ASUS 14" Review

The ASUS 14" Celeron laptop is a basic, entry-level Windows machine with severe limitations. Its 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage will struggle with everyday tasks. It's only worth considering if its bundled docking station is crucial and you absolutely can't spend more.

Looking at the ASUS 14" FHD laptop with an Intel Celeron N4500, you're looking at a basic, entry-level machine. It's a 14-inch Windows 11 laptop with a 1080p touchscreen, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage, though the listing throws in a docking station that adds another 160GB. At around $319, it's priced for the absolute bottom of the market. If you're wondering if this is good for students or basic work, our data shows it scores in the low 40s for those categories, which tells you it's a compromise from the start.

Let's be clear: this isn't a performance laptop. The dual-core Intel Celeron N4500 processor ranks in the 46th percentile, which is basically average for all laptops, but that's a very low bar. The real bottlenecks are the RAM and storage. With only 4GB of RAM (3rd percentile) and 64GB of eMMC storage (9th percentile), this thing will struggle with more than a few browser tabs. The Intel Iris Xe graphics are a weak spot too, ranking in the 19th percentile, so even casual gaming is off the table. In practice, it'll boot up and handle one or two simple tasks, but multitasking will bring it to its knees.

At $319, this ASUS laptop is competing in the 'as cheap as possible' bracket. The value proposition hinges entirely on that bundled docking station. Without it, you're paying too much for a machine with specs that were outdated five years ago. There are used or refurbished business laptops from a few years ago that offer far better performance (like an older ThinkPad with an i5 and 8GB RAM) for similar money, but they won't be new or come with a docking station.

The listed competitors like the MacBook Pro or ASUS ROG Zephyrus are in a completely different universe and price league. A more realistic comparison for someone considering this would be something like a Chromebook. For the same $300-$350, a Chromebook with 8GB of RAM will feel much faster for web tasks and won't suffer from Windows' bloat on limited hardware. Alternatively, stretching your budget to around $400-$500 opens up a world of new entry-level Windows laptops with modern AMD Ryzen 3 or Intel Core i3 processors, 8GB of RAM, and proper 256GB SSDs, which are night-and-day better.

Skip this laptop if you plan on doing more than one thing at a time, need to install more than a handful of programs, or want a machine that will feel quick for more than a year. Students, remote workers, or anyone who needs reliability should look elsewhere. Instead, consider a used business laptop, a Chromebook, or stretching your budget to a new entry-level model with at least 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

Should you buy this? Only under one very specific condition: you need the absolute cheapest new Windows 11 laptop possible, and that bundled docking station with extra storage is a must-have for your setup. For literally any other scenario, we'd say skip it. The 4GB of RAM and tiny eMMC storage create a fundamentally frustrating experience. It's one of those laptops that feels slow the day you take it out of the box. For most people, saving up a little more or buying used will get you a machine that doesn't fight you every time you open a second tab.