Asus Vivobook Professional 15 OLED evaluate: inexpensive creator laptop computer

Asus Vivobook Professional 15 OLED Q533

MSRP $1,050.00

“The Asus Vivobook Professional 15 OLED is surprisingly quick and equally inexpensive.”

Execs

• Enticing worth
• Moderately small and light-weight
• Surprisingly quick efficiency
• Good OLED colours and distinction
• First rate battery life

Cons

• Show is 16:9 and low-res
• Asus DialPad is form of gimmicky

Once you’re making a bigger laptop computer at the moment that’s aimed toward video editors and photographers, you should do one thing particular. You’ll be able to construct round a spectacular show, an revolutionary design, actually quick elements, or particular enter units. Or, you possibly can select OK elements and supply a very engaging worth.

That’s what Asus did with the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED Q533. It’s not essentially the most spectacularly configured laptop computer and it has some old-school elements. However it’s quick, fairly well-built, and extra inexpensive than most giant laptops for creators at $1,050. For much less demanding customers, it’s a strong alternative.

Specs and configurations

Asus has one model of the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED out there, with an Intel Core Extremely 7 155H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU, and a 15.6-inch 16:9 FHD OLED show. Proper now, it’s on sale for $1,050, down from $1,300. So long as it stays there, it’s an fascinating large-screen laptop computer for creators on a really tight price range.

There aren’t many 15-inch or bigger laptops with a discrete GPU (even an older one) for thus little cash. The XPS 16 begins at $1,999 with the identical GPU and RAM, a smaller SSD, and a more moderen RTX 4050, whereas the HP Envy 16 is $1,850 with an Intel Core i7-13700, an RTX 4060, and an IPS show. Even the smaller XPS 14 is significantly costlier at $2,099 with an RTX 4050. Then once more, there aren’t many laptops lately promoting the previous-gen RTX 3050 both.

Battery life

There’s a 75 watt-hour battery packed inside, and the comparatively low decision of the in any other case power-hungry OLED show helped the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED flip in some blended battery life outcomes.

In our internet looking check that runs by way of a sequence of complicated internet pages, the Vivobook managed 10.25 hours, which is above common and superb for the Core Extremely 7 155H chipset. It made it to 10.75 hours in our video looping check, which is rather less than common. The XPS 14 hit 8.25 and 10.25 hours with its OLED show and 11.75 and 15 hours with its IPS panel, whereas the XPS 16’s 4K+ OLED show got here in at 5.5 hours for each assessments. Asus appears to have threaded a needle with the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED, which could final near a full day with blended utilization however not far more.

Design

The Vivobook Professional 15 OLED is an old-school laptop computer in a number of essential methods. For now, I’ll take care of its design, the place the laptop computer builds round a 15.6-inch show that’s within the older 16:9 side ratio. The overwhelming majority of laptops at the moment are within the taller 16:10 side ratio that’s higher for productiveness. Whereas the Vivobook has skinny show bezels on the edges, the highest and backside bezels are giant by fashionable requirements. That offers it a lower than fashionable look and makes for a laptop computer that’s no smaller than a machine with a much bigger show and smaller bezels just like the Dell XPS 16 with its 16.3-inch show. As we’ll see, although, the Vivobook is extra of a competitor to the smaller XPS 14.

If the show was a cost-cutting measure (I can’t consider another excuse), then the plastic chassis is one other. Even so, the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED’s building is superb. It has an aluminum lid and there’s zero bending, flexing, or twisting anyplace. That’s typical for Asus laptops. The Vivobook is a bit thicker than the XPS 16 at 0.78 inch versus 0.74 inch, but it surely’s significantly lighter at 4.17 kilos versus 4.7 kilos. The XPS 14 is thinner and lighter at 0.71 inch and three.7 kilos, and the HP Envy 16 is identical thickness however virtually a pound heavier.

Aesthetically, the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED is a bit boring, however that’s OK. It has an all-black chassis that’s fully minimalist besides alongside the edges, the place the ports and vents are most distinguished. The keyboard has daring white lettering and provides just a bit further splash. The opposite laptops I’ve talked about to date are higher trying, however that’s clearly not what Asus was specializing in right here.

Keyboard, touchpad, and connectivity

The Vivobook’s keyboard is superb, with giant keycaps and loads of spacing even with the anachronistic numeric keypad. That’s one other nod to old-school computing when laptops just like the XPS 16 and Envy 16 gave them up. Each of these laptops have audio system to every facet of their keyboards whereas Asus positioned them to the edges of the chassis, in order that’s one distinction.

The touchpad is a mechanical model that’s giant sufficient. It really works superb, however an increasing number of Home windows laptops are transferring to haptic variations. I’m trying ahead to when the expertise makes its option to inexpensive machines. What’s extra fascinating in regards to the touchpad, although, is the embedded Asus DialPad. It’s a slight indentation on the touchpad floor surrounding a button that enables for navigating by way of performance in quite a lot of apps. There’s a extra refined Dial within the Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED, however this model is extra in line with the lower cost. It’s a small comfort total and never a purpose to purchase the laptop computer.

Connectivity is superb, with a slew of each fashionable and legacy ports. There are much more ports than on the XPS 16, in actual fact, and the place Dell’s far more costly laptop computer makes use of a microSD card reader, Asus included a full-size model that’s much more handy. Wi-fi connectivity is the most recent widely-used commonplace.

The 5MP webcam is a slight step above the more and more commonplace 1080p variations, and it offers a top quality picture with AISense digital camera and noise cancellation expertise. The laptop computer’s Meteor Lake chipset features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that’s supported by Microsoft’s Studio Results utility for videoconferencing.

Efficiency

One other method that the Vivobook Professional 15 OLED is caught up to now is in its use of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, which is a technology previous. Asus used a current-gen Intel Core Extremely 7 155H, so the RTX 3050 was an odd alternative (extra cost-cutting?). The Core Extremely 7 155H is a 28-watt Meteor Lake chipset with 16 cores (six Efficiency, eight Environment friendly, and two Low Energy Environment friendly) and 22 threads, and it options the NPU talked about above. Proper now, the NPU doesn’t have an effect on efficiency, however we’ll see how that adjustments over the subsequent yr or two.

One factor I’ll word is that though the chassis didn’t get sizzling, the followers have been very loud in efficiency mode. They have been louder than the followers on the XPS 16 and XPS 14 by a major margin. So, if you should work in a quiet surroundings, that’s one thing to bear in mind.

Nonetheless, the Vivobook did lots with its elements. It’s one of many quicker laptops we’ve reviewed with the Core Extremely 7 155H. Its RTX 3050 was, unsurprisingly, slower than the RTX 4050 within the XPS 14 in artificial benchmarks, but it surely was nonetheless fairly quicker than built-in graphics. In our CPU-intensive benchmarks, the Vivobook was a minimum of as quick as costlier machines. In a few assessments, it was a bit quicker. It fell behind the XPS 14 within the GPU portion of Cinebench R24, however curiously, it was quicker within the 3DMark Time Spy check.

On condition that final consequence, I’m not shocked on the Vivobook’s efficiency within the Pugetbench Premiere Professional benchmark that runs in a dwell model of Adobe’s Premiere Professional. On Home windows laptops, the benchmark can use a discrete GPU for rushing up numerous duties, and that has a major impression on scores. The Vivobook Professional 15 OLED was 11% quicker than the XPS 14, and that confirmed up within the particular person parts of the benchmark.

That makes the Vivobook a good selection for less-demanding creators who need an inexpensive laptop computer that gives usable efficiency. It received’t knock anybody’s socks off but it surely’ll be quicker than laptops and not using a discrete GPU, and its older GPU doesn’t maintain it again. It is going to additionally meet very demanding productiveness wants. What it received’t do is function a gaming laptop computer for greater than esports titles and older video games operating at 1080p and with lowered graphics.

Show and audio

As talked about earlier, the Vivobook’s OLED show is within the old-school 16:9 side ratio that’s not as comfy for productiveness work. And, at simply Full HD (1920 x 1080) and 15.6 inches, it’s not sharp sufficient. However it’s an OLED show, making it a form of an odd duck amongst competing laptops.

It’s an excellent show even given its limitations. Its colours are huge (100% sRGB, 98% AdobeRGB, 100% DCI-P3) and correct with a DeltaE of 1.19 (lower than 1.0 is taken into account glorious). It’s additionally vibrant at 398 nits and it has OLED’s traditional good blacks and near-infinite distinction. So, it’s an awesome show for productiveness customers and creators alike, so long as they don’t thoughts a lower-resolution show. Many customers may not, given the optimistic impression on battery life.

Two side-firing audio system present loads of quantity and clear mids and highs. There was a contact of distortion when turned all the way in which up, and I needed to flip issues all the way down to about 50% to tame it. Bass wasn’t very current, so that you’ll wish to maintain a pair of headphones useful, particularly when the followers are their loudest. The XPS 14 and XPS 16 each have higher sound techniques.

A strong worth alternative amongst creator laptops

The Vivobook Professional 15 OLED Q533 isn’t essentially the most thrilling 15-inch or bigger laptop computer I’ve reviewed. It’s not essentially the most fashionable, it’s not the quickest, and it doesn’t have a single standout characteristic that made scripting this evaluate numerous enjoyable.

What it does have, although, is a really engaging worth and sufficient efficiency and show high quality for anybody who needs to do some light-weight inventive work on the go. You can spend much more and get a significantly better laptop computer. However, you don’t should when you possibly can spend lots much less for greater than ok.

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