ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Vivobook S 15, Asus’ first Copilot+ PC, is on the market now for $1,299.
- It is modern and light-weight with a beautiful OLED show, nice battery life, and snappy efficiency.
- The character of Home windows on ARM laptops means it isn’t but optimized for sure apps and video games.
Asus’ first Copilot+ PC with the Snapdragon X Elite chip is the Vivobook S 15, a modern and light-weight 15-inch laptop computer with a beautiful show and ultra-snappy efficiency.
The chassis’ minimalist, all-metal design is light-weight and ethereal, and it feels extra premium than final yr’s Vivobook S 14. It is solely 0.58 inches at its thinnest level, and it weighs simply 3.13 kilos, making it significantly well-suited for hybrid or distant employees who need a highly effective laptop computer with a beautiful show that does not weigh a ton.
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Like the entire new Home windows on ARM laptops launched this summer season, the Vivobook S 15 is quick and responsive with good battery life, however it comes with new expertise that is not absolutely optimized for all duties fairly but, which might restrict its use case for some customers.
For the common shopper, nevertheless, that is the epitome of a laptop computer that appears and feels good proper out of the field, and it begins with the sensible 3K OLED show.
With an 89% screen-to-body ratio and ultra-thin bezels, the display screen is sensible and high-contrast, rocking a max 600-nit brightness and 120Hz refresh fee for some silky-smooth and crisp picture high quality.
The show’s 16:9 decision provides it that premium widescreen really feel, lending itself nicely to each watching and enhancing media, however it may not be for everybody. Most 15-inch laptops include a 16:10 decision, which could really feel extra “pure” for some, however in the end the excellence is delicate.
With 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, Asus is ready to hold prices near that $1,000 value level with simply the correct quantity of {hardware} on this machine. And it feels even higher in tandem with the snappy, responsive efficiency the Snapdragon X Elite processor gives.
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The Vivobook S 15 options the 12-core, 3.4GHz chip with a forty five TOPS NPU, the identical one discovered within the HP Omnibook X 14, however barely under the three.8GHz chip within the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge.
The benchmarking scores in Cinebench replicate that very same hierarchy, with numbers above the Omnibook and slightly below the Galaxy Guide 4 Edge. In testing the CPU’s efficiency, I acquired a single-core rating of 106 and a multi-core rating of 969. In Geekbench, I acquired a single-core of 2447 and a multi-core of 14384.
Remember that these scores had been recorded whereas the machine was plugged into energy. Whereas on battery, I acquired scores about 30% decrease — considerably extra of a distinction than I anticipated. That is compared to the HP Omnibook X 14, which had a a lot narrower hole in scores in my testing, something I noted as I was reviewing it.
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This paints an image of a laptop computer that has considerably variable battery life, relying on what you are doing and how much mode you could have the laptop computer in. There isn’t any escaping the facility this show requires, and in case you’re somebody who sometimes ignores battery setting profiles and retains your machine blasting at “Finest Efficiency,” it’s possible you’ll wish to regulate the facility modes in both the MyAsus software program or in Home windows (or each) since you’ll see a drastic distinction.
That being stated, the 70Wh battery efficiency on the Vivobook S 15 is nice, however the consumer should handle it to maximise its effectivity. Throughout the battery test that ZDNET runs on all laptops, I acquired about 10 and a half hours earlier than it died, however that quantity fluctuated in subsequent checks with completely different energy mode settings.
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Optimization is the theme right here, and this additionally extends to its efficiency. The Home windows on ARM structure gives implausible up-front efficiency in methods which might be instantly obvious to most customers. However once you begin trying intently at extra specialised duties, issues have the potential to get tough.
For instance, the Vivobook S 15’s aforementioned 16:9 decision OLED display screen looks like it will be excellent for enhancing video. Whereas the built-in Qualcomm Adreno GPU is as much as the duty, its interplay with completely different apps and their efficiency in Home windows (through Prism) continues to be a piece in progress.
Throughout my testing, I ran DaVinci Resolve for Home windows on ARM, and it labored largely superb, however the efficiency continues to be not 100% optimized. There was some lag, graphic stuttering, and quirkiness, particularly with 4K video. Adobe Photoshop, nevertheless, ran easily, with native AI-generative duties popping off seamlessly with assist from the NPU on board the Snapdragon. I count on efficiency to proceed to enhance as Home windows will get higher and builders enhance their merchandise for the platform.
The opposite elephant within the room is gaming, which isn’t fully up to the mark with Home windows on ARM. Sure, technically, you’ll be able to recreation on this laptop computer, however many titles nonetheless do not run, and those that do should not well-optimized. Though the Vivobook S 15 appears like one thing you would possibly wish to recreation on, I would not advocate it as a devoted gaming laptop computer. No less than not but.
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As an alternative, I see the Vivobook S 15 as a main driver for distant employees or digital nomads who’re already integrating AI into their workflows and recognize an aesthetic laptop computer with a superb show that handles media nicely. Supporting that use case, it has a beneficiant number of ports: two USB-A ports on the right-hand aspect, two USB-C on the left, an HDMI port, a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack.
It additionally has a “full” keyboard (the quantity pad on the precise aspect has barely smaller keys, as typical for sub-16-inch machines), which is satisfying and conscious of typing on. The keyboard has colourful LED backlighting that may be configured in many various lights and results, however once more, this isn’t one thing that I might take into account excessive on the precedence listing when optimizing battery life.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
The Asus Vivobook S 15 is a modern and light-weight laptop computer with a beautiful OLED show and strong battery life — so long as you are conscious about your energy utilization. I might advocate it to forward-thinking digital nomads who need a performant, AI-ready laptop computer with the blazing-fast Snapdragon X Elite processor. It is a strong funding for individuals who recurrently swap between inventive work, productiveness software program, and media.
All issues thought-about, the beginning value of $1,299 is sort of aggressive for this laptop computer, significantly for the show alone.
