These days people need laptops more than ever and indeed 2-in-1 laptops are also heavily required by students and professionals. Also, a powerful laptop is a necessity for the long run and heavy workloads, so if a 2-in-1 is both versatile and powerful then you don’t have to look further.
It has been almost a month now since I bought the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 2-in-1 laptop with Ryzen 7 4700U and I previously posted a first look where I gave the first look of the laptop, so I won’t repeat those.
Although it’s been a lot of time since I owned this new AMD powered laptop, I have used it daily for my work and play. So, this helps me give you an honest view towards this new ASUS laptop that already retails in India.
So, here’s my complete review of this laptop:
Design & Build
The VivoBook Flip 14 sports a bold Bespoke Black all-metal chassis with diamond-cut edges and doesn’t feel cheap. The metal is on top while the body is made up of some kind of mixed plastic & metal and because of this, the laptop weighs just 1.4 kg.
It is incredible handy and light to carry, so you can bend it, fold it, use it in tent mode as its strong 360° metal hinge is holding the 2-in-1 laptop. I like the fact how compact the laptop is yet solid and sturdy at its pricing, it is certainly one of the most premium VivoBooks I have tested.
Display
The VivoBook Flip 14 features a 14-inch LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) touchscreen display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and an 82% screen-to-body ratio. The display is very compact, and it feels like a 13-inch laptop where a 14-inch screen has been crammed in.
Though the tone of the display is on the yellowish side but can be adjusted via the MyASUS app while the display covers 60% of the sRGB colour gamut, which is decent for normal usage. But however, the brightness is just 250 nits which make it difficult to view things at low brightness levels.
You have to at least use the laptop in 70% brightness to actually work on it and at night without any lights, you at least need 90% brightness. Also, another thing I noticed is that the display’s transition time from switching from a black screen to a white one is noticeable and can tiresome if you are used to switching between apps too often.
AMD Radeon drivers did help to tune the display’s colours and brightness but a lot of times the Windows 10 ridiculously updates back to AMD’s old drivers to make things worse with every Windows update. However, overall, the display gets the job done but it would be great if it was a bit more colour accurate and bright.
The touch response on the screen is fairly accurate and on a budget laptop, this is a great feature to have. Like, Asus has cut-down on the screen quality a bit to make it a touchscreen, that too a good one. Be it used with your fingers or the ASUS pen, I never faced any issues with the touch.
Performance
You have bought an AMD Ryzen 4000U powered laptop, and you can indeed expect the performance to be mind-blowing. Well, firstly, when I got this laptop with Ryzen 7 4700U, the performance was a bit underwhelming but after BIOS update, things have changed drastically.
The scores that I got then weren’t that much convincing and I knew it because the APU was max clocking at 2.87GHz. It was really a BIOS issue and have updated it, the laptop was boosting at a whopping 4.18 GHz clock speed, reaching its full potential of 4.1GHz. So, initially, the benchmarks were not good, however, after the update, this laptop was like a beast.
All of the 8 Zen 2 cores were ramping up while running Geekbench or Cinebench but I like how the thermals of the new Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 has been managed. So, in the Geekbench 5, the Ryzen 7 4700U with 8GB RAM (512MB is reserved for the Vega iGPU) achieved a score of 1137 points in the single-core test while managing a humongous 5136 points in multi-core tests.
On the other hand, managing an average score from Geekbench 5 database, the Dell XPS 13 with its mighty Core i7-1065G7 and 16GB of RAM managed to score 1265 points in the single-core test while managing a humongous 4812 points in multi-core tests. So, even though coming in at so cheap, the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 with Ryzen 7 4700U did manage to compete against the costlier Dell XPS 13 with better cooling, closing in on the single-core tests and edging past the Intel CPU in the multi-core tests.
Coming to Cinebench R20, the Ryzen APU managed to score 351 points in a single-core score while gathering a hefty 2254 points in multi-core tests. I wonder if this laptop is upgraded with more RAM how much more performance you achieve with this, that too in a slim form factor.
However, the good thing about the 2-in-1 laptop is that you can upgrade the RAM to 12GB, which ultimately flexes the muscle of the laptop in the long period. Overall, as a budget ultrabook, the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 with Ryzen 7 4700U is the best value that you can ask for especially being a 2-in-1 light and portable laptop.
The SSD on this laptop is pretty decent too as you get 1793 MB/s read speeds and 1146 MB/s write speeds. It would not be one of the fastest but still good considering the price point, however, if the speeds were over 2000 MB/s that would be better as even the Honor Magicbook gives better SSDs at lower price points.
I even tried 4K video editing on this and it worked like a charm, better if the laptop is used in tent mode as there’s a good airflow then. I edited an 8-minute video clip and there were no stutters at all even though it used the integrated Vega graphics and just 7.5 GB of RAM. It took almost 23 minutes to export the video clip at full 4K resolution using the highest settings.
In ideal situations, when you are just doing casual work, browsing, watching movies, the laptop doesn’t heat up at all. The clock speeds remain low consistently, and the fans kept quiet most of the times, only with workloads like editing or benchmarks, you could actually understand the fans blowing with the air gushing out from the side vent.
Connectivity
The Intel Wi-Fi 6 on the laptop too performs really well to handle heavy downloads at consistent speeds and stays connected to the Wi-Fi always and switches between network intelligently. I have no complaints on the connectivity part as the laptop is on par with this.
The Bluetooth 5.0 on this laptop works well, you can connect multiple devices easily to the laptop be it headphones, Bluetooth keyboards or mouse. Using earbuds paired with laptop is a great experience while answering calls and video conferences.
Physical overview:
On the left you have 1 x Kensington lock and a USB Type-A.
While on the right-hand side you have the power on button, the charge indicators, the Audio combo jack, 1 x MicroSD card reader, you have one USB Type-C port that doesn’t support charging, 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI and a DC-in port. The ports are adequate for daily work, only if there would be USB Type-C charging then the laptop would be a complete one.
Gaming
This is a productivity centric laptop but that doesn’t mean you cannot game on it, so I did try a multiple games as 1080p to see the performance. However, you can easily play any title on it with 720p graphics, and the graphics performance can be improved when you upgrade your RAM.
| Games | Average FPS (1080p low) |
| FIFA 20 | over 60 FPS |
| FIFA 21 | over 60 FPS |
| Star Wars Squadron | 40 – 45 FPS |
| CS GO | over 60 FPS |
| Project Cars | 35 – 40 FPS |
| GTA V | 50 FPS |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | below 30 FPS |
| Resident Evil 3 | 30 FPS |
If you see the benchmarks then you’ll see the laptop can handle almost all popular games at 720p or 1080p. eSports titles are great as you get good framerates and you can play any new triple-A title at lowest 720p settings.
Audio & Webcam
There are two bottom-firing speakers by Harman/Kardon speakers which are quite loud for listening to music in normal mode; however, when used in tent mode, you can easily hear videos or movies. Overall, as a 2-in-1 laptop, the VivoBook Flip 14 is pretty loud and great for entertainment purposes as well.
The webcam, however, is not the best that you can expect for its price and it could have been a bit better. It is just ok for video calls, you can tweak a bit with the MyASUS software but it could have been better.
Battery Life
The laptop is equipped with a respectable 3-cells 42 Watt-Hours lithium-polymer battery that gives almost 5-6 hours battery life with normal to high brightness and can be increased to an hour more with low brightness. If you game on this, the battery life drastically decreases and in tablet mode you get the best battery life of nearly 7 hours and more.
I am pretty satisfied with the battery life this thin and light laptop offers at this pricing with the powerful Ryzen 7 4700U in it.
The laptop charges very fast and lives up to the expectation of charging up to 60% in 49 minutes and fully charges in about 1:30 to 2 hours, which is decent enough for a 2-in-1.
Keyboard & Trackpad
The keyboard layout is compact, however, the keys have a good amount of key travel and I like the clicky feel of it, a great keyboard overall to type upon. Although if you are not used to a small layout you might feel a bit odd to type on if you get used to it then this is a great laptop.
The backlighting also works well with 3 brightness modes and adequate to work at night comfortably. The trackpad is tiny and compact, however, with the fingerprint sensor on it that also works very fast, but if you are used to using a larger trackpad, you can always use a mouse. So, even if its small, the quality of the trackpad is great but if you are going for this laptop, I’d suggest getting a mouse beforehand.
MyASUS software & ASUS Pen
I like the utility of the new MyASUS software that is an all-in-one software for all your needs and you can completely sync your phone to the laptop while working, get support, download drivers & updates and do a lot more than you could have expected.
The pre-included ASUS pen is great for daily use, and I felt it very smooth to use for drawing, using it for work, and doing a lot more. It is indeed useful for taking notes, drawing stuff, not the best in terms of accuracy, but, hey, you are paying nothing extra for this.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Great performance with Ryzen 4000 APUs
- 2-in-1 touchscreen display
- Very thin and lightweight
- One upgradeable RAM slot
- Decent battery life with fast charging
- Good connectivity & Audio
Cons:
- Poor webcam
- Brightness is low so needs to be used at almost max brightness that drains the battery
- The trackpad is smaller than usual
- Not very color accurate
Verdict
The Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 is a complete 2-in-1 laptop that is focussed towards creative people who need a touchscreen display with performance and the much-needed utilities like upgradable RAM, Wi-Fi 6 and others.
Although it misses on the brightness front, and colour accuracy, however, I would anytime opt for a touch display as a replacement. Ideally, this laptop is meant for students who can take notes, attend classes and casually game on this device or for office workers who need a powerful 2-in-1 for working long hours without having spent much.
Ideally the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 aimed towards a lot of people who need a 2-in-1 laptop that can last for some years without having to sacrifice on performance. I have used it everyday since I bought it for ₹ 74,500, however, it retails at a price of ₹ 70,990 at Amazon.
Ryzen 7 variant is the topmost variant, however, the lower variants with Ryzen 4000U APUs are very capable to get your job done. The 7nm efficiency and the performance makes the VivoBook Flip 14 2-in-1 laptop a great recommendation to a wide audience in our country. Only if these laptops are sold at its original prices or if you get a deal in the upcoming sales, then it will be a great laptop to invest one.
I won’t suggest this for professionals as this is not color accurate enough but if you are ok with that then there are very few things you might actually notice. Although I do miss a good webcam on this and the USB Type-C charging you get on Intel variants but as performance and productivity is all I need this laptop makes a lot of sense for daily use.
If you are low on budget get these two variants which are equally good enough:
Ryzen 3 4300U/4GB/256GB SSD: https://amzn.to/2YK6YOK
Ryzen 5 4500U/8GB/512GB SSD: https://amzn.to/2Qyklxi
If you do end up buying the laptop do not forget to tell us your experience in the comments down below, also if you have any doubts with the laptop feel free to comment or email us.
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