ASUS has officially launched the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, and it’s available for $1,999.99 on Newegg and Amazon. The laptop comes with a 12th Gen Intel i9-12900H plus integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics — but its futuristic design is what really makes it stand out.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The company first previewed the Space Edition Zenbook at CES in January, and my colleague Monica Chin got to experience the spacey-ness firsthand. One of the most noticeable things about this laptop is the mini 3.5-inch display on the lid. It’s there to display notifications, animations, and customizable other text, such as the date and time.
You’ll also see various engravings across the laptop’s entire chassis, which is supposed to make the device look like something you’d find on a spaceship. Oh, and ASUS says it meets the US Space Systems Command Standard (SMC-S-016A), which means it’s resistant “to extreme vibration and high/low operational temperatures,” in case you were, you know, planning to hitch a ride to space.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The 14-inch, 16:10 OLED touchscreen display comes with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate and 0.2ms response time. Other specs include 32GB of RAM out of the box, a number pad built into the touchpad, a fingerprint sensor on the power button, four USB-C ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.0 port, and an “ergonomic” keyboard, which my colleague Monica said was “really, really comfortable.”
ASUS says the laptop celebrates the 25th anniversary of “the first ASUS laptop sent into space.” Given the price tag, unique design, and circumstances surrounding the laptop’s creation, it seems like the Space Edition is more of a collector’s item than your everyday workhorse.
