Asus Vivobook S14 laptop Review

Asus Vivobook S14 laptop Review

Asus’s new VivoBook S14 has been designed keeping portability in mind. We have an S406U variant with us for review. It's slim and light, and looks quite nice, especially in the all-gold trim that we have.

Asus VivoBook S14 (S406U) design

The VivoBook S14 is stylish, and we think its design will work for both professional and casual use. The lid is said to be scratch-resistant with a ‘spun-metal’ finish. The hinge extends about 120 degrees backwards, However, the hinge doesn’t have very good torsion, causing the display to wobble easily. This could be a problem when using the laptop in a moving vehicle. full-HD resolution IPS panel with an anti-glare finish. Asus has managed to fit a 14-inch panel in a chassis typically designed for 13-inch ones. The trackpad is wide and there’s a fingerprint sensor in the corner for user authentication. Tracking performance is alright but not great, as is the case with most mainstream Windows laptops. The sides of the laptop are fairly thin at 18.8mm, which is just enough room for full-sized USB ports. You get two of these (one USB 2.0 on the right and one USB 3.0 on the left) and a single Type-C port, which is of the USB 3.1 (Gen1) standard. There’s a Micro-HDMI video output instead of a full-sized one for some reason, plus a microphone and headphones combo port. There's a microSD card slot which is good for expanding the internal storage. It might come in handy if you pick up the model we’re reviewing, which only has a 256GB SSD. The slightly thicker VivoBook S14 (S410UA) models have a SD card slot and an HDMI port as well, both full-sized.

Asus VivoBook S14 (S406U) specifications and features

The VivoBook S14 is available with 8GB of RAM with a 8TH Gen Core i5-8250U. The unit that Asus sent us for review (S406U) is only available offline and is slightly different, with a Core i5-8250U and a 256GB SSD but no hard drive. HD-resolution webcam, Bluetooth 4.0, stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon, and a total weight of around 1.4kg.

Asus VivoBook S14 (S406U) performance and battery life

The laptop runs cool most of the time, and we only heard the fans ramp up when playing heavy 3D games and running benchmarks. The palmrest also doesn’t get uncomfortably hot, which is good. Audio performance is not too shabby either. The stereo speakers are placed on the bottom, and have a warm sonic signature. Battery life, if you do most of your work within a Web browser, you should be able to go for about six to six and a half hours continuously. This means you could just about able to squeeze in an entire workday on a single charge. SVerdict Asus has managed a pretty aggressive range of prices for the VivoBook S14 series. This has come at some cost to the build quality, but overall, it’s not a bad package. The S406U variant that we reviewed is priced at Rs. 54,990 and is only available offline. Pros • Relatively light • Anti-glare display • Good performance • Competitive pricing Cons • Lid wobbles easily • Keyboard flexes under pressure • No full-sized SD card slot

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