Important points of ZDNET
- Asus’ first Copilot+ PC, the Vivobook S 15, usually sells for over $1,000, but is currently selling at Walmart for $668.
- It’s sophisticated and lightweight with gorgeous OLED, 120Hz display, excellent battery life and sharp performance.
- However, due to the nature of Windows on the arm laptop, some apps may not be optimized yet.
At Walmart, Asus ‘Vivobook S 15 It is currently marked at $713, which is about $90. The configuration for sale features an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and 3K OLED 120Hz display with 16GB of RAM.
Last year, Asus’ first Copilot+ PC with Snapdragon x Elite chips was Vivobook S 15a sophisticated lightweight 15-inch laptop with a gorgeous display and ultra-snap performance. The minimalist all-metal design on the chassis is lightweight and airy, giving it a more premium feel than last year’s Vivobook S4. At just 0.58 inches at the thinnest point, weighing just 3.13 pounds, it is particularly suitable for hybrid or remote workers, and especially suitable for those who want a powerful laptop.
Also: This ultra-differentiable Windows laptop can seriously replace your MacBook Air – and it’s even lighter
Like all the new Windows on new Windows on ARM laptops released last summer, the Vivobook S 15 comes with a faster battery life and comes with new technology that wasn’t fully optimized for all apps at the time of release, but by this point the app needs to be pretty much optimized.
For the average consumer, however, this is the epitome of a laptop, and it looks and feels great right out of the box, starting with a 3K OLED display.
With an 89% screen-to-body ratio and an ultra-thin bezel, the screen is gorgeous and high contrast, rocking up to 600 knit brightness and 120Hz refresh rate, with silky smooth and crisp image quality.
Also: Why recommend this budget Lenovo ThinkPad on a laptop, twice as much as you would expect
The 16:9 resolution on the display gives it the feel of a premium widescreen and lends enough for both monitoring and editing the media, but that may not be for everyone. Most 15-inch laptops have a 16:10 resolution, which may feel “natural” to some, but the distinction is subtle in the end.
With 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, ASUS can use the right amount of hardware for this machine to keep costs close to the $1,000 price range. And it makes you feel even better alongside the sluggish and responsive performance offered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor.
The Vivobook S 15 features a 12-core, 3.4GHz chip with 45 top NPUs, the same as found on the HP Omnibook X 14, but slightly below the 3.8GHz chip found on the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge.
Benchmark score Cinebench Reflecting that same hierarchy, the numbers are on top of the OmniBook, just below the Galaxy Book4 Edge. When testing CPU performance, I got a single-core score of 106 and a multi-core score of 969. geekbenchgot 2447 single cores and 14384 multicores.
Remember that these scores were recorded while the device was connected to power. The score was about 30% lower while using the battery. There were a bit more differences than expected. This was what I noticed when I was reviewing it compared to the HP Omnibook X 14, which had a much narrower gap in the score on my tests.
Also: The Lenovo ThinkPad, which I recommend for most remote works, has an impressive spec sheet.
This will draw a picture of a laptop with a slightly variable battery life depending on what you are doing and what kind of modes you have in your laptop. You can’t escape the power that this display needs. You can also check if you want to adjust the Myas Suspension Software’s power mode by ignoring the battery configuration profile and blasting the machine with “Best Performance”.
That being said, the 70WH battery performance on the Vivobook S 15 is excellent, but users need to manage it to maximize efficiency. During the battery test where ZDNET runs on all laptops, I was about 10.5 hours before it died, but that number fluctuated in subsequent tests with different power mode settings.
Also: How to clear cache on Windows 11 PC (and why does it make a huge difference)
Optimization here is a theme, and this extends to its performance. Windows with ARM architecture provides great progressive performance in a way that is immediately obvious to most users. But things can become tricky if you start looking closely at more specialized tasks.
For example, the aforementioned 16:9 resolution OLED screen on the Vivobook S 15 seems to be great for editing videos. The integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU is task-dependent, but interaction with different apps and performance on Windows (via PRISM) is still a work in progress.
During the test, I ran a davinci Resolve for the window on my arm and it worked generally No problem, but performance is still not 100% optimized. There was some delay, graphic studs and quirkiness, especially in 4K video. But Adobe Photoshop ran smoothly, and with the help of the NPUs on Snapdragon, local AI-generation tasks jumped out seamlessly. We hope that performance will continue to improve as Windows improves and developers improve their products for the platform.
Another elephant in the room is a game. This doesn’t mean having a window above your arm will be completely faster. Yes, technically, you can play games on this laptop, but many titles have not yet been run and the titles that do so are not optimized well. The Vivobook S 15 looks like something you might want to play games, but I don’t recommend it as a dedicated gaming laptop. At least not yet.
Also: Best Windows Laptops to Buy: Tested Experts
Instead, the vivobook S 15 is the leading driver for remote workers or digital nomads who already integrate AI into their workflows, and appreciates aesthetic laptops with great displays that handle the media well. Supporting that use case there are two USB-A ports on the right, two USB-C on the left, an HDMI port, a MicroSD slot and a headphone jack.
It also has a “full” keyboard (the number pad on the right has slightly smaller keys typical of sub-16-inch machines), making it happy and responding to typing. The keyboard has a colorful LED backlight that can be configured with a variety of lights and effects. Still, this is not something you would consider in your priorities list when optimizing battery life.
ZDNET purchase advice
Asus Vivobook S 15 A sophisticated lightweight laptop with a luxurious OLED display and solid battery life – as long as you pay attention to using your power. We recommend forwarding digital nomads who want a performance AI Ready laptop with a fast Snapdragon X Elite processor that burns out. This is a solid investment for people who regularly exchange between creative work, productivity software and media.
Everything is considered Sale price for $713 This laptop, especially the display alone, is very competitive.
