There are almost no memes made about millennials anymore, because they have matured. In 2022, companies are chasing Generation Z, who do not yet have absurd stereotypes, but have a strong love for technology and everything flashy.
ASUS decided not to stand aside and released the new VivoBook S15 in its youth line. Don't confuse it with the ZenBook - it has a premium design and more top-end technologies.
But in laptops, where they focus on appearance, you must definitely monitor how they will work on their hardware.
Let's figure out below whether the ASUS VivoBook S15 can give more than a bright body, how much the style from the advertisement matches the real one, and whether there is a balance between beauty and intelligence.
I grew up at the junction of Y and Z, so I appreciated the laptop from the heights of two generations at once.
The style immediately catches the eye
ASUS explicitly says that it has updated the VivoBook line for a young audience that values aesthetics. The entire advertising campaign is about this: it was launched based on the trendy futurism of the 80s and collage abstractions.
And you can see it from the appearance of the laptop. On my “indie black” model, the aluminum hinge, lid and bottom of the case are all the same brown-silver shade, but... On each part it lies with a different level of saturation.
I haven’t figured it out yet whether I like it or not. But what looks interesting is a fact.
But the sparkling cut on the edges of the case definitely ignited. This is usually done on smartphones and tablets; this is rare on laptops.
Only the green border of Enter may seem controversial: it is the only one that stands out on the entire keyboard.
To enhance the accents, bright stickers were included in the kit. They offer to cover up some buttons and even the webcam.
Keeping in mind the target audience, the rest of the design should also be a little catchy.
So they decided to paint the VivoBook in 1 classic and 3 juicy shades: of the usual ones, only black (like mine), and fiery red, “eco-friendly” turquoise and pearlescent white were aimed at lovers of a colorful life.
Equipment
The kit that comes with the Vivobook Pro 14X is modest and consists only of a 120W charger with a 2-meter cable. The power supply and cable are of good quality, but the noticeable weight may well offset the lightness of the laptop itself, which, however, can be solved by purchasing another charger if you often carry the laptop with you.
Collected in such a way that it will survive everything
For a laptop whose diagonal tends to be 16 inches, the dimensions of the S15 can already be called standard. It is compact and lightweight compared to what came out four years ago, for example. Now this is rather the level of many competitors, who also strive for minimum sizes.
Considering the positioning, everything fits here - the laptop is not promoted as weightless, but even taking into account the metal in the case, it weighs 1.8 kg and therefore turned out to be completely mobile.
| Retail price: | from 54,990 rubles |
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-10510UIntel Core i7-1065G7Intel Core i5-10210UIntel Core i5-1035G1 |
| Screen: | Full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) |
| Graphic arts: | NVIDIA® MX350 2GBNVIDIA® MX250 2GBIntel UHD Graphics |
| RAM: | up to 16 GB of LPDDR4X RAM with a frequency of 2666 MHz |
| Drives: | up to 1 TB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe512GB+32GB Intel Optane |
| Network connections: | Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Camera: | 3D Infrared Camera with HD Resolution and Windows Hello Support |
| Connectors: | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (data transfer only) 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A2 x USB 2.01 x 3.5 mm audio jack 1 x MicroSDHDMI slot |
| Audio: | ASUS SonicMaster Audio System Certified by Harman/Kardon Microphone array, Cortana voice assistant support, voice input recognition support |
| Keyboard and touchpad: | Full-size keyboard with 1.4 mm key travelTouchpadFingerprint scanner (optional) |
| Battery: | 50 Wh, lithium polymer |
| Weight: | 1.8 kg |
| Dimensions (W x H x D): | 35.98 x 23.38 x 1.61 cm |
The VivoBook is of adequate size thanks to thin frames on the sides. They protrude above the plane of the screen, but such is the price of a total thickness of 16.1 mm: the keyboard has a very small recess, so the display was protected with a protruding border.
At the top, the black stripe is slightly wider; a webcam with support for Windows Hello is hidden in it. The feature is more convenient than a fingerprint, and I like to see it in almost all new products from ASUS.
As for the assembly, it is fire and quality. The laptop is strong, does not flex when I hold it with one hand, and does not squeak or squeak. I don’t feel the fit is cheap at all.
Design
The Vivobook 15 OLED is designed with a thin and ultra-light design weighing just 1.65 kg, making it an ideal choice for mobile users. For comparison, most 15-inch laptops weigh 1.9-2 kg, with 13-inch laptops weighing 1.65 kg. In fact, the Vivobook 15 OLED offers a combination of the spacious screen of large laptops and the ergonomic body of small ones. Such a device can easily fit into almost any bag or backpack.
You can tactilely feel that the laptop is expensive and of high quality. The material is plastic, although it feels like metal. The device passes the “MacBook test” and can be opened with one hand. When unfolded, the top cover of the case does not wobble, which indicates a high-quality assembly.
The back panel features a 3D ASUS logo with an anodized chevron pattern and a textured surface. There are original design elements inside too – the Enter key is highlighted with yellow stripes.
The screen has no bells and whistles and is simply reliable
The display occupies 86% of the panel, and compared to the size of the laptop it actually looks large.
In all models you will see Full HD and 60 fps, so there will be no alternatives in resolution and frequency. Considering that the device does not focus on eSports or heavy installation, there is no need to add more than the standard parameters.
Specifically, in my copy, the matrix did not stand out for its high color rendering quality in comparison with its competitors.
I wouldn’t trust it to calibrate advertising posters or retouch commercial photographs, but the color range is sufficient for watching films and creating presentations.
A viewing angle of 178º is enough to share the content with someone. The size of the display is designed for this, and if it deviates, there is no question of any contrast madness.
In the special MyASUS control menu, lovers of bright and sharp images can turn on the Tru2Life video enhancement mode.
It works on the principle of modifiers on a TV: it cuts out the blur of moving objects like cars with horses and increases the saturation of the picture.
Here you can connect your smartphone via Link to MyASUS. With the program you will be able to transfer the necessary files, answer calls and mirror your desktop. Works with iOS and Android, and functionality depends on the platform.
Webcam, sound
The laptop's webcam is equipped with a special shutter. By sliding it, you can not be afraid of accidentally activating a video call with the webcam turned on. Camera resolution is 720p HD.
The laptop is equipped with a Harman Kardon certified audio system, which will help you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the movies and games you play.
The sound recording has also been worked out. As more and more people are now working from home and making contact via video calls, ASUS specialists have developed noise reduction technology based on artificial intelligence. The MyASUS app has a ClearVoice Mic function that can filter out background noise during audio recording, and in Multi-Presenter mode it can even equalize the volume of individual voices during conference calls. The ClearVoice Speaker feature similarly eliminates noise and separates the voice from the received audio stream so that the laptop user can hear their interlocutors clearly.
The filling is different, but all cheerful
Behind the feathers of color and designer cuts, ASUS has hidden a workhorse with the latest processors and a fast SSD.
There's even a version with fast Intel Optane storage. It has 30% higher data writing and reading performance than conventional memory.
This is exactly what I received for review, so I can only say one thing.
VivoBook is fast.
Memory with a dedicated cache is so fast that games load in seconds, and files are transferred almost before a click.
So take it from the new console marketers about the importance of flash memory operations. It's much easier to live with her.
The same applies to Wi-Fi 6. Nothing prevents downloads from accelerating to the upper limit of my home tariff.
DDR4 RAM with a 2666 MHz bus is expandable up to 16 GB. Given the overall balance of the filling, you don’t need more.
And to test the capabilities of the basic discrete video card NVIDIA GeForce MX250, I downloaded GTA V and Cities: Skylines.
Both consistently produced playable FPS on average graphics, so you can relax with something undemanding.
You can hope for a theoretical Red Dead Redemption 2, but, of course, you will have to turn up the minimum settings on a low resolution.
The heat dissipation is fine. Only the upper part, which is closer to the screen, became noticeably hot for the fingers. You don't have to touch it, so the heat in other places was barely noticeable through the buttons on the keyboard.
As for the brains, you'll have the entire range from Intel to choose from: i3, i5 and 10th generation i7. They are all energy efficient, so a 50 Wh battery will be spared regardless of its power.
Of course, when working with heavy tasks like video editing, you won’t stray far from the outlet, but here the laws of nature and the technology of modern batteries win out.
But, even if you unexpectedly run out of charge, there is a fast charging function: in 50 minutes the battery will be filled by 60%.
Battery autonomy
What impresses the VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 (2021) most is its battery life. One battery charge will last you 8–10 hours, depending on the tasks.
If you don't edit video or process photos for several hours, the laptop should have enough energy for a full workday. Charging is also done quite quickly - from 10% to 100% energy is restored in just 1 hour 15 minutes.
Keyboard and connectors will save your day
One of the problems with shrinking laptops is that they are gradually losing space for the necessary things. Because of this, the VivoBook S15 does not have a cutout for an SD card.
But everything else is in place. And even more.
On the sides you have a large selection of connectors: HDMI, USB-A and USB-C, MicroSD and audio jack. But the main surprise lies in the layout.
For all NumPad-panel lovers like me, the VivoBook will be pleased with its ability to work with numbers. Typically, only the heaviest laptops with giant screen frames and a weight of 3 kg have a calculator unit.
Here, thanks to the downward-firing speakers, there is a lot of free space.
The sound was not affected. There's plenty of space inside for acoustic filling, so music sounds rich and voices sound clear.
What surprised me the most was this. You will print silently. Seriously, I have never tested a quieter keyboard than this one. It rustles slightly even with machine gun fire in the middle of the night.
Asus VivoBook line: review
Now we need to talk about the alternative in the form of the VivoBook line. If we greatly simplify and talk about the most popular, then this line can be called budget, but productive. It is distinguished by a huge choice for any user, taking into account possible needs, as well as budget.
One of the main features is the ErgoLift system, with which the devices are lifted off the table when the lid is opened. This is convenient for typing text and also for working with graphics. The devices boast relatively good battery life, which is what most users require.
The face scanner fits into these frames
Any option of the VivoBook S14 will have an IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920 × 1080. I can’t call the brightness and color reproduction top-end - they are at the level of the middle segment. But there is high contrast.
I recommend this panel for creating presentations, working with documents and binge-watching TV series, where the plot is more important to you than the perfect picture.
Narrow frames do not distract from the content, and in total, thanks to them, the screen occupies 85% of the entire front panel.
Despite saving space, engineers placed a webcam with IR face recognition on the top edge of the display. Sometimes even regular modules are not added to small laptops, so this is a big plus.
Classics mixed with neon. The result is S14
A couple of years ago, the VivoBook brand with the S530 model headed for an audience that likes to stand out. Options in colorful shades appeared, positioning shifted to an active audience.
This year, laptops were toned down: colors were made balanced, and accents were removed from the edges, which could distract from the content at the edges of the screen.
ASUS VivoBook S15 S530, released in 2022
Now VivoBook S14 looks more like a business laptop that you can easily take out at a serious meeting.
For example, the lid is available in four colors: white, crimson, emerald and black. They are bright, but they don’t attract all the attention.
At the same time, even classic colors are not simple. White gives off pearlescent, and black goes into deep purple. But these notes are so neat that you can stand out and not confuse others.
ASUS VivoBook S14 2022 colors
The rest of the design also works on the idea of light flirting. The lower part is made of aluminum, due to which the body looks neat. And only sometimes it reflects glare with its beveled edges.
At the same time, it is important to remember that the audience here is still closer to youth. On the calm black keyboard, the Enter button was outlined in neon yellow. You will either really like this solution or will take away your attention while working.
The result is a game where you can see a strict monolith from one angle, and a daring gadget from another.
Games
Cyberpunk 2077
At a resolution of 2880x1800 pixels, the game launched without lags and with stable FPS only at medium settings and with retracing turned off. At a lower resolution of 1920x1080, even at high settings, stable 40-45 FPS remained, but with extended scaling, an increase in quality could not be achieved, so I had to be satisfied with medium settings. Which, I must say, were more than enough - on the contrasting display of the Asus Vivobook Pro 14X OLED, the neon shimmers of the harsh city of the future looked simply amazing.
The game has unparalleled visuals, so that, even with an average amount of detail, you can happily wander around Night City, looking at the reflections and glare of light on the surfaces of cars and buildings.
The Witcher 3
Already middle-aged, but still a stunningly beautiful game from the same CDPR, it launched at the maximum screen resolution and at ultra quality settings, but gave an FPS drop of up to 25 in dynamic scenes.
It was enough to switch the graphics to simply high, so that the performance increased to 40-45 FPS in static scenes with drawdowns of up to 35 in dynamic ones. But frankly, I wouldn't have noticed that the frame rate was so low at all if it weren't for the indicator in the corner of the screen. The picture is nice and the movements are smooth, so for me such drawdowns are not critical.
Doom: Eternal
The legendary forefather of shooters in the new shell automatically launched at 1920x1080 pixels, without the ability to increase the resolution, but at maximum graphics settings and with a stable 90 FPS, with rare drops to 75 in very dynamic scenes. By the way, 90 hertz and a response time of 0.2 ms have an extremely positive effect on the gaming experience.
