What if I told you that there is a laptop from ASUS that comes with a stunning 3K OLED panel, a powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, RGB lighting under the keyboard, and plenty of juice to keep the lights on the whole time. -Day battery life? Well, most people will assume I’m talking about something from the ZenBook lineup. But no, instead, I’m talking about the ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED.
Yes, that name is just a mouthful, considering the abundance of ASUS Vivobooks we have on the market right now. Again, at a little more than Rs 1 lakh, the S 14 OLED is more premium than others. Plus, the on-paper specifications I just listed make it seem like a good buy. But is that really the case? Well, we’ve been using the laptop for over a month, and we have answers to all your questions. Read our ASUS Vivobook S14 (M5406) review to find out if an ultrabook suits your needs.
Design and performance
Starting with the design, the ASUS VivoBook has a sleek and simple look which is quite modern and professional. The cool silver colorway here is subtle, and its all-metal design looks far more premium than the price tag suggests, while also being quite sturdy. It also has a 180-degree hinge, which adds a touch of versatility.
Weighing only 1.3 kg, this laptop is quite portable and fits easily in a laptop sleeve or backpack. The branding here is kept to a minimum, so everything is quite simple. However, the same can’t be said for the display. However, this is a good thing because it is not simple but, rather, an amazing panel.
As the name suggests, the VivoBook S14 OLED comes with a 14-inch OLED display with a 2880 x 1800 (3K) resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. This is not a gaming laptop, but like its beauty, its panel is also equally responsive. It has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, ensuring accurate and true-to-life colors, which is especially beneficial for creative professionals.
One small downside of the display is its glossy finish, which can be prone to glare and reflections, especially in brightly lit environments. Sure, the panel’s 400 nits of brightness is commendable, but it can’t really beat direct sunlight. Again, the panel delivers a peak brightness of 600 nits in HDR content, and for that, the experience is unmatched.
Ports, Audio and Connectivity
The VivoBook S14 OLED offers a healthy selection of ports, ensuring that you can connect all your essential peripherals. On the left side, there’s a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C port, a USB4 Type-C port, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
On the right side, there are dual USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. This is an AMD machine, so it’s understandable why there are no Thunderbolt 4 ports here. However, I would have preferred a second USB-C port to support USB 4 standards as well. Additionally, given the excellent power and great display, ASUS could have offered a full-sized SD card reader. Then again, maybe they want to reserve it for the ProArt lineup.
In terms of audio, the laptop has bottom-firing stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. While the audio quality is good, with good volume and clear mids and highs, the bass could be more pronounced. However, the speakers are more than enough for casual listening, making video calls and enjoying multimedia content.
It also has a built-in 1080p IR camera with a physical privacy shutter. It allows secure login using facial recognition through Windows Hello. The webcam includes AI-powered features, including automatic framing with background and portrait blur effects to keep the user focused during video calls.
Of course, the primary footage also needs to be good, and in that aspect, the VivoBook does a good job. It’s not the best, but it should get the job done for your work calls.
keyboard and trackpad
The VivoBook S14 OLED has a well-designed keyboard that offers a comfortable and enjoyable typing experience. The keys are well spaced, have a good amount of travel, and provide tactile feedback. Interestingly, there’s single-zone RGB backlighting to add a touch of personalization.
Again, I need to reiterate that this is not a gaming laptop. And to be honest, the RGB lighting doesn’t work well in ASUS’ favor, as no colored light easily passes through the silver keycaps. The experience might be better on the neutral black colorway. So if RGB lighting is your thing, this is the option. For me, I was using RGB lights set to white anyway, so there’s that.
It’s also worth noting that when the MyASUS app was installed on the laptop, there was no option to control the RGB lights. Instead, you have to go to Windows Settings and use the Dynamic Lighting option there. Just to be clear, I don’t really mind it. Conversely, I like to use the same tool to control my system’s RGB lights as well as accessories and peripherals, so this is a nice touch from ASUS.
Then there’s the touchpad, which is quite spacious and responsive. It’s larger than the touchpad found on many other ultrabooks, providing ample room for navigation and gestures. Oh, and speaking of gestures, ASUS has added gesture controls here.
You can scroll on the right edge to control the display’s brightness and on the left edge for volume controls. Additionally, if you are watching some content you can also scroll on the top edge to find the video. I will say that this is an excellent feature and I think more people will like it, as opposed to previous numpads that ASUS has offered.
Performance and battery life
Our unit of the ASUS VivoBook S 14 OLED comes with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor clocked at 7500MT/s coupled with 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM. It has Samsung’s 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD, which performs quite well. It’s not quite at 7000MB/s, but it should be enough for most users.
As far as CPUs go, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is one of the most powerful processors in this segment, and the numbers speak for themselves. In all of our benchmarks, the CPU count was the highest across the board. For example, the score of 112 points in Cinebench R24 ST is something that even most gaming processors struggle to achieve. Similarly, its Geekbench scores of 2829 and 15315 in single-core and multi-core benchmarks are a testament to how good this processor really is.
For reference, I compared the VivoBook S14 with the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2024), which is powered by an Intel Core i7-14700HX processor. As you can see, AMD processors won a clear victory in single-core performance, while also giving good competition in multi-core tests.
A similar story can be seen in the GPU department, where the AMD Radeon 890M graphics show strong results. It has excellent scores in all 3DMark benchmarks, be it Time Spy or Fire Strike. Additionally, it also manages to outperform Intel ARC Graphics on the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus.
The GPU is also capable of some casual gaming if you want to do that. GTA V runs flawlessly on it with most settings set to ‘High’ while still resulting in a smooth 60fps at 1080p resolution. I also tried playing Far Cry 6, and once you leave everything on Low, you can get around 55-60 FPS on that title as well. As far as eSports gaming with titles like Valorant and Deadlock is concerned, you can easily play games at over 100fps with everything set to Low, but there will be persistent frame drops from time to time.
Of course, you shouldn’t push the laptop too far for gaming. Despite having a dual fan setup, it has a thin chassis, and the laptop will heat up when under stress for long periods of time. The fans will also become very loud when pushed. Thankfully, under realistic load, the laptop stays quiet as well as quite cool. Also, when we’re looking inside the laptop, it’s noticeable that only the SSD is replaceable – everything else is soldered.
A large portion of the internal space is taken up by a 75WHr battery, which ASUS claims should last for around 17 hours. That’s a very bold claim, but the good news is that the laptop delivers on that front. In our testing, the laptop lasted a little more than 11 hours in PCMark 10’s video battery loop test. That’s a solid start, and if your workload involves working in dark windows taking advantage of an OLED panel, you can easily expect better numbers.
decision
Price Rs. Rs 1,04,990, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 offers a compelling blend of performance, features and battery life that makes it a strong contender against its rivals. The standout feature of the laptop is undoubtedly its vibrant OLED display, which, coupled with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, is more than capable of handling everyday tasks, multitasking and even casual gaming, with features like the Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Core Performs better than competitors. 200V processor.
It has an excellent battery life of at least over 10 hours, which should be fine for most users. However, if you can compromise a bit on the performance front and want to squeeze out more juice, the Acer Swift 14 AI with an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor is an excellent choice. Additionally, if your use case does not involve running x86 applications, laptops powered by the Snapdragon X Elite chipset, such as the ASUS VivoBook S15 OLED, can also be considered.
Editor’s Rating: 8/10
professional:
- Great OLED display
- strong performance
- great battery life
- Attractive design with RGB keyboard
Shortcoming:
- Slight fan noise under heavy load
- Limited upgradeability options
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