Enjoy the power of Snapdragon on a PC thanks to the new Asus Vivobook S 15

With its Vivobook S 15, Asus has managed to launch the cheapest laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite processor currently available. Although it has certain design problems, it has become a 15-inch laptop with great autonomy and performance.

We have already tested the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9 and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, both with the ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite processor, devices that, if they do well, can change a lot in the world of laptops. Now I bring you a new device with the same processor, the Asus Vivobook S 15.

Like the rest of the computers with this processor, its excellence lies in performance and battery life, but the Asus Vivobook S 15 offers a more traditional design with a 16:9 OLED screen.

Asus was one of the first to put a Copilot+ device on the market and although there is already a lot of competition, Asus’ reputation may give it an advantage over other brands. But is this Asus Vivobook S 15 with Snapdragon X Elite processor worth it?

After two weeks of testing it, I can give you my first-hand impressions, the good things and what Asus should improve in its next versions.

A large, lightweight design, but one that has become outdated 

Asus hasn’t gambled on it, the design of the Vivobook S 15 is so standard, I’m quite surprised. And by standard I mean a laptop with a 16:9 screen, a fairly rigid chassis and a keyboard that includes a numeric keypad.

I have nothing against it, especially because it is the norm when we talk about equipment with 15-inch screens, but compared to the other alternatives with Snapdragon X, the design seems somewhat outdated.

Even so, it is a good design. In silver gray, it has a large 15.6-inch screen, connections for all tastes and needs and a thickness that at its largest part is about 15 millimeters.

Its weight is standard at 1.42 kg, mainly due to that large screen. Where you can see the heritage of the traditional laptop is in the number of ventilation holes it has, one at the back and one at the bottom.

It has a full, standard keyboard, although with one of those details that – personally – grates with me is that “Ç” key above the Enter key instead of next to it. More than once I have pressed it by mistake when I wanted to press Enter.

I didn’t like the keyboard very much, although it’s passable. Even at 100% size, the pressure is very chewy or plasticky. Each press is like pressing a soft plastic key, a sensation that, when you type a lot and, if you’re a specialist like me when it comes to keyboards, I never got used to. The culprit is the Asus ErgoSense mechanism designed to make keystrokes silent, but at what price?

As an extra detail, a legacy of gaming laptops, the keyboard backlighting is RGB and can be customized.

The Asus Vivobook S 15 also has a problem with its trackpad. Even though it is of a considerable size, there are so many keystrokes that do not translate into clicks or, worse, there are so many times when you press on the right side without realizing it and it translates into a right click, that I have ended up opting to use an external Bluetooth mouse.

This is something that hasn’t happened to me in a long time and, honestly, the fact that the trackpad is of such poor quality is an important detail to take into account.

Mind you, a small point in its favor, by scrolling on the left side you can change the volume and brightness level on the right side. By scrolling to the right at the top you go 5 seconds forward in a video, 5 seconds back in the other direction. A detail that you only find out about if you thoroughly check the Asus website, because otherwise you won’t find any mention of the capabilities of this trackpad.

On the screen we find one of those points in favor of this Asus Vivbook S 15 and it is something that more laptops should have from the factory. Not only does it have a webcam, albeit only with HD resolution, it also has a facial recognition camera to unlock the computer with Windows Hello.

But the most important thing is that it has a physical camera block, so you can be sure you have an extra level of privacy.

In terms of connectivity, Asus has some of the best you can find, meaning you won’t be lacking anything and, above all, you can leave any adapters or connection hubs at home.

It has two USB-A 3.2 ports, two USB-C ports with USB 4.0 support, but no Thunderbolt 4. For that it has an HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone jack and a micro SD card slot.

The wireless connectivity is not far behind. Asus has given it Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Large 15.6” screen with an OLED panel worthy of your eyes 

I can’t complain about the screen of this Asus Vivobook S 15. Not only is it bright, high-resolution and large enough to have all your windows open, but the hinge also allows you to have it at any angle.

On a technical level, it has a screen with an OLED panel of 15.6 inches and a resolution of 2,880 x 1,620 pixels. The maximum brightness is 600 nits, which is perfect for moments with a lot of light or when you want the screen to look especially well lit. While it’s not extremely high brightness, believe me, it’s more than enough to dazzle you.

By default and with this resolution in Windows 11, it comes with a zoom of 200%. This makes the elements look very large, but with good quality. If you are going to work on this laptop, my recommendation is to lower the zoom in Windows Settings to 150%, this way you have more space for a couple of open windows and it still looks great.

One point in its favor is that the hinge opens up to 180º, that is, you can have the screen completely flat on the table, a design that is intended so that you can put the screen at the angle that suits you best.

The laptop with the most powerful Snapdragon X Elite processor 

Although we are only talking about two Qualcomm processors for laptops, the Snapdragon X Plus and the Snapdragon X Elite, in reality there are different versions that can perform a little better than others.

Asus has fitted the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor in this Vivobook S 15, which is one of the most powerful, but not the most powerful. Laptops like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 use the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor. The difference? The former runs at 3.4 Ghz and the latter has a turbo mode of up to 4 Ghz. But the reality is that the performance in both computers is the same.

These are the results in static tests provided by benchmark programs, demonstrating that the differences between devices with the Snapdragon X Elite processor are minimal compared to devices such as Surface Laptop 7 or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x.

Gaming is possible with this laptop, but not recommended because for now Windows 11 under ARM architecture is not fully compatible, although Microsoft has Prism, an emulator that allows the use of programs designed for x86.

As in the case of the 7th generation Surface Laptop, GTA V ran perfectly at a stable 30-34 FPS, but other games that use anti-cheats integrated into the Windows kernel, such as Counter Strike 2.0 or Halo Infinite, do not run at all.

The battery life is a big point in its favor. I’m surprised, considering the large screen size, that in a day’s work you can start with a 100% battery and when you finish the day the battery still shows 40% capacity.

Everything will depend on how you use it, the applications you use (virtualizing x86 programs uses more energy) and how long you have the screen on, but we are talking about a laptop that can easily have 8 hours of uninterrupted use.

The power management of the Snapdragon X Elite chip is excellent, especially if you have the performance setting in Windows balanced.

Copilot+ is the future of Windows, but for now it’s only half useful

This laptop uses Windows 11 Home with Copilot+ and being fully aware that artificial intelligence tools will be increasingly integrated into Windows, for now Copilot’s utilities are limited and useful only to a certain extent.

The Remember function has not yet been implemented due to privacy and security issues. Live subtitles for videos are useful but it is more convenient to use subtitles generated by the platforms themselves, such as YouTube. Co-Creator, which allows you to draw in Paint and generate a more realistic image, is useful the first two or three times, then you forget it exists.

I think the Copilot features that really save the day are the Windows Studio effects for the camera, which allow you to generate a portrait-style blur mode directly from Windows, as well as improved lighting. The problem is that the HD camera on this Vivobook S 15 is not very good quality and even with these AI tricks, the image is not as good as on its competitors from Lenovo or Microsoft.

Is the Asus Vivobook S 15 a good option?

The Asus Vivobook S 15 is an everyday laptop with such good battery life and performance that if you’re looking for a 15-inch screen, it’s the recommended purchase. Those are its strengths and it can only improve with future versions of Windows.

It has certain problems such as its unreliable trackpad and the keyboard, which I’m not a big fan of, but the latter is more of a personal preference than a physical problem with the equipment. That’s why it’s a perfect laptop for anyone looking for a computer that will last for years without being a gaming or high-performance machine.

The Asus Vivobook S 15 costs 1,299 euros and is one of the cheapest with its configuration, although it can be found even cheaper before its launch.