I don’t write very many reviews but when spending quite a bit of money on something, I do like to try and give a good, unbiased opinion on it. I am very familiar with technology and computers as I build desktop PCs for personal and business use but I’m not quite as familiar with the world of laptops. I will try and hit each important category but they will be no particular order. First off, I would like to describe exactly what I was looking for.
I wanted the best laptop for the cost. Originally, I was researching the $1,200 area for a laptop as I believed that price point is what offered almost everything I was looking for. This laptop in particular, hit 'most' of my categories for MUCH less money. My key points were good battery life, a good screen, portability, good performance, good I/O, and some form of dedicated GPU. I did NOT purchase this as a gaming computer, however, I wanted a laptop that could at least provide me the option of playing less-demanding games when traveling.
Before getting into the details, the short story is that this laptop comes close to being perfect FOR ME but it does miss a couple of areas. I cannot give this laptop a perfect review but it’s definitely getting a good review.
P.S - Packing sucked! Inside of a much bigger box, was just a little bit of paper to protect my new $800 laptop across an 800 mile journey. This was unacceptable. While it did arrive okay and undamaged, I seriously took pictures while unboxing and booting because I was that concerned. Put the Asus box inside of a smaller shipping box and either use a lot of paper or consider a different packing material.
Performance:
This category is bit touchy for me because as mentioned above, I build PCs and I have a $1,500 custom gaming PC at home. Of course, when going from that to any laptop, there will be a huge hit in performance unless you’re willing to spend $2,500+ on a laptop and even then, it’s still not as good. BUT, that is to be expected. You’re reading a review for a thin and light, not a 17” 13 lb gaming laptop and I’m also, again, trying to unbiased with this review.
The performance is solid for what I need. Writing emails, using a CRM all day, jumping between 5-15 tabs, making notes, creating documents, etc. Everyday stuff - nothing intensive. The 8th gen i7 definitely holds its own, especially for being a U-series processor. It’s very fast and snappy for browsing the web and doing light to medium productivity tasks. For those who don’t know, the U-series CPUs are designed for low power consumption. Meaning, it’s an i7 but it’s only an 11 watt chip (I believe) compared to the 65 watts that the desktop counterpart (i7-8700) is able to pull. This is how the laptop is able to be thin and light and have decent battery life at the same time.
Gaming. As mentioned, I wanted a laptop with some form of dedicated graphics ONLY to play a few select titles when traveling but also to handle programs like Photoshop when I need. I haven’t put too many game hours into this laptop yet but games like Fortnite, older Call of Duty games, Astroneer, etc aren’t a problem to run with the dedicated MX150 graphics. DO NOT purchase this if you’re wanting to play more demanding games.
On Fortnite for example, this computer has no issue running it. If you jump down to 720p, you’ll be able to play around medium to high settings for a stable 60FPS. In 1080p, you’ll be forced to turn down the graphic settings to low for a stable 60FPS.
7.5/10 (for what it is)
Screen:
The screen is absolutely beautiful - it’s one of my favorite parts about this laptop. The colors are accurate and saturated, text is very sharp and clear and the screen has a matte finish meaning it’s not reflective like glossy panels are. It’s only 1080p but it’s a 14” screen so the pixel density is about right. If you took 1080p and stretched it across a 17” panel, that’s when text ends up looking soft and everything appears to be washed out but that isn’t the case here.
Typically, I remove any and all bloatware that comes with Windows 10 and the manufacturer. I hate bloatware so much. I did leave one program installed and that is the Splendid Utility that comes on the laptop. The colors and everything takes a bit of tuning out of the box but it doesn’t take much work at all. Once you play with that program, everything is very nice.
10/10
Battery:
As most reviews state, the battery life is good. Not great but certainly not bad. On average, from my use, I see about three to four and a half hours of battery life. I do, however, feel that I could squeeze an extra hour out of it if I had to. Just bring brightness down, keep the keyboard backlight off and use battery saver - you should be able to achieve a solid 5 ½ hours or so out of it if you’re good. The battery life is good enough for me. I do wish it lasted a bit longer but it does the job for me so I’m not docking any points for the review itself.
8/10
Portability, Build Quality and I/O:
Portability is definitely as expected. It has a 13” footprint but with a larger screen. I have no issue with carrying this around to meetings or traveling or between work and home. It’s lightweight and you can barely feel it in your bag. I personally use a sleeve to carry it around but in a backpack, it’s hard to notice. The charger is small and again, lightweight. There’s not much else to say about how portable it is.
The build quality is also good but I’ve seen better. The outside of the lid is made of aluminum and everything else is plastic but it’s a premium feeling plastic. I don’t feel as if I would break, dent or scratch anything although keep in mind, I’m very particular about my gadgets and I care for them very much. I’m definitely not one to toss it around. The only sub-par component in build quality is the screen hinge. There is a bit of wobble when moving the laptop and sometimes, it even wobbles while typing. Considering this laptop is brand new, I can only imagine that this will continue to get worse over time so time will tell if the hinge will hold up. Thank god it’s not a touchscreen because at that point, I feel that it would be unusable unless in a “tent” mode or folded over like a tablet. I do have to dock the review a bit because of the screen hinge.
The I/O is pretty solid providing two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a USB Type C, HDMI, SD Card and a headphone/microphone combo jack. I do very much wish that the USB Type C had thunderbolt capabilities even if that meant paying a few more bucks for it. I have no complaints in terms of I/O and won’t be docking the review for anything. What I will dock the review on is that this device should be charged via USB Type C! Not Asus’ proprietary crap. Every single company needs to adopt that technology to make everyone's lives easier. I don’t understand why they don’t implement that technology rather than making their own. Oh well.
I enjoy the keyboard quite a bit considering the chiclet style. They have Macbook-like travel but for some reason, I’ve always enjoyed that style of keyboard. The spacing and feel of the keys is all good. I have no complaints about the keyboard.
8/10
Pros:
- Good CPU performance.
- Good battery life.
- Great screen.
- Portable.
Cons:
- Screen hinge.
- I wish the GPU offered a bit more.
- Needs to be charged via the Type C port.
- Shipment packaging was terrible.
I've had this laptop for a month now and it works great. It's nice and lightweight and easy to carry around on campus. I use it mainly for school and a little gaming on the side when I'm not at home. Don't expect to be playing on high settings. I only play League of Legends and Fortnite on it and it runs fine on medium or low settings. The charger is nice and light and the whole laptop is macbook-esque from the design to the charger. The only thing I wish they took from the macbook charger was the prongs to coil the wire around and the power prongs to fold in. The battery life is alright. I've used it for a whole 3 hour class and was left at 80% and charge it every other day.
The screen is decent but it can be a little small sometimes when reading text, but I scaled down the text size but that's probably why. If you use it to watch videos, I recommend you use it on a hard flat surface to get the most out of the speakers. The speakers are decent. Pretty comparable to standard laptop speakers, but they get the job done.
The keyboard took me a little while to get used to since this is my first laptop since 2008 and I've been using mechanical keyboards ever since. It's really squishy but is comfortable once you get used to it. The backlight is a plus when you use it in low light. The keys look they'll attract grease and dust though.
It can be a little loud while you're gaming. I also had a little problem with the Wi-Fi when I first got it where it would disconnect and refuse to reconnect but it hasn't happened recently.
If you're looking for a good laptop for students then this is a perfect fit. If you're looking for something to play games on higher than medium settings then you should look elsewhere.
Bought this on prime day for 100.00 dollars off I’ve been in desperate need of a laptop so I jumped on this deal almost immediately, I like the size very light and small but still a good size screen at 14 inches, very fast takes seconds to start up and so far all programs run fast, fluid, and smooth. I usually only game on my consoles PlayStation or Xbox but wanted to try out the power of this pc just for fun and it ran fortnite pretty good not great but good. This is my first week so I will update review through out the year to let you know how it handles on basic wear and tear of use.
I've only had the product for a few days but I can already tell this purchase was well worth. Laptop is super light, boots quickly, and so far has handled everything I've thrown at it including some light gaming. Also received the computer and its color is not as gold as I thought it would be from the pictures which is a bonus as well.
The flimsy nature of the frame is sometimes a little concerning. There's a lot of flex when opening and closing and it's hard to get a gauge on how durable it will be over time. Also the big sticker on the palm rest left a terrible residue when I pulled it off. Some WD-40 took it off but that's kind of a pain.
But overall it's been a great experience that's well worth it.
very light for 14inch. the combination of ssd and i7 8th core make everything you do on it superfast. I actually tested some very large excel spreadsheet processing on it after i bought it two days ago, and simply amazing, very very fast. the keyboard design is great too. i dont feel my fingers get cramped, with LED backlight very nice. the software that helps extend the longevity of the battery also works great. not too much junk software either. it comes with WPS office suites which is a great alternative to Microsoft office. the charger is small and lightweight too. very trendy look with light gold color. overall, i am extremely pleased by this product! well done!
Feature Product
- 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U (Turbo up to 4.0GHz) quad-core processor and dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics 2GB
- 8GB DDR4 RAM and 256GB SSD
- 14" Full HD WideView display with up to 178° WideView and ASUS NanoEdge bezel for a stunning 77% screen-to-body ratio
- Slim 12.8" wide, 0.7" thin and portable footprint with metal cover and backlit keyboard with fingerprint sensor
- Comprehensive connections including USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen1), USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI, & headphone/mic combo port
Description
Specifications: 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U (Turbo up to 4.0GHz) quad-core processor; Dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics 2GB; 14" Full HD WideView NanoEdge Display (1920x1080); 8GB DDR4 RAM; 256GB M.2 SSD; 1x USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen1); 1x USB 3.0; 2x USB 2.0; Dual-Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.2; 1x HDMI; SD Card Reader; 1x Headphone-out & Audio-in Combo Jack; Fingerprint Reader; Illuminated Chicklet Keyboard; 42Whr Li-Ion Battery.
Purchased during Prime day for 699 and its a great deal for the specs. Like it a lot. I sold my iPad pro for this one and didnt regret much. Below are the pros and cons of the S410UN and I tried to benchmark it using my 2016 12' Macbook and iPad pro.
Pros:
Price – affordable as compared to the same specs windows & Macs
Ports – has almost everything you got apart from TB3, again coming from Macbook this is a huge plus
Performance – generally snappy, have not been stretching it much tho
Build quality – surprising good, better than other reviews suggested
However there are some cons those I cannot neglect coming from Macbook & iPad pro:
Fingerprint sensor - the accuracy is really bad that I have opted for tying password instead
Battery - It may be ok by budget laptop standard (4.5-6 hours) but defo can’t compare with Macbooks
Touchpad - Good that it’s using Windows precision drivers, but its hangs & jitters quite a bit for no obvious reasons
Overall it’s a good laptop. Can’t really complain with the price, just going from 8+ battery life to 5 require a change in mindset.
I've had several laptops so far. The first ones were "desktop replacements". Great for power but heavy and next to nothing on battery life.
My laptop before this was a netbook. It was extremely tiny, so light I would forget I still had it in my backpack, and the battery is still in the 10 hour area after 3+ years. However, even Gmail is pushing it as far as performance.
I'm really happy with the Vivobook so far. Just a bit larger than my netbook with a screen two sizes larger. Weighs just a bit more. Decent battery life. And more importantly, it has plenty of power for office-type work now and for the next few years.
The somewhat weak video system is going to limit more serious gaming but is more than adequate for any other use. Having a full HD screen is a big improvement over the netbook ( I am surprised there are still laptops that are not HD resolution on the market still).
I am looking to add a 2nd SSD and see how LInux runs on it ( I use LInux on my home workstation as the primary OS). I've still not opened the case up to check if this is going to work though.
The fingerprint sensor seems to work decently. Sound is more than adequate but I usually use headphones with it anyway. Plenty of USB ports. Touchpad works pretty well with it much less likely to move the mouse while typing than my netbook did.
I was looking for an inexpensive, small, light, laptop that still had some decent computing power and the price was good on Prime Day.
I'm very happy with it.
Love the Asus Vivo--Boots up in 10 seconds....Lightning fast...Color is great...Speakers very good...very light …only minus is there doesn't seem to be an indicator light when the "caps lock" is activated. I give it a 5 rating....
Everything about this laptop is perfect unless your using this for music production or DJing. I really liked that laptop but when I run fruity loops studio or rekordbox, I would get static/distortion. The amount is minimal but there shouldn't be any at all for a powerful laptop. I tried everything from updating drivers, changing the buffering, and reinstall. All my music sounds like it's being played thru VNYL records with some minor distortion. If your using this laptop for anything other than DJing or music production, it is the best laptop available.
I really like Asus, the products are not cheap and I used all the time, however, the new ASUS VivoBook S Thin & Light Laptop, 14" FHD, Intel Core i7-8550.. I paid extra for two day shipment, however, i am disappoint,, first power cord stop working in roughly less than 10 days, computer is okay but unable. what is ASUS quality ?
Update, I got new computer, this time works, Thabnks
P.S.
I ordered all expensive electronics from ASUS
2017 ASUS VS197T-P 18.5" WXGA 1366x768 DVI VGA Back-lit LED Monitor
2017 ASUS Wi-Fi Router with Data Rates up to 1900 Mbps (RT-AC68W)
2014 ASUS VivoMini mini PC Barebones with i5-6200U (UN65H-M059M
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