The new Asus VivoBook offers good performance at a great price. Its configuration is balanced, the screen is generous and the keyboard and touchpad offer good sensations to the touch.
 |
| image credit:- asus.com |
Asus VivoBook S14 (S433): is it worth your purchase
The new Asus laptop has a renewed configuration in this 2020 with current 10th generation Intel Core processors, a generous 14-inch screen, and a good stock of connectivity options.
If you're looking for a laptop with solvent performance in most situations, a touchpad for handling, and a great design that aligns with Apple's MacBook range, the VivoBook S14 may be the Windows solution with a multitasking profile.
Retail Price (RRP)
From $ 928
Asus VivoBook S14 (2020) review
If you're looking for a Windows laptop for home, chances are you're considering brands like Asus. The Taiwanese company is among the most recognized brands worldwide, currently representing more than 5.5% of total PC equipment sales throughout the last year 2019.
But while its Zenbook line tends to beat the median price of what's possible in this form factor, the VivoBook prioritizes everyday use over elite design in order to ensure that it remains relatively affordable.
As such, the update of this model in 2020 with a generous 14-inch screen has great advantages in this range of notebooks that exceeds $928, but that allows you to have the most advanced processor configuration in a price range.
Design
The first impressions of the VivoBook are very positive, with elegant finishes and lines that we cannot but compare to that of Apple's MacBook laptops. Its completely metallic and plastic-free chassis, gives it a certain premium appearance.
If you are thinking about the ultralight, you should know that its weight amounts to 1.4 kg, which will not prevent you from being able to move it between rooms or even pulling a travel bag for trips on holidays or weekends.
Without a dedicated fingerprint scanner, the device's unlocking options are restricted to the use of PINs, one of the first aspects where it trims the brand.
The power button is part of one of the keys without a dedicated button that can be operated by mistake when folded.
Being a 14-inch laptop and without a numeric keypad, the keys are spacious, as is the case with the touchpad area. we have had good feedback on its use, with just a light touch to the touch for a quick response.
Asus has also chosen its own font for dialing its keys, differentiating itself from most notebooks on the market. Another key feature is the illuminated return key that allows it to be identified more quickly in front of the rest. Small details.
The keyboard supports backlight and it is possible to toggle between three different brightness levels depending on the amount of ambient light and the light that falls on the equipment.
Connectors and ports
Another differentiating aspect between an off-road laptop for home, as is the case, and the so-called ultralight ones are its possibilities of use and connectivity. The VivoBook S14 has everything you could possibly need at home.
HDMI output for use together with an external screen, a real blessing in these days of teleworking, which is joined by a full USB A port and another USB C next to the headphone and the dedicated charging port.
Already on the other side, we have two other USB A ports and a microSD card reader with which to comfortably dump the photos or content that come from a smartphone or digital camera, something that users continue to value very positively.
Screen
As we have mentioned, its 14-inch screen contemplates a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This screen size with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 will allow you to work comfortably in most situations and with large font sizes.
The screen has good contrast, although the colors may be slightly muted when viewing multimedia content. As such, it is not a recommended model as the main device for watching videos, but it is for office environments.
Frames are also plentiful against the current trend of notebooks to reduce them to a minimum. This allows Asus to continue integrating at the top its HD Webcam with which to carry out video conferences with reasonable quality.
The screen-to-body ratio is 85% which is fine, although many modern notebooks already manage to exceed 90% of this value. We couldn't use the front camera alongside Windows Hello to unlock Windows, which would have been nice.
Performance and power
The VivoBook model comes with a tenth-generation Intel Core i7-10510U processor, along with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD of storage. In the graphics section, we have the integrated UHD Graphics 620 from Intel.
All of these elements combine to ensure the performance necessary to tackle the most elementary tasks. Asus allows us to increase these specifications up to 16 GB of RAM and a storage of 1 TB.
Windows 10 Home, the version that comes installed, moves with ease with the base configuration of the team, even when it comes to multitasking environments or tackling certain photo editing tasks or the odd game, although it is not its strong point.
Autonomy
As we have already advanced, the autonomy of this VivoBook S14 is not the strong point of the team, which does not prevent you from using it away from the charging socket for a reasonable time while you attend an online class or work from an open place.
The VivoBook comes with a 50 Wh battery, despite the fact that Asus does not give a rough estimate of the autonomy time of this equipment.
Although it is slightly below the average for laptops, it should be noted that this equipment has been designed with the premise of guaranteeing performance, which inevitably means that battery life will not be one of its strengths.
If you want to fully charge the laptop battery, you will need 2 hours of connection to the electrical network. It is far from guaranteeing the excellent times of the smartphone, but here Asus has a great experience as a result of what it applies to its mobile terminals.
We can not forget its stereo speakers that are now certified by the Harman Kardon brand, which gives the equipment superior quality without distorting when you decide to set the volume at high levels when playing multimedia content.
However, they lack deep bass, which prevents the sound from being balanced in all frequency ranges. Fortunately we have a 3.5mm headphone jack that complements Bluetooth 5.0.
Price and sale
The Asus VivoBook S14 2020 was presented during the last edition of CES that took place in early January, but it has not been until now when it has reached certain markets.
Its price starts at 928$ if you buy it with the most basic configuration through PCComponentes. You can occasionally buy it on Amazon, although at the time of this review, the configuration was out of stock.
Although it offers a good quality and price ratio, for the type of laptop you are acquiring, our recommendation would be to opt for the model with double the amount of RAM, since the jump from 8 to 16 GB will allow you to tackle more advanced tasks.
Verdict
The Asus VivoBook S14 offers a complete comprehensive laptop experience for everything and for your day-to-day, with a fairly competitive price and a list of connections and features that will guarantee good performance for the next two years.
Except for being able to tackle the heaviest PC games as it is based on Intel's integrated graphics chip, the CPU performance is impressive across the board. The keyboard is pleasant to the touch and responsive, while the screen is not far behind either.
Specifications
- 14-inch screen with Full-HD resolution
- LED panel with 16: 9 aspect ratio
- 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10510U Processor
- Intel UHD Graphics 620
- 8/16 GB of RAM
- 256GB / 512GB / 1TB SSD
- Connectors: HDMI, USB C, 2 USB A
- Others: mini-jack and microSD card reader
- Full-size backlit keyboard
- Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and microSD reader
- 50 Wh 3-cell battery
- 64-bit Windows 10 Home
- Dimensions of 324 x 213 x 15.9 mm
- Weight 1.4 kg
Tags:
Laptops