This laptop’s screen is so good I've stopped using my 77-inch OLED TV
My colossal LG OLED can’t get a look-in thanks to a 14.5-inch screen I’ve fallen in love with
The LG C2 OLED is by far the best TV I’ve ever owned. I love this phenomenal 4K display so much, I own two of them — a 77-incher in my living room, and a slightly more restrained 48-inch model in my home office. And you know what? I’ve barely used that goliath in my front room for the past month.
Admittedly, part of the reason I’ve shunned my main LG C2 is because I was on holiday in Hawaii for three weeks. My barbecued Scottish skin says “aloha!”. Yet since I’ve come back, my colossal OLED has hardly been switched on.
You can blame the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED and its stunning screen for this.
I've been testing Asus’ lovely laptop — look out for our review soon — and I can honestly say it’s got the most impressive screen I’ve ever seen. It’s an absolute stunner. Though its resolution is only 2.8K (2880 x 1880), my eyes are besotted with how it handles color and contrast.
Right now, you’re probably wondering just how many sandwiches short of a picnic I really am. After all, why oh why would I shun one of the best OLED TVs around (and a gargantuan one at that) for a laptop with a screen that is only 14.5-inches?
Screen queen
Screen uniformity, that’s why. To be more specific, the Zenbook 14X OLED might just have the best gray uniformity I’ve seen on any display.
But what the hell is screen uniformity? In basic terms, it’s a way of determining how even the image a screen produces is. Even the best laptops, monitors and TVs can be plagued by bad screen uniformity if parts of their panels are brighter than others.
How does this manifest while web browsing, watching movies or playing games? Sections of the screen will show darker patches, often around the edges of the panel. In other instances, the center of the picture may look slightly darker than the rest of the action occuring on-screen.
A/V obsessives often refer to bad screen uniformity as ‘Dirty Screen Effect’. This panel flaw is most evident when watching content with a lot of fast panning movement — sports like ice hockey and soccer can show off DSE in ruthless fashion.
I’ve lost the run of myself obsessing over Dirty Screen Effect down the years. So much so, I must have sent back at least a dozen TVs during their return windows because my tormented eyeballs loathe a display defect the vast majority of people will never notice. And yes, I’ve almost certainly been blacklisted by every major UK retailer for my ludicrous returns history.
Picture perfect
Not that I have to worry about DSE with the Zenbook 14X OLED. From my extensive testing of this laptop, its screen is damn near perfectly uniform. This makes it an absolute dream to game on. Panning the camera across the pristine blue skies of Rime’s idyllic island can mercilessly root out bad screen uniformity on lesser displays, but on the 14X OLED’s panel, they’re utterly consistent.
I appreciate the 14X OLED’s perfectly balanced screen so much, I’ve found myself popping back for a second playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 on Asus’ laptop rather than revisit CD Projekt Red’s underrated RPG on my Nvidia RTX 4090-powered desktop.
Sure, performance is nowhere near as good (even with Nvidia DLSS enabled), but I’m not complaining when the 14X’s screen produces such wonderfully punchy, vibrant and oh-so-uniform images.
I’m already dreading having to send the Zenbook back to Asus in the next few days, such is my head over heels love for its stunning OLED screen.
What will I do without it? I guess I’ll just have to… ahem, ‘settle’ for one of the best TVs ever made.
The LG C2 OLED may have the best screen uniformity I’ve seen in any TV, but even the best television I’ve ever owned can’t quite compete with the 14X’s perfectly pristine display.
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Dave is a computing editor at Tom’s Guide and covers everything from cutting edge laptops to ultrawide monitors. When he’s not worrying about dead pixels, Dave enjoys regularly rebuilding his PC for absolutely no reason at all. In a previous life, he worked as a video game journalist for 15 years, with bylines across GamesRadar+, PC Gamer and TechRadar. Despite owning a graphics card that costs roughly the same as your average used car, he still enjoys gaming on the go and is regularly glued to his Switch. Away from tech, most of Dave’s time is taken up by walking his husky, buying new TVs at an embarrassing rate and obsessing over his beloved Arsenal.
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Looming Dementia It sounds like you really, really, really learned the wrong lesson from this. Gaming laptops are weak as hell, particularly in the RTX 40-series, for some reason. An RTX 4070ti (real version) beats the RTX 4070ti (laptop version) by nearly a 2 to 1 ratio. The laptop version is pathetic.Reply
And you pay more for the weaker versions of the various parts. There are good reasons to go with a gaming laptop. Your argument in this article isn't one of them.
You failed to replace your motherboard when you replaced your CPU. You should generally do that. You want the newer, faster motherboard to properly make use of your new RTX 4090, too.
And check your power supply. That might have screwed you, too.
Okay, so you aren't very good at assembling your own computers. Fine. There's no shame in that. But that's an argument for buying a pre-built desktop, not a laptop.
Hell, I am good at assembling my own computers. I bought my current one pre-built, though. I got a great deal on an Alienware machine that is freaking beautiful. And it'll blow that laptop out of the water by something like a 5 to 3 ratio on the frame rate with the same settings.
Seriously, push people towards pre-built desktops, not laptops. -
Eclecticism
I agree this company needs to fire these "tech gurus" with no clue how computers work. I'm about to apply for a job at Tom's guide and try to get rid of these misinformation speading "staff memebers"Looming Dementia said:It sounds like you really, really, really learned the wrong lesson from this. Gaming laptops are weak as hell, particularly in the RTX 40-series, for some reason. An RTX 4070ti (real version) beats the RTX 4070ti (laptop version) by nearly a 2 to 1 ratio. The laptop version is pathetic.
And you pay more for the weaker versions of the various parts. There are good reasons to go with a gaming laptop. Your argument in this article isn't one of them.
You failed to replace your motherboard when you replaced your CPU. You should generally do that. You want the newer, faster motherboard to properly make use of your new RTX 4090, too.
And check your power supply. That might have screwed you, too.
Okay, so you aren't very good at assembling your own computers. Fine. There's no shame in that. But that's an argument for buying a pre-built desktop, not a laptop.
Hell, I am good at assembling my own computers. I bought my current one pre-built, though. I got a great deal on an Alienware machine that is freaking beautiful. And it'll blow that laptop out of the water by something like a 5 to 3 ratio on the frame rate with the same settings.
Seriously, push people towards pre-built desktops, not laptops.
100% this is an arguement to be had for what to buy pre-built. Not laptops. I got a gaming laptop, 3070. It's a pos for gaming. Great for photo and video work on the go, but thats it.