Even before the official launch of ASUS Vivobook S 15, I had the opportunity to try this laptop for a while. It is the first model of the manufacturer with the Snapdragon X Elite ARM processor and the corresponding Copilot+ PC certification. The model will be delivered to Ukraine, and pre-orders have already started. Frankly speaking, I expected a lower price tag from the Vivobook line. However, it should be understood that we are talking about a laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, which is now the flagship solution for ARM computers from Qualcomm, and accordingly competes with top processors from Intel and AMD. Therefore, the price of the chip is not cheap, and accordingly, the official ASUS Vivobook S 15 in Ukraine with all taxes costs 67,999 UAH.
By itself, the model could well be included in the Zenbook image line, because it is made entirely of aluminum, has a relatively thin profile (14.7 ~ 15.9 mm) and weighs only 1.42 kg. For a 15.6-inch laptop, this is a very good indicator! Even considering that I was shown only the engineering version of the Vivobook S 15, I really liked the quality of the case. The parts fit very well, the metal does not push through, and even the display lid can be opened with one hand.
It’s also worth noting that the laptop has a pretty good set of ports. On the right side you can see two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and on the left side there are HDMI 2.1, two USB4, a combined audio jack, and a microSD card slot.
What was a bit surprising was the screen aspect ratio chosen by ASUS. Over the past few years, manufacturers, including ASUS itself, have been actively switching to the 16:10 display ratio, which is better suited for viewing web pages, documents, and even games. Therefore, the Zephyrus and Strix gaming lines have also switched to it. However, the Vivobook S 15 has a 15.6-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9. This is not a disadvantage, but it is a bit unusual.
But the display matrix itself is very good. ASUS has used a Lumina OLED screen with a resolution of 2880×1620 pixels, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a response time of 0.2 ms, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, DisplayHDR True Black 600 certification, an average Delta-E value of 1, and a peak brightness of 600 cd/m². This screen will be comfortable for both work and play.
As I wrote at the beginning, the Vivobook S 15 is the first ASUS laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite ARM processor that has a frequency of up to 4 Hz, and since the laptop uses an active cooling system with two fans, the manufacturer did not “stifle” it, providing a TDP of 45 watts. Given the presence of an additional Hexagon NPU with 45 TOPS performance for accelerated local AI data processing, Adreno graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR5X 8448 MHz RAM, a PCIe 4.0 SSD with a capacity of up to 1 TB, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, we have a fairly advanced platform.
The question remains: how powerful is it? Unfortunately, the “engineer” status did not allow us to run our usual set of tests on the Vivobook S 15, so we have to wait for the version that goes on sale. Nevertheless, the first impressions of the laptop are very positive. And what’s nice is that, unlike Microsoft’s first attempt to launch Windows on the ARM platform back in 2012, when the company showed Windows RT and the Surface RT tablet, which were very limited in available programs, the situation is completely different now. First of all, software is being actively ported to Windows for ARM. Qualcomm’s website has a whole section with programs that already run on ARM, including Microsoft software, Chrome, Firefox, 7zip, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, GIMP, Canva, Zoom, WhatsApp, Viber, Slack, Netflix, Spotify, VLC, Python, Unity, and others. For testing purposes, most of these programs were installed on Vivobook S 15, and they all worked. Of course, there are nuances, for example, the Opera browser formally supports ARM, but it is still rather poorly optimized for this platform. And this can be the case with any software that is just moving to ARM, but progress is already being made. There are really a lot of programs, and most of them work perfectly.
Secondly, the high performance of modern ARM processors, such as the Snapdragon X series, allowed Microsoft to create a full-fledged emulator for x86 programs, called Prism, which is immediately built into Windows 11. I’m not going to make any far-reaching conclusions after my brief acquaintance with the Vivobook S 15, but it looks like the laptop can run all modern Windows 11 programs. That is, most likely, the average user will not even feel that this is a non-Intel or AMD laptop, and that’s really cool. You can even install Steam and games from it. And although the Vivobook S 15 is not a gaming laptop, it can run Cyberpunk 2077 in Full HD resolution with minimal graphics settings and get an average of 30 FPS. If we’re talking about a GTA V game, then with the same settings it will be on average 60 FPS.
It is worth noting that the advantage of models such as the Vivobook S 15 should be not only the available programs, but also the ability to process tasks related to artificial intelligence faster. On the keyboard of the model, you can even find a separate Copilot button that has replaced the right Ctrl. This way, the user can quickly call up the chatbot window and enter the required query.
Among the AI-powered features, the laptop also offers Windows Studio effects and an ASUS AiSense full HD camera with an infrared sensor that can be covered with a curtain. It provides the ability to recognize the user’s presence and enables Adaptive Dimming, which activates when you look away from the screen, and Adaptive Lock, which automatically locks the laptop when you walk away from it and unlocks it when you return.
Having mentioned the separate Copilot button, I’ll write a little about the Vivobook S 15 keyboard, which reminds me of the keyboard of the updated Zephyrus G16 both in shape and 1.7 mm key travel. The feel is very similar when typing, the buttons are quite comfortable, and it’s a great solution for typing large amounts of text. And it has RGB backlighting! Why is that? It’s hard to say. ASUS says that “users are pleased to have a choice of backlight colors”. It’s hard to disagree with that.
The touchpad on the Vivobook S 15 is relatively large and easy to use. It accurately tracks finger positioning and supports gestures.
As for the battery life, the laptop has a 70 Wh battery, which, according to ASUS, should last up to 18 hours. But that’s when playing videos with Wi-Fi turned off, which is an almost unrealistic usage scenario. In real life, the autonomy of the Vivobook S 15 will be less, but I hope we will soon check it in a full review.
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