Asus VivoBook 15 review — a budget laptop with low-budget battery life
Our Verdict
The Asus VivoBook 15 is capable of common tasks and a chip of video game nostalgia, only it's non the upgrade you're looking for.
For
- Affordable
- Total keyboard layout
- Extremely lite
- Ample port option
Against
- Poor bombardment life
- Slow display
- Muffled sound
Tom'south Guide Verdict
The Asus VivoBook 15 is capable of mutual tasks and a bit of video game nostalgia, but information technology's not the upgrade you lot're looking for.
Pros
- +
Affordable
- +
Total keyboard layout
- +
Extremely lite
- +
Ample port selection
Cons
- -
Poor battery life
- -
Dull brandish
- -
Muffled audio
Asus VivoBook xv specs
Toll: $399
CPU: Intel Cadre i3-1005G1
GPU: Intel UHD
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB SSD
Display: xv.six-inch, 1920 x 1080
Battery: five:20
Size: 14.one x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
Weight: iii.7 pounds
The Asus VivoBook 15 is a budget laptop nosotros had loftier hopes for. Budget laptops, as you might well know, often seem like they're besides good to be truthful. The thought that you tin get enough operation to carry yous through a few years at an exceptionally reasonable price is quite enticing. Merely often, when yous're paying less, y'all're getting less, as well.
In the case of the latest refresh of the Asus VivoBook fifteen, you're paying for less operation and less bombardment life and opting for a less vibrant brandish. In exchange, you get numerous ports, a sparse chassis, and a nearly edge-to-edge widescreen brandish, but this Asus VivoBook 15 review will show how the upshot is merely a reminder of the compromises ane has to make to relieve money.
Asus VivoBook xv review: Price and Configurations
The $400 Asus VivoBook 15 featured hither is an Intel Core i3-1005G1 model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD storage. If you can spring an extra $200, you lot might consider another variant of the VivoBook 15 with an Intel i5-1035G1 processor and a 512GB SSD. There'south also an AMD option with a Ryzen seven 3700U processor and 512GB of storage for $650.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Blueprint
The Asus VivoBook fifteen excels at dressing for the job it wants. Its slate-gray chassis doesn't wait like a upkeep laptop, and despite its plastic build and relative lightness — a mere iii.7-pounds, lighter than the Acer Aspire five and HP 15 (iii.8 pounds and four.4 pounds, respectively) — information technology all feels cohesive in its overall design and construction.
The inside of the VivoBook 15 reveals a keyboard fitted to the rest of the laptop like on Asus' premium models. The trackpad is affluent on the wrist rest without being too obvious, and there'south even a fingerprint scanner for locking upwards your organisation.
Asus managed to fit in a whole number pad without crowding the keyboard surface area, and there'south plenty room for comfortably resting your wrist while thumbing through your work.
The VivoBook fifteen's ErgoLift Hinge is ane of its more helpful facets, as information technology angles the keyboard so that it's raised a bit for more comfy typing when you're seated at a desk-bound. It's a feature carried over from some of Asus' ROG gaming laptops (some of the best gaming laptops you tin can purchase) for increasing ergonomics on the get. It's nice that the company implemented it into its lower-tier laptops.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Ports
Buying a laptop with plenty of ports is a skilful idea if you lot're ever considering docking the device and working with a full gear up up. The laptop's left side has two traditional USB ii.0 Type-A ports, plus a condition indicator lite.
The right side has the remainder of the compensation, housing a proprietary ability jack, a USB 3.1 Type-A port, an HDMI two.0 port for tethering the laptop, and a combination headphone and microphone jack. At that place's a USB Type-C port, a rarity for a laptop in this toll range, and a manner for you to add an Ethernet port past fashion of a compatible adapter.
There's too a MicroSD slot, which is a nice-to-have and allows adding on storage space, but I would have preferred a standard SD slot to work with my DSLR on the go.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Brandish
The VivoBook 15'due south 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 NanoEdge brandish offers little bezel on either side of the laptop, with a bit more than at the top to accommodate the webcam. But beyond its widescreen expect, the display'south dim colour contour and weird viewing angles go far an underwhelming device for consuming online video. It fabricated episodes of vintage Idiot box shows like Baywatch, already with a worn-in color palette, expect older than they are, while movies like the recent remake of Emma were extremely hard to meet in dark scenes.
In lab tests, the VivoBook xv scored a measly 65 percent on the sRGB colour gamut. While that's ahead of similarly-priced laptops, including the Acer Aspire 5, which scored 63 percent, and the HP xv, which scored 67 percent, information technology'south behind the industry boilerplate of 85 percentage. Anecdotally, the display on the VivoBook 15 is manifestly off-kilter. I can get through a YouTube video without immediately recognizing it, but it becomes apparent once I switch displays. And while I was able to edit RAW photos in Adobe Lightroom, I felt more confident well-nigh the outcome but after connecting to an external monitor with ameliorate color reproduction.
The viewing angles of the VivoBook 15 are a bit odd, too. You accept to wait at the laptop at an exact bending — about 100 degrees — to see the display without a sheen. The outcome affects night colors, specifically black and grays, and if you lot rely on dark mode inside most apps, it'south hard to ignore. I found the laptop difficult to use with the Windows ten night mode because of this sheen result. Information technology'due south also non very bright, with the VivoBook xv maxing out at 205 nits in lab tests. The Acer Aspire v and HP 15 Laptop are brighter, measuring at 258 nits and 222 nits, respectively, though even those models are below the industry average of 268 nits. Whichever way you lot milk shake it, the VivoBook 15 isn't meant for a cinematic viewing feel.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Audio and Cameras
The lesser-facing dual speakers on the Asus VivoBook 15 demand a fiddling boost. You lot can listen to music and watch a film without headphones, but the sound volition seem as if it's strained. The Midnight'south Deep Blueish'south strong melody, for example, came through clearly enough, while the vocals seemed every bit if they were coming in from a distance. Bassier genres of music, like business firm and synthwave, sound but as hollow, and sometimes it's difficult to hear vocals fifty-fifty on podcasts. While I was watching Emma, I could barely hear the dialogue with the laptop gear up down on a table. Yous're amend off pairing the laptop with external speakers to listen to anything.
The 720p built-in webcam exists as a failsafe for when you're called into an unexpected video conference. But you'll want an external webcam to pair with the VivoBook 15, equally the quality on the included i is comparable to a webcam I had over x years ago. Information technology's besides bad the camera is an later on-thought even on budget laptops because there are so many students and professionals who could benefit from the presence of higher quality video.
Asus VivoBook fifteen review: Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the VivoBook 15 is a bit polarizing. The chiclet keys are comfortable to type on, and at that place is ample backlighting to become work done with the lights downwards low. I appreciate the number pad squeezed into the right side of the keyboard and that it can be hands turned on and off with a Number Lock central, similar a full-sized external keyboard.
But after about an hour of working with the keyboard, I found myself frustrated by the distance between the keys. They're so widely spaced that it feels like trudging through the Sahara. I lost myself in the configuration any fourth dimension the backlight went out. I also found the placement of a few keys, Page Upward and Page Down, further apart than where I naturally wanted to residuum my fingers. Plan to piece of work with this laptop docked if you want to get things washed.
Trying to employ Windows 10 gestures on the VivoBook 15'southward 4.i 10 two.9-inch trackpad proved annoying at times. I found myself with lots of unwanted swipes, so I just turned them off. The trackpad could be a fleck bigger, as it feels off-center at its current placement and width.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Operation
The VivoBook's Intel Cadre-i3 processor and 8GB of RAM are quite able, despite their mediocre benchmarks. I was able to sift through dozens of Google Chrome tabs, plus shuffle through my cloud-based library in Adobe Lightroom without the fans sounding like they were readying for takeoff. I gave the integrated Intel UHD graphics a spin to see if it could run an old favorite. I loaded upwardly Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and the VivoBook xv maintained betwixt xviii and 25 frames-per-2d as I walked through depression-quality-rendered snowy mountains.
Information technology seems like you can practice plenty with the VivoBook fifteen, simply about budget laptops feel this way at first. The VivoBook 15'south benchmark numbers show how piffling the laptop has to start with. It scored two,399 overall on Geekbench 5, a testing suite that measures everyday reckoner tasks like browsing the cyberspace and rendering augmented reality effects. That'due south below the Acer Aspire 5, which scored ii,744, and even further downwards the graph from the industry average of 2,983.
Our Handbrake video transcoding tests gave the VivoBook xv some other chance to go outperformed. The VivoBook 15 managed to transcode 4K video to 1080p resolution within 28 minutes and 33 seconds. The Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15 were much faster, transcoding at 21:55 and 25:53, respectively. The VivoBook 15 was faster than the forty minute boilerplate for other upkeep laptops that took this test.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Battery Life
Most upkeep laptops can final well over six hours on one charge of the battery, just the VivoBook 15 struggled to hit this marker. It lasted only five hours and twenty minutes through continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. Although this beat the Acer Aspire five (6:55) and the HP 15 Laptop (4:57) in lab tests, it's at the tail end of the spectrum compared to the average of other budget laptops tested (6:39).
I used the VivoBook xv with low brightness and the least aggressive setting in Windows 10's battery-saving mode and noticed merely slightly better numbers than the lab tests. The VivoBook 15 burned through 15 pct of battery later about an hour into a work session. Two hours later, the laptop used upwardly 45 percent at the same setting. That's nearly 50 percent after three hours of use. Perchance I could accept eked out a bit more than fourth dimension by futzing with the power saving settings. Information technology'due south clear from the numbers that the VivoBook fifteen can barely manage 6 hours of continuous use.
Asus VivoBook 15 review: Rut
The VivoBook 15 is consistent and capable at distributing heat, and it felt temperate enough to use on my lap. In lab tests, the VivoBook 15's keyboard measured almost 72 degrees Fahrenheit throughout, while the underside measured higher at 91 degrees. Overall, the laptop never felt likewise hot to utilize.
I didn't detect the fans in the Asus VivoBook 15 to be as loud as other laptops we've tested, namely the Acer Aspire v.
Asus VivoBook fifteen Verdict
Theoretically, if I were in a rush and needed a then-called throwaway laptop to perform a few quick deeds, the Asus VivoBook 15 would exist likely to carry me through. Information technology has enough power to run an older game at low-quality settings to help fulfill the nostalgia quotient. Information technology has enough battery life to file words at a Denny'due south in time for the side by side deadline. But every bit this Asus VivoBook 15 review showed, operation doesn't particularly impress, which doesn't make it a laptop worth an upgrade.
At least there are enough of ports, and so if the VivoBook 15 is the only selection yous have in your arsenal, an external monitor, a set of speakers, and a mouse can assistance with some of its quirks. Simply if yous can swing it, at least consider spending a few hundred more on the Core-i5 version of the VivoBook 15 for a little more than power in the processor.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/asus-vivobook-15
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