Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip review: a value-first laptop

Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip

MSRP $690.00

“Its show apart, the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is a really strong laptop for the worth.”

Professionals

• Respectable productiveness efficiency
• Good battery life
• Stable constructed high quality for the worth
• Contact and pen assist
• LED numeric keypad

Cons

• Show has poor colours
• Too costly in larger finish configuration
• Keyboard is a little bit harsh

Laptops have gotten costly in recent times, particularly with many cheaper fashions being offered out final 12 months.

At $690, although, the Vivobook S 14 Flip is a breathe of contemporary air on the planet of funds laptops. For essentially the most half, the Vivobook S 14 Flip manages to steadiness value, high quality, and efficiency, making it an affordable worth in an more and more aggressive market. The disappointing show apart, the Vivobook S 14 Flip has quite a bit to supply for its value.

Specs

I do know of two configurations of the Vivobook S 14 Flip which can be out there. There’s the $690 review unit configuration that I examined, which comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch WUXGA IPS show.

Then you definately’ll spend $1,100 to bump to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That locations the laptop both in funds or mid-range territory, relying on the configuration.

Cheap doesn’t must imply low-cost

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Let’s get this one out of the way in which: The Vivobook S 14 Flip is constructed in a part of plastic, particularly the chassis, whereas the lid is metallic. Whereas plastic is usually related to low-cost, that’s an unfair characterization. The Vivbook S 14 Flip is strong sufficient for a funds laptop, with simply the slightest bending of the lid and flexing within the keyboard deck. If this have been a $1,500 laptop, then I’d have extra of a difficulty with the construct high quality.

However, it’s not. Notice that I’d really feel rather less assured in regards to the $1,000 configuration. As well as, the hinge is simply too tight to open with one hand, however it does maintain the show firmly in place in clamshell, tent, media, and pill modes. Most actually premium laptops have smoother hinges.

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The general aesthetic is minimalist, however that’s not an attribute of funds laptops. Actually, in earlier years, funds machines have been typically kitted out with tons of plastic “chrome” that made them garish and low-cost wanting. The Vivobook S 14 Flip is a uniform blue colour with the road’s new emblem on the lid and no gildings aside from chrome hinges. The only, barely bizarre standout characteristic is a striped sample operating alongside the underside of the Enter key.

Nonetheless, I’ve no complaints in regards to the Vivobook’s look, and it’s not a lot totally different from final 12 months’s Vivobook Flip 14. The laptop in all fairness skinny at 0.74 inches and weighs 3.3 kilos.

Curiously, the Vivobook S 14 Flip is certainly one of a handful of Asus laptops that incorporate the corporate’s Bacterial Guard technology. That’s a coating all through the laptop that inhibits the expansion of 99% of micro organism, making the laptop much less prone to unfold illness. It doesn’t defend in opposition to COVID-19 and different viruses, however for the same old day-to-day micro organism that normally coat digital units, it’s welcome. And it’s a pleasant characteristic for a funds machine.

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The keyboard is spacious with giant sufficient keycaps, and its change mechanism has loads of depth with a lightweight really feel. There’s a assured click on halfway via a keystroke, however the bottoming motion is harsh. It’s not pretty much as good a keyboard as you’ll discover on premium laptops like HP’s Spectre and Dell’s XPS strains, however it’s higher than another funds choices. The touchpad is extensive and spacious with a easy floor and agency clicks which can be only a tad too loud.

In a nod to the “S” designation within the laptop’s title, Asus included its NumberPad 2.0 technology that embeds an LED numeric keypad within the touchpad that may be simply switched on and off. Should you enter a variety of numeric information, then you definately’ll adore it, and should you don’t, then you may simply change it off and overlook it’s there.

Nevertheless it’s not one thing you sometimes discover on a $690 laptop. Lastly, the show is touch-enabled and helps the lively Asus Pen 2.0 (not included) with 4,096 ranges of strain sensitivity and USB-C charging, one other shock given the worth.

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The webcam is Full HD, whereas some newer premium laptops just like the Dell XPS 13 Plus are nonetheless caught on 720p. It incorporates Asus’s 3D noise discount technology and supplies an awesome picture with loads of element in all types of lighting situations. The decision alone, although, is superb for a laptop of this value. A bodily shutter, in the meantime, supplies peace of thoughts relating to privateness.

There’s no infrared camera for Home windows 11 passwordless login assist; as an alternative, Asus integrated a dependable fingerprint reader within the energy button, the right location.

Lastly, connectivity is strong. There’s a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (no Thunderbolt 4 given the AMD chipset), a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB-A 2.0 port, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Energy is supplied by a propriety connection operating at 90 watts, leaving the USB-C port out there for connectivity. Wi-fi connectivity is a step behind with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

Cheap additionally doesn’t must imply gradual or short-lived

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My review unit was outfitted with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, a six-core/12-thread CPU operating at as much as 4.2GHz with a default 45-watt TDP that’s configurable between 35 and 54 watts. On paper, the CPU ought to present strong productiveness efficiency.

In our benchmarks, the Vivobook S 14 Flip does properly in opposition to the slower Vivobook Flip 14 AMD and the VAIO Fe 14.1 with a 15-watt Core i7-1255U. It may’t sustain with the 28-watt Core i7-1260P. Curiously, the Ryzen 5 5600H was quick in Cinebench R23 multi-core whereas slower in Geekbench 5 and our Handbrake check that encodes a 420MB video as H.265. It additionally did properly within the PCMark 10 Utterly benchmark that exams quite a lot of productiveness, multimedia, and artistic duties.

Total, as anticipated, the Vivobook S 14 Flip was a strong productiveness performer however isn’t going to be very well-suited for greater than light-weight inventive duties. Its Radeon graphics scored unusually low within the 3DMark Time Spy graphics check, at simply 727 and about half of what Intel’s Iris Xe graphics obtain. The laptop hit simply seven frames per second (fps) in Fortnite at 1200p and epic graphics — poor by any customary.

Battery life is necessary right here, too, because it’s a attribute that old-school funds machines as soon as compromised. The Vivobook S 14 Flip does properly sufficient, although.

With its 50 watt-hour battery (a 70 watt-hour model comes with the OLED show configuration), the Vivobook S 14 Flip did properly in our internet shopping check, main our comparability group. It fell behind in our video check however nonetheless managed a median rating. Total, the Vivobook S 14 Flip can possible handle a full day’s work with a lightweight sufficient productiveness workload. Like another AMD techniques I’ve reviewed, it was unable to finish the PCMark 10 Purposes battery check that’s the perfect indication of productiveness battery life.

A really funds show

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So, the place did Asus minimize a nook to slide into such a low value? Arguably, the show qualifies. Whereas it was shiny sufficient at 321 nits, exceeding our 300-nit customary, and its distinction was good at 1,230:1, its colours have been slim and never terribly correct.

It shared comparable outcomes with the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 whereas falling properly behind up to date premium and midrange show requirements. You positively don’t wish to do any photograph modifying or design work on this laptop — at the least not with out connecting to a greater premium monitor.

Audio was simply okay, with two downward-firing audio system offering sufficient quantity and clear sufficient mids and highs. Bass was missing, although, that means you’ll desire a good pair of headphones for binging Netflix and listening to music.

A strong funds various with the proper configuration

At a value of $690, the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is a horny laptop with strong if not spectacular efficiency, good battery life, and a strong sufficient construct. Its show lacks colours, which is the laptop’s major weak spot. That’s commonplace at these costs, although — even right this moment.

Leap as much as the $1,000 configuration, although, and also you’re competing extra instantly with laptops just like the HP Pavilion Plus 14 and the Acer Swift 3 OLED which have spectacular shows and stronger efficiency. So, choose the low-end configuration and revel in a strong worth.

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