The Vivobook S 15 is the primary pocket book from Asus to be powered by the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. It is also a part of the primary wave of units to ship on this new platform as a part of Microsoft’s renewed push into the ARM-based PC market at the moment dominated by Apple.
The Vivobook S 15 (or the S5507) is a premium machine with a price ticket of $1300. For that cash, you might be getting the Snapdragon Elite X in its base configuration, a 15.6-inch 120Hz OLED show, 16GB reminiscence, 1TB storage, and a 70Wh battery. The machine is focused in direction of house and workplace customers who want to do some mild productiveness work and media consumption on the go.
On this assessment, we will probably be taking a look at how the Vivobook S 15 performs but in addition what it is prefer to dwell with an ARM-based Home windows PC.
Design
The S5507 design is not something new and appears just like different Vivobook S 15 fashions earlier than it. The outside, made out of aluminum, has a clean matte end to it with a delicate Vivobook emblem on the lid. The again has a row of vents with an extended raised rubber foot.
Life the lid and you may discover that you simply now have your thumbprints on the webcam. Additionally, you managed to slip the webcam cowl whereas opening so now the face detection does not work. The placement of those parts is moderately unlucky, as each the webcam and particularly the sliding mechanism for the quilt are proper the place you might be anticipated to place your thumb to open the lid. It’s a must to prepare your self to keep away from these which makes one thing so simple as opening the lid extra concerned than I might like.
As soon as open, you may be greeted by the big 15.6-inch show. The show will get very near the facet edges however the high and backside bezels are noticeably thicker. If, for some motive, you stored opening the lid, you may notice that it truly opens a full 180 levels, making it flat with the bottom.
Under the show, the keyboard deck can also be made out of aluminum with the identical silver end. Even the keys are silver, which has an unlucky draw back as will probably be mentioned later. Under the keys is the big trackpad that measures round 13cm x 8.5cm. The trackpad is off-center so it aligns with the keyboard and never the numpad on the best.
The Vivobook S 15 is comparatively compact regardless of the big show. Extra importantly, it is also very mild, weighing in at simply 1.42kg or 3.13lb. This makes it very simple to slide right into a backpack and I barely even observed the added weight.
The general design of the pocket book may be very business-like. I am not overly keen on the all-silver scheme, particularly the silver keys that even have a considerably boring, tile-like design. A black variant would have been good however this mannequin solely is available in one shade. Nonetheless, there is not a lot to complain in regards to the construct high quality, which is sweet general. The keyboard deck has a slight flex to it nevertheless it’s solely noticeable if you press down on it moderately than whereas typing. Asus additionally claims US MIL-STD 810H ranking for added peace of thoughts.
Show
The Vivobook S 15 has a 15.6-inch, 2880×1620 OLED show. It has a 120Hz refresh charge with a claimed 0.2ms response time, 600 nits peak brightness, 100 DCI-P3 shade protection, and HDR help.
Asus has included a handful of show choices within the MyASUS app. The OLED Care function permits a pixel refresh mode that runs when the show is static for half-hour to attenuate burn-in. There’s an OLED flicker-free dimming choice that reduces brightness with out inflicting show flicker which some folks understand. The Adaptive Edge Brightness setting dims the corners of the show on battery, which seems like having a vignette across the display screen. On the default setting of two, it is barely noticeable so it is best to simply depart it on.
The show is color-calibrated on the manufacturing unit and comes with a calibration certificates discovered within the MyASUS app. Asus additionally consists of shade calibration profiles to lock the show to sRGB, DCI-P3, Show-P3, or simply depart it unclamped at its native gamut.
Show setttings
The OLED panel has excellent picture high quality, with distinctive shade accuracy, distinction, and viewing angles. The decision is ample, and offers a sufficiently sharp and excessive decision picture, particularly on the dimension. The 600 nits brightness is greater than satisfactory for indoor use and can also be superb outside except you end up beneath direct daylight.
The 120Hz refresh charge is a superb accompaniment to the stellar picture. You get very fluid scrolling, which is aided by OLED’s phenomenal response instances which might be close to instantaneous. HDR efficiency can also be fairly spectacular however with no Dolby Imaginative and prescient help, you might be restricted to static metadata HDR10 content material solely.
The show does have two controversial facets. First is the 16:9 side ratio, which is nice for media consumption however not for productiveness and even internet shopping. The second is the shiny panel, which is terrific if you find yourself in a pitch-dark room however wherever else you might be consistently combating reflections.
That apart, it is onerous to not be impressed by the show on the Vivobook S 15. Asus has achieved an incredible job on this one.
Keyboard and trackpad
The Vivobook S 15 has a normal chiclet-style keyboard with 1.7mm key journey and a numpad on the facet. The keys have a single-zone RGB backlight, which might be custom-made within the MyASUS app.
The keyboard is comfy with first rate journey. The keys are barely vast with much less spacing than a typical chiclet-style which takes some getting used to however as soon as achieved it was a breeze to kind on. I’m personally a bit cut up on the devoted numpad on the best, particularly since Asus has proven it may possibly have a digital numpad on the trackpad that capabilities simply as properly, and I might moderately have an evenly spaced keyboard and trackpad.
What I am not cut up on is the pointless new Copilot key, which replaces the best management key. All this does is launch the Copilot ‘app’, which additionally occurs to be only a window in Edge, and one thing you possibly can simply pin to the taskbar. All that is on high of the doubtful worth that Copilot brings. I might a lot moderately have my management key again, please.
As talked about earlier than, the keyboard options RGB backlighting, which feels a bit odd for a tool of this nature. You’ll be able to modify the lighting shade, sample, and brightness from the MyASUS app however since it is a single-zone lighting, it would apply uniformly to your complete keyboard. The backlighting is not very vibrant and has the unlucky facet impact of creating the important thing legends troublesome to see in the course of the day as the sunshine simply blends with the silver surrounds, particularly in the event you decide a impartial shade like white.
Under the keyboard is the moderately sizable trackpad. The graceful glass floor makes this a pleasure to make use of, though one might argue if it must be this large. Asus has assigned some gestures to the highest and facet edges, which management issues like quantity, brightness, and playback however I discovered myself triggering them by accident too typically. Fortunately, you possibly can simply disable them however it’s important to disable all of them and never simply the one which’s getting in your method.
The trackpad is hinged on the high as is often the case however you possibly can click on on a very good 80% of it and get a satisfying response, with solely the highest edge being unable to maneuver.
One recurring challenge I had with the trackpad was it will confuse a two-finger scroll gesture within the browser for a pinch-to-zoom gesture. The web page would briefly zoom in slightly earlier than scrolling. This can be a problem with the trackpad driver that may doubtlessly be mounted with an replace.
Audio and webcam
The Vivobook S 15 has a pair of bottom-firing Harmon Kardon-tuned audio system. The audio system have first rate audio high quality, particularly when the bundled Dolby Atmos app is enabled. There is not a lot bass however voices sound clear with good timbre.
I used to be not significantly impressed by the headphone jack output. Whereas it acquired very loud, there was noticeable background noise coming via the jack. The sound was additionally oddly mild on bass and every little thing sounded skinny and flat by default with the Atmos app disabled. I would not advocate utilizing the Atmos app for headphones because it brings further distortion with it. Sadly, even in the event you flip it off, it in some way manages to show itself on once more.
The webcam high quality is mediocre. A lot was made in regards to the picture processing of the Snapdragon chips however I am not seeing it. It seems like every other webcam, which is to say it is superb for the informal video name however it is best to nonetheless contemplate an aftermarket digicam in the event you want it typically.
{Hardware} and connectivity
The Vivobook S 15 S5507 runs on the Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 chipset. It options 12 CPU cores that may clock as much as 3.4GHz together with the Adreno X1 GPU clocked at 1250MHz.
The X1E 78 100 is likely one of the 4 Snapdragon X Elite fashions and is technically the runt of the litter. Not solely does it have the bottom increase clock pace, nevertheless it’s additionally the one one with no single or dual-core increase like on the opposite chips, which might briefly increase one or two of their cores even increased. The GPU can also be slower than the highest two fashions.
Paired with the chip is 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5X reminiscence clocked at 8448MHz. In contrast to Apple’s M-series chips, the Snapdragon X Elite doesn’t embody the reminiscence on-die. Somewhat, it is soldered onto the motherboard like on most different notebooks nowadays. Whereas it is good {that a} 32GB choice exists, it appears it is solely obtainable in choose areas, and ours solely got here in 16GB with no different choice obtainable.
For storage, our assessment unit had a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with a 512GB choice obtainable in some areas. Fortunately, the SSD here’s a customary 2280 M.2 drive, which might simply get replaced do you have to require extra storage.
Regardless of what you may assume, the Vivobook S 15 has a decently-sized cooling system inside with twin followers cooling twin warmth pipes. There are not any fanless notebooks but based mostly on this chip since it may possibly pull a good bit of energy. However extra on that later.
In terms of connectivity, the Vivobook S 15 does rather well, particularly in comparison with its rivals. You get two full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the best with 5Gbps bandwidth and on the left are two USB 4.0 Gen 3 Sort-C ports, which help 40Gbps bandwidth and quick charging. There’s additionally an HDMI 2.1 TDMS port right here however in actuality, it is simply HDMI 2.0 by way of precise bandwidth. Lastly, there’s a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
For wi-fi connectivity, you get tri-band Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 5.4 with LE audio.
Software program
The Vivobook S 15 comes with Home windows 11 House Version put in. That is clearly the model constructed for the ARM 64-bit platform, and virtually all of the apps that come pre-installed are additionally constructed for ARM.
When it comes to bloatware, Asus is usually fairly good. There are only a handful of Asus apps which might be pre-installed, all of which might be eliminated. Nonetheless, it is best to maintain the MyASUS app because it presents an unlimited array of settings for the machine together with the power to improve the machine firmware, which is separate from the Home windows updates.
Being an ARM-based machine, there was at all times going to be a query mark on how the machine runs all of the apps you might be used to working on a Home windows machine. This was a significant bugbear of early ARM-based Home windows units, which might solely run a choose few apps from the Home windows retailer that had been constructed for ARM.
Happily, we have now come a great distance since then, and making issues quite a bit simpler this time round is Prism, the Home windows emulator that permits you to run x86-64 apps on the machine with out you even realizing it. Significantly, all it’s important to do is set up the app as you usually would and it simply runs as you’d count on it to. Nicely, besides if it is a sport, however extra on that within the Efficiency part.
Nonetheless, emulation is not a free lunch, and there’s a value to translating the app to a different structure each time you might be working it. Whilst you will not discover the distinction a lot in light-weight apps apart from some delayed launch instances, extra demanding apps will run noticeably slower.
That is the place native ARM apps are available. Fortunately, with slightly little bit of looking, you possibly can often discover an ARM model of your app. Typically will probably be in beta and even alpha however relying on the character of the app can nonetheless run vastly higher than a steady x86-64 model. The previous month or so of utilizing the Vivobook S 15 despatched me down the rabbit gap of discovering the ARM model of each app I exploit and it was truly sort of enjoyable. I used to be stunned to see simply what number of apps do have an ARM model now, at the least in some state of growth. Funnily sufficient, it was often the apps with small dev groups who had been fast on the uptake however even larger apps like DaVinci Resolve and Photoshop now have a local ARM model.
The mix of a strong emulator and a rising library of native apps means Home windows on ARM is at the moment in a very good place, at the least so far as day-after-day or generally used productiveness apps. After all, there will probably be circumstances the place the emulator does not work properly neither is there a local app obtainable however at the least in my utilization I by no means got here throughout this state of affairs. Primarily based on my private expertise as of August 2024, I would not hesitate to advocate Home windows ARM notebooks to on a regular basis house or workplace customers.
Efficiency
Productiveness
The Vivobook S 15 has 4 ‘Fan profile’ choices within the MyASUS app which, counterintuitively, are literally the facility restrict choices that in flip additionally have an effect on the fan speeds. You get Whisper mode, which targets 20W as the height energy worth, Customary, which is the default, targets 35W, Efficiency (45W), and at last, Full-speed mode, which targets 50W.
It is essential to notice these energy figures as that is the one actual data we get relating to how a lot energy this chip pulls. Qualcomm has not offered entry to any of the facility consumption metrics from the chip so although apps like HWiNFO can entry data relating to clock speeds and temperatures, there may be completely no information obtainable on the quantity of energy being pulled.
No matter which energy profile you choose, the chip can hit the said 3.4GHz throughout all 12 cores. Whisper can solely maintain 3.4GHz in an all-core workload for a few seconds earlier than dropping right down to 2.2GHz for the remaining period. Customary stays a number of seconds longer earlier than dropping right down to 2.7GHz. Efficiency will drop right down to 3GHz and Full-speed will keep 3.4GHz till it hits its 95-degree thermal restrict. The chip regulates the variety of cores it may possibly assign to a activity in batches of 4, so you may see 4, eight, or all twelve cores being energetic relying on the duty.
With all that in thoughts, the next benchmarks had been run utilizing the Full-speed profile in MyASUS and the Home windows energy profile left on the default Balanced. All makes an attempt had been made to get the ARM model of the benchmark wherever attainable however sadly, a few of the checks are nonetheless x86 solely.
| Benchmark | Class | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Cinebench R23 (x86) | Single | 1120 |
| Multi | 12753 | |
| Cinebench 2024 | Single | 107 |
| Multi | 1130 | |
| Blender (Classroom) | Time (seconds) | 372 |
| 7-Zip | Compression | 91781 |
| Decompression | 90799 | |
| Geekbench 6 | Single | 2446 |
| Multi | 14277 | |
| GPU (Vulkan) | 23662 | |
| Geekbench AI | CPU (Quantized) | 5837 |
| NPU (Quantized) | 21633 | |
| Corona 10 (x86) | Rays/s | 4332801 |
| WebXPRT 4 | Total | 280 |
| JetStream 2 | Rating | 282 |
| Speedometer 3.0 | Rating | 20.9 |
As talked about earlier than, there’s a penalty for utilizing emulation and you’re looking at wherever from 12.5% in 7-Zip to an enormous 74% worse efficiency in Blender when switching from the native ARM to the x86 model.
| Benchmark | Class | Rating (ARM) | Rating (x86) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blender (Classroom) | Time (seconds) | 372 | 646 |
| 7-ZIP | Compression | 91781 | 80377 |
| Decompression | 90799 | 79341 |
The 4 energy profiles in MyASUS have a proportionately increased affect on efficiency as you go down the record. From Full-speed to Efficiency, you lose about 9% efficiency in Blender within the Classroom scene. Taking place to the default Customary makes you lose about 22% of the efficiency of Full-speed after which lastly at Whisper, you lose a major 53% of the efficiency.
| Benchmark | Energy profile | Time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|
| Blender (Classroom) | Full-speed | 372 |
| Efficiency | 404 | |
| Customary | 451 | |
| Whisper | 567 |
Nonetheless, as you possibly can see, even working on the lowest energy degree is best than working in x86 for Blender, because the Whisper mode on ARM outperforms Full-speed in x86.
On battery, the facility profiles in MyASUS app don’t change and you’ll nonetheless get the identical efficiency, offered you allow the Home windows energy profile to Stability. Nonetheless, by default, Home windows switches to the Greatest Energy Effectivity profile on battery, which has a extreme affect on measurable efficiency.
| Benchmark | Class | Time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|
| Blender (Classroom) | Energy | 372 |
| Battery | 750 |
Now for some real-life testing. I attempted utilizing the Vivobook S 15 in a typical house use case consisting principally of internet shopping and media consumption and likewise in a extra productivity-oriented setting with heavy picture and video modifying.
Within the former, the Vivobook S 15 carried out flawlessly. No matter whether or not you might be on energy or battery, there at all times appears to be ample energy obtainable and the machine feels fast and responsive. After all, this was principally when working native ARM apps however even non-native apps appeared to run superb more often than not exterior of benchmarks to the purpose it was simple to neglect they had been working beneath emulation.
When it got here to heavier productiveness duties, there was an issue, and it was not the Snapdragon chip. Seems, the chip has sufficient energy to deal with the issues that I do for work, which is modifying high-resolution RAW pictures in Affinity Picture (which additionally is available in native ARM) and infrequently modifying a 4K video in DaVinci Resolve (additionally ARM however in beta). I used to be capable of energy via these apps with out experiencing any main slowdowns. That’s till I hit the bounds of the 16GB reminiscence. Sadly, this merely is not ample to do any actual productiveness work on the machine, and the second I opened greater than three RAW information or bigger video initiatives, the efficiency floor to a halt.
As talked about earlier than, Asus does supply a 32GB reminiscence choice in some markets. That may be the go-to in the event you plan on doing memory-heavy duties. Sadly, not having that choice in every single place looks like leaving efficiency on the desk because the Snapdragon X Elite chip, and thus the Vivobook S 15, is able to extra however is held again by the 16GB configuration. House customers in all probability would not take care of internet and media purposes however then once more, you too can simply use an iPad if that is all you need to do.
The 1TB drive that got here with our Vivobook S 15 carried out moderately properly. It isn’t the quickest drive we have now seen however for the use circumstances this machine is designed for it ought to be satisfactory.
Gaming
That is the place issues go pear-shaped for the Vivobook S 15 and the ARM-based Home windows platform normally.
That is the unlucky actuality of the present scenario; there are merely no video games obtainable for Home windows on the time of writing which might be based mostly on the ARM structure. This implies each sport you attempt must undergo emulation, which impacts video games disproportionately in comparison with common apps.
All of the video games I attempted (and I attempted quite a bit) fell into three classes:
- The sport put in, launched, and ran as anticipated with decreased efficiency
- The sport put in, launched, however had graphical errors and/or unplayable efficiency
- The sport put in however couldn’t be launched
A small subset of video games fell within the first class. They put in and functioned kind of as they’d on a local x86 machine. The typical body charge wasn’t nice owing to the emulation, lack of drivers, or only a basic lack of GPU efficiency, nevertheless it was steady and playable. Some examples of those embody titles like Management, Metro Exodus, Alien: Isolation, Stray, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Sadly, a lot of the video games fell into the second and third classes. Whereas some video games launched superb, the efficiency was typically unplayable. In the event you had been to simply have a look at common body charges, you may make the error of pondering the sport runs superb however the body time efficiency was in all places with huge spikes that made the sport troublesome to play and unimaginable to take pleasure in. This consists of titles reminiscent of God of Battle, Outer Wilds, Resident Evil 3, Counter-Strike 2, and Overwatch 2.
Some titles appeared to run superb however had visible points. The Tomb Raider I-III Remastered assortment, for instance, ran completely however was too darkish, which made it troublesome to see. A few others additionally had artifacts like flashing textures and visible glitches whereas enjoying.
Then some video games merely wouldn’t even launch. This included titles like Loss of life Stranding and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The primary immediately crashes on launch. The second, like many others, searches for suitable drivers possible from Nvidia or AMD, and upon not discovering any throws the system does not meet minimal necessities message and peaces out. Then there was Doom Everlasting, which initially didn’t launch in any respect, then later would launch and crash after the opening logos, and most not too long ago would launch and attain the menu earlier than crashing.
A overwhelming majority of video games that will not launch had been multiplayer titles with anti-cheat. Even when the sport itself would run beneath emulation, the anti-cheat software program would stop the sport from launching attributable to an incompatibility error. In some circumstances like Elden Ring the place the multiplayer is an elective element of the sport, it was attainable to bypass the anti-cheat and immediately launch the sport to play offline. However with titles like Fall Guys, there isn’t any method in.
The issue right here is twofold. Firstly, sport builders are going to must construct native variations of their titles to have the ability to run correctly. Within the interim, a few of them might at the least make them launch in order that even when the efficiency is not nice, one might nonetheless at the least get into the sport and perhaps with a little bit of fiddling round with the settings, have a considerably playable expertise. Second, Qualcomm wants to start out delivery graphics drivers for titles. Nvidia does this, AMD does it, and now even Intel does it. There isn’t a getting round it and if Qualcomm must be taken critically on this area, it additionally must meet up with the others.
Microsoft has included a temporal picture upscaling resolution in Home windows known as Computerized tremendous decision, which runs a handful of whitelisted video games at a decrease inside decision after which upscales them. Sadly, all of the titles I attempted that supported this function regarded terrible because the decision is way too low and non-adjustable. You’re much better off launching the sport usually and utilizing no matter picture upscaling know-how the sport comes with, like TSR, FSR, or XeSS.
In case you might be questioning why there are not any sport benchmarks on this web page, the reply for that’s that the benchmarking software I exploit wasn’t capable of run appropriately. Initially, it would not work in any respect and later having the software working would trigger any sport launched to crash instantly, even when the sport would run in any other case.
When it comes to precise playability, I used to be capable of get easier titles to run moderately properly sufficient. I might, for instance, play Inside or Gris properly sufficient on the machine. Primary 2D titles just like the Ace Lawyer sequence additionally ran superb. I used to be additionally capable of run Management at a fairly steady body charge. The trick with these was to at all times simply drop the decision to the bottom quantity you possibly can tolerate, which for me was 720p on this display screen after which set every little thing to the bottom settings.
One might argue that the chip is not aimed toward players neither is Asus’ Vivobook sequence normally. Nonetheless, the sensation I had enjoying video games on the machine was that there was ample energy right here to get a PS4-level of efficiency, which is to say, 1080p with medium settings and 30fps locked body charge. That is not too dangerous, however for that to occur there would have to be native titles obtainable, in addition to optimized drivers from Qualcomm.
Funnily sufficient, the Mac now has an honest variety of native ARM titles obtainable for it. You may have titles like Resident Evil 4, Baldur’s Gate 3, Murderer’s Creed Mirage, Loss of life Stranding Director’s Minimize, and a number of other others natively obtainable on the Mac App Retailer, with extra within the pipeline. Not solely is there not a single ARM title obtainable for Home windows, nobody has even made any claims to launch them sooner or later. It is so bizarre to see macOS and Home windows swapping locations relating to video games when switching over to ARM.
Funnier nonetheless, our Vivobook S 15 got here with three months of Xbox PC Sport Move Final membership. The factor is, you possibly can’t entry most of those video games because the Xbox app on ARM will merely not present any of them to you. You’ll be able to obtain a handful from the Microsoft Retailer app however after I say handful, I actually imply handful. A lot of the others is not going to present up within the retailer in any respect or is not going to allow you to obtain them citing compatibility causes. It is attainable the Sport Move membership was a one-off factor for assessment models because it is not sensible to bundle this for precise shoppers.
Lengthy story quick, gaming, for probably the most half, is a no-go on the Vivobook S 15 in the meanwhile and if that is an issue then this is not the machine nor the platform for you.
Thermals
The Vivobook S 15 has a decently sized thermal resolution regardless of what one may count on from an ARM chip. The reality is, the Snapdragon X Elite can pull loads of energy, and working it fanless does not appear to be an choice for the second.
As such, the followers on the Vivobook S 15 are virtually at all times working. Nonetheless, by default they’re so quiet, you’ll hardly ever hear them, even in a quiet room. The one approach to get the followers audible is to run the 2 increased energy profiles and do one thing closely multi-threaded on the CPU. For every little thing else, it is virtually like having a fanless system.
Whereas the fan noise is pretty nice on the Customary and even the Efficiency mode, the Full-speed profile looks like summoning a demon as immediately the followers get very loud. After all, regardless of the identify, the followers will solely spin as much as their full pace when doing one thing extraordinarily taxing on the CPU, which means you too can simply run the system on this profile and never hear the followers in any respect till you determine to run Cinebench for some motive.
Beneath load, the underside half of the keyboard deck stays at a snug temperature though the world above the highest row will get fairly heat.
Battery life
The Vivobook S 15 has a 70Wh battery. Asus makes a moderately daring declare of 18+ hours of battery life, a determine they obtained whereas enjoying video regionally.
For my testing, I left the machine on the default Customary mode within the MyASUS app and the Greatest Energy Effectivity profile in Home windows settings. The show was set to 60% brightness and the keyboard lighting was off. The Adaptive Edge Brightness function was left on the default worth of two. All different battery-saving and standby mode options had been disabled.
Utilizing these settings, I acquired about 12 hours of pure internet shopping in Edge. For video, I acquired about 14 hours when enjoying YouTube 4K and 15 hours when enjoying Netflix 1080p.
The Home windows Greatest Energy Effectivity profile is completely satisfactory for internet shopping and media consumption. Nonetheless, you’d need to change to Balanced if you wish to do productiveness work on the go, because it makes a giant distinction to efficiency. It additionally has a significant affect on battery life and I acquired about 6-8 hours when making an attempt to do combined productiveness duties on this mode, which concerned modifying RAW information in Affinity Picture and watching the occasional YouTube video.
One nice function of all these new ARM-based PCs is that the idle energy draw is considerably decreased. I can shut the lid and depart the PC in a single day solely to search out about 3% drained within the morning.
Total, the battery life on the Vivobook S 15 is unimaginable. I used to be capable of go on a two-day journey with out the charger and nonetheless had energy left after I got here again. The effectivity positive aspects over earlier x86 chips are actual and you might be not blowing loopy quantities of energy for fundamental duties. If all you do is a few hours of internet shopping or watching Netflix in a day, you will not have to cost greater than as soon as every week.
Talking of charging, the Vivobook S 15 comes with a 90W USB-C charger. Trying on the HWiNFO figures, the machine was pulling about 72W whereas charging. I additionally tried a 65W USB-C PD charger, which Home windows promptly instructed me wasn’t quick, and it pushed about 48W. Contemplating the battery lifetime of the Vivobook S 15, you possibly can simply carry a single high-power USB-PD cellphone charger for all of your units for a brief journey as an alternative of lugging across the a lot bigger and heavier Vivobook S 15 charger.
One factor to notice is that the left edge will get extraordinarily scorching when the machine is charging. The floor temperature is increased than even whereas working one thing CPU-demanding on the machine. If you’re utilizing the machine whereas charging, your left hand goes to start out feeling it quickly.
Conclusion
The Vivobook S 15 S5507 is a superb machine for house and workplace customers. It is skinny and lightweight but well-built, has a implausible show, a wide selection of ports, a snug keyboard and trackpad, quiet operation, and an distinctive battery life. The general efficiency for internet shopping, workplace work, internet shopping, and even mild picture and picture modifying is greater than satisfactory.
What the machine is not good at is heavy manufacturing work because of the restricted 16GB-only reminiscence configuration obtainable in some areas and the 16:9 side ratio show, and the gaming expertise was largely poor attributable to an absence of native titles and driver help.
If you’re searching for a jack of all trades, this would possibly not be the choice for you and also you may be higher off trying on the new Ryzen AI 300 fashions. However for these taking a look at doing principally house, workplace, or college work with a little bit of media consumption on the facet, the Vivobook S 15 is a extremely compelling choice that is solely going to get higher with time.
Professionals
- Skinny, mild, and well-built design
- Wonderful show
- Nice general efficiency from the Snapdragon chip
- Good keyboard and trackpad
- Barely audible cooling
- Excellent battery life in mild utilization
- Good number of ports
Cons
- 16GB not sufficient for productiveness; 32GB has restricted availability
- Poor gaming expertise
- 16:9 side ratio not ultimate for productiveness
- Dim keyboard backlight
- Replaces the best Ctrl key with a pointless Copilot button