements. We’ll delve into this further down in the article, while also analyzing the performance of these Core Ultra Series 3 platforms; then we’ll compile lists of all the available notebooks built on this hardware.

Intel Panther Lake hardware and specs explained

Panther Lake is Intel’s latest mobile platform as of early 2026, an SOC (system-on-chip) platform built on the Intel 18A process node (the first of its kind, as previous platforms were built on TSMC technology). Panther Lake CPUs are also called Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors.

These are some of the main particularities of this hardware:

• • a scalable multi-chiplet architecture that allows for multiple variants of real products;
  • up to 16 CPU Cores, with a mix of 4x Performance, 8x Efficiency, and 4x Low-Power Efficiency cores;
  • updated Intel iGPUs with 3rd generation Xe cores (Battlemage architecture), up to 12 Xe3 Cores on the Arc B390 implementation, and 4 Xe3 Cores on the standard iGPU;

• added XeSS3 support with multi-frame generation;
• updated NPU5 with ~50 TOPS of AI performance;
• memory support up to LPDDR5x-9600 or DDR5-7200;
• support for Thunderbolt 5, up to 20 PCIe lanes (with Thunderbolt 4 controller built in on chip);
• improved efficiency across the board, including on the higher-tier SKUs.

On the CPU side, the compute tile for these Panther Lake platforms combines two types of cores: Cougar Cove for Performance cores, and Darkmont for the Efficiency and LP-E cores. Cougar Cove is an optimization of the Lion Cove cores implemented with Arrow Lake hardware, with optimizations on Memory Disambiguation (for more reliable performance), TLB Enhancements (allows complex workloads to run more reliably and faster), and Branch Prediction (for improved performance and efficiency). More on this over here.

Darkmont builds and optimizes the Skymont E-Core architecture used previously, with a multitude of optimizations as well. Follow that link above for a more indepth look into the particularities of this platform.

At the end of the day, what Panther Lake promises (and delivers, for the most part) is up to 10% single-core performance over Lunar Lake (and 15% over Arrow Lake), with increased power efficiency.

For multi-threading, Panther Lake offers up to 50% higher performance than Lunar Lake at similar power levels, and a 10-20% performance uplift from Arrow Lake.

On the GPU side, the series integrates updated Xe3 cores, with either 4, 10 or 12 Cores. The Core Ultra X9 and X7 options get 12 Xe cores with 16 MB of L2 Cache in the Arc B390 chip, there’s also a Core Ultra 5 with 10 Xe cores in the Arc B370 chip (why isn’t this called an Ultra X5, though???), while all the other options integrated a standard Panther Lake iGPU with 4 Xe cores and 4 MB of L2 cache. The 4x iGPU is built on Intel 3 technology, while the 12x iGPU is built with TSMC. The latter also occupies a larger physical space on the processor die.

Furthermore, it’s also important to note that Xe3 cores incorporate Ray Tracing units, as well as Super Sampling with multi-frame generation, a first outside the Nvidia realm so far.

As a whole, the 12x iGPU delivers 50% higher performance than the Arc 140v Lunar Lake iGPU at around 30W of power, and the gains increase slightly at higher power.

With that out of the way, here’s the complete roster of Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 hardware.

Out of these, the Ultra X7 358H and Ultra X9 388H are the high-performance options with the Arc B390 12x iGPU, the chips that provide the best overall performance in standalone implementations, and the chips we’ll find on the higher-tier models this year.

There’s also the Ultra 5 338H that stands out as an interesting middle-grounder, with a 12 Core CPU and 10C iGPU Intel Arc B370. Rather weird that they didn’t call this an Ultra X5, like the other options with Arc graphics.

Then there are the Ultra 9 386H and Ultra 7 356H, which are either meant as standalone implementations for mainstream portable designs, or bundled with a dGPU for higher-performance laptops. The standalone units aren’t powerful on the CPU side, but offer rather little in graphics capabilities, trailing previous-gen Lunar and Arrow Lake Arc 140V/140T hardware.

And then there are the efficient low-power Ultra 7 365 and Ultra 5 325 options, direct successors for Lunar Lake hardware, with 8 CPU cores and the same 4x cores iGPU. These are fine for casual use and offer efficient runtimes, but don’t get them for serious multitasking and demanding loads.

Here’s a more indepth look at the main Panther Lake SKUs.

And here’s a specs comparison with Arrow Lake H (2025), Lunar Lake V (2024), and Meteor Lake H (2023) platforms.

Just keep in mind that directly comparing these numbers doesn’t make much sense, because while these are all hybrid designs with various amounts of P and E Cores, the actual cores differ between generations, with various improvements and performance/efficiency gains as we move through the generations.

Panther Lake Performance – Core X9 388H, Core X7 358H vs. Arrow Lake Core Ultra 9 285H, Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 258, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

As we’re running our tests and reviews, here’s a brief analysis of the performance you should expect from the higher-tier Intel Panther Lake hardware we’ve tested so far (with updates to follow), next to similar implementations of Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Strix Point (with Gorgon Point being identical) platforms.

Note: These tests are running on the BIOS and drivers available in late-January 2026.

You can tell how the CPU performance scales between generations, with notable gains in multi-threaded performance for the Panther Lake options, even compared to the Arrow Lake implementation. AMD’s Strix/Gorgon Point hardware remains competitive, but is still 10-15% behind Panther Lake.

For more details on how the Core Ultra 9 386H performs in a full-size implementation and at 60+W TDP, check out our review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 over here. In just a few words, even at 28W, the Core Ultra 9 386H still delivers about 70-80% of its maximum performance possible at higher power.

On the GPU side, the Arc B390 implementations are in a class of their own, and even a mid-powered 30W implementation delivers about 90% of the potential graphics performance. From our tests, a 35W power setting delivers max graphics performance and ~90% of the CPU performance possible at higher power with these chips.

Compared to Radeon and previous-gen Intel Xe iGPUs, the B390 holds a significant advantage for 40-50% in our test, but the 4x iGPU is much slower at about 40% of the Arc B390 scores, and about on par with the Radeon 890M.

However, the beefier Radeon iGPUs offered with AMD’s Strix Halo and Gorgon Halo hardware, as well as the entry-tier Nvidia chips (RTX 4050/5050), are still faster performers, as we’ll discuss in a different article. But for what it is worth, those also require more power for full capabilities.

Panther Lake Gaming Performance

We also ran a couple of games on these platforms, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. Here’s what we got.

Once more, the Arc B390 outpaces everything else by a wide margin. We’ll discuss how it fares against the Radeon 8060S Strix Halo iGPU in a separate article.

And keep in mind I haven’t activated XeSS or frame generation for any of these tests. These technologies make a notable difference where supported – for instance, the framerates jump to around 110 fps in Cyberpunk with XeSS and FG switched on.

You’ll find more details in our reviews, linked down below as we finalize our tests.

List of all laptops built on the Intel Panther Lake hardware (Core Ultra Series 3)

This section lists all the available notebooks built on Panther Lake Core Ultra 7/9 Series 3 hardware.

However, I’ve split them into three different categories:

• portable performance laptops built on Core Ultra X7/X9 hardware with the Arc B390 12x iGPU;
• ultraportable and mid-range options built on Core Ultra hardware, with either the higher performance 16C, 4x iGPU options (Arrow Lake H follow-ups), or the efficient 8c, 4x iGPU variants (Lunar Lake V follow-ups).
• high-performance models that bundle Core Ultra hardware with Nvidia dGPUs.

So here we go. First, the Ultra X9 388H or Ultra X7 358H premium ultraportables (for what it is worth, the differences in real-life capabilities between these two chips are minimal to none).

There are many highly interesting options in this tier, starting with the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15P pro-tier business laptops, and continuing with the refreshed Dell XPS, Lenovo Yoga Slim Ultra and Asus Zenbook DUO lineups. If you have the budget (2000+ USD/EUR) and are looking for a competent premium daily driver, this is where you’ll most likely find it.

Most of these lineups mentioned earlier are also available with the lower-tier hardware.

However, some of the most compact, thin, and lightweight options or some of the more affordable options are only offered with Core Ultra 300 (up to Core Ultra 7 356) and Core Ultra 300H (up to Core Ultra 9 386H) specs, without the top-end iGPU (both because the X7/X9 SKUs are expensive and because they require more power to run at proper capacity). These options are listed further down.

Most of these devices are mid-tier options and the more affordably-priced Panther Lake configurations you’ll find in stores these days. The Acer Swift Edge and Asus Zenbook S14 models stand out as exceptions, as more premium devices not offered with Ultra X specs – they’re still excellent daily-drivers as long as graphics capabilities are not that important to you.

Finally, these are the higher-performance laptops with Core Ultra 300H + RTX 5000 hardware.

The majority of these are 16-inch formats, with some more compact 14 and 15-inch variants.

These notebooks are all premium-tier offers that should meet most expectations. Among them, the Asus ROG Zephyrus models stand out with their higher-power GPU configurations, while the Lenovo Yoga Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra have what it takes to become prime alternatives to the versatile Apple MacBook Pro 16.

That’s about it for now.

Stay around for updates to these lists as more laptops built on Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 platforms are launched and we get to review them. And if you spot any model that should be in here and isn’t mentioned yet, get in touch in the comments section down below.

The article The complete list of Intel Panther Lake laptops (Core Ultra X9 388H, Core Ultra 9 386H, Core Ultra 7 365) appeared first on .

This X1 Carbon revision is a complete revamp of the series, and not just a spec bump like some of the previous-gen variants. Sure, Lenovo updated it to the latest hardware platform of the year, namely Panther Lake, in several different CPU/GPU options, but they also redesigned the chassis from scratch to improve serviceability and reliability on one end, as well as allow for higher power settings or/and cooler temperatures with serious multitasking and sustained demanding loads.

All these make this X1 Carbon 2026 generation one of the best ultraportables on the market, if not the best. This lineup is faster than before, lasts longer on battery, still offers a multitude of specs and display options to choose from, and should last longer with the way the new chassis is designed to allow easier repairs, something the X1 Carbon hasn’t offered in about a decade. On top of these, ergonomics are stellar on this 14th-gen lineup, with some of the tiny quirks of older Carbons being addressed, which is frankly where this outmatches all its rivals. We’ll discuss all these particularities further down in the review.

Our configuration is the mid-range jack-of-all-trades Core Ultra 7 356H with 32 GB of RAM, which offers a competent 16C/16T processor in a fairly-priced package. However, we’ll also cover the top-tier Ultra X7 358H option that bundles alongside the far more capable Arc B390 graphics, as well as the entry-tier Core Ultra 7 355, which isn’t as powerful as the other two, but is the most widespread option between markets and the one available in the more affordable Carbon variants.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area, at the time you’re reading this article.

Specs sheet – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen14, Aura Edition

Lenovo also offers this series in several configurations, all based on the Intel Panther Lake platform. The important options are the following (as well as their vPro-capable alternatives):

• Intel Core Ultra X7 358H / 368H vPro – 16C/16T processor with Arc B390 graphics, 12 Xe GPU cores;
• Intel Core Ultra 7 356H / 366H vPro – 16C/16T processor with Intel graphics,4 Xe GPU cores;
• Intel Core Ultra 5 255, Ultra 7 355 / 365 vPro – 8C/8T processors with Intel graphics, 4 Xe GPU cores.

We’ll discuss them all in the hardware and performance section further down.

Design and functionality

This X1 Carbon gen14 looks and feels much as you’d expect from a premium ThinkPad: an all-black design with soft materials, in a lightweight chassis that feels premium and well made.

Design-wise, there are a bunch of iconic pieces of branding on this chassis, with the ThinkPad X1 logo on the lid and the ThinkPad engraving on the armrest. Furthermore, this unit is the FIFA World Cup 26 Edition, which adds an extra muted icon on the lid, with the World Cup Trophy and FIFA writing. The standard variants lack this extra detail, but are otherwise identical.

But while at first look this 2026 generation looks and feels just like previous-gen X1 Carbons, internally this is a completely new design. In fact, Lenovo revolutionized the entire main chassis in order to create more space inside and improve the hardware’s serviceability and repairability. They implemented what they call a Space Frame design, which means the motherboard is more compact and integrates components on both the top and the bottom, resulting in extra interior space that was used for higher-capacity fans and larger heatsinks, in order to push more power into the hardware and allow for better performance.

Furthermore, this design implements a removable base plate that includes the keyboard, touchpad, and armrest, something we haven’t seen in ThinkPads in a very long while. It also allows for more internal parts to be swappable and replaceable if required, such as the IO ports, the fans, the speakers, the battery, and of course the SSD and the 4G/5G module.

With all these changes, this 2026 X1 chassis remains about the same size and weight as before. However, there are actually some differences between the various configurations, with the main chassis on the OLED version being thinner and lighter and made out of a magnesium alloy, while the IPS variants are made out of aluminum and are slightly thicker and heavier. For example, our review unit with the non-touch OLED weighs just .99 kg, while the touch IPS configuration with a 5G module weighs closer to 1.15 kg.

The ergonomics of this series are darn perfect. The soft rubber feet offer excellent grip on a flat surface; all the materials are smooth and grippy, and there are no sharp edges or corners whatsoever.

Of course, the dark smooth coatings are going to show smudges, but even that aspect is not quite as bad as you’d expect. There’s an image above showing how this unit looks after using it for a couple of days and before cleaning it for the photos: you’ll notice some finger oil on the armrest and on some of the keys, but none of those surfaces look that bad.

I also like the entire thought process on how the screen opens up and adjusts: there’s a notch that allows perfect grip when picking up the display, the hinges work smoothly and yet keep the screen firmly set up without moving, and then the hinges open up flat to 180 degrees. If you need more than that, Lenovo offers a 2-in-1 version of this laptop as well, with the X1 2-in-1 convertible. Just be aware that’s a heavier device, and not that easy to find in most markets.

Finally, I’ll mention how the keyboard deck seamlessly integrates within the main frame, without leaving any cracks around. And the edges are all smooth and blunted and friendly on the wrists. There’s no other laptop that feels as grippy, robust, and friendly to the touch as this one does. I just hope the coatings won’t peel and chip off with time.

As for the IO, this generation improves some of my nits with the older designs: Lenovo put USB-C ports on both edges now, and they moved away the power button that was too easy to press by mistake in the past, and pretty much had to be disabled in the settings. These aside, there are still full-size HDMI and UBS-A ports on this ultraportable chassis, and a Lock. But what’s still missing is a card-reader – with an SD card reader, this would have been the perfect IO.

All in all, this 2026 gen14 ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the ultimate ultraportable laptop design: it looks and feels much like a classic ThinkPad, offers excellent ergonomics and practicality in a premium lightweight format, and is now an easier chassis to open up, service, and repair when needed, which should keep this going for longer. If you’ve been here on Ultrabookreview.com for a while, you might remember I was an avid ThinkPad user back in the day, and I’m glad to see the paradigm shift brought up by this chassis.

Keyboard, touchpad

I can’t tell for sure whether Lenovo changed the keyboard on this 2026 X1 Carbon in any way compared to the previous iterations.

On a first look, it appears that they have not, but actually using this keyboard for the last weeks or so, I find it somewhat shallower than I remember from past Carbons. That’s not an issue for me, as I prefer this sort of shallow short-stroke keyboard, but it is something to further look into in other reviews – most mention this is an excellent keyboard and none that I’ve seen complain about the stroke depth. This still offers 1.5 mm of key travel on most keys (with 1.35 mm on the keys around the TrackPoint), much like on the 13th-gen variant.

Regardless, I got along well with this keyboard; it’s a fast, accurate, and fairly quiet typer. One of the better in this segment.

The layout is standard for a ThinkPad, with black smooth keycaps, properly sized and spaced, and somewhat smaller arrow keys grouped together with the PgUp/PgDn keys. There is one aesthetic difference, however, as the writing on the keys is now in the middle of the keycaps, and not on the top-left as in the past.

Furthermore, new for this generation is the addition of the power button at the top-right part of the keyboard – not a fan; it takes time to get used to, as I prefer having the Delete key in that position. In the past, the power button did not interfere with the keyboard, as it was positioned on the edge, and the finger sensor was implemented instead of the right CTRL key. At least this new layout brings back that right CTRL, which I know some will appreciate. They could have swapped the Delete and Power/finger sensor key, though; I’ve seen that trick implemented well on a few other devices.

The keys are backlit, with white LEDs and two brightness levels to choose from (as well as an Auto mode). They’re not very bright, and a fair bit of light spill from underneath the keycaps – but this system works well enough overall.

For the touchpad, Lenovo offers either a standard clickpad with physical top buttons (meant for TrackPoint use), or a haptic touchpad without physical buttons. I have the latter on this review unit, which is made out of matte glass; the regular clickpad is a plastic (Mylar) surface.

This haptic implementation comes with a button area at the top, that can either be enabled or disabled in the settings. If disabled, the entire surface works as a large touchpad for swipes, taps, etc. If enabled, only the lower part underneath the graphical line works as a touchpad, while that top area works as buttons for TrackPoint users. Regardless, if you’re a die-hard TrackPoint user, the classic design with physical buttons is probably the one I’d recommend, although some hardware configurations might just force you into the haptic options – upper-tier variants just come with the haptic touchpad as standard.

Overall, I found this haptic version just fine for general use, and I’d expect most potential buyers to prefer this variant.

I also appreciate how the design leaves enough physical space between the touchpad and the keyboard at the top, and the laptop’s front lip at the bottom. This is a functional approach that minimizes potential ghost touches when using this computer on the lap, an issue I constantly experience on my MacBook Air, which implements an oversized touchpad that spans closer to the front lip. That’s also an issue on the competing ExpertBook Ultra or the XPS 14, for that matter.

For biometrics, there’s both a finger sensor and an IR camera on this laptop. It’s good to have both options.

14-inch display – matte OLED, but IPS options as well

The X1 Carbon is still available with 14-inch 16:10 displays, with either IPS or OLED panels, both in matte anti-glare implementations.

The IPS panel is a more basic option: 1920 x 1200 px resolution, 60 Hx refresh, 500 nits of brightness, 1200:1 contrast, 100% sRGB colors. It’s brighter than the IPS options in previous Carbons, but is still a rather mediocre display for a device of this caliber.

The OLED panel, on the other hand, looks much nicer and is the one we have here, in the non-touch variant. There’s also a touch version available. The standard non-touch is the one I’d get, since it offers excellent viewing angles and none of the screen-door effects caused by the digitizer layer on the touch variants.

To be more precise, this panel is what Lenovo calls the AGARAS (“anti-glare/anti-reflective/anti-smudge) OLED in the non-touch variant. As far as the finishing goes, the anti-glare on this OLED cuts off reflections quite well and makes the laptop usable outdoors in bright light. I’d call this a semi-gloss finish, as it’s not as matte as a traditional IPS matte finish, but is a versatile jack of both worlds – clean looking, and not a reflective mirror.

The panel itself is a newer-gen OLED from Samsung, with 500 nits of SDR brightness. That means it’s not the same OLED implemented on the ExpertBook Ultra, which is an even brighter variant. Otherwise, this is what you’d expect from an OLED: punchy, beautiful, and fast.

Here are the technical specs of this OLED panel:

• Panel HardwareID: Lenovo LEN41F1 (Samsung ATNA40HQ09-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 92.9% AdobeRGB, 100% DCI-P3;
• Measured gamma: 2.21;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 523.30 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6254 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes (discussed above).

Just make sure you understand the particularities of this OLED tech and use it responsibly with static backgrounds. And be aware of the OLED flickering, which could be a deal-breaker for this panel if you plan on using your laptop at night, at low brightness levels. The IPS panel option doesn’t flicker in any way.

Now, back to the semi-gloss finish, of course there’s a difference between how the content is perceived on the screen indoors or used outside, as shown by this image. But that’s the case with every other screen. The complaints about the contrast and colors looking muted on this screen version are rather exaggerated imo.

As for the general mudiness of this finish on white/light backgrounds and small texts, that’s a particularity you’ll just have to accept with OLED panels. It doesn’t appear different to me than on glossy OLEDs. I’ve added one more image of the Yoga 9i (bottom, glossy) and the ThinkPad X1 (top, matte), and I’m not really seeing a real difference in image quality between the two finishes.

Finally, I’ve added below a few more images of the ThinkPad X1 (semi gloss OLED, 500 nits), ExpertBook Ultra (semi gloss OLED, 600 nits) and the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (glossy OLED, 500 nits), with a window just behind the camera, to better showcase the differences in reflections and perceived content between these when used in stronger light environments.

Both of the semi-gloss finishes do a solid job cutting off reflections, but you’ll still want to look at these straight-on, as there’s a way the finish diffuses light that impacts the perceived contrast and colors. You can use these in stronger light, but the experience is still not without some inconveniences – I do preffer this over having glare and reflections, at least. I’ll also add that there’s a notable difference in whites and how colors look on the ExpertBook Ultra in these conditions; partially due to the OLED getting brighter on the ExpertBook, but could be caused by a difference in the anti-glare layer. For strong light use, the OLED on the ExpertBook would be my first choice, but this one on the ThinkPad is mostly fine as well.

Hardware and performance

Our review model is a mid-specced configuration of the 2026 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition, with an Intel Core Ultra 7 356H processor and Intel graphics, 32 GB of LPDDR5-8533 memory, and a 1 TB gen4 SSD.

Disclaimer: This review unit was provided by Lenovo for this article. We tested it with the software available as of late July 2026 (BIOS N4OET51W – 1.14, Vantage 4.2601.31.0, Intel Graphics Driver 32.0.101.8860). This is a mature software package, 3+ months after the series was launched.

Spec-wise, this series is based on Intel’s Panther Lake hardware platform, with Core Ultra Series 3 processors and either Intel Graphics or Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics. Panther Lake is an updated SoC (System on a Chip) architecture for 2026.

The CPU on this review unit is the Core Ultra 7 356H, a hybrid design with 16 Cores (4x Performance, 8x Efficiency, and 4x Low-Power Efficiency) and 16 Threads. These are Intel’s latest-gen Cougar Cove and Darkmont cores, and are designed to balance performance and efficiency in a way not possible with past iterations.

Previously, the X1 Carbon gen13 was built on Intel Lunar Lake 200V hardware, which ran efficiently but didn’t offer much in performance, as well as some later Arrow Lake U variants, which improved on the CPU performance. With the Panther Lake Core Ultra H hardware, the gen14 refresh is significantly faster in sustained CPU loads and offers a 15% boost in IPC.

On the GPU side, however, the Core Ultra 7 356H bundles an entry-tier Intel Graphics iGPU with only 4 Xe GPU cores. That makes it slower than the past Arc chip in the Lunar Lake platform, so this is not meant for any graphics-intensive chores or for gaming.

For that, Lenovo offers the Core Ultra X7 358H configuration (or the X7 368H vPro equivalent), which bundles a similar 16C/16T processor, but adds an Intel Arc B390 iGPU with 12 Xe Cores, the fastest iGPU technology available in this sort of format today. This option isn’t available worldwide, though, and costs a fair bit extra where available.

Furthermore, Lenovo also offers Core Ultra 5 335 and Core Ultra 7 355 variants of this X1 Carbon, which are lesser 8C/8T processors with the basic Intel Graphics 4 Xe cores. In just a few words, the Core Ultra 5 355 and the Ultra 7 355 are identical in what they can do, with minimal speed differences between them. These variants are far more affordable than the other two, but limit the notebook’s sustained performance capabilities, so are primarily an option to consider for lighter casual use and moderate multitasking. Think of these as a follow-up for the past Lunar Lake variants, but with more limited graphics.

The RAM on this notebook is onboard, with 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 on this unit. Configurations with 64 GB of RAM LPDDR5X-9600 memory are available as well, but only in some markets, and only paired with the Core X7 hardware.

For storage, there’s an M.2 2280 SSD slot inside the laptop. Our unit comes with a middling gen5 Micron drive, and you can buy the laptop with various amounts and types of storage. Or you can opt to upgrade the drive yourself. Dual-sided SSDs up to gen5 8 TB will work in this unit.

The SSD is the only upgradeable part on this laptop. The components are hidden behind the back panel, which can be easily taken out, as it is held by only four screws, self-retaining and with Philips heads. That hasn’t changed from the previous chassis design, this being one of the easiest laptops to get into.

The image below showcases the more compact mainframe, the larger fans and the full 2280 SSD slot. The unused space at the left is where the 4G/5G module slots in, if opted for.

As far as the software goes, this ThinkPad gets the Lenovo Vantage control app with access to the power profiles, battery and screen settings, updates, etc.

There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from:

• Best Performance – allows the hardware to run at 65W peak with 30-35W sustained in mixed-use and 45W sustained in taxing CPU loads, while the fans ramp up to ~33-35 dBA;
• Balanced – allows the hardware to run at 65W peak, and then settles at 25W sustained in mixed-use, with the fans ~30-32 dBA;
• Best Power Efficiency – limits the CPU to 12W sustained to favor fan noise <30 dBA.

You can access these modes by hitting the F8 key, or find them in the Vantage App, under Device Settings >> Power.

These power modes are fairly well designed, although they could use a little more tweaking. Raise the dbA limit for Best Performance to around 35 dBA, and make sure the Balanced mode performs reliably, as right now it’s quite effy. For instance, I only got this Balanced mode to work properly by manually disabling Smart Modes and selecting the Working option from the list, and even then it didn’t work as it should with all tasks.

Before we move on, here are a handful of logs with daily use on the existing Best Power Efficiency profile.

Productivity Performance and Benchmarks

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.

On the Best Performance Profile, the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H processor peaks at around 65W of power for brief seconds, and then stabilizes at 45W, with temperatures in the mid-90s °C, fan levels under 35 dBA, and scores of around 2700 points. That’s with the laptop raised off the desk.

On Balanced, the system doesn’t perform as it should and sets a 12W power limit. It should work somewhere around 25W instead, but as mentioned, the Balanced mode proved quirky on this notebook. At 25W, this processor should return scores of around 2200 points, with temperatures in the low 70s °C, which would be fair results for a mid-level profile at around 30 dBA.

Best Efficiency Mode should be the one settling for the 12W power limit, with fans way under 30 dBA. With these settings, the scores drop to only 1300 points.

Finally, our sample performed excellently on battery power, stabilizing at 45W of power in Performance mode, with similar scores as when plugged in.

All these are illustrated in the graph below.

To put these in perspective, here’s how this Core Ultra 7 356H implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops.

First, this hardware is much faster than the Core Ultra 258V in the 2025 X1 Carbon or the Core Ultra 155H in the 2024 X1 Carbon.

Then, the Ultra X7 358H at similar power performs about the same, while the Ultra 7 355 is notably slower, both options available for this chassis.

Finally, AMD and Qualcomm offer hardware that can score 10-30% higher in sustained multi-threaded loads. However, that hardware is either not available in formats similar to this ThinkPad, or/and struggles with compatibility with 3rd party software, as is still the case with the Qualcomm platform. So while these hardware options exist in theory, they do not in actual products that potential Carbon buyers could reliably choose instead.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise, and temperatures, with Balanced mode actually working properly in these tests.

We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passed the test both flat on the desk and raised on a stand, which means the performance is not thermally limited over time.

Benchmark results and performance summary

With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Best Performance mode (30 to 45W sustained TDP) and the screen set at its default 2.8K resolution.

Here’s what we got.

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 9706, 16 – 9765, 8 – 6104, 4 – 4048, 2 – 2178, 1 – 1137;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 6601 (Graphics – 7218, Physics – 28706, Combined – 2362);
• 3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 12062.
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 2498.
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3426 (Graphics – 3033, CPU – 12967);
• 3DMark 13 – XeSS: XeSS Off – 6.67 fps, XeSS On – 19.08 fps, 186.1% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1647;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 4607;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test: 117562 MB/s read, 119279 MB/s write, – MHz latency;
• PCMark 10: 8619 (Essentials – 11126, Productivity – 15015, Digital Content Creation – 10400);
• GeekBench 6.6.0 64-bit: Multi-core: 15571, Single-Core: 2762;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 4503, Half: 1835, Quantized: 8363;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2937 cb, CPU Single Core 302 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 18151 pts (best run), CPU 16729 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 2030 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 1012 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 119 pts;
• CineBench 2026: CPU multiple threads: 4141 (10 min run), CPU single thread: 497 pts.

And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Best Performance profile:

• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene – CPU Compute: 2m 04s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 23s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute, OneAPI: 2m 17s;

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 17.78;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 15.06;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 26.11;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy 03: 4.12;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 79.25;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 9.61;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 6.60;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Solidworks 07: 38.36;
• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 17.87;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 18.88;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: 9.90;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: 26.97;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 9.39;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 13.80;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: 80.21;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 21.01;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 25.02;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 38.27;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 12868, CUDA – 346.

This is an interesting mobile platform designed for serious multitasking, quite capable on the CPU and RAM ends, but not that much when it comes to graphics.

This profile tends to set a high TPD limit in heavy CPU multi-threaded tests, close to 45W, but then drops this limit towards 30-35W in mixed-use, most likely in order to keep internal thermals at bay. 30W is still plenty enough power for the Intel Graphics iGPU, and should barely suffice for the Arc B390 as well, something to consider if you’re looking at an X7 358H configuration instead.

The Core Ultra 7 356H offers solid single-core performance and good multi-threaded capabilities. This lightweight X1 Carbon implementation performs within 80% of what a full-power Core Ultra 9 386H can do in something like an ROG Zephyrus G14, and comes at about 90% of a Core Ultra X7 358H at similar power levels.

Sure, alternative platforms from Qualcomm can run faster in multi-threaded loads, but then there’s the matter of software compatibility to consider. And while AMD Strix/Gorgon Point hardware can also run somewhat faster, you’re not really going to find that in similar devices. So all in all, this Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 H hardware in this properly-powered implementation is one of the more competitive daily-drivers and multitaskers available in the ultrabook space today.

On the GPU side, however, the Intel Graphics chip with only 4 Xe cores isn’t much of a performer. It’s slower than the Arc 140T/140V iGPUs implemented in 2024/2025 models, and slower than the Radeon 890M chip on AMD devices. Furthermore, it’s less than half the performance of the Arc B390 bundled with the X7 358H chip on this laptop. So you’re not getting this hardware for graphics-intensive tasks.

The next section explains how this Core Ultra 7 356H implementation compares to the Ultra X7 358H and Ultra 7 355 configurations in overall capabilities.

Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 356H vs. Panther Lake X7 358H, Core Ultra 7 355, others

Here’s a very brief comparison of these results on the Panther Lake Ultra 7 356H implementation versus a few other Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm platforms available in the ultraportable space today.

The results for the X7 358H and the Ultra 7 355 are especially interesting, as those platforms are offered on the X1 Carbon as well, at least in some regions they are. So you can better understand the performance differences between these options on this sort of chassis.

Briefly, the 7 358H platform can deliver ~5-10% higher scores in multi-threaded loads, with minimal gains in IPC. However, the Arc B390 is more than 2x faster in graphics loads, with a similar real impact in actual applications and games. So if you need graphics capabilities in this sort of device, you just have to opt for something with a B390 iGPU in it.

As for Ultra 7 355, that delivers about 60% of the sustained CPU performance offered with the 16C/16T options, and is still a little bit faster than the Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 258V implemented in the previous-gen X1 Carbon 2025. Hence, the Ultra 5 355 and the Ultra 7 355 configurations are meant for light to medium use, but not ideal for heavier loads.

Balanced Mode – still fast, at around 30 dBA

Balanced mode keeps the fans even quieter and sets a middling power limit of around 25W in sustained loads.

However, I only got this Balanced mode to work properly at times by manually disabling Smart Modes and selecting the Working option from the list. And even this trick didn’t work for all tests and activities. Keeping this setting on Auto or on other options impeded the profile, and imposed a 12W power limit on the hardware. So for the time being, Balanced mode seems to be bugged; something to keep in mind, and something Lenovo will hopefully address with future software updates.

Anyway, here are some benchmark results for this mode (those that worked):

• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 6241 (Graphics – 7166, Physics – 19032, Combined – 2097);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3329 (Graphics – 2976, CPU – 10159);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1612;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 12919 cb, CPU Single Core 2012 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 36s.

Minor difference in the GPU tests, and 20-25% differences on the CPU side in the few tests that actually allowed this Balanced mode to work properly at its 25W power limit.

Gaming Performance

While this ThinkPad X1 Carbon is not a gaming laptop or an iGPU-oriented platform either, we ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan games on the Performance profile of this Core Ultra 7 356H configuration, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.

• Cyberpunk, Horizon, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
• Far Cry, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.

While not nearly as capable as the B390 chip in games, most titles are still playable, even heavier ones once you enable XeSS and Frame Generation where supported. Most results are quite close to what we measured on the Lunar Lake platform last year – the higher CPU power that allows the iGPU to run at full potential here, as well as the updated Xe 3rd generation cores on this Panther Lake iGPU, allow for these fair results here.

Let’s go through some logs.

On Best Performance, the system runs at 30-40W of sustained power between the tested titles, which is still plenty for the iGPU to perform at its maximum potential.

What’s interesting is that the 35-40W limit is maintained while the laptop is raised off the desk, with temperatures just shy of 80 °C at 35W and close to 90 °C at 40+W. The system automatically decides on the target power between titles, although it just doesn’t have to run at 40+W with this iGPU.

Flat on the desk, the internals jump over 80 °C, and then the system gradually drops the allocated power towards 30W, perhaps to keep the thermals at bay. As a result, internals usually don’t go over 80s °C while using the laptop flat on the desk, but that again might vary between games; the sustained power levels are different between the two scenarios.

Gaming on Balanced mode sets a 25W power limit, with temperatures in the mid-60s °C. The performance drops minimally, and the fans run quieter at sub-30 dBA.

Then there’s the Best Power Efficiency mode, which sets a more aggressive 13W limit, with an impact on GPU speeds and general performance. Not a profile meant for gaming or any serious activity.

Finally, the laptop performs well on battery power, on par with the plugged-in mode. Just don’t expect to game for longer than an hour or so.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The cooling module on this laptop is rather minimal, with two fans, two heatsinks, and a single heatpipe.

For comparison, this is the cooling module on the previous 13th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2025. Smaller fans and heatsinks and a similar single heatpipe.

Despite this, Lenovo can drive 45W of sustained power on this laptop at sub-33 dBA, yet that’s with high internal temperatures in the low 90s °C with sustained multi-threaded CPU loads. That’s toasty! For mixed-use, on the other hand, the system tends to settle at around 35W with temperatures in the low 80s °C, which is a more acceptable sweet spot.

There’s still perhaps room to further bump the fan speeds on the Best Performance mode here, to around 35 dBA, with perhaps a further impact on the internal temperatures.

What I must mention is that these updated fans on the gen14 X1 Carbon no longer experience the same high-pitched hissing as the past fans, and that means they’re perceived as quieter with heavy loads and hardly noticeable at all with general use. Furthermore, these fans idle often with casual use, regardless of the selected power profile or if the device is plugged in or runs on battery power.

Anyway, as far as the noise levels go, we measured up to ~33 dBA on Best Performance at head level, around 30 dBA on Balanced, and sub-30 dBA on Best Power Efficiency modes.

As for thermals, the chassis stays comfortable with general use, with the warmest spot at ~35 °C around the 7,8 keys. This can increase towards 40 °C with heavier, longer-time multitasking, but overall the laptop never felt uncomfortable to the touch or on the lap.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Best Power Efficiency Mode, fans at 0 dB

With demanding loads, a similar hotspot that goes into the high 40s and close to 50 °C develops around the same area, at the top of the keyboard.

However, the touchpad and keyboard areas that you’ll usually come in contact with barely warm up past 40s °C, which isn’t bad considering the size of this device and the high internal temperatures. Lenovo were able to properly isolate the internals from the external magnesium chassis.

*Gaming – Best Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~35 dB

For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through an Intel BE201 module on this laptop. Everything performed fine during my time with these laptops. An optional 4G or 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon X61 internal module is available as well for this series.

Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire on the bottom and sides, and not through the keyboard as in the past. They can get quite loud and offer decent audio quality, a slight improvement over the previous X1 Carbon, and fairly close to the better sounding audio systems available in the 14-inch space. They’re not MacBook Pro like speakers, but they’re close to what direct rivals such as the XPS 14 or the ExpertBook Ultra offer.

The camera, on the other hand, goes up to a 10 MPx shooter with IR, TOF, and a physical shutter. This is one of the better webcams available on a Windows ultrabook today, even in dimmer light, with fair image quality and good sharpness, and a wide viewing angle. Just keep in mind that this 10 MPx camera is an extra option, and the base camera is 5 MPx and still fairly good.

Battery life – excellent runtimes

There’s a 58 Wh battery inside this X1 Carbon Aura Edition, about on par with past X1 Carbon generations and smaller than what other premium 14-inch laptops offer today. Including those around a similar 1kg weight limit, such as the ExpertBook Ultra or the LG Gram.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests on this configuration with the matte OLED display, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60% brightness). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• <3 W (~20 h of use) – idle, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6-7 W (~8-9 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4-5 W (~13 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4 W (~15 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 8-10 W (~5-8 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.

The platform offers excellent efficiency and allows for solid runtimes even with the mid-sized battery. And I expect the Core Ultra 5 325/Ultra 7 355 variants to run even more efficiently.

For comparison, here are my results on the Lunar Lake configuration from last year, equipped with the entry-tier IPS display:

• 5-6 W (~10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 3.5 W (~15 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4 W (13+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 7-9 W (~6-8 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

These are a little bit better than on the refreshed version with the OLED display, but close.

So all in all, Panther Lake meets the efficiency of Lunar Lake while significantly increasing this notebook’s overall multitasking capabilities. Win Win!

The laptop ships with a 65W USB-C charger. The brick is highly compact, but the dual-piece design with all the cables adds in plenty of bulk. I would have appreciated a more modern design with the plug integrated within the brick and a long detachable cable (and even perhaps two USB-C ports). As it is, this charger design isn’t quite up to par with the general feel of this laptop.

Price and availability- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition gen14 is available across the world at the time of this article. However, not all options are available everywhere, and since this is a premium business model, you might not be able to find it through the standard retail shops in some regions – so you should ask the specialized shops or go straight to Lenovo’s website, where available.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

For the US, for instance, the X1 Carbon is only offered in the lower-tier Core Ultra 5 325 and Ultra 7 355 specs, with up to 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage. These start at around $2200, but pricing adds up quickly once you check 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage; that’s without accounting for any special/timely discounts, which Lenovo throw in often once their lineups are a few months old.

Over here in Europe, the base model starts at around 2300 EUR, but all the other options are available as well, including the Core Ultra 7 356H model tested here and the top Core Ultra X7 358H configurations. The 356H/32GB/1TB variant is listed at a little under 3000 EUR, while the 358H/64 GB/1TB goes north of 3500 EUR.

Regardless of your option, I’d surely go with one of the OLED display options; they’re all matte and beautiful and merely cost pennies more than the base unappealing IPS.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

Final thoughts- ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen 14, Aura Edition

There are many reasons why the X1 Carbon is such a beloved lineup in the premium ultraportable notebook space, and this generation actually takes its versatility even further.

Ergonomics, practicality, and configurability are what mostly set these Carbons apart from everything else out there. And that’s on top of the design language and general feel of ThinkPads, which I personally am a big fan of.

Compared to the Carbons of later years, this 2026 gen14 variant brings a change in internal design, with a chassis that focuses on serviceability and reparability, but without sacrificing anything in return. This notebook still looks and feels as a Carbon, still weighs about 1 kilo, still offers plenty of ports and excellent inputs, and still comes in a multitude of configurations, both when it comes to the hardware platform and the display options – no other lineup offers three different types of Panther Lake hardware, based on your performance needs and your budget, and either IPS or OLED display options, albeit the IPS panel isn’t that enticing.

Of course, all these don’t come cheap. The X1 Carbon has always been the flagship ThinkPad, and that’s especially the case today, with the crazy pricing of RAM/SSD pushing notebooks to insane levels.

And then, this series is not without rivals, with premium options such as the Asus ExpertBook Ultra or the HP EliteBook X, as well as the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 and perhaps the MacBook Air 13 if you’re OK with something a little heavier and different. They all have their own advantages and quirks, but all things considered and as long as within your budget, the X1 Carbon is so darn perfect in nearly every way.

This wraps up my time with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen14, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions on this generation further down in the comments section.

The article Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review (gen 14 2026, Panther Lake Core Ultra, matte OLED) appeared first on .

This is a newer model in the Legion lineup for 2026, as more compact and lighter-weight than the other options, while still offering the premium build, design, and ergonomics expected from a 7-series device, which includes Lenovo’s higher-tier notebooks.

The 7a moniker means this is built on an AMD Ryzen hardware platform, alongside Nvidia RTX 5000 graphics. Thus, this Legion 7a aims to be a competitive all-purpose jack-of-all-trades, with mid-level performance in demanding loads, but snappy capabilities for daily use, as well as better efficiency than other Legions built on more powerful Intel HX and Ryzen HX platforms.

Furthermore, this is also Lenovo’s most affordable 7-series Legion at this point. Follow this link for updated configurations and prices on the Legion 7a in your region at the time you’re reading the article.

I’ve used this laptop for a while and gathered my thoughts and impressions in the review below, where I’m also comparing it to the larger, more powerful Legion variants, as well as similar premium portable options offered by Lenovo in the Yoga series (the Yoga Pro 7i and Pro 9i), as well as those offered by the competition.

Specifications as reviewed – Lenovo Legion 7a multimedia laptop

Design and construction

This Legion 7a is one of my favorite chassis available in this niche of premium and portable all-purpose laptops with a full-size 16-inch display, where devices such as the MacBook Pro 16, Asus Zephyrus G16 and ProArt P16, Razer Blade 16, or the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i compete, to name just some of the popular ones that come to mind. Ergonomics are what mostly set this apart from the other options, as you’ll see in a bit.

The build quality is solid overall, with a sturdy metal main chassis and a sturdy lid. The underbelly, however, is a thinner sheet of metal and creaks sometimes when grabbing the laptop.

All the aluminum parts are softly coated, feel very nice to the touch, and hardly show any smudges or finger oil on this color. They do show dirt, though, and I’d expect that micro-grill under the display to gather dust and dirt over time and end up rather difficult to clean.

Now, in theory, you can get this Legion 7a series in either white or dark blue, but mostly this Glacier White variant is available in stores. That further adds to the uniqueness of this series, but at the same time limits its appeal for potential buyers who would rather not buy a white computer. Ideally, both color options should be more widely available.

The design is somewhat hit and miss for me, with a clean interior (once you peel off those stickers at the right), but not my favorite lid with that big dark-chromed LEGION writing in the middle that stands out too bluntly on this white variant – a more subtle logo in a corner would look nicer. There’s no RGB of any kind, and when it comes to its overall size, this 7a model is more compact, thinner, and lighter than the other Legions, including the Legion 7i. It’s slimmer and lighter than the mid-tier Legion 5a model as well.

The sides are still the brushed bare-aluminum finish previously seen on the Legion 7i, but the actual edges are slightly dulled now and made from the same softer white finish used for the main chassis and the lid. That makes them more comfortable on the wrists than on the Legion 7i. Just keep in mind that this white coating is painted aluminum nonetheless, so you’ll want to treat the laptop as nicely as possible to prevent chips and scratches, especially around the corners and edges.

Now, about the ergonomics, I already mentioned the sturdy and nice metal materials, and I’ll add the roomy interior and the friendly blunted edges and corners all around. The hinges add to the overall premium experience; they’re soft and easy to operate with a single hand, and allow opening the display all the way flat to 180 degrees. However, I would say they’re a little weak past a given point, which means the screen can move out of place if you pick up the laptop and move it around with the display open. But they’re still at an acceptable level overall.

One thing that must be mentioned and bothers me on all Legions is the always-on lit power button placed in the top-middle part of the chassis, under the display, styled as the Legion O logo. This lights in various colors based on use mode and power profile, but still cannot be switched off entirely (or I couldn’t find the way to do it? Please let me know if they’ve added a way that you know of), which annoys me when using the notebook at night or watching a movie in the dark.

As for the IO, that’s lined on the back and on the edges. I appreciate how the power plug and the HDMI ports are behind the screen, and the fact that every type of needed port is offered here, including USB-C 4.0 ports and a full-size SD card reader. Having a USB-C on either side or one at the back would be a welcome addition, but even this aspect is not that important on this sort of device, since you’ll most likely not charge via USB-C most of the time.

Finally, I’ll just leave you with some images of the Nubula color option as well, just to better understand what to expect from that color.

Keyboard, touchpad

The keyboard on the Legion 7a is the standard Legion design seen over the last few years, with a main deck of keys and a smaller NumPad section to the left, which shifts the typing position and the touchpad to the left of the chassis. I rather prefer centered keyboard layouts without a NumPad, but I know many of you favor this sort of layout.

Another mostly unique particularity of these Legion keyboards is the full-size and well-spaced arrow keys.

Now, this keyboard types well. The keys have a smooth matte finish, with a small dash in them and 1.6 mm of stroke depth. The feedback is right, and overall I expect most of you to get along fine with this implementation. For me, it didn’t quite type as fast or accurately as others I’ve used over the years, but I can’t tell for sure why; everything seemed fine about the user experience. I did find this a little noisy, though.

The keys are RGB backlit, with 24-zones to choose from. Few color options offer any sort of contrast on white keys; that’s why I prefer having the lights disabled completely during the day, and only activate them when needed at night. There doesn’t seem to be an actual Auto mode with a light sensor, and a fair bit of light creeps out from underneath the keycaps.

The touchpad is PTP (smooth plastic), not glass, but feels right to the touch and proved reliable with general use. I also appreciate how Lenovo kept the design standard, offering a regular clickpad of average size, with generous borders on the top and bottom, which ensures ghost touches or fake clicks are never an issue, not even when using the laptop on the lap. I preffer this function over design approach.

Finally, as far as biometrics go, the camera at the top supports IR, and there’s no finger sensor.

16-inch modern OLED display, non-touch

The display on this Legion 7a is a 16-inch 16:10 OLED in a non-touch glossy implementation.

This is a recent-gen Samsung OLED panel, with 500 nits of sustained brightness and up to 1000 nits peak HDR brightness. That aside, contrast and blacks are the standards expected from OLEDs, and the fast refresh rate of 240Hz and quick response times of under 1ms make this a solid choice for watching movies and playing games.

The fact that this is non-touch is important, as texts and light colors look clean and smooth, unlike on most touch variants. At the same time, there’s no protective glass over the panel, like on touchscreens, but the finish is still reflective.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC421B (ATNA60HU02-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 94.6% Adobe RGB, 100% DCI-P3;
• Type: 2.5K 2560 x 1600 px, 10-bit, 240Hz;
• Measured gamma: 2.15;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 497.24 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <10 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6380 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes, to be discussed.

Overall, this is a solid modern OLED. Just keep in mind that it’s still a reflective finish, and it suffers from the standard OLED flickering that comes with the technology, at brightness levels other than 100%. However, this panel flickers at a high frequency of around 1.5 GHz; thus, this detail it shouldn’t concern most of you.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is a mid-specced configuration of the 2026 Lenovo Legion 7a gen11, code name 16AGP11, with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB dGPU, 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, and 1 TB of fast SSD storage.

Disclaimer: This is a retail unit provided by Lenovo for this review. It was tested on the software available as of mid-August 2026 (BIOS TPCN27WW, Legion Space 1.10.11.6, Nvidia Studio Driver 610.88). This is mature software, so little can change with later software updates.

Spec-wise, the 2026 Legion 7a is built on the latest AMD and Nvidia mobile hardware available to date.

The Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 is the highest-tier AMD Gorgon Point SKU for this year. It’s a hybrid design with 4x Zen5 Performance and 8x Zen5c Efficiency Cores, and runs at 80-90W of sustained power in this chassis, which is enough to ensure you’re getting the best this platform is capable of.

At the same time, Gorgon Point is only a minimal refresh of the existing Strix Point platform, thus more or less 2024 AMD tech rebadged under a new name. It’s still a fair performer for this more portable lightweight format, but its efficiency is not competitive against the Intel Panther Lake options of this generation. That means higher thermals under load and shorter battery runtimes, as you’ll see in a bit.

For the GPU, this 2026 Legion 7a series is only offered with a mid-powered mid-range Nvidia Blackwell GeForce RTX 5060 8GB (115W). The design includes a MUX and either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.

Lenovo’s spec sheet mentions an RTX 5070 12GB GPU option available for this series as well, but I’m not seeing that in stores anywhere at the time of this review.

The series comes with onboard LPDDR5x memory, either 32 or 64 GB. Our unit is the 32 GB variant, which is what you’ll mostly find in stores anyway.

For storage, there are two M.2 SSD slots, both gen4. One supports smaller 2242 drives on a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection, while the other supports full-size 2280 SSDs, but only on an x2 connection. Our unit bundles a fast 1 TB SSD, from a proprietary brand called UMIS.

The SSDs and the WiFi module are M.2 formats, upgradable. To get inside, you need to remove the back panel, held in place by a handful of screws. They’re of different sizes, so make sure you put them back the right way. Inside, you’ll notice the small main SSD format and the pretty measly speakers, with plenty of unused space around them. There’s also unused space at the front, around the battery.

This laptop bundles Lenovo’s updated Legion Space control software, offered with Legions since 2025. It’s still not the most intuitive piece of software, but it gets things done once you figure it out. The available power profiles are standard for a Legion: Quiet, Balance, Performance, and Custom, with the latter offering various settings for the CPU/GPU and fan control.

Anyway, here are the power limits and targeted fan noise levels for each of the default profiles:

These are standard settings for recent Legions, and they’re all fairly versatile for a device of this format. Balance mode is perhaps a bit aggressive on the settings and noise floor for a mid-level profile.

Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Quiet profiles, unplugged.

Performance and benchmarks – AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop. For consistency with other reviews, we keep the laptop raised on a stand.

Here’s what we got:

• Performance mode – scores of 3200 points, 45-46 dBA fan noise, 85-90W sustained TDP, power limited at 100 °C;
• Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk – slightly lower scores as the TDP is thermally limited to around 80 W;
• Balance mode – similar scores of 3200 points, 38 dBA fan noise, 80W TDP, internal temperatures around 95 °C (no thermal throttling);
• Quiet mode – scores of 2850 points, ,30 dbA fan noise, 45W TDP, internal temperatures around 65-70 °C;
• Balance mode on PD – scores of 2950 points, 35 dBA fan noise, 50W TDP, internal temperatures around 65 °C;
• Balance mode on battery power – scores of 2800 points, <30 dbA fan noise, 45W TDP, internal temperatures around 65-70 °C.

The differences in performance are limited, within only 15% between all these modes. This AMD Ryzen AI 9 platform already delivers 90% of its potential at 50-60W TDPs. Above that, the CPU heats up a fair bit, and at 80+ W runs at over 90 °C in this chassis.

To put these findings in perspective, here’s how this AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 implementation fares in this test against other mobile platforms offered in similar devices.

This performs mostly similarly to the previous-gen Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 platform, which was to be expected, since the 470 is merely a minor refresh of the 370. It also scores about on par with the Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 386H, which is what most 2026 rival models are built on – but that platform has its advantage in efficiency, as we’ll discuss further down. Nonetheless, both require serious cooling at higher power levels over 75W TDP.

Furthermore, this Ryzen 9 470 ends up about 20% faster than the mainstream Ryzen AI 7 450 platform offered on the entry-tier configurations of this Legion 7a, as well as other mid-tier products such as the Legion 5a.

At the same time, the Intel Core HX hardware in the Legion 7i and the full-size Legion Pro notebooks is still 50% faster in this sort of CPU multi-threaded load. So if you need a powerful CPU for sustained loads, get that one instead.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in slightly lower sustained power levels: almost 90W+ sustained for Custom with max fans, thermally limited, 85W sustained on Performance, 65W sustained on Balance, and 45W sustained on Quiet.

We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Performance and Quiet profiles.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit fails the test both when kept flat on the desk and, surprisingly, when raised up on a stand, which means the performance is somewhat impacted when the heat builds up inside the chassis. More on that in the gaming section down below.

Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Performance profile with the GPU set on Hybrid mode and running on Nvidia Studio Drivers, and with the screen set at the native 2560 x 1600 px resolution. The laptop is placed on a stand for the best cooling performance and consistency with other reviews.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10755, 16 – 10109, 8 – 7317, 4 – 4537, 2 – 2352, 1– 1189;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 27383 (Graphics – 31076, Physics – 31587, Combined – 11922);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 7307;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 2795;
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad: 2605;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 11188  (Graphics – 11499, CPU – 9705);
• 3DMark 13 – DLSS: DLSS Off – 15.51 fps, DLSS On – 64.91 fps, 418% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 6518;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 19403;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test – ;
• PCMark 10: 9205 (Essentials – 10699, Productivity – 16020, Digital Content Creation – 12349);
• GeekBench 6.6.0: Multi-core: 15671, Single-Core: 2952;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 3744, Half: 1833, Quantized: 7432;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 3450 cb, CPU Single Core 317 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 24113 pts (best run), CPU 23974 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 2059 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 1237 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 119 pts;
• CineBench 2026: GPU – – pts, CPU Multiple Threads – 5031 pts, CPU Single Core – 644 pts, CPU Single Thread – 482 pts.

And some work-related tests, on the same Performance profile.

• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 1m 39s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 20.84s (CUDA), 9.13 (Optix);
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 45s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 43.26s (CUDA), 20.21 (Optix);

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 106.98;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 70.63;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 108.67;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 38.50;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 406.04;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 37.65;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 23.81;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW 07: 256.60.

• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 31.10;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 54.18;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: 45.46;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: -;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 38.35;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 37.26;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: -;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 37.58;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 21.85;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 69.66;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 14790, CUDA – 1592, RTX –  2476.

Overall, this is a competitive mid-tier performer.

On the CPU end, this Ryzen 9 Gorgon Point hardware trails the Intel Panther Lake options by about 5% in IPC and single-core performance, but outmatches them in sustained multi-threaded loads by about 10%. That’s also partly because the CPU runs at a higher sustained TDP here than the Intel part does in most rivals (85-90W for the AMD hardware here vs. 70-75W in the Intel models). At around 70W, the platforms would perform neck and neck.

At the same time, this Ryzen hardware doesn’t outperform previous-gen AMD or Intel specs in any major way. So you’re getting similar overall capabilities to 2024-2025 platforms.

As for the Intel Core HX platform that powers the Lenovo Legion 7i series, that’s 50% faster in CPU multi-threaded chores, so definitely the better option for this sort of demanding activities. But that hardware doesn’t run as efficiently on battery power.

Finally, we need to discuss the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 CPU option that’s also offered on this series, for about 100-200 USD/EUR less than the 470. That comes with 4x Zen5 and 4x Zen5c cores, while the 470 gets four extra Zen5c cores. For general use and multitasking, there’s hardly any noticeable difference between the two, while in sustained CPU loads, sure, the 470 ends up performing about 20% faster. If that’s important to you, then sure, get the 470 configuration; for most buyers, though, the 450 variant is going to be plenty enough.

On the GPU side, this series is only offered with a mid-tier RTX 5060 GPU, which is a fine performer overall for multitasking, most workloads, and even most games (with DLSS and FG). However, this GPU can be limiting for some of you, especially since it comes with only 8 GB of vRAM. As a result, the slightly lower-power RTX 5070 12GB chip offered in the Yoga Pro 7i/9i 2026 models is a more versatile offer overall.

Furthermore, the 5070Tis bundled with competing options from other brands are 25-40% more capable, while the RTX 5080 configurations are 50-70% faster.

Custom Mode – max power, 52+ dBA noise

Custom mode allows for a multitude of CPU/GPU power customizations and fan settings.

I maxed out the CPU and GPU settings, set the fans to their max RPMs, and placed the laptop on a stand to improve airflow into the fans and underneath the chassis. At max, the fan noise reaches 52 dBA at head level, much louder than in Performance mode.

Here’s what we got.

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 10389, 16 – 9450, 8 – 7090, 4 – 4535, 2 – 2361, 1 – 1197;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 26939  (Graphics – 31474, Physics – 31081, Combined – 11813);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 11444 (Graphics – 11659, CPU – 10364);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 6516;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 23848 cb, CPU Single Core 2064 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 43s.

These results are on par with Performance mode, as the CPU and GPU already run at sufficient power levels on that profile. These settings don’t make any sense here.

Balance Mode – low power, 38 dBA noise

Balance mode is the mid-level profile that keeps fan noise low at only ~38 dBA, with a slight impact on power levels and general performance.

Here’s what we got in this case:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10290, 16 – 9381, 8 – 6990, 4 – 4508, 2 – 2303, 1 – 1187;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 24856 (Graphics – 27979, Physics – 30664, Combined – 11719);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10106  (Graphics – 10053, CPU – 10418);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5470;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 22567 cb, CPU Single Core 2060 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 48s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 100.90;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 66.36;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 388.10;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 23.09;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 240.13.

On the CPU side, we’re still looking at about 95-98% of what’s possible in Performance mode, even in Blender. On the GPU side, the 5060 capped at 75W still scores about 85-90% of Performance mode.

Furthermore, despite the much quieter fan noise, thermals are lower overall in this mode, generally in the mid-70s °C. So a highly competitive mid-level profile overall, even though I still think Lenovo could push the noise floor towards 40 dBA for even slightly better thermals.

Quiet Mode – lower power,  sub 35 dBA noise

Quiet mode limits the CPU/GPU power even more to keep noise levels at sub-30 dBA and temperatures still in check.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 9074, 16 – 7552, 8 – 4536, 4 – 2675, 2 – 1480, 1 – 787;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 21554 (Graphics – 24753, Physics – 26034, Combined – 9678);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8830 (Graphics – 8730, CPU – 9449);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 4911;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 19125 cb, CPU Single Core 1352 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 15s.

The CPU performs at about 80-85% of its max capacity in multi-threaded loads, but only at about 60% in single-core IPC, which is rather weird; the GPU runs at about 75% of what it can do in Performance mode – overall fair results for this sort of profile. Thermals are even better than in Balance mode, in the low to mid-60s °C.

Balance Mode on PD power

I tested this laptop on USB-C power delivery with a 100W ROG PD charger. I don’t have a Legion PD charger to test if that would change things in any way.

Here’s what we got in terms of benchmark results on Balance mode on USB-C PD power:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 8764, 16 – 8370, 8 – 6438, 4 – 4195, 2 – 2257, 1 – 1170;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 19396 (Graphics – 20783, Physics – 28235, Combined – 9846);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 7550 (Graphics – 7293, CPU – 9438);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 4115;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 20466 cb, CPU Single Core 2036 cb;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 01s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 77.24;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 51.35;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 305.84;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 22.93;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 177.68.

Decent results on the CPU, but rather limited on the GPU, lower than on Quiet with the main charger plugged in – I wouldn’t necessarily use the laptop on PD charging for any sustained loads more than occasionally, especially as it seems to pull energy out of the battery as well, and that can affect the battery long-term.

For general use and multitasking, though, this use case makes perfect sense, especially if you don’t want to lug around the bulky main charger for your commutes or travels.

Gaming performance – Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 + GeForce RTX 5060

With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this Legion 7a handles modern games.

We tested a couple of different games on the various available profiles at the native QHD+ (2560 x 1600 px) resolution, with the Nvidia GPU set on dGPU mode and running on Nvidia Studio drivers. For consistency with other reviews, the laptop is raised off the desk.

Here are the results:

• Black Myth, Cyberpunk, Horizon FW – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
• Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings.

Fair results overall, with most games playable even at 2.5K resolution and Ultra settings. DLSS with FG makes a big difference where available, of course.

Just keep in mind that the RTX 5060 only comes with 8 GB of vRAM, and that can be a limiting factor in some recent AAA titles. If your framerates are far worse than expected, make sure the settings are not exceeding the memory limits, and drop the graphics details until the experience becomes consistent.

For what it’s worth, the Core Ultra 7 275HX + RTX 5070 115W configuration of the Legion 7i outscores this model by about 10-15% in the tested games, while the Core Ultra 9 386H + RTX 5060 100W configuration in the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i scored 10-20% lower somehow (that doesn’t include a MUX). At the same time, the Core Ultra 9 386H + RTX 5070Ti configuration in the ROG Zephyrus G14 delivers 25-30% higher frame rates on average.

With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.

First, here’s the laptop on Performance mode, raised off the desk.

We measured internal CPU/GPU temperatures in the mid to high-70s °C, with fan noise levels of 45 dBA at head-level. The GPU generally runs at around 95W TGP between the tested titles, a little lower than expected or than tested on the Legion 5a model (which averages 105W TGP for this profile).

Keeping the laptop flat on the desk doesn’t change the performance in any notable way, but it does lead to the hardware and chassis running hotter. We measured closer to 78-80 °C on the CPU/GPU in this use case, so I’d keep the laptop raised off or on a stand as much as possible.

As for the Custom mode, this allows for higher GPU TGP at closer to 110-115W, with fan noise levels of 52 dBA at max. Thermals are still measured in the mid to high 70s °C with these settings, and the overall frame rates are only marginally higher than on Performance mode, within 5-7%. Not a mode I’d use here.

Balance and Quiet modes, on the other hand, are very interesting options.

Balance mode keeps fan noise under 38 dBA with CPU/GPU temperatures in the lower to mid 70s °C, while the delivered frame rates are still fine, at about 80-90% of Performance mode.

Quiet mode keeps the noise floor under 30 dBA, with even lower CPU/GPU temperatures in the 60s °C, with frame rates at about 70% of Performance mode.

I’d consider both these modes for playing casual games on this Legion 7a, even over the noisier Performance profile.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The cooling module on this Legion 7a is rather simple, with two fans, two average-sized heatsinks, and three heat pipes.

For comparison, the cooling in the Legion 7i is somewhat beefier, with larger heatsinks and thicker fans; that’s because the 7i is a larger and thicker chassis and needs to cope with a more power-hungry Intel Core HX platform.

This module works fine and allows for solid performance out of this AMD platform, with fair internal temperatures in mixed use, as long as you keep this laptop raised off the desk with sustained taxing loads. We’re generally looking at internal temperatures in the mid-70s °C for sustained mixed use. Flat on the desk, the fan intake gets choked, and the internal temperatures rise by about 5 °C.

I’ll also mention that sustained CPU loads where more than 80W of TDP power is pushed into the CPU can be a limiting scenario here, causing the AMD hardware to run hot and even throttle around the 100 °C mark. However, if you’re looking for a laptop that delivers solid performance in this sort of scenario, perhaps a Ryzen AI 9 shouldn’t be the one to get anyway.

As far as the noise levels go, expect 52 dBA on Custom mode, 45 dBA on Performance, 38 dBA on Auto, and sub-30 dBA on Quiet.

With daily use, the fans rarely idle, regardless of power profile or whether the laptop is plugged in or unplugged. They do shut off eventually with light use on battery power. At the same time, these fans spin slowly and inaudibly in a normal environment, and there are no annoying speed fluctuations with multitasking. I also haven’t noticed coil whine or other sorts of electronic noises on my unit. Overall, the fans are unnoticeable, unless you keep the laptop in a perfectly quiet room.

External temperatures are excellent overall, with most surfaces keeping under 30 °C.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Quiet Mode, fans at <30 dB

With demanding loads, most of the chassis still stays comfortable when using the laptop in Performance mode and raised off the desk, with the middle of the keyboard hitting low-40s °C, while the sides and armrest average in the mid-30s °C. A much warmer hotspot develops at the top of the keyboard, though, just next to the power button.

Keeping the laptop flat on the desk leads to somewhat higher thermals, by a few degrees.

As for the other profiles, both Balance and Quiet mode run slightly cooler all over the chassis.

Overall, these are fair thermals for a thinner design with this sort of hardware, even with the hotspot at the top and bottom.

*Gaming – Balance mode – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~38 dB
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~45 dB

For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through a Realtek module on this laptop. Everything performed fine in my time with this laptop.

Audio is suposedly handled by a set of four speakers; the specs mention separate woofers and tweeters, but I’m only seeing a pair of rather small speakers inside (they’re perhaps dual-sided speakers). The sound comes out through the bottom, and while these can get averagely loud at about 80 dBA, the quality is mediocre, with limited bass. Audio quality is the most noticeable weakness of this series. Overall, these speakers are a little louder than on the Legion 7i model, but the sound is mostly similar and subpar for a multimedia laptop in 2026.

Finally, there’s a 5MPx camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. It’s the same one implemented in other Legions and Yogas, a wide-angle camera that provides fine images in good light, and decent images in dimmer conditions. Comes with a camera kill-switch on the laptop’s right edge, and offers IR with support for Windows Hello.

Battery life

There’s an 84 Wh battery inside this Lenovo Legion 7a, which is a little smaller than what the competition offers in this space.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50% brightness) and the default 60Hz refresh rate (switches to 60Hz automatically when unplugged). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• 7 W (~12 h of use) – idle, Quiet Mode, screen at 0%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10-12 W (~6-8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 9 W (~9-10 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 9 W (~9-10 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 12-20 W (~4-7 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 90 W (<1 h of use) – Gaming  – Cyberpunk, Balance Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

Decent runtimes all things considered, although this is the least efficient platform of this generation, in the higher-performance mobile space. Furthermore, anything related to the browser was quite heavy on efficiency here, with serious variations in power draw between tabs and apps, even with light use such as editing texts in Google Drive. That means mileage with general use can vary greatly, from only 4 hours and up to 8 hours on a charge.

For comparison, here’s what we got on the Legion 7i on the Intel Arrow Lake Core HX platform.

• 15-18 W (~5-6 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 18-20 W (~4-5 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 14-16 W (~5-6 h of use) – 4K Netflix with Dolby Vision, fullscreen in Edge, Quiet Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 18-22 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balance Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

Shorter runtimes across the board, and especially with video streaming.

At the same time, here’s the Yoga 9i Pro on the Panther Lake platform and with the Tandem OLED display; this runs significantly more efficiently.

• 8-10 W (~9-10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 7-7.5 W (~12-13 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6.5-7 W (~13-14 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10-12 W (~8-9 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Adaptive Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON.

This series ships with a 245W charger, a pretty bulky charger for a laptop of this kind.

USB-C charging is supported as well, and is an option worth considering for regular use and multitasking, but not for heavier workloads or games.

Price and availability – Lenovo Legion 7a series

At the time of this article, the Lenovo Legion 7a series is widely available in most markets. You’ll mostly find it in the White variant, though the Nebula dark-blue color is available as well in some markets, especially directly on Lenovo’s own websites.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

The exact model tested here, the Legion 7a with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD, and the RTX 5060 GPU specs, goes for 2399 USD in the US, 2200-2350 EUR in Europe, and 2200 GBP in the UK. These are fairly competitive prices in all markets for 2026 standards, and don’t account for any occasional sales or discounts that can shave a few hundred off the retail price.

At the same time, a configuration built on the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 processor is available as well, generally for 100-200 USD/EUR/GBP less. That’s a fine option for general use and multitasking, and generally the one I’d recommend for most buyers anyway. It is ~20% slower under sustained loads than the Ryzen 9 470, but I don’t expect you’re buying this Legion 7a for its sustained CPU performance capabilities anyway. No other important variations are offered, so no higher-tier GPU options of any kind.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area, at the time you’re reading this article.

Final thoughts- 2026 Lenovo Legion 7a review

This Lenovo Legion 7a is overall a competitive lightweight all-purpose laptop. It’s built well, functional and ergonomic, offers proper inputs and IO, and a beautiful modern-gen OLED display.

Internally, it’s built on an AMD Ryzen platform with mid-range Nvidia RTX graphics, alongside fast memory and a fast SSD, and these specs will suffice for most general use, serious multitasking, as well as most work/school/gaming requirements. Of course, there are faster options out there, both for the CPU and especially for graphics capabilities, but those are generally larger and heavier formats, and surely much more expensive.

In fact, this Legion 7a is more affordable than pretty much any 2026-generation alternative, as you’ll see in a bit. But first, I must touch on the three potential issues that you’ll have to accept with this series: it mostly comes in the white variant in most regions, the speakers provide poor sound quality, and the efficiency on battery power offered by this AMD platform is not on par with the devices built on Intel Panther Lake hardware.

At the same time, though, most of the competing Panther Lake options are higher-tier and higher-priced options bundled with more powerful 5070Ti/5080/5090 GPUs, starting at well over 3K USD/EUR. And even those few 5060 models are generally more expensive than this Legion, such as the Yoga Pro 9i or the Pro 7i we’ve tested recently.

From what I’m seeing, the only somewhat similar option you could consider instead is the base-level Razer Blade 16, but even that is more expensive than this Legion outside of the US, and only comes with a Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU. And then there’s the even more affordable Lenovo Legion 5a model, as well, but that’s not quite as compact or lightweight or premium-feeling. We’ll have a separate article comparing the Legion 7a and 5a options in due time. Finally, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i is another potential alternative, a more standard design in a more compact premium chassis, more efficient than the Legions, but at the same time not quite as capable in graphics loads due to implementing a lower-powered RTX chip.

So all in all, this Lenovo Legion 7a is arguably the most competitive device of its kind, a premium lightweight 16-inch jack-of-all-trades laptop for the average user. Too bad Lenovo didn’t put more effort into better audio here; there’s plenty of room inside that chassis for more capable speakers, and it would have made a notable difference on this sort of device.

Anyway, this wraps up my time with the Lenovo Legion 7a. Looking for your questions, thougths and feedback in the comments section below.

The article Lenovo Legion 7a review (2026 gen11, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, RTX 5060) appeared first on .

This remains Asus highest-tier series of consumer thin-and-light laptops. What we have here is the more compact 14-inch variation, as it’s also offered in a 16-inch variant, the Zenbook S16. In fact, the 2026 update of this Zenbook S14 is mostly a refinement of the existing S14 chassis, with a lid redesign, an updated OLED display, as well as more powerful Panther Lake hardware, tweaked cooling and power settings, and a slightly larger battery.

Overall, these changes enhance an already exciting product, making it both more versatile for daily use and more capable in sustained work/school loads that benefit from a 50% faster processor. However, this generation comes with a higher price premium than in the past over a more standard portable notebook such as a Zenbook 14 (tested here in the AMD variant), and its ultra-slim format still inherits a few practical compromises that can be difficult to accept at this level, all things considered.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations on this Asus Zenbook S14 premium lineup, at the time you’re reading this article. Buying from our links earns us a small commission and helps support our work. Thank you!

I’ve used this laptop for a few months this year and have gathered my thoughts and impressions below in the article.

Specifications – Asus Zenbook S14 OLED UX5406AA

Design, build quality, ergonomics

Asus put their effort into creating an ultra-slim and lightweight premium notebook with this series.

The result was an exquisite premium design with somewhat questionable ergonomics back in 2024 when the original S14 was unveiled, and even more questionable today, when a handful of revised or new alternatives were further released.

I’m not a fan of pursuing a thin, slim format in a laptop, as that always comes with compromises. With this series, the build quality is excellent, with a firm chassis all around and premium materials. They did redesign the lid for this generation, in an effort to keep the design language consistent within their entire Zenbook lineup – this S14, the A14, and the refreshed 14 models all implement a similar approach on the lid, with ASUS Zenbook written in chrome in the middle. Looks fine, although I’d prefer a non-chromed writing somewhere in a corner, as one the previous designs.

Asus keep offering the series in two color options: a lighter gray called Scandinavian White, and a darker option called Elephant Grey (was previously called Zumaya Grey, could be slightly different for the refreshed variant). We have the latter one here. Here’s an image of the two.

The IO wasn’t sacrificed, and we’ll get to that in a bit. They didn’t skimp on the battery size either, implementing one of the largest ones available in the 14-inch ultrabook niche.

The sturdy materials and big battery make the overall weight of 1.2 kilos perfectly acceptable for this series, even if some alternatives are a little lighter – the ExpertBook Ultra or the Zenbook A14, in particular. I don’t mind the extra weight though, especially as I prefer the feel of the CNC aluminum unibody main deck on this Zenbook S14 over that of the Ceraluminum chassis on those options, which feels somewhat cheaper to the touch. Ceraluminum is still used for the lid here, but not for the other parts. This Ceraluminum is a patented ceramic coating on top of the aluminum sheet, that adds durability and scratch resistance and won’t chip away as easily as anodized finishes do. The entire chassis still meets the US MIL-STD-810H military-grade standard for durability, which is common for higher-tier devices these days.

So what are those compromises then? The shallow keyboard is one, although, as you’ll see further down, this actually types surprisingly well for such a low-travel implementation. Another is the limited screen opening angle, with the hinges only opening to about 145 degrees, and not all the way flat as they should on a versatile ultraportable. I don’t have the previous-gen S14 around anymore, but my notes mentioned that opened yup to around 130-degrees, and this refresh seems to open more than that.

And finally, the one that’s invisible at first: the cooling module that needs to run loud in order to cope with the implemented hardware at only average power levels. While the ExpertBook Ultra or the ThinkPad X1 Carbon never ramp fans over 40 dBA, this pushes 45 dBA noise, for lower power settings. That’s loud for an ultrabook and even close to much more powerful gaming notebooks.

In fact, the entire cooling design on this chassis is the reason the display doesn’t open up on the back either, as it would block the vents on the back edge. With a slightly thicker main chassis, that wouldn’t have been a concern, and nobody would have complained about 2-3mm of extra thickness that would have resulted.

And since we’re still discussing the cooling module, there’s this CNC-machined part above the keyboard with a few hundred tiny holes in it, designed to help with ventilation. While it sure looks unique and fancy, it’s not a good idea in practice, as these grills will eventually gather dust and dirt and would be difficult, if not even impossible, to clean.

And while I’m nitpicking on this design, the front lip is sharp and can bite into the wrists. It’s not as sharp as on a MacBook, though, and this laptop’s slim profile actually brings this lip so close to the desk that it somewhat mitigates its aggressiveness.

One final aspect I’ll touch on here is the IO, where this notebook meets most expectations, with HDMI, USB-A, USB-Cs with Thunderbolt 4, and an audio jack. I’ll still complain about almost all ports being placed on the left edge; I preffer the convenience of at least having USB-C slots on both sides, for better versatility with different setups.

Overall, this is a well-built and good-looking chassis, arguably the best-made Zenbook so far. However, it just aims at being thinner than it needs to be, and that impacts the screen’s angle, the cooling potential, the keyboard, and even the IO. All these could have been so much better with a slightly thicker chassis. Hopefully, next time.

You might argue my impressions are more bitter than this chassis deserves, and perhaps you’re right; I’m just bothered by the unmet potential this could have had if they considered practicality and usability more carefully. They matter a whole lot more than a super thin body.

Zenbook S14 vs Zenbook A14/14, ExpertBook Ultra, Thinkpad X1 Carbon, MacBook Air

I’ll leave you with a couple of images of the Zenbook S14 series next to a few alternatives I had on hand.

First, the white Asus Zenbook S14 (previous-gen), next to the Asus Zenbook A14 (gray) and standard Asus Zenbook 14 (black).

And here it is next to the Asus ExpertBook Ultra.

And finally, next to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Apple MacBook Air 13.

Let me know if you’re interested in more detailed comparisons between these lineups.

Keyboard, touchpad

The inputs on this Zenbook S14 series are peculiar, unlike the excellent ones found on most other Zenbooks.

The keyboard is a standard layout, with most keys properly sized and spaced, and smaller half-sized arrow keys. The power button is a key as well, but it’s not the top-right one – I’d still disable it from the settings to prevent accidentally putting the laptop to sleep. The keycaps are a slightly darker grey than the chassis, and a finish that feels a little rough on the fingers, not as smooth as on regular laptop keyboards. That’s fine by me, though, especially since this coating does an excellent job at repelling smudges.

However, the peculiarity of this keyboard is the short travel depth of only 1.1 mm, while regular Zenbooks are 1.4 or 1.5 mm. This changes the typing experience and makes the actuations clickier and noisier; the Space key is even louder than the others.

I’ve seen some complaints on the Internet about the keyboard leaving an imprint on the display’s glass, due to the keys actually touching the glass. This happens all the time on my MacBook Air, and it bothers me having to constantly clean the screen, but I haven’t noticed this at all on this Zenbook unit. They might have changed this somehow on this refresh, although, in all fairness, I don’t personally recall noticing this on the past S14 or S16 models either.

Now, despite these, I actually got along very well with this keyboard; it proved to be one of the fastest and most accurate ultrabook keyboards I’ve used in a while, even faster than on the standard Zenbook 14. I didn’t expect this at all, as I resented the keyboard at first, but eventually got used to it over time. Nonetheless, I feel that this keyboard is still going to be perceived as a downgrade by most potential buyers, and a sacrifice made for the sake of making this laptop as slim as it is.

The keys are backlit, with white LEDs that get quite bright. Little to no light creeps out from underneath the keycaps here, unlike on other Zenbooks, so that’s a positive change. In the past, I found the lowest brightness level too high for comfortable use in a dark room, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore with this generation. The lowest level is acceptable, although it could still be a little dimmer. The top level is very bright and perfectly fine for outdoor use, especially with the contrast provided by these darker keycaps.

And then there’s the touchpad. It’s a smooth glass surface that works fine with taps and gestures and regular use. It even incorporates some gimmicky extra gestures for adjusting the screen’s brightness or volume.

Thing is, this touchpad is just too large and leaves a minimal gap at the front, allowing for misclicks and ghost touches from your clothes when using this device on your lap. More and more laptops are unfortunately designed like this, with oversized touchpads with tiny margins; that includes the MacBook Air or Asus’s newest ExpertBook Ultra series, among others. A smaller touchpad with enough margins around is far more practical, like on the X1 Carbon.

Finally, for biometrics, the camera at the top of the display supports IR, but there’s no finger-sensor.

14-inch OLED display, bright

The display on the Zenbook S14 is a 14-inch 16:10 format, with an OLED panel and touch. A non-touch alternative is mentioned in the specs, but I don’t think that’s offered with actual retail products anywhere.

Asus have updated the panel for this refresh, though, implementing the newer-generation Samsung OLED with higher brightness, which they call a Lumina OLED: 500 nits sustained and up to 1000 peak HDR. That’s a notable change over the sub-400-nit panel on the previous S14, making the laptop far more usable in brighter light.

Of course, as a touchscreen, this is still a reflective surface, but the increased brightness compensates for the glare to some extent. Furthermore, this comes with a digitizer layer that adds the grainy screen-door effect that bothers me on touch OLEDs; it’s not as pronounced as on older-gen low-resolution OLEDs, but it’s still there, making fine text and light backgrounds appear slightly dirty.

These aside, this is a standard OLED with deep blacks and contrast and punchy colors.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC422A (ATNA40HQ05-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 95.1% Adobe RGB, 100% DCI-P3;
• Type: 2.8K 2820 x 1800 px, 10-bit, 120 Hz;
• Measured gamma: 2.25;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 500.67 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <10 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6280 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes, to be discussed.

Calibration lowers the sustained brightness to around 450 nits on average. It’s not necessary for most use cases, since the panel already looks accurate out of the box, with only a minor skewness of the White Point.

All in all, this is one of the better touch OLEDs in this segment, albeit not quite as bright or nice as the matte Tandem OLED on the ExpertBook Ultra. Just make sure you understand the particularities of OLED panels on Windows devices before buying one, especially if it’s your first try at the tech.

Hardware and performance – Intel Core Ultra 9 Panther Lake

Our test model is a mid-specced configuration of the 2026 Asus Zenbook S14, code name UX5406AA, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor and Intel integrated graphics, 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, and a middling 1TB gen4 SSD.

Disclaimer: This is a review unit offered by Asus. The laptop is tested at launch with the software available as of mid-August 2026 (BIOS 308, MyAsus 4.0.73.0 app, Intel V32.0.101.8974 driver). This is mature software, so little can change in future updates.

Spec-wise, this series is based on Intel’s Panther Lake hardware platform, with Core Ultra Series 3 processors and Intel integrated graphics. Panther Lake is an updated mobile architecture for 2026.

The CPU on this review unit is the Core Ultra 9 386H, a hybrid design with 16 Cores (4x Performance, 8x Efficiency, and 4x Low-Power Efficiency) and 16 Threads. The Performance Cores are built on the Cougar Cove architecture, while the Efficiency cores are the refreshed Darkmont architecture, as explained in this indepth article on Panther Lake laptops.

There are no configurations with Core Ultra X7/X9 hardware for this Zenbook S14 series, but you can get some models with Core Ultra 7 356H or Core Ultra 7 355 specs. The 356H is more or less identical in capabilities to the 386H tested here, while the 355 is a lower-performance option, an 8Core processor that directly succeeds the Ultra 7 258V in the previous Zenbook S14 generation. We’ve tested that platform in this notebook.

The RAM on this notebook is onboard, with 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 on this unit. Configurations with 16 GB of RAM are available as well.

As far as graphics go, the Panther Lake Core Ultra 300H processors bundle an Intel iGPU with updated 3rd-generation Xe3 Cores. There are only 4x of these cores on these 300H processors, unlike on the X7/X9 variants that get the Arc B390 iGPU with 12x of these cores. So the GPU capabilities of this standard plaform are significantly lower; however, they’re close to the previous-gen Arc 140V/140T iGPUs implemented with Arrow Lake H and Lunar Lake V platforms.

For storage, Asus opted for a mid-range PCIe gen4 Samsung PM9C1b SSD drive here. I’d reckon that’s what you’ll get with retail units in your local stores.

The SSD and the WIFI chip are the only upgradeable components on this laptop. To get inside, you need to remove the back panel, which is held in place by a handful of Torx screws. They’re of different sizes, so make sure you put them back in their right place.

As far as the software goes, this Zenbook gets the standard MyAsus app, which allows control over the power profiles, battery, and screen settings, updates, etc.

There are four performance/thermal profiles to choose from:

• Performance – 28W sustained TDP, with ~45 dBA fan noise at head level;
• Standard – only ~17W TDP in sustained loads, with 35 dBA fan noise;
• Whisper – further limits the CPU at ~12W, with fan noise of sub 30 dBA.

I’d recommend keeping the laptop on Standard, which is fine for most regular use. However, the power cap is aggressive here for this mode, and you can feel that at times with more serious multitasking. And here’s where the Performance profile comes up, which offers faster processing capabilities in sustained CPU loads, but runs noisier. Perhaps Asus could have ramped the TDP for Standard mode closer to 20W, to make that more compelling across the board.

We’ll discuss performance in a bit, but first, here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily tasks such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.

Productivity Performance and Benchmarks

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.

The Core Ultra 9 396H processor quickly stabilizes at 28W on Performance mode, with temperatures in the mid-80s °C and fan levels of 45 dBA. That’s with the laptop bumped up from the desk. These limitations are a result of the ultra-thin format of this chassis, but even so, this generation actually runs a little cooler and at higher power than the previous Lunar Lake variant.

The scores average around 2300 points, which is competitive for such as compact and slim device.

On Standard, the system limits the fan to around 35 dBA and the power gradually stabilizes at 17W, with temperatures in the very low 70s °C. The scores end up at around 1700 points, 25% lower than on Performance.

Then, Whisper mode keeps the fans even quieter at 30 dBA, but the TDP is limited to 12W, which makes the scores drop to around 1200 points, which is a little over half of Performance mode.

What’s interesting is that the overall performance of this generation is notably improved over the original Core Ultra 7 258V model. Even on Standard, this is faster than the previous generation at full blast. More on that in a bit.

Finally, our sample performed very well on battery, stabilizing at 28W of power in Performance mode. That’s on par with the plugged-in Performance profile.

All these are illustrated in the graph below.

To put these in perspective, here’s how this Core Ultra 9 386H implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops.

This is a mid-tier performer in the 14-inch ultrabook space. It’s 50% faster than a Core Ultra 7 355, a Core Ultra 7 258V, or a Ryzen AI 7 445, popular ultrabook platforms that power similar devices. At the same time, it’s not as fast as a Core Ultra X7 at higher power, available in some top-end 14-inch models, or as the few Ryzen AI 9 365/465 or Ryzen AI 9 HX 370/470 options out there, although these AMD variants are rarely implemented in similar devices.

Furthermore, the Qualcomm X2 Elite hardware or the Apple M5 silicon are faster as well in this sort of CPU-heavy task; just make sure the software particularities of those platforms are right for you.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise, and temperatures.

We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passes the test. More on that in the gaming section.

Benchmark results and performance summary

With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Performance mode (28W sustained TDP) and the screen set at its default 2.8K resolution.

Here’s what we got.

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 8864 , 16 – 8835, 8 – 5471, 4 – 3617, 2 – 2083, 1 – 1134;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 6576 (Graphics – 7195, Physics – 27882, Combined – 2356);
• 3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 11888.
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 2160.
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3478 (Graphics – 3095, CPU – 11684);
• 3DMark 13 – XeSS: XeSS Off – 6.05 fps, XeSS On – 16.79 fps, 177.5% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1677;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 4686;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test: 108562 MB/s read, 120987 MB/s write, 90.6 MHz latency;
• PCMark 10: 8955 (Essentials – 10880, Productivity – 17305, Digital Content Creation – 10349);
• GeekBench 6.3.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 16506, Single-Core: 2825;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2797 cb, CPU Single Core 294 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 16758 pts (best run), CPU 14658 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 2035 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 922 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 123 pts;
• CineBench 2026: CPU multiple threads: 3572 (10 min run), CPU single thread: 504 pts.

And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:

• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW Car scene – CPU Compute: 2m 33s ;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 58s;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute, OneAPI: 2m 46s;
• Blender 5.0.1 – BMW Car scene – CPU Compute: 2m 36s ;
• Blender 5.0.1 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 38s;
• Blender 5.0.1 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute, OneAPI: 2m 10s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene – CPU Compute: 2m 30s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 05s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute, OneAPI: 2m 22s;

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 18.67;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 17.66;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 30.72;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy 03: 3.96;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 89.91;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 9.71;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 6.94;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Solidworks 07: 40.20;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 11386, CUDA – 322.

This Zenbook S14 is a solid CPU performer in its niche, as few other 14-inch ultraportables offer Core Ultra Series 300 H hardware these days. Most implement the mainstream mobile Ultra 7 355 chip instead, with fewer CPU cores 30% diminished performance. And very few implement higher-tier AMD Gorgon Point hardware that can outmatch this Panther Lake H platform.

There are, however, a handful of more powerful alternatives built on the Core Ultra X7/X9 chips with the superior Arc B390 iGPU. Among those, the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, the Dell XPS 14, the Framework Laptop 13, the HP EliteBook X, or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon come to mind. These are generally even more expensive, though, but for good reasons in most cases. We’ll discuss them in the conclusions section.

At the same time, though, it’s important to mention that this Zenbook runs noisily on the Performance profile at 45 dBA. That’s close to a full-size gaming laptop such as the Zephyrus G14, which allows for significantly higher CPU power and overall performance. The noise is a compromise you’ll have to accept for the sustained CPU potential here. The majority of those alternatives mentioned earlier run quieter on their similar-tier profiles.

In fact, I’d expect most buyers to eventually keep this notebook on the Standard profile and sacrifice some of the CPU potential for quieter fan noise and lower thermals. Thus, if this series jumped on your radar for the powerful CPU implemented in the ultra compact and slim chassis, well, the noise aspect should be considered heavily in your decision as well: either accept it for what it is, or accept that this laptop isn’t going to run as fast as expected when opting for the quieter Standard profile.

As for the graphics capabilities, the Panther Lake Intel Graphics with 4x Xe cores is merely an average platform these days, even somewhat slower than the previous-gen Intel Arc 140v/140T options or the AMD Radeon 880M/890M chips.

Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 386H vs. Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H, Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 258V, Ryzen AI 7 445

Here’s how this Core Ultra 9 386H implementation compares against the previous-gen Lunar Lake Core Ultra 258V in the same Zenbook S14 chassis.

It’s about 50% faster in sustained CPU loads, and about 20% slower in the GPU tests, while the differences in actual workloads vary between apps. Still, if you need this for video editing, programming, and other activities that would benefit from a more capable CPU, the generational gains are significant.

At the same time, this comes close to the capabilities of the similar platform implemented in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but that laptop runs much quieter and applies higher sustained power settings, due to its superior cooling and chassis design that doesn’t primarily focus on being ultra-slim, as this Zenbook S14 does.

In fact, Asus offers a much more compelling implementation as well with their latest ExpertBook Ultra series, which can be specced up to a Core Ultra X7 358H hardware. This delivers similar CPU performance paired with a much more potent Arc B390 iGPU, more than 2x faster than the Intel Graphics option offered here.

Finally, I’ve added Core Ultra 7 355 and Ryzen AI 7 445 platforms as well, which OEMs offer on their mid-tier and more budget-friendly devices this year. Both are notably slower in sustained CPU loads, at about 70% of what the 386H scores, while on the GPU end, the Intel option implements a similar Intel iGPU, while the Radeon 840M chip on the AMD hardware is much slower, at about 50-60% of the Intel chips.

Standard modes, much quieter at 35dBA

With fan-noise levels up to 45 dBA at head-level, this laptop runs noisly on Performance mode, louder than the competition on their similar top profiles.

Hence, I expect most to rather look into the Standard profile that keeps the fan noise under 35 dBA.

Here are some benchmark results for this Standard mode:

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 7410, 16 – 6972, 8 – 4538, 4 – 3284, 2 – 1933, 1 – 1085;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 5829 (Graphics – 6638, Physics – 19894, Combined – 1960);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 2868 (Graphics – 2563, CPU – 8845);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1435;
• CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 14658 cb, CPU Single Core 2035 cb.
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 22s;

This mode gradually limits the CPU’s TDP to 17W in sustained loads, which takes a notable toll on performance in heavy CPU tasks. The Blender test, for instance, shows a 30+% increase in rendering time when going with this profile.

The GPU performance takes a hit as well, ending up at only about 80% of what it can do at higher power in Performance mode.

For general use, however, this is a compelling profile, but perhaps it would make more sense to target a slightly higher 20W TDP level instead. Thermals would allow it even with the 35 dBA noise floor.

Gaming Performance

We also ran a couple of games on the Performance profile of this Core Ultra 9 386H + Intel Graphics configuration, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.

• Cyberpunk, Horizon, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
• Far Cry, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.

All these games are playable here with these settings, including newer titles. Enabling XeSS makes a nig difference where available, and overall, your expectations of such a laptop that only bundles a mid-tier iGPU should be realistic.

And here’s what to expect if you plan on running games on the quieter modes.

The frame rates are still decent on Standard mode, with the much quieter fan noise. Once more, this profile is where I’d expect most will use the laptop, even with games.

With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.

First, Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk. This mode stabilizes at 28W TDP, which is sufficient for the GPU to run at its full potential. The hardware warms up, though, reaching high-70s °C and low-80s °C, despite the fans running at 45 dBA.

Bump the laptop off the desk and these thermals drop to low and mid-70s °C, as the airflow into the fans and underneath the chassis is not as limited.

Then, Standard mode keeps the fan noise lower at 35 dBA, with a 20% drop in GPU speeds and performance, since the TDP is limited at 17W and the GPU clocks end up limited as well. Internals run coolly in this mode, in the mid-60s °C, with the laptop raised off the desk.

I haven’t tested gaming in Whisper mode, as that applies and even lower 12W TDP limit with more limited GPU speeds.

The laptop performs well when unplugged, with Performance mode unplugged or plugged in delivering similar frame rates.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

Asus went with what looks like an advanced thermal module on this laptop, with dual fans, dual radiators, and a vapor chamber.

For comparison, this is the cooling module on the previous Zenbook S14 generation.

Asus updates the fans on the newer generation, as well as some of the vapor chamber that covers the hardware.

Nonetheless, the thin profile only allows for a miniaturized cooling module, however well engineered it might be. There’s just no way around physics: small fans need to spin fast to push decent airflow, the vapor-chamber is thin, and the heatsinks are only a few mm in height, so they can only expel little heat. I’ve added an image of the heatsink with a screwdriver next to it, for a better understanding of how thin it is.

Once more, what I’m trying to showcase here is how this laptop would have benefited from a slightly thicker chassis that would have allowed a larger cooling module, which would have then translated to lower noise levels and maybe even higher power levels for the implemented Core Ultra 9 hardware.

As it is, the laptop doesn’t run hot by any means as long as you keep it raised off the desk for sustained loads, but it does run loud. And the design doesn’t allow just tweaking down the fans, because then the temperatures would jump out of check.

As far as the noise levels go, expect 45 dBA on Performance, 35 dBA on Standard, and sub 30 dBA on Whisper mode.

With daily use, the fans stay mostly idle on all profiles.  I haven’t noticed coil whine or electronic noises on this unit.

As for external temperatures, the chassis keeps cool with light use, with most areas under 30 °C and a slightly warmer spot developing at the top of the chassis.

— updating

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Whisper Mode, fans at 0 dB

With demanding loads, a hotspot of around 42-45 °C develops on the top side of the chassis in Performance mode, while the hottest spot on the bottom isn’t much warmer either. However, the keyboard and armrest areas run at much more comfortable levels, around the low 30s °C.

Overall, these are excellent thermals for a laptop of this kind, especially given the internal CPU temperatures in Performance mode. Asus implement a few sheets of graphite alloy to separate the hardware from the aluminum chassis, and that seems to work well, preventing the exterior from heating up.

Furthermore, opting for Standard mode leads to even lower temperatures around the chassis, despite the fans running much slower and quieter. That’s because Standard mode applies that aggressive power limit, though.

*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~45 dB
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~35 dB

For connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on this laptop, through a standard Intel module. Everything worked smoothly during my months with this laptop, without hiccups, disconnects, or other issues.

Audio is handled by a set of four speakers (two main woofers, two smaller tweeters) that fire through the cuts positioned on the side and bottom of the chassis. There are no speakers at the top of the keyboard; that grill is for ventilation only.

The sound quality is quite good for the ultraportable class, with good volume and decent quality.

Finally, there’s a 2MP camera placed at the top of the screen. It’s a rather lousy-looking camera, even in good light, and hardly usable at all in dimmer environments. It doesn’t offer a privacy cover. It does support IR for Windows Hello, at least.

Battery life – excellent runtimes with Gorgon Point

There’s a 77 Wh battery inside this 2026 Asus Zenbook S14, excellently sized for such a compact and slim ultrabook, and slightly larger than the 72Wh battery in the previous generation.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50 brightness) and at a 60 Hz refresh rate (switches automatically to 60Hz when unplugging the laptop, and back to 120Hz when plugged in). I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• 3 W (20+ h of use) – idle, Whisper Mode, screen at 10%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6-7 W (~12-14 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 5-6 W (~13-15 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 5 W (~15 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 7-10 W (~7-10 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 35 W (~2 h of use) – Gaming  – Witcher 3, Performance Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

Solid runtimes and plenty for a full day of use without the need to recharge. That’s thanks to the efficiency of the Intel Panther Lake hardware and that big battery. On par with recent Intel and AMD (with exceptions) platforms, and a tad under what the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 hardware achieves.

For comparison, these results are almost identical to what we measured on the previous-gen Lunar Lake configuration, despite this being a Core Ultra H implementation.

• <4 W (15+ h of use) – idle, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6 W (~12 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4.5 W (15+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4.5 W (15+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6-9 W (~8-12 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 35 W (~2 h of use) – Gaming  – Dota 2, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.

The laptop ships with a 65W USB-C charger, a compact format that integrates the plug and comes with a detachable USB-C cable. Just keep in mind that you’re most likely getting the laptop without a charger in the EU, due to recent regulations.

Price and availability- Asus Zenbook S14 OLED

At the time of this article, the Asus ZenBook S14 series is widely available everywhere.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

This 2026 Zenbook S14 UX5406AA configuration with the Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD, and the OLED touchscreen is listed at $1899 in the US, 1900-2100 EUR over here in Europe, and 1999 GBP in the UK. However, expect discounts as we get into the second part of the year; for instance, I’ve already seen this selling for $1649 in some US stores.

At the same time, the previous Zenbook S14 UX5406SA generation is still available, and for quite a bit less: around $1400 or so in the US, and 1400-1600 EUR over here. That’s for a Lunar Lake 258V configuration and a dimmer OLED, of course, but still a potentially interesting option for casual use and daily multitasking.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

Final thoughts- Asus Zenbook S14 UX5406AA review

All things considered, this Zenbook S14 is a fairly interesting device. It’s the best-made and best-feeling Zenbook, on par with popular premium alternatives such as the Dell XPS 14 or the MacBook Air 13, while also lighter, more compact, and with arguably fewer obvious compromises. Although it is, nonetheless, a sum of compromises.

My general tone has been quite bitter throughout this review, but that’s because Asus could have made this so much more versatile by implementing a slightly thicker design with enough room for better cooling and a standard Zenbook keyboard. Instead, they aimed at creating a thin chassis, and that brought the compromises mentioned already: the loud noise under sustained loads, the shallow keyboard, or the limited screen opening angle. On top of that, the touch OLED showcases grain on texts and light backgrounds.

Overall, though, if you’re willing to accept these aspects and want a device that feels premium, performs well, offers plenty of ports, a beautiful display, and punchy audio, this Zenbook S14 should be on your list. Compared to the previous generation, this refresh offers a hardware platform that’s better able to handle demanding chores when needed, a brighter OLED, a slightly updated cooling module that allows for lower thermals overall, and a refreshed lid design – minor changes, but they add up. At the same time, this refresh runs louder under load, something you’ll either have to accept or opt to set the laptop on the mid-level power profile and lose some of the performance potential for a much more enjoyable experience.

These aside, of course, this Zenbook S14 is an expensive series, significantly more expensive than the previous generation back in 2024. But then again, everything is expensive these days, and its potentially more functional alternatives actually sell for a whole lot more. Thus, all things considered, this is actually among the more affordable options in its premium niche.

Among those alternatives, the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, the HP OmniBook X, or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon come to mind, all available in more powerful Core Ultra X7 configurations, with better cooling modules and matte OLED displays with less grain. But all these sell for way more than the Zenbook. The MacBook Air M5 is another alternative worth considering, as long as you’re OK going the Mac route – these days MacBooks are somehow better-value products than many of the options in the Windows space – but don’t expect the Air to be a flawless product, though, it’s got its own quirks with the shallow keyboard, limited IO, sharp edges, and so on.

This wraps-up my time with the 2026 refresh of the Asus Zenbook S14 UX5406AA. Hope this article helped you in your research, and I’m looking for your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.

The article Asus Zenbook S14 longer-term review (2026 UX5406AA, Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 386H, OLED) appeared first on .

We’ve covered the majority of Zenbook lineups over the years. This 2026 model is a hardware refresh of the 2024 and 2025 AMD Zenbook 14 UM3406 series, built on the same chassis and with the same overall features and perks. We’ve discussed the 2024 variant here, and the 2025 update here.

For this 2026 refresh, Asus offers the series with AMD Gorgon Point hardware, which is a minor refresh of Krackan Point. Much like in the past, this AMD model targets a lower price segment, around 1000 USD and 900 EUR/GBP MSRP. Given 2026 prices, that’s competitive, and most likely we’ll see further discounts later in the year, especially when the even newer Zenbook 14 UX3480 models become available.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations on the Zenbook 14 lineup in your area.

Our configuration is an AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 with 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD, and a 2K WUXGA OLED touch display. These are the top specs for this generation.

I’ve used this laptop for a few months now and gathered my impressions and thoughts in this article. I’ve also used the previous Zenbook configurations for longer.

Specs sheet – Asus Zenbook 14 UM3406 

Design and functionality

This is the standard Zenbook 14 chassis offered over the last few years, and overall one of the best mid-range ultraportable laptop designs at around the 1000 USD/EUR/GBP mark. In the past, Zenbooks of this type sold for less, but these days, even coming under 1K is impressive.

Despite being a mid-range product, this is well built, good-looking, and more practical than most other devices on the market, including something like a higher-tier Zenbook S14 or a MacBook Air. It doesn’t compromise on anything important either, and weighs about 1.3 kilos, which is not bad for an all-metal chassis with a touchscreen, decent cooling, and a 75 Wh battery inside. The non-touchscreen variant comes out lighter at 1.2 kilos, and is slimmer as well, as it lacks the extra glass layer over the OLED panel.

Aesthetically, this is as subdued as it gets, with the black color and minimal branding elements. The laptop is an aluminum build all around with a matte anodized finish, and comes in black, so it shows finger oils and smudges easily, both on the lid and on the inside; you’ll need to constantly clean this off to keep it looking alright. That aside, though, there’s little else to complain about.

As far as ergonomics go, this Zenbook offers uncompromised inputs and a large armrest, and the screen’s hinges are well made and open up to 180 degrees, which is a must for me on a portable chassis. There’s no bad flex in the lid or in the main deck, and the rubber feet offer good grip on a desk. Furthermore, there’s no annoying LED in the line of sight, unlike on older Zenbooks.

Of course, I can nitpick about a few specifics, such as the rather sharp front lip that might bite into your wrists when using the laptop on a cramped desk; but even these aren’t as sharp as on a MacBook, for comparison.

The cooling design is a little awkward as well, as it occupies some of the right edge and leads to most of the IO being crammed on the left. This sort of cooling with the fans on one side and the hardware on the other isn’t my favorite overall, as I prefer the more balanced dual-fan approach implemented on the Vivobook S14 series, but it does the job overall, without one side of the chassis feeling much warmer than the other even in sustained loads.

As far as the IO goes, most ports are on the right edge, including two USB-Cs, the full HDMI, and the audio jack. One of the USB-C ports supports USB 4.0, and both support video and charging. Ideally, I’d prefer having USB-Cs on either site; that would be more convenient and versatile with different setups.

For what it’s worth, Asus announced a follow-up Zenbook 14 AI UX3480 lineup coming later this year, which brings the series’ design closer to the existing Zenbook A14 models. That means more rounded edges and corners, and Ceraluminum replacing the anodized aluminum parts, which does a better job of fending off smudges and resisting scratches, and comes in a few more color options. I’m not necessarily a fan of this finish and design, but I guess it makes sense to have a more unified chassis for all hardware platforms, Intel, AMD, and Snapdragon. We’ll test and discuss these updates when they’re eventually available.

For what it’s worth, here’s how the current Zenbook 14 (black) looks next to the Zenbook A14 (grey), for a peak into the future design language of the Zenbook 14 UX3480 lineup. The Zenbook S14 series is included as well, in white, as a higher-tier model with more premium materials and some higher-end specs.

Keyboard, touchpad

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: this Zenbook 14 generation offers some of my favorite inputs available on portable notebooks today.

Perhaps I’m a little biased on this keyboard, having used it for so long over the years, but I find it one of the most accurate and comfortable typers in this segment. The keys are softly coated, have a small dash in them, and travel 1.5 mm into the frame. They’re also firm and quiet when pressed fully. For what it’s worth, though, the black finish on this variant does show finger oil easily, so keep that in mind.

The keys are backlit, with white LEDs and three brightness levels to choose between. Some light creeps out from underneath the keycaps, especially from under the top-row of Function keys, which is an aspect perhaps Asus could improve on their future lineups.

The touchpad is wide and averagely tall. It can double as a Numeric touchpad with a press of the icon in its top right corner, but what’s important is the smooth feel and reliable experience with general use. Physical clicks are fine as well.

Furthermore, Asus leaves enough space around this touchpad to limit ghost touches, an aspect that more and more ultra-portables compromise on these days, as they implement huge touchpads with small margins. This is something that bothers me greatly on my MacBook Air.

14-inch OLED display

There’s a 14-inch 14:10 display on this series, with average-sized bezels and a camera, sensors, and microphones at the top .

As far as I can tell, Asus offers this 2026 generation with 2K OLED panels, either touch or non-touch. My unit is the touch variant. Asus does mention the 2.8K 120Hz panel option potentially available for this series as well, but I’m not seeing it on actual retail products, as Asus are aiming for the 1K price-point with this lineup.

This is an older-gen OLED and not the brighter variant implemented on other 2026 ultrabooks. That means its max sustained brightness tops out at under 400 nits (and actually more like 350 nits on this touch variant), and the refresh rate is only 60Hz; however, the blacks, contrast, and colors are still as good as they get with the tech. Paired with the glossy finish, this display is hardly usable in any bright-light environments, and even with regular use you’ll have to keep it at 80-100% brightness for a comfortable experience.

That means you should be extra careful about dealing with static Windows interfaces, especially if you plan on keeping this for many years. You’ll want to prevent burn-in as much as possible.

Furthermore, as a touch OLED of this generation, this shows the dreaded grain screen-door effect on light backgrounds, especially visible when reading/editing text. This isn’t an issue on the non-touch variant, something to keep in mind when deciding on the available configurations. At the same time, the non-touch variant lacks the extra layer of protective glass over the OLED panel.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is the top-specced configuration of the 2026 Asus Zenbook 14 UM3405GA, with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 processor and Radeon 840M graphics, 32 GB of LPDDR5-7500 memory, and a 1 TB gen4 SSD.

Disclaimer: This is a retail unit I got for testing. Our results are based on the software available as of mid-August 2026 (BIOS 305, MyAsus 4.0.66.0, AMD Adrenalin 25.20.42.11). This is mature software.

Spec-wise, this series is based on the 2026 AMD Gorgon Point hardware platform, with Ryzen AI processors and AMD Radeon graphics.

Our review unit is a Ryzen AI 7 445 processor, a hybrid design with 6Cores (2x Zen5, 4x Zen5c), 12Threads, up to 4.6 GHz speeds, and 24 MB cache.

On the GPU side, the Ryzen AI 7 445 bundles a Radeon 840M iGPU with only 4 RDNA3.5 cores. That’s only 1/3 of what you’re getting with the Ryzen 9 Radeon 890M hardware.

Thing is, this Ryzen AI 7 445 is a rebranded variation of the Ryzen AI 5 340 Krackan Point SKU, and not a follow-up to the Ryzen 7 AI 350 implemented on the previous Zenbook 14 UM3406KA, which offered 4x Zen5/4x Zen5c CPU cores and a Radeon 860M with 8 CUs. A Ryzen 7 450 chip is available as part of the Gorgon Point roster, but not implemented on the 2026 Zenbook 14 for now. We might see a follow-up Ryzen AI 9 465 build on the Zenbook 14 UX3480GA later in the year, although that might not be offered if Asus still decides to target a lower-price point with the AMD configuration, leaving the more competent specs for the Intel Panther Lake variant.

As a result, the 2026 refresh is a slower performer across the board than the 2025 model. That’s not something you can easily tell just based on the specs alone, and it can confuse potential buyers who would expect this refresh to perform better than last year’s version, since this is a newer Ryzen 7 AI 400 chip.

Our configuration also comes with 32GB of LPDDR5-7500 memory. 16 GB variants are also available.

For storage, Asus opted for a fast PCIe gen4 Samsung drive here, perfectly fine for general use in this sort of laptop. Some configurations ship with Micron drives, which aren’t quite as fast.

The SSD and the WiFi chip are upgradeable, although the WiFi is not an M.2 format. Getting inside is fairly simple; you need to take care of a few Torx screws and take out the back panel. The screws are all the same size, unlike on older Zenbooks.

As far as the software goes, this ZenBook gets the standard MyAsus app, which allows control over the power profiles, battery, and screen settings, updates, etc.

There are four performance/thermal profiles to choose from:

• Performance – ~28W sustained CPU power and up to 55W SDP, with the fans up to ~42 dB;
• Standard – 20W in sustained loads, with the fans up to ~35 dB;
• Whisper – limits the CPU to 15W to favor fan noise of sub 30 dB.

I’d keep the laptop on Standard for general use, whether plugged in or not, and on Performance for more sustained loads where higher power settings make sense.

We’ll get to that in a bit, but first, here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily chores such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.

Productivity Performance and Benchmarks – AMD Ryzen AI 7, Gorgon Point

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.

In Performance mode, the Ryzen AI 7445 processor peaks at 55W and then gradually drops towards the 28W SPL limit. The scores end up at around 1600 points, with temperatures in the mid to high-70s °C and fan-noise levels of ~42 dBA.

The Standard mode keeps the fans quieter, at 35 dBA, and the CPU quickly drops to 20W of sustained power, with temperatures in the high-60s °C and scores of around 1350 points.

Whisper mode keeps the fans quieter at sub 30 dBA, with the power stabilizing at 15W sustained and temperatures in the very low-60s °C. The scores drop to 1200 points, which is about 75% of Performance mode.

And then there’s Performance mode unplugged from the wall, where this notebook performs identically to Performance mode plugged in.

All these are illustrated in the graph below.

To put these in perspective, here’s how this AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops.

This is about 20% slower than the Ryzen AI 7 350 implemented in the previous-gen Zenbook 14, due to having fewer CPU cores. It also performs fairly similarly to a recent Intel Core Ultra 7 355 Panther Lake platform at similar power, and a little faster than popular Intel Core Ultra 7 256V/258V Lunar Lake models. Thus, this is a decent platform for light use and daily multitasking.

However, there are many other faster implementations in the ultraportable realm, from all brands: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm. Furthermore, plenty of the previous-gen Intel/AMD implementations are faster in this multi-threaded load.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise, and temperatures as described above.

We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test, on Performance and Whisper modes.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit easily passed the test both raised up and flat on the desk, which means the performance is not impacted by heat buildup in longer-duration sustained loads.

Benchmark results and performance summary

With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop in Performance mode (~28W sustained TDP) and the screen set at its default 2K resolution.

Here’s what we got.

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 5518, 16 – 5273, 8 – 4984, 4 – 3486, 2 – 2080, 2123 – 1062;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 5027 (Graphics – 5350, Physics – 12169, Combined – 1937);
• 3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 7498;
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 1622;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 1998 (Graphics – 1771, CPU – 7305);
• 3DMark 13 – FSR: FSR 2 Off – 5.18 fps, FSR 2 On – 9.94 fps, 92% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 835;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 3111;

• PCMark 10: 7188 (Essentials – 9716, Productivity – 13828, Digital Content Creation – 7502);
• GeekBench 6.6.0: Multi-core: 10557, Single-Core: 2615;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 2816, Half: 1557, Quantized: 6224;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1736 cb, CPU Single Core 269 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 11201 pts (best run), CPU 10016 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1831 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 617 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 105 pts;
• CineBench 2026: CPU Multi Threads – 2545 pts, CPU Single Core – 574 pts, CPU Single Thread – 432 pts.

And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:

• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 3m 52s ;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 9m 05s;
• Blender 5.0.1 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 3m 55s ;
• Blender 5.0.1 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 9m 08s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 3m 28s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 13s;

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 27.45;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 29.66;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 46.75;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 10.56;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 85.51;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 24.08;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 63.51;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 41.47;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 6994, CUDA – 186.

This is a fine platform for casual use and general multitasking, but not otherwise a fast configuration by today’s standards. It doesn’t feel sluggish in any way with regular daily use. However, it runs rather noisily with sustained loads and heavier multitasking in this Performance mode, which means you’ll most likely want to keep this on Standard anyway, which further limits performance in tests and demanding activities.

On the CPU side, this AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 trails 2026 Intel alternatives by 10-15% in single-core and IPC performance, while the sustained multi-threaded performance is somewhere towards the lower end of the graph. But still competitive against something like a Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 256V/258V or a Panther Lake Core Ultra 5 325, specs you’d find in similar devices at similar price levels.

On the GPU side, the Radeon 840M, with only 4x CUs, is about half to two-thirds of the performance of modern Intel iGPUs, and 40-60% of the performance possible on higher-tier AMD specs with more GPU cores.

What bothers me is that this Ryzen AI 7 445 configuration is 20% slower in CPU loads and 50% slower in graphics chores than the previous Ryzen AI 7 350 platform implemented last year inside the same chassis. Thus, I’d rather get one of those if still available in your region. A Ryzen AI 7 450 would have been the more obvious success, but that’s not offered for a multitude of reasons, such as cost and limited availability from AMD, which you don’t want on a high-volume lineup such as this one.

So all in all, while last year Krackan Point hardware offered competitive value for the money in this Zenbook 14 chassis, this year the Gorgon Point hardware of choice remains an affordable offer in the ultrabook space, but isn’t quite as competitive. It primarily marches on being one of the cheaper hardware options available today, though, which could still attract many potential buyers when tech has gotten so expensive.

Gaming Performance

We also ran a couple of games on the Performance profile of this AMD Ryzen AI 445 + Radeon 840M configuration, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I included a few other competing platforms for comparison.

• Cyberpunk, Horizon, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
• Far Cry, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.

You can run older titles at 30-40 fps on this hardware, but your expectations should be realistic. This is a lower-tier Radeon iGPU with a limited number of cores, and it can’t compete against the Intel iGPUs implemented at this similar tier, or even the upper-level Radeon 860M chip implemented in the previous-gen Zenbook 14.

With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.

First, Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk. The GPU runs at nearly its max potential on this profile, with fan noise of around 42 dBA at head-level. Keeping the laptop raised off the desk leads to fair internal temperatures, around 72-75 °C, while placing it flat on the desk keeps the heat inside and leads to internal temperatures over 80 °C. These temperatures are about on par with the previous-gen AMD Zenbook 14 model.

Then, Standard mode keeps the fan noise lower at 35 dBA, with a 15-20% drop in GPU performance and frame rates, since the TDP is limited at 20W and the GPU clocks are limited as well. Internals run coolly in this mode, in the mid-60s °C, with the laptop raised off the desk.

The laptop performs well when unplugged, with Performance mode unplugged or plugged in delivering similar frame rates. Expect about 2 hours of runtime on a charge with games and such intensive loads, though.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

Asus went with a single-fan, dual-heatsink, single-heatpipe thermal module here, just like on the previous generation.

For comparison, this is the cooling module on the 2025 Zenbook 14 generation. Identical.

This is a minimalist cooling design and copes well enough with the hardware in this notebook. However, you must keep this placed on a stand when running sustained activities or games, to favor better airflow into the fans and underneath the chassis.

I will also mention that this sort of design leads to one half of the chassis running warmer than the other, which can be uncomfortable at times, but at least the hotspots develop high on the chassis and not around the areas that you’ll normally come in contact with.

As far as the noise levels go, expect 42 dBA on Performance, 35 dBA on Standard, and sub 30 dBA on Whisper mode.

With daily use, the fan stays mostly idle on all profiles, but kicks in with heavier multitasking, especially on Performance with the laptop plugged in.  I haven’t noticed coil whine or electronic noises on this unit.

As for external temperatures, the chassis stays cool with light use, with most areas under 30 °C and a slightly warmer spot developing at the top-right of the keyboard, right next to the heatsink.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Whisper Mode, fans at 0 dB

With demanding loads, a hotspot of around 42-45 °C develops on the top side of the chassis in Performance mode, while the hottest spot on the bottom goes over 50 °C on the underside. Furthermore, the keyboard and arm-rest areas run at way more comfortable levels, around mid-30s °C.

Overall, these are fair thermals for a laptop of this kind and notably cooler than on the previous-gen Ryzen AI 7 350 model in a similar load.

*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~42 dB

For connectivity, Asus still only offers Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4 on this laptop, so no WiFi 7 by default. That’s a pity, especially since the WiFi module is not a standard M.2 format and cannot be so easily upgraded if required. You can The laptop performed fine on wireless during all my time with it, but it still bothers me that they didn’t include WiFi 7 here. From what I can tell, there’s no WiFi7 on any of the retail units either.

Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills positioned on the side and bottom of the chassis. They sound alright for this class, with good volumes and decent quality. Not MacBook levels by any means, but not awful speakers either.

Finally, there’s an FHD camera placed at the top of the screen, with IR and ALS sensors, and flanked by microphones. The camera comes with a physical cover, and the image quality is decent in good lighting.

Battery life – excellent runtimes with Gorgon Point

There’s a 75 Wh battery inside this 2026 Asus Zenbook 14, properly sized for its segment.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness) and at its default 60Hz refresh rate. I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• 6-7 W (~10-12 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Whisper Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 5 W (~15 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 4.5 W (~13-14 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 7-9 W (~8-10 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 35 W (~2 h of use) – Gaming  – Witcher 3, Performance Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.

Solid runtimes, thanks to the efficiency of the AMD hardware and that big battery. This lasts a little bit longer with video streaming and multitasking than the previous-generation Krackan Point model tested last year, and the efficiency is close to what you can get with Intel Lunar Lake and Panther Lake implementations. Qualcomm laptops, on the other hand, such as the Zenbook A14, still run for longer in all scenarios.

The laptop ships with a compact 65W USB-C charger. It’s a single-piece design with a long and thick cable and a USB-C plug.

For what it’s worth, there’s a good chance you’re getting this laptop without a charger in the EU, due to the stupid local legislation. That means you can either use an older charger if available, or ideally buy this Asus model on the side (if you can find it, that is). This is impacting ultraportables with USB-C chargers from all brands starting this year.

Price and availability- Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

At the time of this article, the Asus ZenBook 14 UM3406GA is widely available across the world.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

In the US, Walmart lists this at $999 MSRP for the Ryzen 7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 2K touchscreen configuration, and you’ll find it at other stores as well, including Amazon.

Over here in Europe, the same configuration is available for between 900-1100 EUR in various countries, while in the UK I can find it for around £899.

Configurations with 32 GB of RAM are available in some regions, for about 100 EUR/GBP extra. They’re not as widespread as in the previous generation, where the default variant came with 32 GB of RAM in most markets. With this generation, Asus are consciously targeting a lower price tag.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

Final thoughts- Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UM3406GA review

This series is the standard and popular Asus Zenbook 14 we’ve appreciated for the last few years, as one of the better-value thin-and-light laptops available in most markets.

However, this 2026 generation aims to stay affordable in a world where tech has become a lot more expensive. That means it targets a sub-1000 USD/EUR/GBP price level, and for that, compromises had to be made. Those compromises are the 2K 60Hz OLED panel and the Ryzen AI 7 445 hardware platform, and even these aren’t necessarily deal-breakers by any means; you just need to understand where they do well and where they fall short.

In just a few words, the 2K OLED is fine for indoor use, but the limited brightness and glossy display finish make it difficult to use otherwise. As for the specs, the Ryzen AI 7 445 is actually a downgraded follow-up of the Ryzen AI 7 350 implemented in the previous-gen Zenbook 14 UM3406KA series, with lower CPU/GPU performance in sustained loads. At the same time, though, this is a fine performer for casual use and daily multitasking, and runs efficiently, allowing for cool thermals and quiet fan noise most of the time.

Thus, as long as you get this laptop for casual use and multitasking, and plan on keeping it mostly indoors, it’s going to be fine for you. Especially if you’re on a tight budget. Nonetheless, though, if that 2025 Ryzen AI 7 350 configuration is still to be found where you are, I’d get that instead; it might even come with 32 GB of RAM and the 2.8K screen by default.

Now, as far as the competition goes, this Zenbook 14 is not the only affordable Gorgon Point notebook out there, with alternatives such as the Vivobook S14 and Lenovo’s Slim 5a and Slim 5a 2-in-1 models, as well as the Yoga 7a 2-in-1 discussed here. This Zenbook, however, remains arguably the nicer and more practical design among these, but each of those have their own share of pros and quirks that you should consider in your research.

However, I’d rather consider a Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 355 notebook over a Gorgon Point model if reasonably priced; by that I mean I would pay 100-200 EUR extra for Panther Lake. Too bad this hardware is not offered on the Zenbook/Vivobook models yet, but it should be with the refreshed Zenbook 14 UX3480 models later in the year.

Anyway, this wraps up my time with this Asus ZenBook 14 UM3406GA lineup. Looking for your questions, thoughts, and feedback in the comments section down below.

The article Asus Zenbook 14 UM3406GA longer-term review (2026, AMD Ryzen AI 7 445, OLED) appeared first on .

This is Lenovo’s mainstream series of convertible 2-in-1 ultraportables, and arguably the most popular and versatile device in its price and format category over the last few years. It’s mostly offered with Intel specs as the Yoga 7i 2-in-1, or, more recently, with AMD specs as well, in this Yoga 7a 2-in-1 variant that we have here.

Nonetheless, we’re discussing the capabilities of both options in this article, for their latest iterations: Ryzen AI 7 445 specs for the 7a and Core Ultra 7 355 specs for the 7i. I’ve gathered my thoughts and impressions down below in this review article.

We’re also touching on how this mid-range lineup compares to the more premium Yoga 9i 2-in-1 and what sets the two apart, in order to justify the significant bump in price demanded by the 9i series.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations on the Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 lineup in your area, at the time you’re reading this article.

Spec Sheet – Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 14, 2026 generation

Design, build quality

The Yoga 7 2-in-1 series has been available for many years now, in various iterations of the same concept: a regular laptop with a 360-degree convertible display.

This generation is slightly lighter and a little more compact than in the past, but the differences in size and weight over the last few iterations are rather minor. Nonetheless, this unit weighs just shy of 1.4 kilos, which is fair for a device of this type and size.

The notebook is entirely built out of aluminum, with a generally solid and sturdy feel. There’s no obvious flex in the keyboard deck or the lid, no squeaky sounds, and no bad joints.

The aluminum surfaces are anodized, so you’ll want to treat them with care, as they can scratch and dent. However, there are no sharp corners and edges, where the anodized finishing is usually the most sensitive, so I’d reckon this should age well if used responsibly.

Lenovo offers this series in two color options Tidal Teal (the one we have here) and Seashell (a sort of beige), and the latter is the more carefree of the two, hiding smudges and potential scratches more easily.

Ergonomics are as good as they get with this series, with sturdy surfaces, rounded edges, no pesky lights in the line of sight, and plenty of ports lined around the edges.

The rubber feet on the bottom provide decent grip on a flat desk as well, and place the laptop fully flat without stability issues; but they’re slim, as this device needs to transform into a tablet. The hinges are pretty strong and smooth at the same time, and Lenovo designs an edge on the screen part that allows you to easily lift up the display and access the laptop. However, there’s a point where the hinges get too stiff, and you’ll need to use both hands to separate the lid from the main chassis part.

Now, I’ve seen reports of this particular hinge design breaking and coming apart under the display; there are mentions of it on Reddit and forums, so it can happen, and it’s an aspect to consider. I can’t really comment on how these hinges will age, but they are a weak spot for 2-in-1 designs as a whole; thus, if you expect to convert this device all the time into tablet mode and you’re not the type to take good care of your devices, perhaps this is not for you.

The 2-in-1 format is, in fact, one of the main advertising selling points of this series: the ability to work as a laptop, stand, or tablet. Nonetheless, it’s primarily a laptop, as it’s rather heavy and cumbersome as a tablet. You also get the cooling exhaust grills on the bottom edge that impact the comfort of holding this in tablet mode, unlike on the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 with its different hinge design.

As for the IO, there’s almost everything you’ll want on this laptop, including full-size HDMI and USB, two USB-Cs, an audio jack, and a card reader. Furthermore, the two USB-Cs are spread on both laterals, so you can conveniently charge the laptop on either side. Since this is an AMD laptop, these are only USB-C 3.2 connections, and not USB-C 4 or Thunderbolt (as on the Intel variant).

And for what it’s worth, the power button is still placed on the right edge, and you’ll want to disable it from the settings to prevent accidentally sending the laptop to sleep when transitioning this between modes.

Oh, btw, here’s how this Yoga 7i 2-in-1 (left, more vivid blue) compares to the higher-tier Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (right, darker blue) in design. The differences are minor, with the 9i being a little lighter and featuring a brighter OLED display, a slightly different keyboard/touchpad, and a more balanced dual-fan cooling module inside. We’ll have a separate article on the general worth of these two series and which one is the better buy.

Keyboard, touchpad

The keyboard and touchpad are standard for a mid-tier Yoga laptop these days, and generally functional in a rather basic way.

That means the keyboard is a standard layout with properly sized and spaced keys, dish keycaps, and the arrows with the UP/DOWN squished as half keys, like on MacBooks. The keys are not a perfect match for the chassis color, but they’re close. They’re a closer match on the Seashell variant, but the contrast is better on these blue keycaps.

The typing experience is generally fine here, with crisp feedback and 1.5 mm of travel, although the keycaps feel a little plasticky and not as rubbery as on the higher-tier Yoga 9i. I also found this keyboard to be a little noisier in comparison. Nonetheless, a fair typer.

The keys are backlit, with white LEDs and two light levels to choose from. These are bright and uniform, but the design allows for plenty of light to leak out from underneath the keycaps.

The touchpad is a fair-sized regular clickpad, made out of a smooth plastic (called Mylar). It works fine with taps, gestures and swipes, although I found it rather overresponsive at times. That’s because it still registered some ghost swipes here and there, either from the palm or from clothes when having this on the lap. You might want to adjust the sensitivity if you find the out-of-the-box experience a little hectic.

I also found the physical clicks a little stiff and clunky – it’s a different clunk than on the 9i, though, but still too loud for my liking.

Finally, for biometrics, there’s the camera with IR support at the top of the display, but there’s no fingerprint sensor (previous generation used to offer one).

14-inch OLED display, touch

Lenovo offers this series with a 14-inch touch glossy OLED, with digitizer and pen support (a pen is bundled in most regions).

However, while most regions get the Yoga 7a with a 2K 60Hz OLED panel, there’s also an optional 2.8K 120 Hz OLED panel offered in some markets and with some configurations. If possible, I’d opt for that one as it’s sharper, faster, and brighter – that’s in fact the panel offered with the higher-tier Yoga 9i 2-in-1 as well.

Nonetheless, we have the base-tier display on this unit, the 2K option, with 1920 x 1200 px resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, sub 400 nits of sustained brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 color coverage.

Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor:

• Panel HardwareID: LEN88AE (LEN140WUXGA);
• Coverage: 99.9% sRGB, 96.1% Adobe RGB, 99.4% DCI-P3;
• Type: 2K 1920 x 1200 px, 10-bit, 60 Hz;
• Measured gamma: 211;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 384.20 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <10 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6200 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes, to be discussed.

It’s a fine screen for a mid-range laptop, one that’s going to meet most expectations with its OLED perks: deep blacks and contrast, and punchy colors. The lower resolution is fine as well at this 14-inch size. And despite being a touch OLED, Lenovo somehow implement a different digitizer layer that doesn’t add as much grain as most other touch OLEDs, which means text and content look sharp even on light/white backgrounds.

On the other hand, the limited brightness of around 350 nits after calibration and the highly reflective finish make this notebook hardly usable in any sort of bright-light environment, either outdoors or in office/class. Furthermore, since this panel doesn’t get that bright by default, you’ll end up pushing its brightness towards max even in regular environments, which could lead to potential burn-in over time if you’re not careful about dealing with static Windows interfaces. That’s a common issue with this kind of OLEDs, though, alongside the OLED flickering at lower brightness, which can bother some potential buyers as well.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is a higher-specced configuration of the 2026 Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 processor and Radeon 840M iGPU, 16GB of LPDDR5x-8000 memory, and a fast 1TB gen4 SSD.

Disclaimer: This is a retail unit offered by Lenovo for review. It is tested with the software available as of early August 2026 (BIOS T9CN15WW, Vantage 4.7.0.48 app, Adrenalin 26.7.1), a mature package at this point.

Spec-wise, this series is based on AMD’s Gorgon Point hardware platform, with Ryzen AI 400 processors.

Our review unit is a Ryzen AI 7 445 processor, a hybrid design with 6Cores (2x Zen5, 4x Zen5c), 12Threads, up to 4.6 GHz speeds, and 24 MB cache. However, Lenovo also offers this series with Ryzen AI 5 340 specs, which is only a 4Core configuration with 1x Zen5 and 3x Zen5c cores – expect this to perform about 20% slower in sustained CPU loads, but similarly with daily use and light multitasking.

On the GPU side, the Ryzen AI 7 445 and the AI 5 430 both bundle a Radeon 840M iGPU with only 4 RDNA3.5 cores.

Overall, these are lower-tier platforms with limited CPU and GPU cores, mostly meant for general use; thus, your expectations of sustained performance should be adjusted accordingly.

Our configuration also comes with 16GB of LPDDR5-8000 memory. 24 and 32 GB variants are also available.

For storage, our unit bundles a fast PCIe gen4 Kioxia SSD, which is fine for most use cases. This chassis only supports compact M.2 2242 SSD formats, which can limit your upgrade options if that’s something you’re considering.

The SSD and the WiFi chip are M.2 formats and upgradeable. Getting inside is fairly simple; you need to take out the back panel, held in place by a handful of Torx screws. They’re of different sizes, so make sure you put them back in their right place; but at least all the screws are visible, and none are hidden underneath rubber feet, as on the Yoga 9i model. However, you’ll most likely need a strong suction cup to pull out the back panel from the middle, as it gets this stiff clamp that keeps it attached to the main chassis.

As far as the software goes, this Yoga gets the standard Lenovo Vantage app, which allows control over the power profiles, battery, and screen settings, updates, etc.

There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from:

• Performance – runs the hardware at ~28W, with up to ~40 dBA max fan noise;
• Auto (Intelligent Adaptive) – limits the hardware at ~22W sustained with up to ~35 dBA max fan noise;
• Battery Saver – gradually limits the CPU at ~12W, with fan noise <30 dBA.

Pretty good profiles, and overall these profiles perform more consistently between their power limits than on the Panther Lake configuration of the Yoga 9i tested recently, where the Auto mode proved rather hectic. Not the case here.

However, the modes are hidden in the Vantage app and not easily accessible with Fn+F8 as on other Lenovo Yoga/Thinkpad models.

Here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily chores such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.

Productivity Performance and Benchmarks

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test. We keep the laptop on a stand, raised off the desk, for consistency with other reviews.

On Best Performance, the hardware runs at 28W, with internal temperatures in the high-70s °C and fan noise of 40 dBA. The laptop scores around 1500 points.

On Auto (Adaptive Power), the power is limited at 22W or so, with fan noise of 35 dBA and internal temperatures in the mid-60s °C. The scores drop by only a few %.

Battery Saver mode keeps the fan noise quieter at sub- 30 dBA, and limits the hardware to around 15W sustained, with a more notable impact on the scores – about 70% of what the hardware scores on Performance.

Finally, our sample performed very well on battery, running at around 35W on Performance mode. That’s higher sustained power than on Performance mode, plugged in (35W vs 28W), and leads to 5% higher scores as a result.

All these are illustrated in the graph below.

To put these in perspective, here’s how this Ryzen AI 7 445 implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation thin and light laptops.

It’s about on par with a modern Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 355 implementation, and only about 10% faster than previous-gen Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 256V/258V models at similar power levels.

At the same time, this hardware runs slower than Panther Lake Core H builds, and even significantly slower than past AMD Krackan Point configurations, which offered more CPU cores in similar products: namely, the Ryzen AI 7 350 that is offered with 2025 generations of the Yoga 7 2-in-1 lineup, alongside competing devices. In fact, the top-tier Ryzen AI 7 445 of this generation is merely on par with the previous entry-tier spec, the Ryzen AI 5 340 – this is definitely something to consider when choosing the right model for your needs and budget, especially with the significant price gap between the two generations.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise, and temperatures.

We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passes the test on or off the desk, which means the performance is not impacted in longer-duration sustained loads as the heat builds up. More on that in the gaming section.

Benchmark results and performance summary

With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Best Performance mode (28W sustained TDP) and the screen set at its default 2K resolution.

Here’s what we got.

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 5500, 16 – 5423, 8 – 5085, 4 – 3508, 2 – 2102, 1 – 1050;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 5170 (Graphics – 5509, Physics – 19998, Combined – 2010);
• 3DMark 13 – Solar Bay: 7483.
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 1673.
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 2013 (Graphics – 1790, CPU – 6894);
• 3DMark 13 – FSR: FSR Off – 5.34 fps, FSR On – 10.31 fps, 92.9% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 879;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 3178;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test: 64199 MB/s read, 108853 MB/s write, 114.3 ns latency;
• PCMark 10: 6860 (Essentials – 10198, Productivity – 11438, Digital Content Creation – 7513);
• GeekBench 6.6.0 64-bit: Multi-core: 10491, Single-Core: 2605;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 2710, Half: 1526, Quantized: 6354;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1689 cb, CPU Single Core 273 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 10585 pts (best run), CPU 10151 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1827 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 598 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 106 pts;
• CineBench 2026: CPU multiple threads: 2361 (10 min run), CPU single thread: 434 pts.

And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Best Performance profile:

• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene – CPU Compute: 3m 29s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 19s;

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 31.47;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 31.99;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 53.86;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy 03: 13.93;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 99.03;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 24.53;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 87.51;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Solidworks 07: 51.52;
• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 14.92;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 11.75;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: -;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: 34.34;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 13.09;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 3.88;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: 42.47;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 24.71;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 17.74;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 16.32;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 7321, CUDA – 181.

This isn’t a very fast platform, as mentioned several times already. It’s fine for casual use and light to medium multitasking, but will eventually struggle with heavier loads.

At the same time, this Ryzen AI 7 445 is about on par in multi-threaded capabilities with the similar-level Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 355 specs offered on the Intel-based Yoga 7i variant, while at the entry-level specs, the Ryzen AI 5 430 is a close match for the Core Ultra 5 322. However, the Panther Lake chips have a 10-15% advantage in IPC and single-core performance, and a decent advantage in efficiency as well. At the same time, though, the Intel hardware is arguably more expensive, at least in most regions.

On the GPU side, though, the Intel hardware is about 2x faster in benchmarks and 50-80% faster in actual loads and games, as the Radeon 840M can’t properly compete against the Panther Lake Intel iGPU, even in its lowest-tier variant with 4x Xe cores. And I’m not even going to mention the Arc B390 Intel Core Ultra X chips, as those are nonetheless implemented in different types of products.

Finally, I believe this AMD Yoga would have been a more interesting option if it were built on a Ryzen AI 7 450 platform, with the extra CPU cores and the Radeon 860M GPU. In the past, Lenovo implemented the Ryzen AI 7 350 on this chassis, but not anymore this year.

Gaming Performance

While this Yoga 7a 2-in-1 is not a gaming laptop by any means and only bundles a Radeon 840M iGPU, we still ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan games on the Performance profile, at FHD+ resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings.

I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.

• Cyberpunk, Horizon, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
• Far Cry, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.

You can run older titles at 30-40 fps on this hardware, but your expectations should be realistic. This is a lower-tier Radeon iGPU with a limited number of cores, and it can’t compete against the Intel iGPUs implemented at this similar tier.

Nonetheless, this table further showcases how this Yoga would have been a more compelling performer in a Ryzen 7 450 implementation with Radeon 860M graphics instead.

With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.

The hardware runs at about 28W sustained TDP on Performance mode, which isn’t quite enough for the iGPU to run at its full capabilities; nonetheless, we’re getting 90+% of what this chip could do at 35W os higher.

Instead, the hardware runs coolly, at sub-70s °C as long as you keep the laptop off the desk. However, having the laptop flat on the desk chokes the intakes and leads to much higher internal temperatures, this time in the low-80s °C. So make sure you put this on a stand for longer work/gaming sessions.

Auto mode comes with a 22W TDP limit, quieter fans, and even lower temperatures. Frame rates drop by about 10% or so.

Battery Saver mode puts a harder 15W TDP limit and isn’t meant for gaming.

Instead, what you can do is run games on battery power, with results similar to Auto mode plugged in. You’ll get about 2 hours of gameplay on a full charge.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The cooling module on this Yoga 7 2-in-1 is rather basic, with a single fan, single radiator, and two slim heat pipes.

For comparison, here’s the cooling on the more advanced Yoga 9i 2-in-1 chassis.

This module works fine and allows for solid performance out of this AMD platform, with fair internal temperatures, as long as you keep this laptop raised off the desk with sustained taxing loads. Flat on the desk, the fan intake gets choked, and the internal temperatures jump off by more than 10 °C.

As far as the noise levels go, expect 38-40 dBA on Performance, 35 dBA on Auto, and sub-30 dBA on Battery Saver mode.

With daily use, the fan spins all the time when the laptop is plugged in; the system draws a fair bit of power even with light use or on Battery Saver mode, and that causes the CPU temps to quickly ramp up, which then activates the fan and ramps it noisier or quieter based on what you’re running. Unplugging the laptop quickly idles the fan, so I’d suspect there’s some sort of bug impacting its behavior when the laptop is plugged in, causing it to run despite not needing to. Hopefully they fix this with further software updates.

As for external temperatures, the chassis keeps fairly cool with light use. But the left side of the chassis runs notably warmer than the right, due to the internal design with the hardware on one side (the warmer one) and the cooling module on the other.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Best Battery Mode, fans at 0 dB

With demanding loads, the left side warms up a fair bit more, but even so the chassis temperatures barely jump over 40 °C at the keyboard level, and stay under 40 °C on the bottom, over the hardware. Overall, these are good thermal levels; but having this difference between the laptop’s halves can be uncomfortable at times.

*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~38 dB

For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through a Realtek module on this laptop. Everything performed fine in my time with this laptop.

Audio is handled by a set of four speakers, but I can’t tell for sure whether they’re dual-firing or the tweeters are separate; in theory, some of the sound should come through the grills that flank the keyboard, but in real life, most of the sound comes out through the bottom.

As far as I can tell, these speakers are similar to those implemented on past Yoga 7 generations. This audio system is punchy, but lacks a fair bit of richness and bass. The speakers on the Yoga 9i definitely sound fuller and clearer.

Finally, there’s a 5MPx camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. It’s the same camera implemented in the Yoga 9i model as well. It’s a wide-angle camera that provides fine images in good light, and decent images in dimmer conditions. Comes with a physical cover and offers IR with Windows Hello.

Battery life – solid runtimes

There’s a 70 Wh battery inside this Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1, a fair size for a 14-inch mid-range chassis.

Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60% brightness) and the default 60Hz refresh rate. I’ve also set the Windows 11 power mode to Best Power Efficiency.

• 7-9 W (~8-10 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6 W (~12-14 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 6 W (~12-14 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 10-12 W (~6-7 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Battery Saver Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 45 W (<2 h of use) – Gaming  – Cyberpunk, Auto Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.

Fair runtimes overall, either with mixed daily use or streaming. These results are about on par with the Panther Lake powered Yoga 9i 2-in-1 of this generation.

Over here in Europe, this Yoga no longer comes with a charger bundled in, due to local legislation. That’s stupid and makes you hunt for a charger when buying the laptop, which makes absolutely no sense to me. In other markets, you’ll get a 65W Lenovo USB-C charger included, with a mid-sized brick and two long cables. For illustration, I’ve included an image of the 65W charger bundled with the Yoga 9i, the one on the Yoga 7 series should be fairly similar.

Price and availability – Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 series

At the time of this article, the Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 series is widely available everywhere, in a multitude of varieties, in 14-inch or 16-inch sizes, and with AMD or Intel specs.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area.

The exact model tested here, the Yoga 7a 2-in-1 14-inch with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 specs, goes for around 1400 USD in the US, 1000-1100 EUR in Europe, and 1000 GBP in the UK. I find the US pricing too high at this point, especially compared to the other markets and compared to the previous-gen Ryzen AI 300 variant of the same laptop, which starts at $899 for similar specs.

Furthermore, the Intel Yoga 7i 2-in-1 14-inch 2026 generation starts at $1200 in the US for a Core Ultra 5 configuration, and that offers similar daily-use capabilities with better graphics and arguably better efficiency. It does sell for a fair bit higher than the AMD variant over here in Europe, though, starting at 1400 EUR or so for the matching Core Ultra 7 variant.

On top of these, the 16-inch Yoga 7a 2-in-1 is available as well, for around $1600 in the US and 1400 EUR here in Europe. That’s an option to consider if you preffer a larger screen and a full keyboard with a NumPad, as otherwise the two sizes are similar in specs and functionality.

Finally, previous-gen Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra 7 256V, 258V) and AMD Krackan Point (AMD Ryzen 7 350) configurations are still available in most regions and are even sold directly by Lenovo. You’ll get a better deal on those, given the price jumps of the 2026 generations.

Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area, at the time you’re reading this article.

Final thoughts- 2026 Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 14 review

As a mid-range compact 2-in-1 laptop, this Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 checks a fair bit of the right boxes: it’s well built and fair looking, offers good ergonomics and inputs, and comes with an OLED touch display in a hybrid format. But then, the overall worth of this series comes down to two aspects: whether you actually need a convertible format and plan on using this ability more often than not, and your budget.

The thing is, devices such as this Yoga are still primarily made for laptop use and don’t excell as tablets. If you need a tablet format, get a Surface Pro or something of that sort that’s primarily designed as a tablet; it’s far more practical that way. And you don’t have to worry about the hinges potentially breaking, which is another aspect to consider in your decision with this lineup, based on past reports.

At the same time, there are many solid clamshell formats out there to choose for general laptop use, either with fewer compromises, lighter or more affordable – I’d just pick something with a 180-screen though, even if this limits the pool of available competitive options, leaving some Zenbooks or the MacBook Air out. You could still look into some mid-range Zenbook 14 models, the Acer Swift Go 14, or the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i, among others.

And then we need to discuss the AMD Gorgon Point hardware in this device. The Ryzen AI 7 445 is fine for general use, but it’s not as competitive as the previous Krackan Point Ryzen AI 7 350 implemented in 2025 Yogas and other mid-tier devices, as it’s a platform with fewer CPU and GPU cores and overall gimped performance as a result. It’s a pity Lenovo chose not to offer the Ryzen AI 7 450 in this updated chassis; thus, since this Yoga 7 chassis hasn’t changed notably between generations, you’ll most likely get better performance with one of those 2025 AMD variants instead. And even the 2026 Panther Lake options could be smarter choices as well, with a boost in IPC and graphics performance, and arguably better efficiency on battery power.

And that brings us to pricing. Right now, this 2026 AMD-based generation is expensive in North America, but somewhat fairly priced over here across the pond. It needs to sell for under 1000 USD/EUR/GBP to make sense, especially when 2025 Yoga 7a models are still available and offer the extras mentioned earlier. And even the Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 355 alternative, the Yoga 7i 2-in-1, which sells for a fair bit more, is an option I’d consider first over this 7a Ryzen AI 455 option at current prices. Still, I’d pay 100-200 extra for the Panther Lake option, but not more than that in this chassis.

Anyway, this wraps up my time with the Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 series. It’s a competitive mid-range convertible notebook, but it needs to be priced appropriately for this implementation with AMD Gorgon Point hardware to make sense in today’s market. That means it needs to be priced lower than other platforms. What do you think?

The article Lenovo Yoga 7a 2-in-1 review (2026 generation, AMD Ryzen AI 400, OLED) appeared first on .

As MacBooks are cheaper than they’ve ever been, while higher-end PCs have gotten more and more expensive, a MacBook Air should still be a no-brainer, right? 

However, the world is a very different place in 2026 than it was when the M-series debuted in 2020. I’ve had a kid since then, been laid off due to political shenanigans, had to pay for multiple surgeries for one of my pets, and have also had most of the major parts on my car replaced. In short, I am feeling the squeeze—and, based on nearly everyone I’ve talked to who isn’t already retired, a lot of other people are in the same boat around the world.

So, in a time where AMD has some incredible chips like the HX370 and Strix Halo APUs, people are struggling to get by and are not consuming as they did in 2016 or even 2023, does the MacBook Air still live up to its reputation? Should you still buy one in 2026? Read on to find out!

My history with Apple

I grew up a fervent acolyte in the cult of the Mac. I told everyone who would listen about how fast* the G4 was (*in Adobe Photoshop… with certain filters). I not only drank the kool-aid, I ate the powder.

But, as more and more PC-only games like Starcraft and Half-Life came out on the PC, I felt more and more left out. In late 2001, my sophomore year of high school, I sold my 500Mhz iBook G3 and bought a PC (Compaq Presario 2700T) and joined the throngs of people playing Half-Life and Counter-Strike. I played every game I could get running on my 1.13GHz Pentium 3 Presario with its 16MB ATI Radeon mobility GPU did my best to catch up on all of the PC exclusives I had missed – Half-Life and its innumerable mods, Starcraft, Aliens Vs. Predator 2, System Shock 2, and many more. It was very rare that I would look over to the Mac side with envy, because the gaming situation kept me so happy.

As much as I love using Linux and gaming on my Steam Deck and ROG Zephyrus G16, there is at least one area where nobody beats Apple: music production. My Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) of choice is Ableton Live, which doesn’t properly run in Linux, and requires either Windows or MacOS.

Up until just a couple of years ago, Intel’s CPUs struggled to run Ableton with significant audio stuttering, not to mention a long-term collaboration being done in Logic Pro, which is an Apple-exclusive music production program. So, in early 2024, I bought an M1 Max MacBook Pro 16 with 64GB of memory and 8TB of storage from reseller Backmarket. I loved producing on it: projects that brought my PCs to their knees at the time ran flawlessly. It’s hard to describe what it feels like to someone who hasn’t used both, but it feels like going from a consumer tool to a professional one. But, the MBP16 at 4.7lbs was just a bit too heavy such that I didn’t want to carry it around, so I sold it off and picked up both a 3.3lb MacBook Air 15 and 2.7lb MBA 13 with the same specs (M3 8/10-Core, 24gb of RAM, and 1TB of storage) so I could see which one I liked more.

Specs – my MacBook Airs

Using the MacBook Air

The absolute best thing about the new MacBook Airs are their portability. At 2.7 lbs for the MBA13 and 3.3 lbs for the 15-inch, they both just fall into that category of “taking it with me just in case”. They fit easily into any backpack, don’t scratch or dent easily, are lightweight, and don’t require bringing a charger in most cases. These are all underrated qualities for a workhorse laptop that you want to have within reach whenever the need strikes.

You might think most laptops will check these boxes in 2025/2026, but it’s not that easy: My favourite PC laptop at the moment, the 2024 AMD ROG Zephyrus G16, is a bit heavier, doesn’t have the longevity needed to take it with you without a charger in most cases. I can get 8 hours out of it, but that easily drops to 4 under heavy usage, so I need to bring a charger with it most of the time. It is also nearly 1 lb heavier (2 if you count the charger) than the Air 15, and just lacks the robust build that the MacBooks do. Speaking of, let’s briefly touch on the build. 

ROG Zephyrus G16 (left), MacBook Air 15 (right)

Build

There are a lot of things one can criticize about the M-series MacBooks, but the build is definitely not one of them.

There is almost no flex in the screen or deck, the anodized finish doesn’t flake, chip, or rub off with daily use, and, other than the notch, they look classy in a way that’s fairly timeless (not something one can say about the Zephyrus’s “slash” lighting lids). I have seen so many dents and scratches in the lid of the 2024/2025 Zephyrus laptops that I don’t feel safe putting them in a non-padded laptop sleeve because the aluminium is just so soft. In short, I found both the MBA 13 and 15 to be exceptionally built machines, with the only 10/10 construction I have found across dozens of laptops in the last decade.

For comparison, the only PC laptop that came close to this level of build was, in my opinion, the UHD Dell XPS 13/15 from 2015-2019, which I would have given an 8.5-9/10. I would rank the ROG Zephyrus G14, G16, and P16 an 8/10, which look nice but have easily dented lids and slightly imprecise machining on the bottom cover.

Battery Life

Pairing very well with that physical portability is the excellent power efficiency of the M-series chips and MacOS for basic tasks. Its longevity for browsing, word processing, or media consumption is truly class-leading. I rarely shut my G16 for the day without plugging it in, because it needs to be charged to get through the next day. With the MacBook Air, you can use it to play music clips to provide a soundtrack for your kids for a few hours, end the day with a couple episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and repeat this for a week without charging, and you’ll probably still have a bit of power left over.

There is a caveat to the battery life that isn’t really talked about by most reviews I’ve read, however: if you’re using an M-series laptop for demanding work like intensely producing music or editing video (lots of simultaneous tracks), the battery will go from full to empty in 2-3 hours just like any PC laptop. Still, for most tasks, you won’t need to worry about how much battery you’ve got most of the time, and for me, not having to think about this kind of thing is a shift that really does enhance enjoyment of computing.

Screen

One of the things that help give the MacBook Air its longevity is the 60Hz IPS panel, which uses a lot less power than Mini-LED, OLED, and especially Tandem OLED displays. The MacBook Air’s screen has a 60Hz IPS display that is great for light work. For videos or games, though, it will leave a bit to be desired coming from high-refresh-rate OLED or mini-LED. You’ll notice it as a downgrade coming from a high-end laptop like the G16 or MacBook Pro 16, but if your last laptop was a 2015 MacBook Pro 13”, it will just look like a nice IPS display — which it is (No Country for Old Men reference).

The MacBook Air is one of the few laptops still using an IPS display, which comes with both pros and cons.

One more positive is that it is much easier on the eyes at night than an OLED screen, so if you are using it in a completely dark room, it’s a superior experience to OLED.

So, while the screen does have an annoying notch, high black levels, and a 60 Hz refresh rate, it draws little power and doesn’t tire your eyes out like an OLED does. All in all, it’s a fair trade for an ultraportable like the MacBook Air. Full disclosure, though: if I have my G16 around, I will choose that over the Air for watching something. 

Speakers

The 13″ MacBook Air has four speakers while the 15″ has six, but practically speaking they both sound similar and are top of their class for an ultraportable laptop. They might lack the bass and punch of the MBP 16″, but they still beat out the sound on the ROG G16, which are some of the best in the PC world at the time of writing. 

The Air provides surprisingly excellent projection and volume without distortion, has a little sub-bass provided by two woofers to add oomf to dance tracks, and the clarity/accuracy is excellent, particularly for such a thin laptop. These laptops can definitely fill a small room with sound.

One cool thing to mention about MacBooks is that because the speakers are so accurate, you can produce music on them without headphones in a pinch. Most PC laptops use third-party software like Dolby Atmos or the legendarily cursed WavesMaxx audio to improve the way the speakers sound through post-processing, which is great for giving the overall impression of the audio a glow-up, but also means that it’s too inaccurate to use for professional audio work.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The first thing I immediately noticed as underwhelming on the MacBook Air after coming from a G16 and MacBook Pro 16 is the keyboard. The air’s keyboard is very shallow (maybe 1mm of travel at most) and does not feel great as you immediately bottom out each key stroke. You also hear a bassy thunk sound with each keystroke as you type, so when you are typing a lot, you create a bit of a rumble. It doesn’t feel good, and I think the best things I can say about the keyboard on the MacBook Airs is that the keycaps are stable and you can probably get used to how it feels when typing. I say this because my first impression was to immediately return both of the Airs due to the Keyboard, but over time, I did get used to it. If you are looking for a laptop to write a novel on, though, this ain’t it.

While the keyboard is not quite good, the trackpad is great, however. The surface texture is excellent and the haptic feedback feels just like a physical click. Also, Apple still has the best palm rejection algorithms in the business, and the day that PC manufacturers like Asus catch up will be a very welcome one. Is it perfect? No, that would require a pointing stick and dedicated mouse buttons for left and right clicks, plus scrolling — but it’s pretty darn good for being what it is.

Look what they have taken from us: I’ll take the trackpad on the left and the keyboard on the right.

Ports

There are no two ways about it: port situation is the other area the MBA is lacking. You have a charging port (MagSafe), two TB3/USB4 ports, and a 3.5mm audio out jack. No USB-A, no SD or even MicroSD. You need to bring a port replicator with you if you are traveling, which does take away some of the portability luster the MBA has once you take it on a trip. On the plus side, the 3.5mm audio-out port does seem to have an excellent DAC, leading to excellent reproduction of audio over (wired) headphones. It might seem like a small thing, but in the PC world, it isn’t. I struggled with 3.5mm jack and audio quality issues for literally years across 5 generations of Dell XPS laptops. It will be a great day when PC manufacturers stop cheaping out on things like the headphone jack and internal components to save a few cents.

Using MacOS

I can’t remember what my last straw was with Windows – it might have MS copilot and the way every cursed update seems to reinstall and reactivate it, hiding in your system tray like an alien in the vents, or updates clearing/resetting settings like Night Light randomly, Windows randomly breaking itself and requiring a reinstall, the constant battle with privacy invasion, or any other number of annoyances that have built up in me with Microsoft and their OS over the last 20 years, but last year, I accidentally formatted the SSD that had my Windows installation leaving only Linux, and I just decided that was my sign that it was time. I still have Windows installed on my living-room PC, but I will probably put some flavor of Linux on it as well whenever I get the time.

Classic (pre-OS X) MacOS: still one of my favourite operating systems ever!

MacOS is fairly easy to pick up and use, largely due to the great suite of pre-installed homegrown applications included in MacOS. There’s Safari, Photos, Pages, Messages, Mail, Calendar, FaceTime, and many more useful apps right there out of the box that do a great job of providing most of the features you actually need, but there are also things inexplicably missing (like setting battery charge limits or customizing the appearance or layout of the UI) or just rub me the wrong way, such as an annoying notification center that demands your attention and mouse clicks to dispose of messages, and they’ll keep telling you that there’s a feature update that you don’t want to install over and over, and the notification will keep reappearing each time you open the settings.

Handling of dragging and dropping files (like music) between apps is very easy and intuitive in Windows and Linux, but slow and clunky in MacOS, often requiring a few tries before the apps behave like you want them to. The dialog to open a file within an app frustrates me daily with by missing basic features. Want to see the directory tree? Use the column view, but then enjoy not having any visibility of columns to sort by. Want to sort by columns like Date Modified? Then no preview or directory tree for you! And since icon view has no preview or columns, I have no idea why it’s even an option.

Apple also pushes iCloud like Microsoft pushes a 365 account (I don’t want Apple deciding they can lock me out of my computer, as happened to a former colleague of mine), and the general sense you get is that Apple thinks it knows how you want to be interacting with your computer better than you do. One last thing was the personal disproval of the “it just works” ethos, in where I tried to restore my Time Machine backups from my previous M1 Max MBP to a new Air, only to find the process stalled halfway through for over a day. The next day, I cancelled the restoration, and that was the last I ever got to see of my 8TB of Time Machine backups. They disappeared along with the partition that contained them, and I was never able to recover them using any of the solutions I found online.

And then there’s Apple’s requirement that every 48 hours or so you log in using your password to “re-enable” the fingerprint sensor. If you aren’t going to let me reliably use the fingerprint sensor, then why have it, you Creontes?

There’s a lot of little things like the above, but to be honest I would have probably not be very annoying had I only ever used Windows before. It was after using Linux (CachyOS, which is based on Arch, btw) with KDE Plasma as a desktop window manager that I have been spoiled by the customization and features KDE Plasma offers compared to Explorer or Finder. As you can see in the screenshot below, I’ve configured KDE Plasma to have a similar layout as MacOS, but with the ability to customize just about every aspect of the system.

I have found I prefer the experience of using KDE Plasma than either Windows or MacOS .

Let’s be real about Linux, though: it’s still far from perfect, especially on newer machines, which require a lot of tinkering to get working (the 2024 Zephyrus G14 and G16 have everything working in Arch linux except they won’t charge over USB-C while the laptop is sleeping if a charge limit is set, but the 2025 versions have ongoing issues with sound and changing volume even after more than six months after release. With Linux, the older the hardware is, the greater the chances that everything will work perfectly out of the box. Linux still doesn’t handle Nvidia Optimus GPU switching as well as Windows (you’ll need to manually switch with a restart or logout at minimum), though hopefully this will change in the next couple of years. Also, sometimes things just break or stop working now and again, and it will fall upon you to learn how to fix what went wrong. To tinkerers, this is the joy of having complete control over your PC, but for the mass market, it’s a no-sell.

I think my point in this section is that for nearly two decades, OSX/MacOS has been able to coast on the declining experience of using Windows, but with Valve’s heavy investment in Linux with the Steamdeck and Proton resulting in ever-increasing Linux marketshare, MacOS will, at some point in the next few years, not be compared to Windows, but instead to Linux with a major Desktop Environment like KDE Plasma. When that happens, a lot more people are going to realize that a lot of the functionality in MacOS’s Finder feels clunky and limited compared to what the competition offers. Hopefully, Apple’s management has the foresight to see this and prioritize shoring up MacOS’s features.

Performance

Lastly, let’s briefly touch on performance. I don’t think there’s a point in any benchmarks for these machines, because they are already out there but more importantly they mean nothing for day to day usage. So what’s performance like on an M-series MacBook Air? Assuming you aren’t trying to play games, it’s flawless. The most taxing thing I do is music production, and Ableton projects that bring Windows PCs to their knees run like butter, with nary a skip, choppy animation, or dropped millisecond of sound to be found, and everything that’s less intensive is even better than that. This general feeling of smooth performance on a Mac is something that Windows and Linux DEs should learn from: even though KDE Plasma is lightning fast on my 2024 AMD G16, and the G16 is faster overall, it doesn’t feel as consistent and smooth as MacOS on my MacBook Air — and let’s not even embarrass Windows by bringing it into the comparison.

A lot of the excellent feel of MacOS is probably down to years if not decades of precise tweaking of animations, timing, and memory handling by Apple, and it shows in daily use.

Wrap-up: Should you really buy a MacBook (Air) in 2026?

I think the M-series MacBook Airs are a great choice if any one of the following is extremely important to you:

• Portability
• Battery life/efficiency
• Quiet fans
• Smooth, stable, and optimized OS
• Music production
• Integration with iPhones and iPads
• Sound quality

I love the hardware of my 2024 AMD Zephyrus G16 (vulnerability of chassis notwithstanding) and love the performance and customizability of Linux, but for professional music production, the gap between running Ableton Live on a Windows partition and Ableton Live on my MacBook is so superior that I have booted into Windows to use Ableton exactly zero times since getting it up and running. It sounds crazy, but I would rather bring both the G16 and the MBA on a trip than just the G16 and be forced to produce in Windows. It just doesn’t feel right.

Conversely, I think the M-series MacBooks (including the MacBook Pros) are to be avoided if any of the following are extremely important to you:

• Gaming
• User freedom/customizability
• Typing feel (avoid the Airs only, MacBook Pros are okay)
• Repairability/upgradability
• Open-source software
• Software that’s older or otherwise has no ARM version
• Booting multiple OSes

It’s already been a long article, so wrap things up: I tried to dislike using the MacBook Air. I don’t want more laptops lying around. There’s nothing special about the display, it’s got limited storage and ports, a shallow, annoying keyboard, and you can’t play games in a practical sense on it. But the stability, portability, battery life, and music production together create an experience that’s more than the sum of its parts, and together just create an experience that I miss when I don’t have a MacBook around. All of that might change in the future, but for now, it seems like the MacBook Air—even an M1—provides an excellent value.

The article Is the Apple MacBook Air Still Worth It in 2026? appeared first on .

The ROG Zephyrus G16 2026 is an updated version of the previous G16 models we’ve already tested and talked about. It’s still a premium, lightweight 16-inch laptop that delivers some of the best performance possible in this niche.

This series is aimed at those looking at a sleek, high-end laptop with a stunning OLED screen and solid performance for pretty much anything — whether it’s work, creative stuff, or gaming. All packed into a compact, lightweight body, under 2 kilos. Of course, it comes with a premium price tag, especially today, given the realities of 2026.

All in all, the Zephyrus G16 2026 is going head-to-head with the Apple MacBook Pro 16, and other solid Windows options like the Dell XPS 16, Asus ProArt P16, Razer Blade 16, and Lenovo Yoga Pro 9.

Below, I’ve put together my honest, detailed thoughts on this year’s GU606 update — everything you should know before deciding if this notebook is right for you.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GU606 – specs sheet

Design and ergonomics

The 2026 Zephyrus G16 (GU606) and 2025 (GU605) models share the same premium unibody chassis, which is still one of the best-looking and nicest-feeling designs in the high-end Windows laptop space.

Aesthetically, Asus offers the Zephyrus G16 in two colors: a lighter gray (Platinum White) and a darker gray (Eclipse Gray). We have the lighter one here, but I personally prefer the darker version’s overall look and vibe. That one does show smudges easier, though, for what that’s worth.

The build quality is excellent on this CNC unibody aluminum chassis, with a sturdy main deck and little flex in the lid cover. Furthermore, the metal surfaces have a coarser feel to them; they’re not as smooth as on MacBooks, and offer improved grip. The coating could, however, chip over time on the Eclipse Gray color, something to perhaps consider in your decision.

Here are some photos of the Zephyrus G16 chassis in both color options.

And here are some extra shots of the 2026 GU606 model in the light gray (Platinum White).

Both versions feature the Slash Lighting LED bar on the lid. The 2026 model brings an updated version with more control zones — the same number of 35 LEDs, but now each one can be controlled individually, instead of just in groups. That said, I still wish they had ditched it entirely. The lid would look cleaner with a simpler design, like on the ProArt P16, which uses the same chassis but goes for a fully black minimalist look. You can turn the LEDs off, which leaves just the chrome diagonal line on the lid.

Another small upgrade for 2026 is the improved hinges. They now adjust torque throughout the opening motion — softer when you first lift the screen, then progressively tighter to keep it stable at different angles. I didn’t really have issues with the old hinges, so nothing to comment on this matter. However, I do wish there were a notch of some sort on the front lip to make it easier to grab the screen. Furthermore, the maximum opening angle is still limited to about 130 degrees. These things haven’t changed.

This is mostly because the overall chassis layout is the same as before, with the cooling system still placed entirely at the rear. The internal cooling module has been revised, though. More on this in a bit.

Worth noting: Much like in the past, Asus actually offers two slightly different chassis versions for this series. There’s a thinner and lighter one (around 1.85 kg) for the RTX 5060/5070 models, and a slightly heavier one (about 1.95 kg) with a vapor chamber cooling system for the higher-end RTX 5070 Ti / 5080 / 5090 versions. Our configuration is the 5080.

One result of the cooling design is how much space is left on the sides for ports. You’ll find everything you need on a modern laptop: USB-A and USB-C on both sides, HDMI, audio jack, and a fast SD card reader. There’s support for charging on both USB-C ports, so you can plug in a charger from either side. The charging port is still the newer square design that makes the cable annoyingly stick out to the side.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard and touchpad on this 2026 model are identical to the ones on the 2025 version.

That said, the Zephyrus series still delivers one of the best typing experiences in the premium all-rounder laptop segment. I’d even say it beats the MacBook and modern ThinkPads.

The layout is clean and minimalistic — no NumPad or extra keys, just the media controls in the top-left corner that you get on all ROG laptops. Personally, I like this simplified approach, but some of you may find the lack of NumPad a deal breaker.

As for the two color options, the Platinum model has a white keyboard, while the Eclipse version has a gray one that matches the chassis’s color. The darker gray keycaps offer better contrast with the RGB lighting, but it also shows fingerprints more easily.

The RGB lighting is single-zone only, so not per-key, but the LEDs are bright and even. You won’t find fancy features like those on some competitors from Razer, MSI, or Lenovo (such as highlighting the function keys when you press FN or showing secondary functions on Shift). There are no complex lighting effects either. It’s a simpler approach where you can only change the base color. Not great, not terrible.

The touchpad works well most of the time, but it’s just too big — it stretches from just a millimeter below the Space key all the way to a millimeter from the front edge of the chassis.

For normal desk use, the size isn’t really a problem, especially since palm rejection works well. But when using the laptop on your lap, the lack of a clear separation between the touchpad and the front edge can lead to accidental touches from your clothes. It’s pretty annoying on a portable machine that isn’t always going to live on a desk — along with the limited screen opening angle, these aspects interfere with the on-lap use experience.

On the biometrics side, you get an IR camera for face recognition, but there’s no fingerprint sensor in the power button.

16-inch OLED display

The display on this Zephyrus G16 GU606 is one of the biggest positive upgrades compared to the previous models. We’re still getting a non-touch OLED that Asus calls a NEBULA HDR OLED, but a newer generation Samsung OLED panel that’s significantly brighter than before.

It’s a regular OLED, not a Tandem OLED like you get on the ProArt P16. Compared to previous-gen OLEDs, this one delivers higher sustained and peak brightness — hitting 500 nits in SDR and up to 1100 nits in HDR peak. That makes the laptop more usable in bright rooms (despite still being a glossy finish) and noticeably improves HDR quality in supported videos and games. The image shows a window reflecting in the screen, while the content remains well visible, unlike on older OLEDs. At the same time, the Tandem OLEDs implemented on a few other notebooks are still brighter.

Furthermore, since this is non-touch, the content looks clean and neat, and there’s no graininess on solid light backgrounds, like on the touch OLED implementations.

At the same time, this OLED generation keeps the same 2.5K resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, 0.2ms response time, VRR, and G-Sync support, so it’s still excellent for gaming.

Here are the technical specs of this OLED panel on the GU606 refresh:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung ATNA60HU06-0;
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 93.9% AdobeRGB, 99.9% DCI-P3,;
• Measured gamma: 2.18;
• Max SDR brightness in the middle of the screen: 506.41 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6500 K;
• Black on max brightness: ~0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes (to be updated).

And here are the technical specs of the previous-gen OLED panel from the GU605 series:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC41A3 (ATNA60DL01-0);
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 94.3% AdobeRGB, 100% DCI-P3,;
• Measured gamma: 2.2o;
• Max SDR brightness in the middle of the screen: 408.62 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6500 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes.

The usual OLED trade-offs are still present, though — some flickering (though at a frequency that’s not annoying for the eyes – to be confirmed, we don’t have the right tools to properly test this) and potential burn-in if misused. But the technology has matured a lot, and that risk is no longer a major concern.

Hardware and performance -Core Ultra 9, GeForce RTX 5090 dGPU

Our test model is a higher-specced configuration of the 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 refresh, code name GU606AW, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 16GB dGPU, 64 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, and a fast 1 TB gen4 SSDs.

Disclaimer: Our review unit was sent over by Asus. All the results were recorded using the software available in mid-May 2026 (BIOS 301, Armoury Crate 6.5.7.0, and GeForce Studio drivers 596.36).

In terms of specs, this Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 series is built on the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware currently available.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 386H is the top mobile processor in Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 lineup. It’s a hybrid design with 4 high-performance cores, 8 efficiency cores, 4 low-power efficiency cores, and a total of 16 threads. The sustained CPU performance is a slight step up from the Meteor Lake platform used in previous G16 models, and it matches the AMD Ryzen AI 9 hardware found in the ProArt P16. However, Panther Lake’s real advantages come in power efficiency and the extra benefits that come with it — we’ll talk about those shortly.

On the GPU side, the 2026 Zephyrus G16 is available with a range of Nvidia Blackwell GeForce RTX 5000 chips: RTX 5090 24GB and 5080 16GB (160W), 5070 Ti 12GB (140W), or 5070 8GB and 5060 8GB (115W). It’s worth noting that the 5070/5060 models use the lighter chassis with heatpipe cooling, while the 5070 Ti and higher versions come with vapor chamber cooling.

Asus has managed to significantly increase the power limits in Turbo and Performance modes compared to previous generations, which translates into a decent performance boost. But that’s mostly visible on the GPU side.

This chassis still has a MUX switch, G-Sync support on the main display, and either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.

For memory and storage, the laptop features fast onboard LPDDR5x RAM and two M.2 2280 SSD slots. It ships with PCIe Gen4 SSDs from the factory, and from what I understand, both slots only support gen4 speeds, and not the faster gen5 format. Our review unit came with 64 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory and a 1 TB Sandisk Gen4 SSD, which is pretty fast.

On the software side, these laptops come with the standard Armoury Crate suite that you get on all ROG models. It gives you access to power profiles and various settings for the fans, keyboard, audio, OLED screen, and more.

Quite aggressive profiles with high noise levels on Turbo and Manual – Asus mentions a noise target of 46 dBA f0r Turbo, but we measured closer to 47-48 dBA at head level with the laptop raised off the desk.

Performance is a better middle-grounder, and where I’d expect most will keep the laptop on, while the Silent profile is ideal for regular use and gets the ability to idle the fans.

Similar power settings are set for the 5090 variant, while the 5070Ti runs at up to 140W TGP, and the 5060/5070 configurations run at lower levels on both the CPU (up to 70W) and GPU (up to 115W). That means the 5070Ti will run slightly cooler and potentially quieter as well, and that’s also the case for 5060/5070 models, despite those implementing the more basic cooling.

Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Silent profile, unplugged from the wall.

Performance and benchmarks – Core Ultra 9 386H sustained use

With that out of the way, let’s move on to the performance testing.

We’ll start with the Cinebench R15 CPU loop test.

The differences in power allocation and performance for the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor are minor between the power modes available on this Zephyrus. There’s only about a 10% difference between Silent mode (55W) and Turbo mode (75W). The CPU runs hot on all modes, though, at 90+ C, and there’s a difference in fan noise between profiles.

Beyond that, this Cinebench loop test shows just how closely the current mobile laptop platforms are in performance, both Intel and AMD. I didn’t include the Qualcomm options here because the Snapdragon X2 Elite processors aren’t fully compatible with Cinebench R15, and because the Qualcomm hardware is not implemented in similar devices. For what it’s worth, though, the X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme chips are faster in multi-threaded loads and lower power settings and lower temperatures, in devices such as the Zenbook A16. But that’s nowhere near this Zephyrus in GPU capabilities, and software compatibility is still an important criterion when shopping for an AMR-based Windows device.

It’s also worth noting that the performance gains over the latest Intel generations of the Zephyrus G16 2025/2024 are small. On the other hand, Intel’s Core HX hardware is significantly faster in these kinds of heavy loads, but that’s generally used in larger and heavier devices, perhaps except the Lenovo Legion 7. But the Legion 7 is not a match on the GPU side, either, as it can only be specced to a 5070.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in similar findings to what we explained above. We measured ~75 W for Manual, ~70W for Turbo, 60W for Standard and 55W for Whisper.

We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Turbo and Silent profiles, to better showcase the minor gap in performance between these modes.

Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This review unit passes the test both with the laptop flat on the desk and with it raised on a stand to improve airflow underneath the chassis. That’s a notable improvement compared to the previous generations that struggled when kept flat on the desk. We’ll explain why further down.

Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks, on the Turbo profile with the GPU set to Standard mode (Advanced Optimus), and with the screen set at the native 2.5K+ resolution.

All these tests are running on Nvidia Studio drivers.

Here’s what we got:

• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 10479, 16 – 10466, 8 – 6628, 4 – 4252, 2 – 2290, 1– 1184;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 33588 (Graphics – 45661, Physics – 29989, Combined – 11983);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 12461;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 4852;
• 3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad: 4603;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 18672 (Graphics – 19325, CPU – 15672);
• 3DMark 13 – DLSS: DLSS Off – 27.58 fps, DLSS On – 109.47 fps, 297% performance difference.

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 11449;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 30402;

• Aida64 Extreme, memory test – ;
• PCMark 10: 9435 (Essentials – 10342, Productivity – 16387, Digital Content Creation – 13449);
• GeekBench 6.6.0: Multi-core: 17080, Single-Core: 2907;
• GeekBench AI 1.7.0 (ONNX, CPU): Single: 4531, Half: 2014, Quantized: 8418;
• CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 3404 cb, CPU Single Core 321 cb;
• CineBench R23: CPU 21569 pts (best run), CPU 21125 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 2127 pts (best run);
• CineBench 2024: CPU 1283 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 127 pts;
• CineBench 2026: GPU – 83744 pts, CPU Multiple Threads – 4782, CPU Single Core – , CPU Single Thread – 521 pts.

And some work-related tests, on the same Turbo profile.

• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 1m 52s ;
• Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 11.25s (CUDA), 5.76 (Optix);
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 55s;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 21.49s (CUDA), 12.23s (Optix).
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 1m 45s ;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 10.83s (CUDA), 5.65 (Optix);
• Blender 5.1.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 09s;
• Blender 5.1.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 22.16s (CUDA), 11.71 (Optix);

• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax 07: 189.46;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia 06: 97.53;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo 03: 114.55;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 62.98;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya 06: 546.66;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical 03: 56.36;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX 04: 37.18;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW 07: 390.15.

• SPECviewperf 15 – 3DSMax 08: 76.71;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Blender 01: 91.08;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Catia 07: 70.76;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Creo 04: 115.39;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Energy 04: 62.07;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Enscape 01: 64.05;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Maya 07: 203.02;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Medical 04: 55.93;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Solidworks 08: 32.92;
• SPECviewperf 15 – Unreal Engine 01: 83.12;
• V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 14898, CUDA – 2717, RTX –  3892.

On the CPU side, this is a higher-power version of the Core Ultra 9 386H platform, and it delivers the best this processor has to offer. That translates into scores roughly 10% higher than the previous-generation Intel chips (Core Ultra 9 285H and 185H), and it’s about on par with the Ryzen 9 AI HX 370/470 from AMD implemented in the ProArt P16 and other devices. However, the AMD hardware still holds a small performance advantage in certain CPU-heavy workloads like Blender or Specviewperf Medical.

Additionally, Intel’s HX platform, used in some similarly-sized laptops like the Lenovo Legion 7i, is much stronger when it comes to serious processor-intensive tasks.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5080 in this machine runs at up to 135W in Turbo mode and performs really well at that power limit. For comparison, it goes toe-to-toe with the RTX 5090 at 130W in the ProArt P16 and beats the previous-gen Zephyrus G16’s RTX 5090 (120W) by 5-10%. At the same time, it falls ~5-10% behind the RTX 5090 at 155W in the Razer Blade 16 and lags 15-20% behind full-power 175W RTX 5080/5090 implementations, depending on the workload. We covered the ProArt P16, Zephyrus G16, and Blade 16 more indepth in this comparison article.

It’s worth mentioning that graphics performance can increase by up to 10% in Manual mode, which allows the GPU to go up to 160W TGP with Dynamic Boost. However, the fans get a lot louder and internal temperatures run higher.

All in all, this Zephyrus G16 GU606 is one of the fastest Windows laptops under 2 kg we’ve tested so far, with more noticeable gains on the GPU side compared to both the current competition and the previous-generation Zephyrus G16 GU605 models.

Manual mode – higher power, but 52 dBA noise levels

This Zephyrus G16 laptop runs at around 46-48 dB on the Turbo profile, which is acceptably loud on this sort of computer. Manual mode allows for higher CPU and GPU power settings, but with higher fan noise and overall temperatures.

Still, if you want to squeeze the best performance out of this device and you’re okay with using headphones to cover up the fan noise, here are the benchmark results for this profile.

We maxed out the CPU/GPU settings and maxed out the fans for these tests.

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 11158, 16 – 11124, 8 – 8065, 4 – 4815, 2 – 2458, 1 – 1239;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 30776 (Graphics – 35844, Physics – 33716, Combined – 14047);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 8560;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 19921 (Graphics – 21001, CPU – 15429);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 12510;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 21328 cb, CPU Single Core 2129 cb;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 54s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 190.86;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 102.76;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 565.22;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 37.42;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 401.99.

The CPU performance doesn’t change significantly for this profile, while on the GPU side, we’re looking at 5-10% gains in some scores, due to the higher TGP possible here (up to 160W  – more like 150W in reality, vs. up to 135W on Turbo). However, the gains are minor for mixed sustained loads, as showcased by the Blender and Specviewperf tests.

Overall, not a profile I’d consider, given the noise, thermals, and limited performance gains.

Performance mode – mid level, at ~42-43 dBA

This Zephyrus G16 laptop runs at around 46-48 dB on the Turbo profile. Performance mode keeps fans quieter around 42-43 dBA, with still solid capabilities.

Here’s how this 2026 Zephyrus G16 GU606 scored on the Performance profile:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10353, 16 – 10509, 8 – 6557, 4 – 4236, 2 – 2240, 1 – 1177;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 34506 (Graphics – 47606, Physics – 30204, Combined – 12107);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 11431;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 17138 (Graphics – 17468, CPU – 15483);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 9762;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 20425 cb, CPU Single Core 2126 cb;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 14s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 177.64;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 93.42;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 522.64;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 36.45;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 364.66.

We’re looking at 90-95% of the CPU scores on Turbo, due to the small difference in TDP settings between profiles.

On the GPU side, this profile scores about 80-90% of Turbo mode.

A fair mid-level profile.

Silent Mode – still fast, and quieter at sub 35 dBA

Silent mode is quieter at sub-35dBA. Here’s how the laptop scores on this profile.

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 10065, 16 – 9996, 8 – 6056, 4 – 3885, 2 – 2115, 1 – 1116;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 27222 (Graphics – 33373, Physics – 29169, Combined – 10967);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 7344;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10510 (Graphics – 10011, CPU – 14660);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 6624;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 19588 cb, CPU Single Core 2082 cb;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 17s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 155.07;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 82.85;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 469.57;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 35.47;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 316.61.

The CPU performance is excellent, still at around 90% of Turbo mode.

The GPU, however, performs at about 55-60% of Turbo mode, due to the aggressive power limit. This is a fair profile for general use, but not ideal for GPU-intensive tasks.

Performance Mode on PD power

PD power on this Zephyrus G16 isn’t meant for sustained loads, as the system can only pull 100W of power via USB-C. However, here’s what we got on Performance mode hooked up via a 100W USB-C PD charger:

• 3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 9385, 16 – 9313, 8 – 6372, 4 – 4255, 2 – 2276, 1 – 1180;
• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 25051 (Graphics – 29268, Physics – 26937, Combined – 11462);
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 5878;
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10336 (Graphics – 9914, CPU – 13632);
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 6172;
• CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 18851 cb, CPU Single Core 2123 cb;
• Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 35s.
• SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 121.45;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 71.63;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 412.29;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 34.94;
• SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 261.97.

The CPU performance is excellent, about on par with Silent mode plugged in and at about 90% of Turbo mode plugged in.

However, on the GPU side, the performance is about 50% of what Turbo mode plugged in. Still decent, all things considered.

Overall, this mode is adequate for general multitasking, and it can handle heavier tasks if needed, within reason. However, there’s no power passthrough for this mode, and the system pulls off the battery with heavier mixed loads.

Gaming performance – Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 + GeForce RTX 5080

With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this ROG Zephyrus G16 handles modern games.

We tested a couple of different games on the various available profiles at the native QHD+ (2560 x 1600 px) resolution, with the Nvidia GPU set on Ultimate dGPU mode.

For consistency with other reviews, the laptop is raised off the desk. I also kept the laptop on Studio drivers and haven’t changed to Game Ready drivers for the gaming tests – doing that might change the results in some games, but to a minor degree.

Here are the results:

• Black Myth, Cyberpunk, Horizon FW – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
• Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings.

All games run great on this machine, and even Silent mode is surprisingly competitive. DLSS helps a lot, especially in titles that support DLSS 4.0+ and MFG.

Just as a side note, the gaming performance you get here is still around 80% of what you’d get on a full-size, full-power laptop with Intel/Ryzen HX hardware and a 175W RTX 5080. But those machines are bulkier — think ROG Strix G16, Scar 16, or Legion Pro 7i.

At the same time, these results are seriously impressive for such a portable machine, even in Turbo mode. Somehow, in some cases, it even beats the RTX 5090 configurations we tested last year on the previous Zephyrus G16 and even in the Razer Blade 16.

Let’s go over some logs for the various profiles.

First, Turbo mode with the laptop flat on the desk. The laptop runs hot in this mode, with temperatures in the 88-95 °C on the GPU and 85-87 °C on the GPU, at the throttling limit. The performance, at least, is not impacted in significant ways.

Bumping the laptop off the desk to increase airflow underneath the chassis and into the fans allows these internal temperatures to drop by a few degrees. We measured 80-85°C on the CPU and 75-82 °C on the GPU between the tested titles. Still high, but acceptable for a device of this kind.

Then there’s Manual mode that allows you to max out the CPU/GPU and the fans’ speeds. That means the fan noise jumps from around 46-48 dBA to 52+ dBA for this mode. We measured ~80°C on the CPU and ~85 °C on the GPU with these settings, due to the extra power pushed into the hardware.

This Manual mode does translate into 5-10% higher framerates as well, but that’s hardly justified all other things considered.

Performance mode allows the laptop to run a little quieter (42-43 dBA) and cooler, while the framerates take an acceptable 10% hit compared to Turbo mode. We measured ~80°C on the CPU and ~80 °C on the GPU on this mode, with the laptop off the desk.

Finally, there’s Silent mode, which keeps the fan noise under 35 dBA and delivers about 60% of the gaming performance possible on Turbo. Which is still fine for most titles, especially once you enable DLSS.

We measured ~75°C on the CPU and sub-70 °C on the GPU in this mode.

Gaming on PD power is possible and offers framerates on par with Silent mode plugged in via the main charger. However, the system slowly pulls off the battery ontop of the PD power, and thus you can only expect about 2-3 hours of gameplay in this scenario.

That’s still better than the about 1 hour possible when running games straight on battery power.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

As I mentioned earlier, Asus uses different cooling systems depending on the configuration. The one we’re testing here is the more advanced version meant for the RTX 5070 Ti / 5080 / 5090 models. It features two fans, two radiators, and a vapor chamber over the main components.

Even though it might not look similar to the previous-gen cooling module at first glance, the vapor chamber has increased in capacity, and the fans now move more air. These improvements allow the hardware to run at higher power limits.

Here’s the vapor-chamber cooling design on the previous GU605 series, for comparison.

Furthermore, the RTX 5060 / 5070 versions use a simpler cooling system with three fans, two radiators, and regular heat pipes (the image below shows the previous generation, but the 2026 implementation is similar).

Overall, the laptop still runs quite hot in the higher power modes, especially in Turbo and Manual. I recommend lifting it off the desk during long sessions to help with airflow underneath.

As for noise levels, I measured:

• 52 dBA in Manual mode
• 46-48 dBA in Turbo
• 42-43 dBA in Performance
• Under 35 dBA in Silent

In everyday use, the laptop is quiet and comfortable to the touch. The fans stay off most of the time in Silent mode, but they run at low speeds in Performance and Turbo. So if you really want a silent experience, you’ll need to switch to Silent mode.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Silent profile,  fans at ~0 dBA

During heavy tasks and gaming, the internals get hot, but the areas you actually touch stay comfortable — usually around 33–37°C.

Performance mode gives similar chassis temperatures but a bit less noise, while Manual mode is louder than Turbo and runs hotter, but gives a relative extra boost in GPU performance.

*Gaming – Performance, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~42-43 dB
*Gaming – Turbo, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~46-48 dB
*Gaming – Manual, raised off desk – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~52 dB

Connectivity is handled by an Intel BE211 solution, offering Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. It performs well in pretty much every scenario.

The audio system uses six speakers, and the sound quality on this series is excellent for a laptop. It’s loud, clear, and powerful — easily on the same level as the MacBook Pro 16. In the Windows world, the Zephyrus and ProArt series are still among the best when it comes to audio.

The webcam, placed above the screen, offers a decent FHD sensor in good lighting, but it struggles in low light. Asus really needs to upgrade the webcam modules — the competition is ahead in this area. It does include an IR sensor for facial recognition.

Battery life

There’s a 90Wh battery inside this laptop, fair sized for its format and weight.

Here’s what we got on our review unit in terms of battery life, with the laptop on Standard GPU mode in Armoury Crate, Best Battery Efficiency in Windows power settings, and the screen set at a brightness of around 120 nits (~50% brightness).

• 8-11 W (~8-11 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 7-8 W (~11-13 h of use) – 4K fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 6-7 W (~12-15 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 9-13 W (~7-10 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON.

The Panther Lake hardware platform brings a major efficiency boost compared to most other Windows laptop platforms right now — including current Ryzen chips and previous-generation Intel processors. The battery life you get in everyday use is genuinely impressive and gets close to what ARM platforms offer, including the Apple M5 Pro.

For comparison, here’s what I got on the 2025 Intel-based Zephyrus G16 configuration.

• 12 W (~7-8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 12-15 W (~6-8 h of use) – 4K fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 12-15 W (~6-8 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;
• 20-25 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON.

For comparison, here’s what I got on the 2025/2026 AMD-based ProArt P16 configuration.

• 10-15 W (6-9 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Whisper Mode, screen at 40%, WiFi ON;
• 10-12 W (~7-9 h of use) – 4K fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 40%, WiFi ON;
• 10-12 W (~7-9 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 40%, WiFi ON;
• 12-20 W (~5-9 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Whisper Mode, screen at 40%, WiFi ON.

This configuration ships with a 250W charger, a dual-piece design with long cables, mid-sized by today’s standards. It comes with Asus’s square plug that sticks to the side.

There’s a smaller 200W charger on the 5060/5070 configurations.

USB-C charging is supported as well, up to 100W. PD is meant for everyday multitasking, but not for sustained loads. Here’s a comparison of the main 250W charger and a 100W ROG USB-C PD charger.

Price and availability- Asus ROG Zephyrus G16

The 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is available across the world at the time of this article.

You can find it in a multitude of variants (I’ve listed the prices for US, Germany, and UK, where available), mostly for the 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD variants:

• Zephyrus G16 GU606AX – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5090 24GB – $5499, €5999 – with 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD;
• Zephyrus G16 GU606AW – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5080 16GB – from $3999, €4499, £3899 (higher with 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD);
• Zephyrus G16 GU606AR – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5070Ti 12GB – from $3499, €3499, £3299;
• Zephyrus G16 GU606AP – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5070 8GB ?? (or 12 GB ??) – from €3199;
• Zephyrus G16 GU606AM – Core Ultra 9 386H, RTX 5060 8GB – not yet available.

Mind-boggling prices, but on par with similar-level 2026 versions of the Asus ProArt P16 or Razer Blade 16. The lower-tier specs, however, are not yet available, and they are for the Blade 16 or for the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i. I’d reckon Asus should offer those in the near future as well.

In the meantime, last year’s Zephyrus G16 GU605 sells for about $700-$1500 less, if you can still find it in stores. BestBuy still offer a 5080 version for under 3K, a 5070Ti for around 2.5K, and a 5070 for 1.5K. You do get a better display, higher-power and more efficient hardware, and better cooling for the 2026 refresh, but the price gap between generations is still insane.

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Final thoughts- 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU606 series review

The Zephyrus G16 GU606 2026 might seem like much of an update over the previous G16 GU605 models, at least at first glance. Once you dig a little deeper, though, a couple of aspects stand out:

• the newer gen OLED is brighter than before, and that especially makes the laptop more usable in bright light environments; it also helps with HDR content, but for me, that’s only a secondary benefit;
• the Panther Lake hardware allows this laptop to run very efficiently on battery power, offering way longer runtimes than before;
• the same Panther Lake hardware offers a minor boost in sustained performance, and still performs excellently on the quieter Performance and Silent modes at lower noise levels;
• the GPUs run at higher power on all modes, although the overall gains in performance are within 10% across the various profiles;
• the cooling module has been revised to allow the higher power settings.

Now, the GU606 doesn’t generally run cooler than the previous Gu605 variants, given the power limits were increased, but that means there’s room for customization options in Manual mode or with GHelper, with potentially an excellently balanced custom profile at sub 40 dBA noise levels that still offers excellent performance in this format. That’s not offered by the default profiles, since Performance mode runs at 42-44 dBA, and Silent mode is sub 35dBA, but with limited capabilities. Here’s where I think this hardware and cooling combo would excel.

All else remains about equal between the two G16 generations. The 2026 Zephyrus G16 is still a solid premium 16-inch laptop, still weighs less than 2 kilos, still offers excellent inputs, IO, display, and audio. There are still some ergonomic details that could be improved, but they’re not real deal breakers.

At the same time, the pricing for 2026 laptops is insane. And not just for this Zephyrus, but for every Windows option in this space. However, with Asus mostly offering this 2026 G16 in 5070Ti-5090 variants for now, the price tags are even more staggering.

That being the case, if you don’t need a high-level GPU, the 5060/5070 options should be the target for most users. At that level, the competition includes the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i, the Razer Blade 16, the Asus ProArt P16, and perhaps the Dell XPS 16 to a lesser extent, since that’s a lower-power GPU implementation. On top of these, the latest Apple MacBook Pro 16s with the M5 Pro/Max hardware are surely alternatives to consider in this space, especially since nowadays the Windows models no longer have a price advantage over the Macs. How things have changed over the years.

Anyway, that wraps up my time with the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU606 series. A solid offer in the premium lightweight 16-inch segment, while selling for an arm and a leg. Looking for your thoughts and feedback down below in the comments section.

The article Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 detailed review (2026 GU606 – Intel Panther Lake, RTX 5080) appeared first on .

This is a refreshed iteration of the 2025 Scar 18 chassis, with slightly updated specs, a new 4K miniLED display, and a revamped cooling module. Asus implement a tick-tock approach with their lineups, with a major revamp every two years, and a more minor refinement in the meantime. This is the refinement, but it isn’t as minor as it might first appear.

Thus, this Scar 18 is still an 18-inch full-size laptop, but thicker and heavier than the previous generation, in order to accommodate an updated, beefier cooling module that makes a whole lot of difference in games and with sustained workloads. This allows for higher sustained power settings under load, especially on the CPU, and cooler thermals with mixed loads. Otherwise, the CPU is the only refreshed hardware spec, with this generation built on the latest Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus Arrow Lake Refresh processor, while everything else remains about the same: up to RTX 5090 175W 24GB, 2x RAM and 2x SSD gen5 slots.

Furthermore, Asus updated the display on this 2026 Scar 18, opting for a higher-resolution 4K 240Hz display, which replaces the 2.5K 240Hz display used before. Both are mini LED panels, with dimming zones.

With that in mind, let’s get to the review. I’ve used this laptop for more than a month, and be aware that I’ve tested all Scar models available over the years, and I’m still using an older Scar 18  as my daily work laptop, so I am more familiar with the particularities and the quirks of this series than most others on the Internet.

Specs sheet as reviewed – 2026 Asus ROG Scar 18 G835 gaming laptop

This ROG SCAR 18 G835LXG is the top-specced configuration for this 2026 model year. An RTX 5080 variant is available as well, as the Scar 18 G835LWG.

Design and construction

This Scar 18 2026 generation is still a full-size and heavy 18-inch laptop, in fact thicker and heavier than the 2025 variant – this is up to 35 mm thick and ~3.7 kg, while the previous one was up to 32 mm thick and 3.3 kg. Nonetheless, this 2026 generation is about on par with general size and weight with other top options in its space, such as the Lenovo Legion 9i 18 and the MSI Titan 18.

Furthermore, the reasoning behind these updates is the refreshed cooling module, with higher-capacity fans, larger heatsinks, and a thicker vapor chamber. This cooling module allows for higher crossload sustained power in demanding loads, but the more important change is the ability to run the hardware at higher power and lower thermals with games and taxing chores on the more balanced profiles. We’ll discuss these in the appropriate section below.

These aside, the 2026 and 2025 Scar 18s look and feel about the same. I’ll refer you to my previous article for indepth thoughts on the design, construction and ergonomics.

In fewer words, this is a black laptop with a plastic main frame and a metal lid. It feels solid and premium all around, but the black surfaces smudge easily. Having a plastic interior might not sound great, but it’s a good quality plastic, and this approach allows for cooler chassis temperatures with games. My main nit is still with the rather sharp front-lip, especially as this generation sits even taller from the desk than the previous one – you’ll need a large desk to provide proper arm support with this machine.

There’s plenty of RGB here, with a ROG logo on the lid and a lightbar that goes alongside the entire main chassis. They can be controlled and tweaked in the settings, with the ability to switch them off if you want to. There’s also the AnimeMatrix array on the lid, which I mostly consider an unnecessary gimmick, and which can also be controlled/turned off in Armoury Crate.

Otherwise, ergonomics are decent, with still a limited screen opening angle and ports available on the sides, as the rear part is entirely reserved for cooling.

The IO is fairly solid, with plenty of the needed ports. However, there’s still no card reader and the USB-Cs are both placed on the left edge, where in fact you’ll find most of the other ports. The right side is mostly filled by air intake grills.

Still not a fan of the refreshed power plug with the updated square plug with the straight-on cable – the previous rounded design on my 2023/2024 Scar with the 90-degree plug was way more convenient as it allowed me to easily route the cable to the back of the laptop.

Here’s how the two compare, with the new variant at the bottom.

Overall, the ergonomics of this series are still somewhat hit and miss. I like the cleaner looks of the newer generations compared to my older unit, but I dislike the new charger cable, while the screen angle and the IO would benefit from refinements. As to how this Scar 18 compares to its main rivals (Lenovo Legion 9i, MSI Titan 18) in terms of construction and ergonomics, I’d say it holds up well, as each option comes with its own set of quirks. Nonetheless, that’s a topic for a more detailed comparison article.

I’ll leave you with some side-by-side pictures of my Scar 18 2023 (right) and this newer generation (left).

Keyboard and touchpad – still excellent

Inputs haven’t changed between the 2025 and 2026 Scar 18 iterations, and are among the best in the segment: you don’t get any fancy tech here, just simple things done right.

Having used my Scar 18 daily for years now, I’m most likely already accustomed to the layout and general feel of this Asus keyboard, although the feedback on this newer generation is a little different, with the actuations requiring a firmer press. Nonetheless, overall this is an excellent rubber-dome keyboard.

The layout includes the extra keys at the top-left, full-size arrows, and a NumPad section, although this is a somewhat weirder non-standard design that some might not appreciate.

Other than that, keep in mind these plastic black keycaps smudge quite easily, and so does the black frame in between the keys. So you’ll need to wipe this clean often.

The keys are RGB backlit, with bright LEDs and per-key control. The Aura software that controls RGB on this laptop takes some time to understand, but gets things done, with control over the entire keyboard, various effects, and control over the RGB logo on the lid and RGB lightbar around the main deck. Furthermore, you can always replace the entire control software with G-Helper, which keeps things even simpler.

The touchpad is a large matte glass surface, larger than on my older unit, but still with enough spacing at the top and bottom to prevent any misclicks or swipes. Palm rejection works fine, so I didn’t run into any issues with the size of this thing. The general use experience is fine as well, although the physical clicks are a little stiffer than on my Scar.

I complained about that last year as well, when I couldn’t quite adapt to the touchpad experience and use it as consistently as the smaller touchpad on my Scar. But things have been refined with this generation, to the point where I could use the laptop daily without a mouse, just like I do with my Scar – yes, I use the touchpad for everyday tasks, without a mouse.

Finally, biometrics: there’s IR support with the main camera. I don’t have any biometrics on my older Scar.

Screen – updated 4K mini LED panel

The display on the 2026 Scar 18 is an updated mini LED panel with 4K 3840 x 2400 px resolution, 2000+ dimming zones, 240Hz refresh and 3ms response times, and a refined anti-glare low reflection coating. Asus still calls it an ROG Nebula HDR display, but it’s improved in several ways over the 2.5K panel in the 2025 Scar, and in fact over the options offered by its main competitors – 4K 120Hz miniLED with fewer zones on the MSI Titan 18, 2.5K IPS dual-spec on the Legion 9i, 2.5k IPS on the Alienware 18 Area-51.

The resolution and refresh-rate pairing are unique for this laptop – just keep in mind that by default the screen works at 120Hz, and you can only set it at 240Hz by switching the GPU to its Ultimate dGPU mode.

As for the anti-glare coating, it features what Asus calls the ROG AGLR (anti-glare low reflection) technology that keeps reflections in check without muting the colors/contrast in the same way as most other matte coatings. Having used this next to my older Scar, I’d say this implementation is a jack of both worlds, as it’s still rather shiny in bright-light spaces, but keeps the colors more vivid and punchier than on my older display variant.

Finally, this is also the first display to implement the ROG ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) technology, which uses an updated backlighting strobing technology meant to reduce blur and improve motion clarity. This technology works alongside GSync, to further prevent any stuttering or screen tearing. In real life, this tech matters in competitive fast-paced gaming.

These aside, you can still set this screen to One-zone or Multi-zone lighting from the settings, with two multi-zone options: Balanced and Strong. One-zone works as a good-quality IPS with consistent backlighting and uniformity. Multi-zone lighting activates zone dimming and can be considered for video streaming and gaming, with the Strong setting pushing brightness and contrast higher. Furthermore, you can enable HDR from Windows, when the laptop is plugged in. All these affect the way content is perceived with daily use and games/videos.

However, my testing setup still doesn’t work on this mini LED panel, just like on the previous-gen one, so I can’t give you the usual exact readings.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is the top-specced configuration of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 2026, code name G835LXG, built on an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, an Nvidia Blackwell RTX 5090 24GB dGPU, 128 GB of DDR5-6400 memory and 2 TB of fairly fast SSD storage.

Disclaimer: Our review unit was sent over by Asus. All results were recorded using the software available as of late-June 2026 (BIOS 304, Armoury Crate 6.5.7.0/Ghelper 0.260.0, and GeForce Game Ready drivers 610.62). By default, the system runs on Armoury Crate, but I’ve also run some tests on GHelper to see if that can impact things, especially on the lower-tier power profiles and when using the laptop on battery power.

Spec-wise, this 2026 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 lineup is built on the latest and most powerful Intel and Nvidia mobile hardware available as of mid-2026.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is the top mobile processor in Intel’s Arrow Lake HX Refresh platform, with 24 Cores and 24 Threads.

Much like past Core i9 HX processors, this is still a hybrid design with 8 High-Performance Cores (Lion Cove) and 16 Efficiency Cores (Skymont), which work together or separately in the various activities. The updates from the Core Ultra 9 275HX in the previous-year Scar 18 are minor, but this generation can run the CPU at higher sustained TDP: up to 240W on Manual and 200W on Turbo, compared to around 150W in similar tasks in the previous generation. That’s due to the updated cooling module, which we’ll discuss more indepth further down.

For the GPU, the 2026 Scar 18 series is available only with top-level Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 chips, either 5090 24GB or 5080 16 GB, both running at up to 175W with Dynamic Boost. This configuration is the RTX 5090.

There’s still a MUX on this chassis, GSync support on the main display, as well as either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.

For memory and storage, the laptop comes with two accessible memory DIMMs and two M.2 2280 SSD gen5 slots. This review unit bundles 128 GB of DDR5-6400 memory and an SK Hynix PC801 2 TB SSD. Asus mostly ship their units with gen4 drivers, but you could either upgrade to a faster gen5, or configure the laptop with gen5 SSDs at specific third-party sellers in some markets. I’ll also add that lower-tier configurations, generally those with only 32 GB of RAM, might ship with a single RAM stick – that’s just something to keep in mind, as a single-stick means single-channel memory with some potential performance limitations in demanding loads.

Accessing and upgrading components (SSDs, RAM) is a tool-less process with this chassis. You slide a latch to unlock the back panel, and then just slide the panel up and away. Inside, the SSDs are held in place with Q-latches instead of regular screws, and there’s unrestricted access to the RAM slots. Of course, you’d have to further take out the back chassis for access to the motherboard, speakers, or the battery.

Specs aside, Asus offer their standard power profiles in the Armoury Crate control app: Silent, Performance, Turbo, and Manual, with various power settings and fan profiles between them, summarized in the following table.

As mentioned earlier, CPU TDP settings are higher than on past Scar generations, both on the Turbo and on the Manual profiles. And that’s while the fan noise levels are being pegged around the same limits.

Overall, versatile multi-functional profiles, with Performance mode being especially interesting for serious capabilities without crazy fan noise.

Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Silent profile, unplugged from the wall.