The Asus L406 was not designed to do the incredible, and so it doesn’t. What it can do very well is make a go for all the basics of your computing endeavors.
This laptop looks the part though. It is as lean and light as you’d like on your hands, and when you roll up your sleeves to work, the battery will spur you on, and the laptop will not heat up even in the heat of the action.
And with a bezel surround at an almost-there trim, there is enough screen real-estate to feast on.
The L406 is priced on the modest side of the market while delivering good performance.
Design and Appearance
The Asus L406 will catch your eye at every turn. It sports a subdued shade that is pleasing, and it comes with lines and curves in all the right places. And with a heft of 2.87 pounds along with a slender 0.7″ build, this laptop can strike a pose on the fringes of ultra-portability.
It is solid too, not exactly military-grade durable, but it can hold out just fine on the rough terrains of crowded desks and stuffy backpacks.
It features a solitary strip of hinge that flips the lid just behind the keyboard deck with zero fuss and minimal flex, it looks like a well-built machine, and sure feels like one once you grab it with one hand.
Ports and Connection
2 USB 3.0/3.1 Gen1 ports and an HDMI port make it to the roster of ports that all line out at the right-hand edge of the keyboard deck. A microSD card reader compatible with SD, SDHC, and SDXC, and a 3.5mm audio jack are also featured on the right side to add further depth to the I/O lineup
The notable omission of a USB Type-C port means that the port ensemble is not at full strength, and the siting of all the ports to the right will inadvertently result in a crowded mess of cables and dongles at the right-hand side of your desk or coffee table.
On the side of wireless connectivity, the reliably swift and steady Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) delivers the standard in range of coverage and strength of the signal. For the transfer of files and wireless connection to device peripherals, the Bluetooth 4.1 provision will also come in handy.
Keyboard and Input Devices
The Keyboard assembly is a regular six-rowed and chiclet-style layout of black-colored keys. There is no backlight provision to feast on and no Numpad to pound on. The keys are firm and responsive, their travel distance is a tolerable 1.33 millimeters and they will not wear down your fingers even after a long typing session. It is a decent keyboard, to say the least.
The same can not be said of the touchpad. It is centrally located and reasonably sized, but the sensitivity of the surface is a bit suspect over full-length scrolls and off-center clicks.
Despite the obvious blip, this laptop can boast of a decent input system, the tactile feedback you get from clicks is pervasive and the keys feel very kind to the touch.
Audio
The sounds that stream out from the built-in stereo speakers give satisfactory performance for the most part. As the speakers are located at the bottom of the laptop, the sound may appear tinny at low volume levels. On turning up the volume, the bass and the finer details of the sound can be perceived at close range. The speakers in this laptop hold out just fine, especially when you consider the price of the laptop.
Display
The display of this laptop is not its brightest spot. The 1366×768 resolution display does not look good on the 14-inch screen, and with a 157ppi value, there is only so much that you can expect to get or see.
You’ll not get the luxury of viewing angles that IPS paneled screens enjoy, and a refresh rate of 60Hz will not bode well with the consistency and speed of the display transitions In real-time.
There are a couple of bright sides to this 14″ display. The NanoEdge bezels lining across all but one edge of the screen affords viewers with more coverage area. Also, the matte screen finish does its best to tackle the problem of glare in places exposed to sunlight or other intensive light sources.
And If you spend long periods glued to your screen, Asus EyeCare mode is on hand to soften the harmful impact of unprotected exposure to the emerging beam of blue light.
The display of the Asus L406 only gets a fair share of color and dynamic ranges, but Asus makes good use of what it gets to make the viewing experience as comfortable and as clear as it can afford to be.
Graphics and Gaming
The Asus L406 does not spring up any major surprises with its performance over graphics-demanding tasks. It feeds off the Intel UHD 600 graphics card, a low-end processor that is integrated with the CPU. The lack of a dedicated graphics memory to draw from will inevitably limit the operational capacity of this graphics card.
At 6 TDP, the power draw is still tolerable, and with its passive cooling design, it will run quietly and coolly even at the peak of its powers. But with a peak speed of 700MHz and 4GB of system RAM for support, this processor will make the L406 only settle for minor graphics tasks like picture editing and video streaming. More advanced tasks like video encoding or 3D rendering will be quite the toil, and when you plug into external monitors with a 4k display, the L406 will respond with a fit of incessant lags.
It fares even worse with games. This laptop will only run games at low framerates and even lower resolutions. Low-end games like Dirt rally and league of legends can be comfortably run, while older games like Starcraft will play at 720p and sub 50fps.
Battery
The battery in this laptop is the tiebreaker. Asus fits in a 58Wh battery in the L406 with the promise of up to 12 hours of runtime. This battery lives up to expectations and then surpasses them.
But that’s not all, the L406 takes just about 49 minutes to charge up to 60 percent with Asus fast charge technology.
And with a longevity that is thrice that of the regular lithium-ion battery, the battery in the L406 is the license to thrill and the freedom to work that you’ll ever need, especially if you mostly play soft or work light with this laptop.
Cooling and Noise Emission
The L406 makes use of energy-efficient processors that do not incorporate a provision for fans, and it serves them ever so well as evidenced by the largely cool and smooth-running operation of this laptop.
This fanless design rubs off nicely on the overall power consumption levels encountered in this laptop, and the system operation does not suffer as a result.
The disquiet that is occasioned by the rotation of fans is non-existent with the L406. And the absence of fan vents somehow lowers the risk of the device components deteriorating as a result of buildup and entry of dirt and dust from the vents.
Performance
Armed with a dual-core Intel Celeron N4000 processor, and backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, this laptop is not remotely close to being classified as a heavy lifter.
But with a base speed of 1.1GHz alongside a remarkable energy efficiency to boot, there is enough gas in the tank of this processor to run a couple of less intensive apps, while it can also step up the gas to reach speeds of 2.6 GHz if you stretch it to its limits.
With this power, the L406 can comfortably process a couple of lightweight computing tasks. Your web pages will load in no time and you can open a couple of tabs while darting across the screen to your spreadsheets.
It is at the height of multitasking that this laptop starts to show signs of burnout. The glitches are incessant and the lags become increasingly unbearable. It is your cue to lower the workload or run the risk of a complete blackout.
The L406 comes pre-installed with Windows 10 S software, and this gives you unfettered access to all the apps in the Microsoft store optimized to run smoothly on this device.
So if your work involves a lot of web-based activity or data crunching and word processing, you’ll find the laptop equipped with Microsoft Edge browser and the Microsoft Office suite of apps to be of help.
The caveat with using the Windows 10 home mode is that it feeds off a sizable chunk of your laptop’s memory. You can always opt out of this mode if you so desire, and you should know that it is an irreversible provision.
Final Verdict
The Asus L406 will not blow you away with any of its built-in features, and when it gets down to work, it will not take your workload to the cleaners.
This is a low-priced laptop, so the specs and the power should ordinarily be excused for being on the low-end, not that it necessarily has to be, and it sure isn’t.
It gets its fair share of high points too. The battery for one can pass for a workstation grab. Throw in a compact form factor and a lightweight build and you get a laptop for the long runs and the long hauls.
For all your regular computing workloads and sessions of light gaming, this laptop can take it all in unbroken strides. And as it runs on the Windows 10 home platform, there is a broad horizon of compatible apps and resources to draw from.
Device Specifications
Standing screen display size
14 Inches
Screen Resolution
1366x768p
Processor
2.6 GHz Intel Celeron N4000
RAM
4 GB LPDDR4
Memory Speed
2.6 GHz
Graphics Coprocessor
Intel UHD Graphics 600
Graphics Card Ram Size
4 GB
Wireless Type
Bluetooth, 802.11ac
Series
ASUS Laptop L406
Item model number
L406MA-WH02
Operating System
Windows 10 S
Item Weight
2.87 pounds
Product Dimensions
12.8 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches
Flash Memory Size
64 GB
Processor
Intel Celeron N4000