The Taiwanese OEM has launched a wide range of laptops in India recently and among them the ASUS VivoBook S14 series is the one to look out for. People these days require a reliable, agile and decent performing laptop for their daily work as now, thanks to the pandemic, the work culture has changed totally.
There a lot of enthusiasts who look for a proper work laptop with a good display and long battery life, but the budget obviously becomes a headache. If you even manage one, you end up sacrificing the performance, so it gets harder for us to recommend something but Asus’s new budget VivoBook S14 series manages to balance all of the key things for those of you who need a good laptop in the Rs.60k – Rs.70k price bracket.
The VivoBook S14 comes both with the latest Ryzen 4000 APUs and 10th gen Intel Ice Lake CPUs, so performance-wise you have no compromise at all, however, the Intel variant is much better as overall. Why? There are many key factors that support this question which we will discuss soon after learning the specs of this laptop:
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 Processor, 1.0 GHz (6MB Cache, up to 3.6 GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads)
- Memory & Storage: 8GB LPDDR4X 3733MHz onboard RAM | Storage: 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD with 32GB Intel Optane Memory (Intel H10 SSD)
- Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics
- Display: 14.0-inch (16:9) LED-backlit FHD (1920×1080) 60Hz, 300nits Brightness, Anti-Glare, IPS-level Panel, with 100% sRGB Color gamut, 87% Screen-to-body ratio and 178° viewing angles
- Software Included: Pre-installed MS Office Home and Student 2019 | Operating System: Pre-loaded Windows 10 Home with lifetime validity
- Design & battery: Metallic body | Thin and Light Laptop | Laptop weight: 1.35 kg | 72WHrs, 4-cell lithium-polymer battery | Up to 24 hours battery life
- Keyboard: Full-size Backlit Chiclet Keyboard | 1.4mm key travel distance
- I/O Ports: 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x Thunderbolt 3 USB C (with supports for display/power delivery), 1x 2 in 1 card reader SD/MMC
- Other: FingerPrint Reader with Windows Hello support | 720p HD web camera | Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) (802.11ax) 2*2 | Bluetooth 5.0 | Built-in 2 W Stereo Speakers with Microphone | US MIL-STD 810G military-grade standard
On paper, the laptop looks promising and it is priced at ₹ 66,555, however with discounts and offers, if you can get it around Rs. 60k then this is a steal deal. Here are the five reasons to buy the new ASUS VivoBook S14 with Intel Ice Lake CPUs:
1. Design & Build quality
The ASUS VivoBook S14 is MIL-STD-810G military certified for durability and reliability as it features metal-unibody design, making the laptop look premium and worth spending the money upon. On top of that, the laptop weighs just 1.35 kg, so you can carry it easily anywhere you want.
2. Display
Generally, in budget laptops, you get a decent FHD display but dull when it comes to color accuracy, but here, Asus has equipped the laptop with a 14-inch LED-backlit FHD anti-Glare display with 300nits of peak brightness and covers 100% sRGB Color gamut. Also, the bezels are very sleek on this laptop as the display features a 87% screen-to-body ratio.
3. Intel goodness
The Asus Vivobook S14 features the 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor that comes with 4 cores and 8 threads along with 6MB cache and up to 3.6 GHz clock speeds. Not the most convincing specs as compared to AMD’s Ryzen 4000, but it is good for day-to-day tasks, office work, and even a nice option for students, provided you do not try to game on it.
Another important thing to note is that the laptop features a fast 8GB LPDDR4X 3733MHz RAM and on top of that you have 32GB Intel Optane Memory (Intel H10 SSD). This optane memory can make a huge difference in performance over time as if you cannot upgrade the RAM, this ultra-fast memory will back you up, which is missing on AMD models. So, for coders and app developers, this is a great laptop who can actually make use of this fast memory for compiling and developing stuff.
4. Battery Life
This is the most important thing to note before buying a laptop, however, budget laptops make a huge sacrifice in this area. But, the Vivobook S14 comes with a huge 72WHrs 4-cell lithium-polymer battery, which they market as to endure up to 24 hours battery life, which is a bit cheesy. So, even if it gives at least 10-12 work hours, its more than enough for a budget laptop.
5. Thunderbolt 3 & few good add-ons
Being an Intel laptop, you get the Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C port that gives you the freedom to charge the laptop and delivers transfer speeds of up to 40 Gbps. Also, if you are a gamer, you can easily use an external GPU to fire up the laptop anytime you want to, having this port at this budget makes it very useful. As we talked about the Intel goodness, it even comes with Intel Wi-Fi 6 support, making the laptop future-proof as well.
Coming to add-ons, the laptop features a full-size backlit chiclet keyboard that has 1.4mm key travel distance, so this is a great keyboard for daily usage, undoubtedly. Asus has given another modern feature to this laptop: FingerPrint Reader with Windows Hello support, so you can easily log in to Windows seamlessly. The Vivobook S14 has a 720p HD web camera and comes with Windows 10 Home with lifetime validity along with Pre-installed MS Office Home and Student 2019.
Overall, this laptop from Asus is a total package and very much recommendable for daily usage and for serious coders or app developers as well. With the VivoBook S14 Intel variant, Asus has brought all of the key benefits of an Intel laptop at a good price of ₹ 66k, however, if you get a discount of some sort then, this is a steal deal for you.
There are two color variants of the laptop: Petal Pink: https://amzn.to/3j8C5LD & Silver Blue: https://amzn.to/32papM5
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