An affordable Windows laptop with great specs for work travel? I found the one to buy

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Vivobook S 15, Asus’ first Copilot+ PC, usually retails for over $1,000, however it’s at the moment on sale at Walmart for $668.
• It is modern and light-weight with a stunning OLED, 120Hz show, nice battery life, and snappy efficiency.
• Nevertheless, due to the character of Home windows on ARM laptops, some apps would possibly nonetheless not be optimized.

At Walmart, Asus’ Vivobook S 15 is at the moment marked all the way down to $713, which is roughly $90 off. The configuration on sale includes a 3K OLED 120Hz show with an Intel Core Extremely 7 processor and 16GB of RAM.

Asus’ first Copilot+ PC with the Snapdragon X Elite chip final yr was the Vivobook S 15, a modern and light-weight 15-inch laptop computer with a stunning 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 notably well-suited for hybrid or distant employees who desire a highly effective laptop computer with a pleasant show that does not weigh a ton. 

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Like the entire new Home windows on ARM laptops launched final summer time, the Vivobook S 15 is quick and responsive with good battery life, and got here with new expertise that wasn’t totally optimized for all apps on the time of its launch, however needs to be largely optimized for apps by this level. 

For the typical 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 good 3K OLED show.

With an 89% screen-to-body ratio and ultra-thin bezels, the display screen is good and high-contrast, rocking a max 600-nit brightness and 120Hz refresh fee for some silky-smooth and crisp picture high quality. 

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The show’s 16:9 decision provides it that premium widescreen really feel, lending itself properly to each watching and modifying 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 refined. 

With 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, Asus is ready to hold prices near that $1,000 value level with simply the correct amount of {hardware} on this machine. And it feels even higher in tandem with the snappy, responsive efficiency the Snapdragon X Elite processor offers. 

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 discovered within the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge. 

The benchmarking scores in Cinebench mirror that very same hierarchy, with numbers above the Omnibook and slightly below the Galaxy Book4 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. 

Do not forget that these scores have been recorded whereas the system 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, one thing I famous as I used to be 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’ve gotten the laptop computer in. There is no escaping the facility this show requires, and when you’re somebody who sometimes ignores battery setting profiles and retains your machine blasting at “Greatest Efficiency,” it’s possible you’ll need to alter 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 Vivobook S 15’s 70Wh battery efficiency is sweet, however the person should handle it to maximise its effectivity. Through the battery take a look at that ZDNET runs on all laptops, I acquired about 10 and a half hours earlier than it died, however that quantity fluctuated in subsequent exams with totally 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 offers improbable up-front efficiency in methods which might be instantly obvious to most customers. However if you begin wanting carefully at extra specialised duties, issues have the potential to get difficult. 

For instance, the Vivobook S 15’s aforementioned 16:9 decision OLED display screen appears good for modifying video. Whereas the built-in Qualcomm Adreno GPU is as much as the duty, its interplay with totally different apps and their efficiency in Home windows (by way of Prism) remains to be a piece in progress. 

Throughout my testing, I ran DaVinci Resolve for Home windows on ARM, and it labored largely fantastic, however the efficiency remains 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 anticipate efficiency to proceed enhancing as Home windows improves and builders enhance their merchandise for the platform.

The opposite elephant within the room is gaming, which isn’t completely up to the mark with Home windows on ARM. Sure, technically, you possibly can sport on this laptop computer, however many titles nonetheless do not run, and those that do should not well-optimized. Though the Vivobook S 15 seems to be like one thing you would possibly need to sport on, I would not suggest it as a devoted gaming laptop computer. No less than not but. 

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As a substitute, I see the Vivobook S 15 as a major 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 properly. Supporting that use case, it has a beneficiant choice 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 fitting aspect has barely smaller keys, as typical for sub-16-inch machines), which is satisfying and aware of typing on. The keyboard has colourful LED backlighting that may be configured in many various lights and results. Nonetheless, once more, this isn’t one thing that I’d contemplate 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 stunning OLED show and strong battery life — so long as you are conscious of your energy utilization. I might suggest it to forward-thinking digital nomads who desire a performant, AI-ready laptop computer with a blazing-fast Snapdragon X Elite processor. It is a strong funding for individuals who often swap between artistic work, productiveness software program, and media. 

All issues thought-about, the sale value of $713 may be very aggressive for this laptop computer, notably for the show alone.