Features

The Zenbook A14 convinced me to get a thinner laptop

Power and looks combined

Published

March 19, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

As a gamer, I prefer the heft of a gaming laptop over the convenience of an ultra-thin notebook. Even if it kills my shoulders from wearing a backpack all day, there’s a sense of pride from pulling out a sharp-looking notebook and playing any game I want on the go. That said, I’ve cozied up to the idea of a lightweight laptop as a better option for travelling, and it’s all because of one laptop — the ASUS Zenbook A14.

What is the Zenbook A14?

Since the dawn of AI PCs, notebooks have gotten thinner and thinner. Touted as Copilot+ PCs, the new zeitgeist promises power, despite the lithe form factor. Last year, ASUS ramped up its ultra-thin notebook lineup with this healthy infusion of NPUs. We even checked out a few last year.

Today, after unveiling the notebook back in CES 2025, ASUS has officially launched the Zenbook A14. Much like its predecessors last year, the Zenbook A14 is an ultra-thin, ultra-light, and ultra-portable notebook with a powerful NPU underneath. However, in this case, “ultra” is an understatement.

Somehow, the Zenbook A14 weighs only 899 grams. That’s a bit less than two pounds. For reference, the average paperback book weighs only a pound. So, carrying the new Zenbook is tantamount to carrying two small paperback books in your backpack.

Why a thin laptop matters

At some point in our lives, we’ve carried a heavy backpack for an extended period of time, whether it’s for the occasional abroad trip or for the usual commute to work. Because our backs are generally stronger, a heavy backpack doesn’t hurt as much as the acute pain of carrying a similarly heavy tote bag with just a single arm.

That said, putting that much of a burden on our back every single day can lead to disastrous consequences. According to Reader’s Digest, doing so can lead to the deterioration of our posture, the weakening of other muscles, and the potential development of arthritis.

As much as I love a good gaming laptop, it’s getting harder and harder to take out a full kit consisting of my actual notebook (a 5lb ASUS TUF Gaming notebook), the chunky charger, a mouse, a controller, and, if I really need one, a keyboard. Thinking about it now, it sounds ridiculous that I feel the need to bring all of those with me for a simple day trip.

Obviously, I represent the extreme here. Not everyone has or needs a portable gaming setup. But then again, even a regular laptop today can weigh a lot, especially if you need to carry a charger with you. The MacBook Pro, for example, weighs around 3.5 pounds (or almost 1.6 kilograms), and that’s without the charger. Being a non-gamer doesn’t save you from a bad back.

The Zenbook A14 will convince you otherwise

Mathematically, the Zenbook A14 clearly weighs less than the notebooks I’ve mentioned above. But does a few pounds really matter?

On its own, it’s possible to feel the difference between this ultra-light notebook and a regular one. Personally, it feels like I’m holding a toy, rather than an actual device I can use for work. It’s light enough that you won’t even need to use a backpack to carry it around. But if you do use a backpack, the difference is slightly tangible on its own.

However, the real magic starts when you realize how little you need to get through a day with the Zenbook A14. It features a 48WHrs battery which can last up to 23 hours on a single charge. After using the notebook for a while, I was surprised to learn how accurate this estimate was. A single workday cut out only less than half from a full charge on this thing.

Because the battery lasts so long, you don’t need to bring a charger at all. Even if you did, the charger is much smaller than the normal brick you get from a regular laptop. Carrying the notebook and the charger in the same bag should not cause you as much of a burden as others.

The economics of a faster but thinner laptop

Battery life is just one part of the equation. Yes, the ability to get through a day with only a single charge is a godsend. But the Zenbook A14 also helps you realize how little you need to accomplish so much.

Under the hood, the notebook has a Snapdragon X chipset. It’s not as powerful as the usual suspects from AMD or Intel, but it’s more than enough to bring a powerful portable experience to a thinner form factor. It also comes with a Hexagon NPU, melding CPU with the 45 TOPS NPU perfectly. It comes paired with 16GB RAM and 512GB of internal storage.

The Zenbook A14 is powerful enough to handle day-to-day tasks with ease. As we explained last year, the actual beauty of an NPU lies in how much it helps CPUs handle the workload. So, for something so small, a Copilot+ PC can do so much, including photo-editing and some light gaming (if you’re conservative with settings).

Like other Zenbooks, this one has a trackpad with dedicated gestures. You can scroll up and down or change the volume, purely by using the trackpad. You don’t even need a mouse.

Finally, the Zenbook A14 touts an ErgoSense keyboard, which makes typing more comfortable by having a smaller travel distance (meaning, you don’t need to press the keys as hard). The Ceraluminum™ finish, which adorns the entire chassis, is also pleasant to the touch. You also don’t need a keyboard because typing is already a joy on the Zenbook A14.

Coupled with the raw power underneath the chassis, the Zenbook A14 does not need a charger, a mouse, or a keyboard. It will teach you to rethink your daily kit and get rid of all the excess weight.

Price and availability of the Zenbook A14

Reading about the benefits of an ultra-thin laptop is one thing, but it’s another to try the notebook for yourself. Since ASUS has finally launched the notebook, you can check it out for yourself.

The ASUS Zenbook 14 is available in Iceland Gray and Zabriskie Beige. It will come with the ASUS Service Package (with 2-Year International Warranty and 1-Year Accidental Damage Protection), a Lifetime access to Office Home 2024 and a 1-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Basic. The notebook starts at PHP 65,995, and will be available in March in official ASUS Stores.

Features

This is the history of basketball videogames since the ’73 Knicks

Did you know that the first basketball videogame was invented in 1973?

Published

June 15, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Knicks fans, rejoice; your long, long wait is finally over! The New York Knicks are once again the NBA Champions. As you’ve probably heard so many times by now, the last time that New York’s own was on top of the basketball pyramid was in 1973, 53 years ago.

Here’s a fun fact that you might not know, though: The last Knicks championship is tied to the history of the basketball in videogames. Did you know that the very first basketball video game was invented in 1973, the exact same year that the Knicks won their last championship?

But, of course, a lot of things have happened since then, and a lot of videogames have come and gone. Here are the most notable basketball games you might have played (or missed playing) in history:

NBA 2K

It would be pointless to start a list of basketball games without stating the obvious first. The NBA 2K series is the quintessential hooper sim today. When you think of the sport in videogames today, you can’t spend two seconds without thinking of the long-running franchise.

Now an annually releasing series, NBA 2K started in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast. At the time, it was just another drop in a sea of ‘90s basketball games. Now, it’s an institution with constantly updating graphics and mechanics.

NBA Live

Around the time that NBA 2K first started, NBA Live was the king of the jungle. Up until 2018, it was another annually releasing series going alongside (and against) the behemoth known as 2K.

But it’s had a storied history as well. It started off as the NBA Playoffs series. The first one, 1989’s Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, featured eight teams who were part of that year’s playoffs. This went on until 1993 when it evolved into NBA Showdown, one of the first games to feature every NBA team. In 1994, Showdown reinvented itself once again into NBA Live and turned into an annual series before its unfortunate cancellation in 2018.

NBA Street

If sports simulators aren’t your thing, NBA Street is an arcade-style series that has ups the fun with trick shots and streetball rules. It features three-on-three hooping with 29 teams and 5 players from each. Whereas NBA 2K and NBA Live helped gamers live out their dreams to become an NBA superstar, NBA Street was one for the gamers who just wanted a fun time.

The series spawned a few sequels since 2001 but eventually met its end in 2007. Now, however, you can continue the legacy in the recently launched NBA the Run, a spiritual successor created by developers of the original NBA Street games.

NBA Jam

“Boomshakalaka! He’s on fire!”

Even if you’ve never played NBA Jam before, you’ve probably heard its most iconic catchphrase. NBA Jam was so influential that it’s considered one of the most important games of the SNES and the arcade cabinet generation.

Besides impressive graphics for its time, it was a spectacle. Because it had no fouling system, you can physically bully people out of your way. You can catch fire if you’re too good at shooting, hence the “he’s on fire” line. You can jump to gravity-defying heights to make a dunk. Plus, the game features so many fun Easter eggs, including one that turns you into a literal tank on the court.

Double Dribble

Technically a sequel to Konami’s Super Basketball, 1986’s Double Dribble was a fairly straightforward simulator that attempted to feature realistic gameplay in a very two-dimensional time. For its time, the game was remarkable because it featured highly detailed animations for fancy moves like slam dunks.

However, the game came out before the rise of the NBA’s massive popularity in media. It doesn’t have a license to feature actual teams or players. Then again, haven’t you heard of the Boston Frogs or the New York Eagles?

One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird

Contrasted to the above’s five-versus-five or three-versus-three formats, 1983’s One on One featured, as the title says, a mano-a-mano duel between Julius Erving and Larry Bird. With an isometric half-court layout, either player takes turns dunking or shooting over the other.

While one-versus-one modes are available in today’s games, One on One let players live out their fantasies as two of the biggest basketball stars at the time. It even let you shatter the backboard Though the game isn’t much of a talking point nowadays, it was so popular for its time that it helped establish Electronic Arts as a household name in gaming.

Atari’s Basketball

As the father of modern basketball games, 1978’s Basketball, built for the Atari, was the first game to feature the full-court format so popular today. Like One on One, Basketball features only two players. The game was so rudimentary that the two hoops were represented with two sticks, and the two players were different colored blobs.

However, in 1979, Atari released an updated version with detailed graphics. It was also controlled with a trackball, the first of its kind to do so. Though it didn’t have named superstars or teams, it’s clearly the predecessor of the games we all know and love.

Basketball!

And now, we’ve come to the beginning. Released on 1973, Basketball! is officially the first basketball video game in history. Since it’s on the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home gaming console, that comes as no surprise.

Like Pong, which also found a home in the Magnavox Odyssey, Basketball! features two square dots (the players) bouncing a smaller dot (the ball) into two “hoops” on both sides of a court. The game had a static image laid over the dots to simulate an ongoing basketball game. It was so basic that it didn’t even have a computing system for point. Players had to manually tally scores on their own based on where the small dot lands.

If it’s hard for you to imagine just how long today’s Knicks fans have waited for a championship, this was the state of gaming when they got their last ring.

Cameras

What HYROX Hong Kong looks like up close

Photographed on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III.

Published

June 11, 2026

MJ Jucutan

HYROX drew people from all over the world for a single purpose: finish the course. In Hong Kong, athletes showed up at AsiaWorld-Expo ready to run, row, and push through 8 stations of pure functional fitness.

So, we brought the Canon EOS R6 Mark III to capture one of the most demanding fitness races on the planet.

The Expo floor is a lighting nightmare, a mix of harsh overheads and deep shadows, but the 32.5MP sensor handled the contrast without breaking a sweat.

The 40fps electronic shutter and Pre-continuous shooting meant we were already capturing the moment half a second before we consciously decided to press the shutter.

Covering a race means staying mobile, and the 8.5-stop IBIS let us move freely alongside athletes without losing the shot. The Dual Pixel CMOS AF II stayed locked on athletes even when they were squinting through the final stretch.

What came out were stories of triumph and determination. Even when their bodies were screaming, they pushed through anyway.

This is what HYROX Hong Kong looked like from the inside.

Words by MJ Jucutan. Photos by Sky Rodillas.

Buyer's Guide

Buyer’s Guide: Xiaomi Pad 8 Series

Do you need the base or the Pro?

Published

June 8, 2026

MJ Jucutan

Choosing between the Xiaomi Pad 8 and the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro feels like picking between a “sweet treat” and a “full-course meal.”

It’s deciding between a reliable travel companion and a specialized workstation. Both tablets rock a slim 5.8mm profile and a manageable 485-gram weight, and a 9200mAh battery.

However, under the hood, they are playing in different leagues. Especially since the “Pro” moniker adds serious muscle to the internals, and a solution for that glossy screen distraction.

Specs at a glance

Product	Xiaomi Pad 8	Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro
Processor	Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 (4nm)	Snapdragon 8 Elite (3nm)
Display	11.2″ 3.2K IPS LCD (144Hz)	11.2″ 3.2K IPS LCD (144Hz)
Surface	Ultra-Glossy Glass	Optional Matte Nano-Texture
Storage/RAM	Up to 12GB LPDDR5X / 256GB	Up to 16GB LPDDR5T / 512GB
Rear Camera	13MP	50MP
Front Camera	8MP	32MP
Charging	45W Turbo Charge	67W HyperCharge
Pricing	Starts at PhP 20,999	Starts at PhP 38,999

Why you should pick the Xiaomi Pad 8

The standard Pad 8 is that “Goldilocks” device, hitting that sweet spot between price and premium hardware.

It’s ideal if your tablet usage is centered on media consumption and light productivity. Since it shares the same 11.2-inch screen size as the Pro, it fits perfectly on an airplane tray table, making it a dream for frequent flyers.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is no slouch; it still runs titles like Racing Master at 60fps on Ultra-High settings. If you’re a fan of XG or KiiiKiii, you’ll appreciate the quad-speaker setup and Hi-Res Audio support without needing to pay the “Pro” tax.

It’s the smart choice for those who want a capable second screen to complement their main laptop.

Why you should level up to the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro

The “Pro” is for those who found the standard model’s limitations — like the glossy screen reflections or the 128GB storage ceiling — to be a dealbreaker.

The biggest upgrade is the Snapdragon 8 Elite, a powerhouse chip that turns the tablet into a legitimate workstation for video editing in CapCut or heavy multitasking in HyperOS 3.0.

Beyond power, the Pro version offers a Matte Glass Edition, which completely solves the “reflection” issue that can ruin your movie sessions or drawing time under bright lights.

You also get significantly better cameras, such as a 32-megapixel front sensor for professional-looking video calls. There’s also a 50-megapixel rear camera for high-res document scanning.

Finally, the 67W HyperCharge means you spend less time tethered to a wall and more time being productive.

Which Xiaomi Pad is your GadgetMatch?

Swipe Right on the Xiaomi Pad 8 if you want the best value for your money.

It’s thin, light, and powerful enough for 90% of users. It handles gaming, writing, and music playback with ease, making it a worthy recipient of a seal of approval for anyone on a budget.

Just be sure to skip the 128GB entry model and go for the 256GB version to ensure you get those faster storage speeds.

Swipe Right on the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro if you are a “power user” who hates screen glare. If you plan to use the Focus Pen Pro for serious creative work or need 512GB of space for a massive game library, the Pro is worth the extra investment.

It’s a high-speed machine that charges faster, captures better photos, and runs every app with flagship-level fluidness.

The Xiaomi Pad 8 starts at PhP 20,999 with Normal Keyboard while the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro starts at PhP 38,999 with Touch Keyboard. Both tablets come with free Focus Pen Pro.