The Vivobook S 15 is the primary pocket book from Asus to be powered via the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. Additionally it is a part of the primary wave of gadgets to send in this new platform as a part of Microsoft’s renewed push into the ARM-based PC marketplace lately ruled via Apple.
The Vivobook S 15 (or the S5507) is a top rate instrument with a price ticket of $1300. For that cash, you might be getting the Snapdragon Elite X in its base configuration, a fifteen.6-inch 120Hz OLED show, 16GB reminiscence, 1TB garage, and a 70Wh battery. The instrument is concentrated against house and administrative center customers who would cherish to do some gentle productiveness paintings and media intake at the pass.
On this assessment, we will be able to be taking a look at how the Vivobook S 15 plays but in addition what it is love to are living with an ARM-based Home windows PC.
Design
The S5507 design is not the rest new and appears very similar to different Vivobook S 15 fashions ahead of it. The outside, constructed from aluminum, has a easy matte end to it with a refined Vivobook brand at the lid. The again has a row of vents with an extended raised rubber foot.
Existence the lid and you can realize that you just now have your thumbprints at the webcam. Additionally, you controlled to slip the webcam duvet whilst opening so now the face detection does not paintings. The positioning of those parts is slightly unlucky, as each the webcam and particularly the sliding mechanism for the duvet are proper the place you might be anticipated to place your thumb to open the lid. You need to teach your self to keep away from those which makes one thing so simple as opening the lid extra concerned than I might like.
As soon as open, you can be greeted via the huge 15.6-inch show. The show will get very on the subject of the aspect edges however the most sensible and backside bezels are noticeably thicker. If, for some explanation why, you stored opening the lid, you can notice that it if truth be told opens a complete 180 levels, making it flat with the bottom.
Beneath the show, the keyboard deck could also be constructed from aluminum with the similar silver end. Even the keys are silver, which has an unlucky drawback as will likely be mentioned later. Beneath the keys is the huge trackpad that measures round 13cm x 8.5cm. The trackpad is off-center so it aligns with the keyboard and now not the numpad at the proper.
The Vivobook S 15 is slightly compact regardless of the huge show. Extra importantly, it is also very gentle, weighing in at simply 1.42kg or 3.13lb. This makes it really easy to slide right into a backpack and I slightly even spotted the added weight.
The entire 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 quite dull, tile-like design. A black variant would were great however this fashion solely is available in one coloration. On the other hand, there is not a lot to whinge concerning the construct high quality, which is just right general. The keyboard deck has a slight flex to it however it is only noticeable whilst you press down on it slightly than whilst typing. Asus additionally claims US MIL-STD 810H score for additonal peace of thoughts.
Show
The Vivobook S 15 has a fifteen.6-inch, 2880×1620 OLED show. It has a 120Hz refresh charge with a claimed 0.2ms reaction time, 600 nits top brightness, 100 DCI-P3 coloration protection, and HDR fortify.
Asus has integrated a handful of show choices within the MyASUS app. The OLED Care characteristic permits a pixel refresh mode that runs when the show is static for half-hour to attenuate burn-in. There may be an OLED flicker-free dimming possibility that reduces brightness with out inflicting show flicker which some other people understand. The Adaptive Edge Brightness environment dims the corners of the show on battery, which looks as if having a vignette across the display. On the default environment of two, it is slightly noticeable so it is best to only go away it on.
The show is color-calibrated on the manufacturing unit and springs with a calibration certificates discovered within the MyASUS app. Asus additionally contains coloration calibration profiles to fasten the show to sRGB, DCI-P3, Show-P3, or simply go away it unclamped at its local gamut.
Show setttings
The OLED panel has exceptional symbol high quality, with remarkable coloration accuracy, distinction, and viewing angles. The decision is plentiful, and gives a sufficiently sharp and excessive decision symbol, particularly on the length. The 600 nits brightness is greater than ok for indoor use and could also be wonderful open air except you end up below direct daylight.
The 120Hz refresh charge is a brilliant accompaniment to the stellar symbol. You get very fluid scrolling, which is aided via OLED’s exceptional reaction instances which are close to instant. HDR efficiency could also be slightly spectacular however without a Dolby Imaginative and prescient fortify, you might be restricted to static metadata HDR10 content material solely.
The show does have two arguable facets. First is the 16:9 facet ratio, which is excellent for media intake however now not for productiveness and even internet surfing. The second one is the shiny panel, which is terrific if you end up in a pitch-dark room however anyplace else you might be repeatedly preventing reflections.
That apart, it is onerous to not be inspired via the show at the Vivobook S 15. Asus has completed a super task in this one.
Keyboard and trackpad
The Vivobook S 15 has a regular chiclet-style keyboard with 1.7mm key trip and a numpad at the aspect. The keys have a single-zone RGB backlight, which will also be custom designed within the MyASUS app.
The keyboard is pleased with first rate trip. The keys are reasonably broad with much less spacing than an ordinary chiclet-style which takes some being used to however as soon as completed it was once a breeze to sort on. I’m for my part a little bit cut up at the devoted numpad at the proper, particularly since Asus has proven it may have a digital numpad at the trackpad that purposes simply as nicely, and I might slightly have an frivolously spaced keyboard and trackpad.
What I am not cut up on is the needless new Copilot key, which replaces the precise regulate key. All this does is release the Copilot ‘app’, which additionally occurs to be only a window in Edge, and one thing you’ll be able to simply pin to the taskbar. All that is on most sensible of the doubtful worth that Copilot brings. I might a lot slightly have my regulate key again, please.
As discussed ahead of, the keyboard options RGB backlighting, which feels a little bit unusual for a tool of this nature. You’ll alter the lighting fixtures coloration, trend, and brightness from the MyASUS app however since it is a single-zone lighting fixtures, it is going to observe uniformly to all of the keyboard. The backlighting is not very shiny and has the unlucky aspect impact of creating the important thing legends tough to peer all over the day as the sunshine simply blends with the silver surrounds, particularly in the event you select a impartial coloration like white.
Beneath the keyboard is the slightly sizable trackpad. The graceful glass floor makes this a excitement to make use of, despite the fact that one may just argue if it must be this giant. Asus has assigned some gestures to the highest and aspect edges, which regulate such things as quantity, brightness, and playback however I discovered myself triggering them by chance too steadily. Fortunately, you’ll be able to simply disable them however it’s a must to disable they all and now not simply the one who’s getting to your method.
The trackpad is hinged on the most sensible as is in most cases the case however you’ll be able to click on on a just right 80% of it and get a pleasing reaction, with solely the highest edge being not able to transport.
One habitual factor I had with the trackpad was once it will confuse a two-finger scroll gesture within the browser for a pinch-to-zoom gesture. The web page would in brief zoom in just a little ahead of scrolling. This can be a topic with the trackpad motive force that may probably be mounted with an replace.
ASUS additionally despatched over its MD100 Marshmallow Mouse Steve Harrington Version, a cutesy instrument with a cool trend and a to hand strap that may be tucked away when now not wanted. It is a first rate mouse with Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity, cushy clicks and scroll wheel, and a slender, light-weight design.
Audio and webcam
The Vivobook S 15 has a couple 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 transparent with just right timbre.
I used to be now not specifically inspired via the headphone jack output. Whilst it were given very loud, there was once noticeable background noise coming in the course of the jack. The sound was once additionally oddly gentle on bass and the entirety sounded skinny and flat via default with the Atmos app disabled. I would not counsel the use of the Atmos app for headphones because it brings further distortion with it. Sadly, although you flip it off, it by some means manages to show itself on once more.
The webcam high quality is mediocre. A lot was once made concerning the symbol processing of the Snapdragon chips however I am not seeing it. It looks as if another webcam, which is to mention it is wonderful for the informal video name however you will have to nonetheless imagine an oem digital camera if you wish to have it steadily.
{Hardware} and connectivity
The Vivobook S 15 S5507 runs at the Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 chipset. It options 12 CPU cores that may clock as much as 3.4GHz along side the Adreno X1 GPU clocked at 1250MHz.
The X1E 78 100 is without doubt one of the 4 Snapdragon X Elite fashions and is technically the runt of the muddle. No longer solely does it have the bottom spice up clock pace, however it is also the one one without a unmarried or dual-core spice up like at the different chips, which will briefly spice up one or two in their cores even upper. The GPU could also be slower than the highest two fashions.
Paired with the chip is 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5X reminiscence clocked at 8448MHz. Not like Apple’s M-series chips, the Snapdragon X Elite does now not come with the reminiscence on-die. Relatively, it is soldered onto the motherboard like on maximum different notebooks this present day. Whilst it is just right {that a} 32GB possibility exists, it kind of feels it is only to be had in make a selection areas, and ours solely got here in 16GB without a different possibility to be had.
For garage, our assessment unit had a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with a 512GB possibility to be had in some areas. Fortunately, the SSD here’s a usual 2280 M.2 force, which will simply get replaced will have to you require extra garage.
Regardless of what it’s possible you’ll suppose, the Vivobook S 15 has a decently-sized cooling machine inside of with twin enthusiasts cooling twin warmth pipes. There don’t seem to be any fanless notebooks but in response to this chip since it may pull a good bit of persistent. However extra on that later.
With regards to connectivity, the Vivobook S 15 does actually nicely, particularly in comparison to its opponents. You get two full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports at the proper with 5Gbps bandwidth and at the left are two USB 4.0 Gen 3 Kind-C ports, which fortify 40Gbps bandwidth and rapid charging. There may be additionally an HDMI 2.1 TDMS port right here however if truth be told, it is simply HDMI 2.0 in relation to precise bandwidth. In spite of everything, there’s a microSD card reader and a three.5mm headphone jack.
For wi-fi connectivity, you get tri-band Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 5.4 with LE audio.
Device
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 also are constructed for ARM.
Relating to bloatware, Asus is in most cases beautiful just right. There are only a handful of Asus apps which are pre-installed, all of which will also be got rid of. On the other hand, you will have to stay the MyASUS app because it gives an infinite array of settings for the instrument along side the power to improve the instrument firmware, which is break away the Home windows updates.
Being an ARM-based instrument, there was once at all times going to be a query mark on how the instrument runs all of the apps you might be used to working on a Home windows system. This was once a big bugbear of early ARM-based Home windows gadgets, which might solely run a make a selection few apps from the Home windows retailer that have been constructed for ARM.
Thankfully, we’ve come far since then, and making issues so much more uncomplicated this time round is Prism, the Home windows emulator that permits you to run x86-64 apps at the instrument with out you even knowing it. Severely, all it’s a must to do is set up the app as you generally would and it simply runs as you’ll be expecting it to. Smartly, excluding if it is a recreation, however extra on that within the Efficiency segment.
On the other hand, emulation is not a unfastened lunch, and there’s a value to translating the app to any other structure each time you might be working it. Whilst you will not realize the adaptation a lot in light-weight apps instead of some behind schedule release instances, extra tense apps will run noticeably slower.
That is the place local ARM apps are available in. Fortunately, with just a little little bit of looking, you’ll be able to in most cases in finding an ARM model of your app. From time to time it is going to be in beta and even alpha however relying at the nature of the app can nonetheless run hugely higher than a strong x86-64 model. The previous month or so of the use of the Vivobook S 15 despatched me down the rabbit hollow of discovering the ARM model of each app I take advantage of and it was once if truth be told roughly a laugh. I used to be shocked to peer simply what number of apps do have an ARM model now, no less than in some state of building. Funnily sufficient, it was once in most cases the apps with small dev groups who have been fast at the uptake however even larger apps like DaVinci Unravel and Photoshop now have a local ARM model.
The mix of a powerful emulator and a rising library of local apps way Home windows on ARM is lately in a just right place, no less than so far as on a daily basis or repeatedly used productiveness apps. In fact, there will likely be instances the place the emulator does not paintings nicely neither is there a local app to be had however no less than in my utilization I by no means got here throughout this state of affairs. According to my private revel in as of August 2024, I would not hesitate to counsel Home windows ARM notebooks to on a regular basis house or administrative center customers.
Efficiency
Productiveness
The Vivobook S 15 has 4 ‘Fan profile’ choices within the MyASUS app which, counterintuitively, are if truth be told the facility prohibit choices that during flip additionally impact the fan speeds. You get Whisper mode, which objectives 20W as the height persistent worth, Same old, which is the default, objectives 35W, Efficiency (45W), and in the end, Complete-speed mode, which objectives 50W.
It’s a must to observe those persistent figures as that is the solely genuine data we get relating to how a lot persistent this chip pulls. Qualcomm has now not equipped get admission to to any of the facility intake metrics from the chip so even supposing apps like HWiNFO can get admission to data relating to clock speeds and temperatures, there’s completely no information to be had at the quantity of persistent being pulled.
Without reference to which persistent profile you choose, the chip can hit the said 3.4GHz throughout all 12 cores. Whisper can solely hang 3.4GHz in an all-core workload for a few seconds ahead of losing down to two.2GHz for the remainder period. Same old remains a couple of seconds longer ahead of losing down to two.7GHz. Efficiency will drop all the way down to 3GHz and Complete-speed will take care of 3.4GHz till it hits its 95-degree thermal prohibit. The chip regulates the collection of cores it may assign to a job in batches of 4, so you can see 4, 8, or all twelve cores being lively relying at the job.
With all that during thoughts, the next benchmarks have been run the use of the Complete-speed profile in MyASUS and the Home windows persistent profile left on the default Balanced. All makes an attempt have been made to get the ARM model of the benchmark anyplace imaginable however sadly, one of the most exams are nonetheless x86 solely.
Benchmark
Class
Rating
Cinebench R23 (x86)
Unmarried
1120
Multi
12753
Cinebench 2024
Unmarried
107
Multi
1130
Blender (Lecture room)
Time (seconds)
372
7-Zip
Compression
91781
Decompression
90799
Geekbench 6
Unmarried
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 discussed ahead of, there’s a penalty for the use of emulation and you’re looking at anyplace from 12.5% in 7-Zip to an enormous 74% worse efficiency in Blender when switching from the local ARM to the x86 model.
Benchmark
Class
Rating (ARM)
Rating (x86)
Blender (Lecture room)
Time (seconds)
372
646
7-ZIP
Compression
91781
80377
Decompression
90799
79341
The 4 persistent profiles in MyASUS have a proportionately upper affect on efficiency as you pass down the checklist. From Complete-speed to Efficiency, you lose about 9% efficiency in Blender within the Lecture room scene. Happening to the default Same old makes you lose about 22% of the efficiency of Complete-speed after which in the end at Whisper, you lose an important 53% of the efficiency.
Benchmark
Energy profile
Time (seconds)
Blender (Lecture room)
Complete-speed
372
Efficiency
404
Same old
451
Whisper
567
Nonetheless, as you’ll be able to see, even working on the lowest persistent point is healthier than working in x86 for Blender, because the Whisper mode on ARM outperforms Complete-speed in x86.
On battery, the facility profiles in MyASUS app don’t alternate and you’ll be able to nonetheless get the similar efficiency, equipped you permit the Home windows persistent profile to Steadiness. On the other hand, via default, Home windows switches to the Absolute best Energy Potency profile on battery, which has a serious affect on measurable efficiency.
Benchmark
Class
Time (seconds)
Blender (Lecture room)
Energy
372
Battery
750
Now for some real-life checking out. I attempted the use of the Vivobook S 15 in an ordinary house use case consisting most commonly of internet surfing and media intake and in addition in a extra productivity-oriented environment with heavy symbol and video modifying.
Within the former, the Vivobook S 15 carried out flawlessly. Without reference to whether or not you might be on persistent or battery, there at all times appears to be plentiful persistent to be had and the instrument feels fast and responsive. In fact, this was once most commonly when working local ARM apps however even non-native apps perceived to run wonderful more often than not outdoor of benchmarks to the purpose it was once simple to omit they have been working below emulation.
When it got here to heavier productiveness duties, there was once an issue, and it was once now not the Snapdragon chip. Seems, the chip has sufficient persistent to deal with the issues that I do for paintings, which is modifying high-resolution RAW photographs in Affinity Picture (which additionally is available in local ARM) and from time to time modifying a 4K video in DaVinci Unravel (additionally ARM however in beta). I used to be in a position to persistent thru those apps with out experiencing any main slowdowns. This is till I hit the boundaries of the 16GB reminiscence. Sadly, this merely is not enough to do any genuine productiveness paintings at the instrument, and the instant I opened greater than 3 RAW recordsdata or greater video tasks, the efficiency floor to a halt.
As discussed ahead of, Asus does be offering a 32GB reminiscence possibility in some markets. That will be the go-to in the event you plan on doing memory-heavy duties. Sadly, now not having that possibility far and wide appears like leaving efficiency at the desk because the Snapdragon X Elite chip, and thus the Vivobook S 15, is in a position to extra however is held again via the 16GB configuration. House customers more than likely would not handle internet and media packages however alternatively, you’ll be able to additionally simply use an iPad if that is all you need to do.
The 1TB force that got here with our Vivobook S 15 carried out slightly nicely. It is not the quickest force we’ve observed however for the use instances this instrument is designed for it will have to be ok.
Gaming
That is the place issues pass pear-shaped for the Vivobook S 15 and the ARM-based Home windows platform basically.
That is the unlucky truth of the present state of affairs; there are merely no video games to be had for Home windows on the time of writing which are in response to the ARM structure. This implies each recreation you check out must undergo emulation, which impacts video games disproportionately in comparison to common apps.
All of the video games I attempted (and I attempted so much) fell into 3 classes:
The sport put in, introduced, and ran as anticipated with lowered efficiency
The sport put in, introduced, however had graphical mistakes and/or unplayable efficiency
The sport put in however may just now not be introduced
A small subset of video games fell within the first class. They put in and functioned roughly as they might on a local x86 instrument. The typical body charge wasn’t nice owing to the emulation, loss of drivers, or only a normal loss of GPU efficiency, however it was once strong and playable. Some examples of those come with titles like Keep watch over, Metro Exodus, Alien: Isolation, Stray, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Sadly, lots of the video games fell into the second one and 3rd classes. Whilst some video games introduced wonderful, the efficiency was once steadily unplayable. Should you have been to only take a look at moderate body charges, it’s possible you’ll make the error of pondering the sport runs wonderful however the body time efficiency was once far and wide with huge spikes that made the sport tough to play and not possible to revel in. This contains titles comparable to God of Conflict, Outer Wilds, Resident Evil 3, Counter-Strike 2, and Overwatch 2.
Some titles perceived to run wonderful however had visible problems. The Tomb Raider I-III Remastered assortment, as an example, ran completely however was once too darkish, which made it tough to peer. A few others additionally had artifacts like flashing textures and visible system defects whilst taking part in.
Then some video games merely would now not even release. This integrated titles like Loss of life Stranding and Surprise’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The primary right away crashes on release. The second one, like many others, searches for appropriate drivers most likely from Nvidia or AMD, and upon now not discovering any throws the machine does not meet minimal necessities message and peaces out. Then there was once Doom Everlasting, which to start with didn’t release in any respect, then later would release and crash after the hole trademarks, and maximum just lately would release and succeed in the menu ahead of crashing.
A overwhelming majority of video games that would possibly not release have been multiplayer titles with anti-cheat. Even though the sport itself would run below emulation, the anti-cheat device would save you the sport from launching because of an incompatibility error. In some instances like Elden Ring the place the multiplayer is an not obligatory element of the sport, it was once imaginable to avoid the anti-cheat and at once release the sport to play offline. However with titles like Fall Guys, there is no method in.
The issue here’s twofold. In the beginning, recreation builders are going to need to construct local variations in their titles so that you can run correctly. In the intervening time, a few of them may just no less than cause them to release in order that although the efficiency is not nice, one may just nonetheless no less than get into the sport and possibly with a little bit of fiddling round with the settings, have a quite playable revel in. 2nd, Qualcomm wishes to start out transport graphics drivers for titles. Nvidia does this, AMD does it, and now even Intel does it. There is not any getting round it and if Qualcomm must be taken severely on this house, it should also meet up with the others.
Microsoft has integrated a temporal symbol upscaling answer in Home windows referred to 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 option appeared terrible because the decision is a ways too low and non-adjustable. You might be a ways at an advantage launching the sport generally and the use of no matter symbol upscaling generation the sport comes with, like TSR, FSR, or XeSS.
If you are questioning why there don’t seem to be any recreation benchmarks in this web page, the solution for that’s that the benchmarking software I take advantage of wasn’t in a position to run appropriately. First of all, it would not paintings in any respect and later having the software working would reason any recreation introduced to crash instantly, although the sport would run another way.
Relating to precise playability, I used to be in a position to get more effective titles to run slightly nicely sufficient. I may just, as an example, play Within or Gris nicely sufficient at the instrument. Fundamental 2D titles just like the Ace Legal professional sequence additionally ran wonderful. I used to be additionally in a position to run Keep watch over at a slightly strong body charge. The trick with those was once to at all times simply drop the decision to the bottom quantity you’ll be able to tolerate, which for me was once 720p in this display after which set the entirety to the bottom settings.
One may just argue that the chip is not geared toward avid gamers neither is Asus’ Vivobook sequence basically. On the other hand, the sensation I had taking part in video games at the instrument was once that there was once enough persistent right here to get a PS4-level of efficiency, which is to mention, 1080p with medium settings and 30fps locked body charge. That isn’t too unhealthy, however for that to occur there would want to be local titles to be had, in addition to optimized drivers from Qualcomm.
Funnily sufficient, the Mac now has a good collection of local ARM titles to be had for it. You will have titles like Resident Evil 4, Baldur’s Gate 3, Murderer’s Creed Mirage, Loss of life Stranding Director’s Reduce, and a number of other others natively to be had at the Mac App Retailer, with extra within the pipeline. No longer solely is there now not a unmarried ARM identify to be had for Home windows, no person has even made any claims to liberate them someday. It is so bizarre to peer macOS and Home windows swapping puts in the case of video games when switching over to ARM.
Funnier nonetheless, our Vivobook S 15 got here with 3 months of Xbox PC Recreation Go Final club. The object is, you’ll be able to’t get admission to these kinds of video games because the Xbox app on ARM will merely now not display any of them to you. You’ll obtain a handful from the Microsoft Retailer app but if I say handful, I actually imply handful. Lots of the others won’t display up within the retailer in any respect or won’t help you obtain them mentioning compatibility causes. It is imaginable the Recreation Go club was once a one-off factor for assessment gadgets because it is senseless to package deal this for precise shoppers.
Lengthy tale brief, gaming, for probably the most phase, is a no-go at the Vivobook S 15 these days and if that is an issue then this is not the instrument nor the platform for you.
Thermals
The Vivobook S 15 has a decently sized thermal answer regardless of what one may be expecting from an ARM chip. In truth, the Snapdragon X Elite can pull a large number of persistent, and working it fanless does not appear to be an possibility for the instant.
As such, the enthusiasts at the Vivobook S 15 are virtually at all times working. On the other hand, via default they’re so quiet, you’ll hardly ever pay attention them, even in a quiet room. The one strategy to get the enthusiasts audible is to run the 2 upper persistent profiles and do one thing closely multi-threaded at the CPU. For the entirety else, it is virtually like having a fanless machine.
Whilst the fan noise is slightly delightful at the Same old and even the Efficiency mode, the Complete-speed profile appears like summoning a demon as abruptly the enthusiasts get very loud. In fact, regardless of the identify, the enthusiasts will solely spin as much as their complete pace when doing one thing extraordinarily taxing at the CPU, which means you’ll be able to additionally simply run the machine in this profile and now not pay attention the enthusiasts in any respect till you make a decision to run Cinebench for some explanation why.
Below load, the ground part of the keyboard deck stays at a at ease temperature despite the fact that the realm above the highest row will get slightly heat.
Battery lifestyles
The Vivobook S 15 has a 70Wh battery. Asus makes a slightly daring declare of 18+ hours of battery lifestyles, a determine they bought whilst taking part in video in the community.
For my checking out, I left the instrument at the default Same old mode within the MyASUS app and the Absolute best Energy Potency profile in Home windows settings. The show was once set to 60% brightness and the keyboard lighting fixtures was once off. The Adaptive Edge Brightness characteristic was once left on the default worth of two. All different battery-saving and standby mode options have been disabled.
The usage of those settings, I were given about 12 hours of natural internet surfing in Edge. For video, I were given about 14 hours when taking part in YouTube 4K and 15 hours when taking part in Netflix 1080p.
The Home windows Absolute best Energy Potency profile is completely ok for internet surfing and media intake. On the other hand, you could need to transfer to Balanced if you wish to do productiveness paintings at the pass, because it makes a large distinction to efficiency. It additionally has a big affect on battery lifestyles and I were given about 6-8 hours when seeking to do combined productiveness duties on this mode, which concerned modifying RAW recordsdata in Affinity Picture and observing the occasional YouTube video.
One nice characteristic of a majority of these new ARM-based PCs is that the idle persistent draw is considerably lowered. I will shut the lid and go away the PC in a single day solely to search out about 3% tired within the morning.
Total, the battery lifestyles at the Vivobook S 15 is fantastic. I used to be in a position to move on a two-day shuttle with out the charger and nonetheless had persistent left once I got here again. The potency features over earlier x86 chips are genuine and you might be not blowing loopy quantities of persistent for fundamental duties. If all you do is a few hours of internet surfing or observing Netflix in an afternoon, you will not want to rate greater than as soon as per week.
Talking of charging, the Vivobook S 15 comes with a 90W USB-C charger. Taking a look on the HWiNFO figures, the system was once pulling about 72W whilst charging. I additionally attempted a 65W USB-C PD charger, which Home windows promptly advised me wasn’t rapid, and it driven about 48W. Taking into consideration the battery lifetime of the Vivobook S 15, you’ll be able to simply raise a unmarried high-power USB-PD telephone charger for your whole gadgets for a brief shuttle as an alternative of lugging across the a lot greater and heavier Vivobook S 15 charger.
Something to notice is that the left edge will get extraordinarily sizzling when the instrument is charging. The outside temperature is upper than even whilst working one thing CPU-demanding at the instrument. If you’re the use of the instrument whilst charging, your left hand goes to start out feeling it quickly.
Conclusion
The Vivobook S 15 S5507 is a superb instrument for house and administrative center customers. It is skinny and lightweight but well-built, has an incredible show, a sensible choice of ports, a at ease keyboard and trackpad, quiet operation, and an outstanding battery lifestyles. The entire efficiency for internet surfing, administrative center paintings, internet surfing, or even gentle photograph and symbol modifying is greater than ok.
What the system is not just right at is heavy manufacturing paintings because of the restricted 16GB-only reminiscence configuration to be had in some areas and the 16:9 facet ratio show, and the gaming revel in was once in large part deficient because of a loss of local titles and motive force fortify.
If you’re searching for a jack of all trades, this would possibly not be the choice for you and also you may well be at an advantage taking a look on the new Ryzen AI 300 fashions. However for the ones taking a look at doing most commonly house, administrative center, or faculty paintings with a little bit of media intake at the aspect, the Vivobook S 15 is a extremely compelling possibility that is solely going to recuperate with time.
Professionals
Skinny, gentle, and well-built design
Very good show
Nice general efficiency from the Snapdragon chip
Excellent keyboard and trackpad
Slightly audible cooling
Remarkable battery lifestyles in gentle utilization
Excellent number of ports
Cons
16GB now not sufficient for productiveness; 32GB has restricted availability
Deficient gaming revel in
16:9 facet ratio now not superb for productiveness
Dim keyboard backlight
Replaces the precise Ctrl key with a useless Copilot button
