Stunning OLED display screen and wonderful H-series efficiency
The Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED is a good new laptop computer within the $1000 worth vary that incorporates a attractive natural mild emitting diode display screen in addition to a high-performance H-series Intel processor. This laptop computer is especially geared in the direction of the 18-30 12 months outdated crowd of school college students and entry stage professionals who’re into graphic design, images, video modifying, and different sorts of content material creation.
What’s within the Field
The packaging boasts environmental friendliness which is essential lately. It does use a number of cardboard, but it surely’s plain brown recyclable cardboard with easy black ink printing, so we’re not losing a ton of cash on shiny full coloration costly printing right here.
Moreover the laptop computer itself and a few small documentation/guarantee printed papers, we have a pleasant rectangular 240 volt USB-C based mostly energy charger.
{Hardware}
For inner specs, the Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED has an Intel Core i7-12700H 2.3 GHz Processor, Iris Xe GPU, 12Gb DDR4 RAM, 512Gb M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 SSD, with a 70WHRs 3-cell Li-ion battery.
The large actually attractive characteristic of the Asus Vivobook 14x OLED is the OLED display screen. I imply, it is a part of the title in spite of everything. The show is a 14.5 inch 2.8K 2800×1800 pixel OLED panel with 0.2ms response time, 120Hz refresh price, and 550nits brightness. It is obtained 100% DCI-P3 coloration gamut, 100% sRGB coloration gamut, and 97% Adobe RGB coloration gamut. What’s extra, it is Pantone Validated coloration which is nice for getting near correct colours on printed graphic designs.
You possibly can clearly see how the blacks within the Asus Vivobook 14x OLED on the fitting are a lot darker than what you may discover on a standard LCD display screen like what we now have on the HP ZBook Energy G8 on the left.
The slim bezels across the display screen offer you an 87% display screen to physique ratio.
Additionally within the bezel we now have a 720p HD entrance going through digital camera for the video calls together with a microphone array. Properly, there’s a bit of swap that can cowl up the digital camera with a skinny little bit of orange plastic. The coloured lens cowl makes it very easy to inform that the digital camera is disabled and that is a superb contact.
On the left edge with have a giant fan exhaust grill in addition to one full USB 2.0 sort A port. You will wish to use that for peripherals that do not want an excessive amount of velocity like a mouse or pen pill accent.
The correct edge is the place the entire critical ports are positioned. You’ve got obtained an LED to point battery charging, an LED indicating that the display screen is on, a 3.5mm headset/microphone jack, a USB 3.2 gen 1 type-A port, 2 thunderbolt 4 show/energy USB sort C ports, and 1 HDMI 2.0a port.
On the underside we have a big air flow grill for airflow together with a couple of rubber ft to place some area between the underside and a desk or desk. Asus calls their cooling know-how “IceCool”, which makes use of 8 & 6 mm warmth pipes, and a 97 blade “IceBlade” fan with an empeller product of liquid crystal polymer for lighter and thinner {hardware} however quieter extra environment friendly airflow.
Underneath heavy load, the “IceCool” cooling system works fairly effectively… at the least on the left aspect of the laptop computer. I used to be nonetheless in a position to get the fitting aspect to get fairly sizzling.
The hinge for the display screen can also be in a position to bend a full 180 levels with the intention to offer you a completely flat place in relation to the keyboard. The display screen can also be purported to be anti-glare, however as you’ll be able to see right here it nonetheless has some important glare even indoors.
Open air, the reflective show panel is much more apparent, and the max brightness stage has problem competing with daylight.
On the again of the lid there’s an attention-grabbing little raised emblem space. I am unable to consider any purpose for it to be raised. There isn’t any tactile benefit, nor does it present any further harm safety.
The raised emblem space is embossed with a pair hashtags, which is sort of foolish to me. One says #GoFurther which hyperlinks to sports activities automobiles, hockey, and bicycling footage on Twitter. The opposite says #BeFearless which hyperlinks to sports activities, weight lifting, and sneaker commercials in the intervening time. I am unsure what these issues should do with this laptop computer.
The black steel physique feels nice, however this can be very tough to maintain fingerprint grease from displaying up on it. I ended up giving up attempting and now it appears to be like like a splotchy mess.
Whereas the keyboard is pretty common, there are some minor enhancements over the terrible flat key chiclets fashion keyboards which have turn out to be normal on laptops lately. This keyboard really has a bit of bit (0.2mm) of concave/convex ergonomic shaping to the keys. It is not so good as the keyboards we had 20 years in the past, but it surely’s a step in the fitting path. We have additionally obtained an honest 1.4mm of key journey for that good tactile suggestions.
You will additionally discover some etched “Harman/Kardon” branding in addition to some attention-grabbing design accents within the keyboard. I do not know why the Enter key has zebra stripes on it, however that does make it stand out a bit visually. The intense pink Escape secret’s an attention-grabbing design determination as effectively, however I prefer it.
The facility button between the Print Display and Delete keys on the highest row additionally has a pleasant trick. It doubles as a fingerprint scanner for biometric logins AND it helps on-boot fingerprint scanning, in order that whenever you press the button to show the laptop computer on, the authorization is handed straight on to Home windows and it logs you in straight away. It is much like what Huawei first did with the MateBook X again in 2017, and it is superior. See: Huawei MateBook X Evaluation: skinny, mild, and fairly a looker | Pocketnow
Software program
The Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED ships with Microsoft’s new Home windows 11, which has a number of usability and effectivity issues. See: Explaining Home windows 11’s unhealthy design | Pocketnow
Whereas some components of Home windows 11 are customizable, most of the choices and capabilities you are used to from Home windows 10 and under are gone. Fortunately there are quite a few third occasion instruments to repair this reminiscent of: ExplorerPatcher, StartAllBack, and Stardock Start11.
There is a MyASUS program included on the Vivobook S 14X OLED which incorporates a number of customization choices in addition to promotional gives. The customization choices have quite a bit to do with the {hardware}. For instance, you’ll be able to change choices on the cooling fan efficiency, or the colour saturation of the show, or the noise canceling microphones and audio system. By the way, you may in all probability wish to flip off the noise canceling microphone options whenever you’re on video convention calls as that characteristic may cause issues. There is a be aware about it within the MyASUS software program, however I figured it out the exhausting approach. There are additionally some good choices for extending the lifetime of the OLED show the place you’ll be able to dim inactive sections of the display screen or whatnot. You too can change the show’s refresh price from an computerized mode, to 120Hz for higher movement efficiency, or 60Hz to enhance battery life.
The Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED handles inventive graphics packages fairly effectively. I edited a number of photographs on this, and the display screen is nice so long as you retain the room lighting pretty low with the intention to keep away from glare. The correct aspect of the bottom does get fairly sizzling with the heavy load of processing, however the cooling system on the left does fairly good at holding that aspect cool. In fact, I did not have any overheating issues, so it have to be holding it cool sufficient.
AfterEffects, Photoshop, Blender, and Davinci Resolve modifying works effectively sufficient as effectively, however the limitations of the Intel Irix Xe GPU are noticeable in comparison with one thing with a way more costly devoted GPU.
Battery
Battery life sensible, the outcomes can range quite a bit relying in your settings and utilization. In case you activate the entire excessive efficiency show and processing options and push some heavy processor intensive program duties by way of it, you then may get 3 hours of battery life. Turning down the utilization, refresh price, display screen brightness, and different battery saving options can get you above 6 hours of battery life.
Buying
ASUS Vivobook S14X OLED
ASUS Vivobook S 14X is a value-for-money bundle, providing a vibrant 14.5-inch 2.8K 120Hz OLED display screen, Intel’s twelfth Gen Core i7 with Iris XE graphics, and battery life that’s par for the course. It’s a system value contemplating should you’re in search of a productiveness machine.
Professionals & Cons
Professionals
- Inexpensive $1100 worth level
- Attractive OLED display screen with huge coloration gamut and Pantone validation
- Highly effective cooling for a robust H-series Intel processor
Cons
- Intel Irix Xe GPU is missing in comparison with devoted GPUs
- Black steel physique attracts ugly fingerprint grease
- Construct high quality feels much less sturdy than far more costly laptops
Conclusion
I like the OLED display screen on the Asus Vivobook S 14X. It is not 100% Adobe RGB coloration like I might need, and the display screen has an excessive amount of glare for my tastes, however in low-light indoor rooms, the OLED blacks and coloration is gorgeous. That is the massive purpose to get this laptop computer; that and the great reasonably priced $1100 worth level.
Particular thanks for picture appearances by Brana Dane and Nea Mclin.
