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Once I first opened the Vivobook 15 at 9AM on a Thursday, I nervous I’d’ve opened the unsuitable field. Given the product’s $549 price point (MSRP, it’s presently going for $299 at Workplace Depot), I’d been anticipating a way more plasticky and cheap-feeling construct. This can be a good pc. It could be good within the $800 class; it’s undoubtedly probably the most premium construct you’ll discover for $300. I actually texted a good friend, “Look how good this Vivobook 15 is,” alongside a photograph, as I used to be turning it on. (That is only a factor that may occur to you if I’ve your cellphone quantity; think about your self warned.)
The chassis, it might end up, is way and away the most effective factor concerning the Vivobook 15. I spent a full day utilizing the take a look at unit, which incorporates an eleventh Gen Core i3-1135G4, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. It’s a really purposeful 15-inch Home windows laptop computer with loads of nice issues about it. There’s even a backlit keyboard and a numpad, that are bonuses at this low worth. However finally, the battery life was a significant letdown, and I want it had held as much as this attractive chassis.
My first order of enterprise for this morning was to get one among our purchasing guides up to date, which concerned rounding up and studying by means of a bunch of my outdated opinions and scrolling by means of massive spreadsheets of benchmark outcomes, measurements, and different options. The Core i3 processor was greater than succesful sufficient to maintain this workload going. I may layer Google Meet calls overtop of that with no problem, slowdown, or important fan noise. I even tried to open one thing in Premiere Professional (largely for enjoyable), and whereas it took a few minutes, it didn’t freeze and crash, which is one thing I typically see on funds laptops (in addition to some pricier ones).
I favored the keyboard rather a lot. (I’m solidly on the file as a fan of Asus’ keyboards, which frequently have the proper mixture of click on, journey, and readability.) The numpad on the correct facet was additionally fairly helpful for stated spreadsheeting, affording a fast and simple solution to enter the info I wanted to. There’s even a fingerprint reader, which was extra dependable than the one on the 15-inch Acer Aspire 5.
I used to be so centered on my work all through the morning that I didn’t even understand how low the battery was getting. I took a little bit of an early lunch break simply earlier than midday and, whereas I ready my meals, left the Vivobook blasting some music (a Spotify playlist known as “Occasion Hits,” as one does). The music sounded clear and balanced, though quantity was a bit low — even at full blast, I couldn’t actually hear the tunes from the subsequent room over.
After which, whereas I used to be boiling water for my ramen, the battery died. I can not provide the precise time, as I used to be very centered on the ramen, however it was very near midday, the three-hour mark, give or take a couple of minutes. Which is… nicely, three hours of battery life, on my browser-based workload, will not be what one would hope for. It’s shorter than what I noticed from the Acer Aspire 5, and that was the bottom end result from a laptop computer that I’d seen in a while. It signifies that if I have been to purchase this pc, I’d must cost it a number of instances a day. (Realistically, I’d in all probability simply depart it plugged in on a regular basis.) You will get funds laptops and Chromebooks on the market with thrice this lifespan. Throughout, that’s disappointing.
As soon as work had concluded, I sat right down to atone for the newest episode of Yellowjackets utilizing the Vivobook. The show was colourful sufficient and did a very good job of depicting numerous darkish, spooky nighttime scenes. It reached a most of 316 nits in testing, which — whereas not notably vibrant — must be greater than sufficient for many makes use of and is an effective deal brighter than the Aspire 5. (The Vivobook is barely extra shade correct as nicely, although the distinction wasn’t noticeable to me.) This show does have a vertically challenged 16:9 facet ratio (at 1920 x 1080 decision), however that’s much less bothersome on a 15-incher than it might be on a 13. I additionally started to utilize Asus’ Eye Safety mode (accessible within the MyAsus software program) because the night time wore on. I don’t know how nicely this truly protects your eyes, however it does remove among the harsher blue lights to make night time gazing extra comfy.
Nonetheless, the Vivobook’s audio system let me down once more right here. I stored needing to rewind right here and there as a result of, regardless of having the Vivobook at full quantity, I had missed what was stated. This was a good greater downside after Yellowjackets, once I moved on to watching a Ok-drama. Since I’m not as proficient at understanding Korean, I actually needed to lean in to catch what was being stated at numerous instances. There have been factors the place I simply discovered myself aimlessly mashing the quantity button simply in case the Vivobook had any extra to provide.
All in all, my day on the Vivobook had its ups and downs. It’s a actually fairly and well-built gadget, and it had the entire performance I wanted to get me by means of my browser-based workload. However the audio system weren’t my favourite, and the battery life was simply too brief.
If this gadget had the lifespan of, say, the $289 Gateway 14, it might be a slam-dunk advice within the 15-inch class. As is, I believe it’s a reasonably shut competitors between the Vivobook and the Acer Aspire 5. The Aspire will not be almost as nicely constructed or nice-looking as this gadget; it doesn’t have fancy accents across the touchpad or the shimmery blue shade. However it has a extra highly effective, newer processor, and it lasted near an hour longer on battery. And for college kids and different customers who’re doing loads of work on the go, which may be an enormous consideration.
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