Verdict
For £ 500 , the Vivobook 15 has much to offer , including a good keyboard , impressive loudspeaker system and high - death anatomy quality and pattern , but the display is poor even for a laptop at this cost distributor point .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Asus Vivobook 15 is an effort to deliver a in full - functioning full - sized 15.6 - inch laptop for under £ 500 . Now at this terms , you could be forgive for think that you have to make do with a wretched clod of ugly cheapness , but the Vivobook 15 gives lilliputian fashion in term of style and build quality to laptops costing considerably more .
For this sort of money , you do n’t bear US MIL - STD-810H military - grade resistance to shock and particle ingress , a 6GHzWi - Fi 6Eradio , or a expression that evoke consider and careful design rather than off - the - shelf ashen recording label blandness . But the Asus Vivobook 15 delivers all those thing .
So , is there a fly front in the ointment ? According to Asus , the Vivobook is available with three type of show , all 15.6 - in , 1,920 x 1,080 , and 60Hz , but in a crucial way , one of them is not like the other two . And that ’s the one that came fitted to my review article unit . Let ’s dive in .
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Design and Keyboard
For a cheap laptop , the Vivobook 15 is really quite a looker . deplorably , the attractive aristocratic and beige colourways that Asus offers in some market are not UK - bound but the all - silver pigment job gives it a innovative and clean-living facial expression . Perhaps more importantly , does n’t show greasy fingerprints . The character is plastic but palpate astonishingly solid and the lid does n’t have too much flex in it . It calculate and feels like it should be much more than it does , and you ca n’t ask for much more at £ 500 .
A design touch I like is the faux carbon character overcompensate on the blind bezels . It looks snazzy and is pleasant to the skin senses . The bezels are slender , measuring 8 mm at the sides , 12 millimeter at the top and 16 millimeter at the bottom . The display folds back all the manner to 180 ° , and the hinge feel exceptionally robust . At 360 x 233 x 18 mm and 1.7 kg the Vivobook 15 is comparatively low-cal and compendious for a full - sized laptop computer .
Asus has n’t skimped on the I / O port with two USB - A 3.2 Gen 1 , one USB - A 2.0 and one Type - C 3.2 Gen 1 port . There ’s also an HDMI 1.4 video output and a 3.5 mm audio jack . The Type - C port does n’t support DP Alt Mode video output or baron comment , so you are flummox with a 45W barrel - pin DC battery charger .
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The physical layout of the interface is less than ideal , with everything other than the USB - A 2.0 port clustered together on the correct side of the body .
The keyboard is undoubtedly one of the Vivobook ’s strength . First , it is impressively solid , and the keys themselves have a nicely weighted 1.4 mm travel with a positive end - stop . The black - on - gray colour scheme do it very legible . And there is a 75 % width numeric keyboard .
The only slender negative points are the absence seizure of a backlight – not a massive surprisal at this price item – and the half - stature arrow keys , but you learn to hold up with those .
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The 105 x 75 millimetre touchpad is n’t the big you ’ll ever find on a 15.6 - inch laptop , but it behaves impeccably , and the click - legal action at the corner are perfectly damped .
Taking the theme off the Vivobook 15 is a painless operation , and once inside , you could swap out the 2280 PCIe 4SSDand replace the 8GBRAMcard in the one free slot , the other 8 GB being solder to the motherboard . The wireless card is also easy to access , and amazingly , the MediaTek card supports the 6GHz Wi - Fi 6E wavelength .
Asus makes no gallant claim about the environmental impact of the Vivobook 15 , but the packaging is entirely cardboard with no credit card or styrofoam insert , making it easier to recycle .
Display and Sound
Asus’product Sir Frederick Handley Page for the Vivobook 15lists three case of display for the X1504 Vivobook 15 , and only two of them are described as IPS - Level . Checking the manufacturing business computer code of the panel ( BOE NT156FHM - N63 ) with a few jobber , I discovered that my motorcar has a TN rather than an IPS display .
distinctive trait of TN panels let in abyssal direct contrast proportion and severely limited viewing angles . And so it proved on the Asus Vivobook 15 . Unless you await now at the screen , square - on , you will observe a lot of chromatic transformation . Angle the screen even a few degrees and the flop is amusing .
color gamut are very narrow , with just 52.2 % sRGB address , along with 36.2 % DCI - P3 and 36.2 % Adobe RGB . With so little colour uncommitted , the Delta E accuracy score was never hold out to be good , and it was n’t , registering at an exuberant 6 against the sRGB profile in Vivid mode . In received mood , it is even bad at 7.1 .
Peak brightness level came out at 293nits , which is not too regretful , but thanks to a very high disgraceful luminosity of 0.97 , the demarcation ratio is a very low 300:1 . look for a electropositive , at least the mat last maintain reflections at bay .
The stereo speaker are not what I ’d call aloud , but the phone they make is enjoyable , with a helpful amount of more or less woolly bass part and good definition across the intact soundscape . There ’s perfectly no distortion in evidence , either .
The webcam is a canonic 720p affair but was shiny and incisive than many others of a standardized spec I ’ve encountered on more expensive laptops . The double it creates are a little colourless , but even allowing for that , I ’d still describe the functioning as good . It even has a physical privacy shutter .
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There ’s no support for Windows Hell IR facial recognition , nor is there a fingerprint image scanner .
Performance
The Core i5 - 1235U processor inside the Vivobook 15 is a 10 - core chip from the Alder Lake twelfth generation and has 8 efficiency nitty-gritty and 2 performance cores , and a TDP of 15W. It is combine with Intel ’s integrated Xe artwork chip shot , 16 GB of treble - channel DDR4 RAM and a PCIe 3 512 GB SSD .
None of those facts suggests a high stratum of execution but should prove sufficient for day - to - day use , and the good news is that the Vivobook 15 can run everyday productiveness and entrainment undertaking without signs of tenor or delay . go a couple of dozen Chrome tabs and a television in VLC did n’t stimulate any problems , nor did editing some sizeable altogether trope Indian file in GIMP .
The benchmark result underlined that the U - series processors are think for light workloads on the go , but they were not a million miles off the scads returned by the significantly more expensive LG Gram SuperSlim , which runs a atomic number 15 - serial Raptor Lake mainframe .
With a 3DMark Time Spy score of just 1,181 , gaming is limited to lightweight titles download from the Microsoft Store , but that should come as no surprise .
Thanks to the humbled TDP of the CPU , there were no issue with thermal strangling , and the fan rarely had to spin up to full speed . The haphazardness was n’t remotely intrusive even when the cooling system ran full - chat .
The SSD inside is n’t going to deliver the goods any prizes for speed with modal sequential read and write speeds of 3,044MB / s and 1,643MB / s , severally but given that the motherboard port are all PCIe 3 spec , that ’s not an unduly inadequate screening for a budget laptop computer .
Software
Asus bundle the usual bloat on the Vivobook 15 , include McAfee security which will badger you for a subscription that you do n’t need until you bite the hummer and uninstall it . A few Microsoft Store apps like Spotify and Instagram also make out pre - slopped but removing them is the body of work of a moment .
The MyAsus app lets you modify the display people of color background , the sound profile and how the AI noise - cancel mics work . you could also adapt the fan profiles . Some of the user - adjustability is worth having on more expensive simple machine that are intended for more demanding use , but on an entry - grade laptop computer like the Vivobook 15 , they are a minuscule pointless : adjust the colour visibility from Standard to Vivid on a showing this bad is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic .
Battery Life
The Vivobook may have a low - powerCPU , but it also has a lowly 42Wh battery , so the PCMark10 Modern Office bench mark only took a modest 6 60 minutes 45 to debilitate a full charge . In less demanding use , you may be able to get close to the eight - hour German mark but do n’t depend on it .
Asus claims that the bundled 45W charger can burden a low battery to 60 % electrical capacity in as little as 49 minutes , which I found to be more or less accurate , but I ’m still not sure that ’s really fast enough to gas about .
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Should you buy it?
The monetary value is right , and it looks and feels like a laptop with a price sticker nearer to £ 1,000 than £ 500 . If you are after something for general personal computer responsibility , web browsing and basic productivity , it ’s a good pick because those jobs do n’t spotlight the poor display .
The crappy direct contrast , chromatic geological fault and universal absence of colour make attend at anything colorful on the screen a cheerless experience . You will never get the image character of an OLED control board for £ 500 , but you should expect expert than this .
Final Thoughts
It ’s all about the presentation . If you’re able to find the Vivobook 15 with the IPS display option , even if the price is closer to £ 600 , then it ’s an immediate and unqualified recommendation because everything else is impressive for the money , from the keyboard to the speakers , to the Wi - Fi 6E modem and from the design and build to the substance abuser - upgrade option . But the simple-minded fact is that the thing you apply the most on a laptop computer is the screen , so it has to be up to sniff , and the TN panel on this Vivobook 15 simple is not .
The situation is not made any gentle by Asus ’ confusing product offer . All told , there are 5 versions of theVivobook 15 X1504 usable in the UKwith either centre i5 or Core i7 processor and ranging in price from £ 459 ( as screen but with the i5 - 1235U C.P.U. and 8 GB of tup ) to £ 800 for the Core i7 fashion model . However , it ’s nigh - on impossible to regulate which is the TN or the IPS display .
Of of course , low - snag display and mediocre battery ravel times are not uncommon at the bottom end of the market . TheAcer Aspire 5runs on the same mainframe as the Vivobook and suffers many of the same trouble despite costing a yoke of hundred quid more , whileMicrosoft ’s Surface Laptop Go 2doesn’t even offer a Full HD declaration . It ’s all a bit of a shame because if the Vivobook had a half - comely display , I ’d range it as one of the finest budget laptop on the market .
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How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform check plan to judge fundamental things , include flesh calibre , performance , screen quality and battery living .
These let in formal synthetical benchmark and scripted tests , plus a series of real - world checks .
FAQs
That all look on what display you choose . With an IPS show , the Vivobook is one of the best budget 15.6 - column inch laptops on the securities industry , but the TN display is a poor option lacking colour , line and with minute screening angle . Make certain you choose the right one .
For a budget notebook , the Vivobook 15 is both stylish and well - made and should give you many years of reliable overhaul . The Vivobook also hasMIL - STD 810HUS military - grade stock resistance to shock , vibration and particle entrance , and you could upgrade the SSD and the RAM after purchase .
Test Data
Full Specs
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