The Venom BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom only has a 1080p screen and has an 11th generation Intel processor a little bit later than expected, but it is incredibly portable, has a long battery life, and comes with various chargers. So, it will appeal to mobile business users.
There aren’t many “independent” laptop manufacturers, and of those that do exist, a sizable majority will be localized rebranding operations of foreign cleanskin laptop manufacturers like Clevo. In order to compete with global heavyweights like Apple or Microsoft, Venom Computers builds laptops from the bottom up.
Building a laptop is no small task, it requires an in-depth understanding of current PC components and a considerable budget and funding allocation to get things off the ground, but no matter how hard it is for small businesses to get a foot in this market, consumers are mainly interested in getting the best product for their money.
Design
By not targeting creative professionals, the BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom may defy the trend, but it does offer a distinct and sane design philosophy. The BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom that we tested only weighed a little bit over 1kg, contrary to the spec sheet’s claim that it can weigh up to 1.4kg. It’s not quite in the lead, but it’s still among the best professional lightweight Ultrabooks we’ve tested.
Two power supplies are among the other noteworthy features, allowing you to leave one plugged in behind the desk at home or at the workplace while keeping the other in a travel bag or briefcase to help you depart more quickly. The device also comes with a convenient USB recovery drive that makes it much simpler to restart for anyone who occasionally has to reset the device.
Starting with a very basic 14-inch FullHD IPS display with a sRGB color gamut, the specification list starts to appear a little more predictable. However, Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, and MSI have all switched to 4:3, 3:2, or 16:10 aspect ratios on at least their smaller form factor devices. 16:9 is still a fairly popular form factor in all sizes.
This is due to the fact that, while 16:9 is a cinematic format that supports media playback, the average web page or document is about the size of an A4 and only occupies about 25% of a screen like the one on the BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom. The greatest laptops available now turn that ungainly width into vertical space, allowing you to see more of the website or document you’re working on, though it’s hardly a deal breaker.
If you value storage in particular, the BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom occasionally offers somewhat more SSD capacity than other similar devices, but you’ll still have to pay for it. According to internal tests, the device we evaluated had two Gen 4 PCIe SSDs that could read and write at 3500MB/s on the primary drive and up to 6900/5000MB/s on the second SSD. It’s as fast as single drives get in laptops from 2021, and secondary PCIe SSDs are uncommon in ultraportable notebooks, so this is a significant point of differentiation for anyone who frequently needs to store and transfer huge files.
This time around, the keyboard and trackpad were decent enough, eschewing some of the peculiar layout choices of the previous version. Both provided everything a work gadget would need and were comfortable to use for extended periods of time. Although the BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom lacks a fingerprint sensor, it does include Windows Hello Face Recognition, which we believe will disappoint some corporate users.
Along with the more popular USB-C and 3.5mm audio jack connectors, the interface options were vast compared to today’s USB-C only alternatives and included an HDMI port, a microSD card reader, and a few USB Type-A ports. Although the HDMI port isn’t as crucial as it once was, having the ability to plug into almost any monitor and receive basic plug and play compatibility is still a great safety net.
Even when operating at full capacity, the active cooling system is quiet, and any heat that does escape through the magnesium alloy chassis is restricted to the area above the keyboard, far from your hands.
Performance
The gadget we tested was more than 4 times faster than the Venom BlackBook Zero 14 that we last examined nearly 5 years ago. The BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom that we were given to test outperformed comparable devices with Intel i7-1165G7 CPUs on a number of general work tasks by roughly 5%.
While in the Venom calibrated Performance power mode, it also displayed a performance boost of up to 12%. Yet, even in Performance mode, it underperformed on a number of GPU-specific tests, falling between 9 and 25% short of what we would typically anticipate from an Intel Iris Xp Graphics processor.
Despite the lackluster GPU performance, the BlackBook Zero 14 Phantom’s battery life is actually very good. The 14-inch Ultrabook typically gets 12 hours and 36 minutes of use for work tasks, whereas movie playing takes about 14.5 hours. The LG Gram 17 is the only Computer we’ve seen outlive it. It’s one of the finest Windows-based Ultrabooks for battery life, albeit it’s still some distance behind the M1 MacBook Air from Apple.
Verdict
The Venom BlackBook Zero 14 is a good option if all you need a lightweight business computer for is convenience and durability without any need for photo or video editing. In comparison to other devices on the market, you will have to sacrifice screen resolution, and the model we tested did exhibit some performance concerns during specific workloads. You’ll be able to discover a better deal if you browse around for Ultrabooks that are on sale because it is also rather late to be releasing an Intel 11th generation laptop.
