I was high on the Asus Zenbook A14 and A16 with Snapdragon X2 Elite — then something very weird happened to the price

Opinion
By published

I worked in PR for 10 years — something smells off

Asus Zenbook A14 and A16
(Image credit: Future)

So I posted my Asus Zenbook A14 and A16 review yesterday and gave them four stars — in particular because of that price-to-performance ratio. Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme really shined at the costs set for them, and really made for formidable competition to the M5 MacBook Air. It generated a wave of Editor’s Choice awards (including one from me), but then something odd happened.

A few hours after the embargo, Asus sent an update saying Best Buy made an “error” in its “pricing information,” and had increased the A14 by $200 and the A16 by $100.

Everybody had based their reviews based on these initial prices, and hours later, these laptops (in particular the A14) were switched from a potential MacBook killer to just another premium laptop. These have now moved from a “must buy” to “wait for a sale.”

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Luckily, as a writer, I can go back and adjust the score with new context (which I did). But YouTubers aren’t so lucky, and keen to figure out what happened here, I went investigating because something feels amiss.

The end-of-day email grenade

Asus Zenbook A14 and A16

(Image credit: Future)

If you’ve ever worked in corporate America (or the U.K. for that matter), you’ll know about the nightmare scenario of a 5:30pm email — the info drop that comes just as you’re supposed to clock off.

Normally, it’s something you pretend you didn’t read and head straight for the exit (sorry, boss), but this changed the dimension of my review entirely. It was from Asus, and rather than just summarize it, I’ll give you the text verbatim:

"We were just notified by Best Buy that an error was made on their end when sharing pricing information for the new Zenbook A series and other Zenbook launches internally and publicly on their website. The correct prices for all models are listed below (and updated in the attached press release):

Best Buy is updating their website to reflect these prices as soon as possible."

Asus apologised for the “late notice regarding this matter,” and as that price hike puts the A14 and A16 further out the MacBook Air’s radar in terms of competing, I’ve changed my review accordingly.

But there’s something I don’t get about this — something that bugs me…

A peek behind the curtains

Time for a bit of inside baseball about the process of reviewing laptops. We get advance sight of upcoming launches and offered a chance to test them for a full review. Alongside it comes a reviewer’s guide and embargoed press releases with the details that we need to evaluate them.

Asus press release

Screenshot from the original press release I received (Image credit: Asus)

For the week running up to this embargo lifting, these prices were clear as day. They were even present a little earlier than the embargo on Best Buy, as Videocardz reported.

And in the statement, Asus (the company who makes the laptop and sets the MSRP) is saying that Best Buy (the company who takes that MSRP and decides the retail price) got it wrong? Something doesn’t add up about this.

Disclaimer

Context: These versions of the A14 and A16 are exclusive to Best Buy — this relationship usually means Asus recommends a price based on parts, labor and profit margin, and the retailer with the exclusive has final say on the price.

Before this job, I worked in product PR and marketing for just over a decade, and the golden rule is to always sign things off before they go out. You check it, and you recheck it again and again. It can be a real pain to do so, but every fact needs to be completely accurate.

Asus will have seen these releases in the run up to the embargo lifting, including the pricing information. But it’s only now that the company is “just notified by Best Buy” about wrong pricing? Once again, it’s just not adding up.

Asus and Best Buy respond

Asus Zenbook A14 and A16

(Image credit: Future)

I reached out to both Asus and Best Buy for comment on this, to clarify the confusion around this situation.

"Best Buy determines pricing on their exclusive configurations. The pricing reflected in our press materials was based on information shared with us prior to launch. We were notified of the pricing update after embargo lifted and our assets had already been distributed," an Asus rep told Tom's Guide.

"Once we were notified of the change, we worked to update reviewers and press as quickly as possible."

Best Buy corroborated this by confirming to Tom's Guide that a "system error" occurred. Asus admitted the timing was "poor" and apologized for the inconsistent pricing. While this explains the who, it still leaves the how unanswered: how a price discrepancy this large (up to 35%) could sit on a major retailer’s website for a week without being caught by the manufacturer’s own PR and marketing teams.

What I think may be happening here

Asus Zenbook A14 and A16

(Image credit: Future)

Which leads me to the ultimate question: what happened? While the replies do shed some light, it doesn’t negate that pricing was fully visible for a while. So one of two theories may be true in my opinion:

  • This was a legitimate breakdown in Asus’ chain of communication that meant these retailer prices went unchecked.
  • Asus shared its recommended MSRP, which Best Buy followed — then raised it after the embargo.

If you’re seeing the coverage elsewhere, people have already made their minds up that Asus/Best Buy waited until after reviews pour out to hike the price, and I have been burnt by other companies like this in the past. But the replies I received suggest otherwise, so you'll have to decide what you think is true here.

But let’s take a look at the track record, because Asus has been one of the more prominent companies being hit very hard by RAMageddon. The company did warn of price increases at the beginning of the year, and the end result (for some of my Asus reviews at least) has been that their laptops could’ve been great…if they were priced right for what you get.

Let me be clear — this isn’t me being accusatory of anything! The responses from Asus and Best Buy do line up, so it could be a legitimate error. But the more you look into this and think about it, it starts to raise questions about internal validation for pricing before a major global launch.

And who knows? Maybe this will become less of a problem when the cracks in the RAM price crisis start to widen.

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Jason England
Jason England
Managing Editor — Computing

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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