Review Summary
Expert Rating
What if I told you that there is a laptop from ASUS that comes with a stunning 3K OLED panel, has a powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, RGB lighting underneath the keyboard, and plenty of juice to keep the lights on for an all-day battery life? Well, most folks would assume I’m talking about something from the ZenBook lineup. But no, instead, I’m talking about the ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED.
Yes, that name is a mouthful, considering the pure abundance of ASUS Vivobooks that we have on the market right now. Then again, for a little over 1 lakh rupees, the S 14 OLED is more premium than others. What’s more, the on-paper specifications that I just listed do make it seem like a good buy. But is that really the case? Well, we’ve been using the laptop for over a month, and we have all the answers to your questions. Read our ASUS Vivobook S14 (M5406) review to find out if the ultrabook suits your needs.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
Starting off with the design, the ASUS Vivobook has a sleek and simple look that’s quite modern and professional. The Cool Silver colourway here is subtle, and its all-metal design manages to look far more premium than the price tag would suggest, while also being quite sturdy. It also has a 180-degree hinge, which adds a dash of versatility.
At just 1.3kg, the laptop is quite portable and easily fits in a laptop sleeve or backpack. The branding has been kept to a minimum here, so everything is quite simple. The same cannot be said for the display, though. However, that’s a good thing since it’s not simple but, instead, an amazing panel.
As the name suggests, the Vivobook S 14 OLED comes with a 14-inch OLED display with a 2880 x 1800 (3K) resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It’s not a gaming laptop, but the panel is just as responsive as its beauty. There’s 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, ensuring accurate and true-to-life colours, which is particularly beneficial for creative professionals.
A small downside of the display is its glossy finish, which can be prone to glare and reflections, particularly in brightly lit environments. Sure, the panel’s 400 nits of brightness is commendable, but it really can’t beat direct sunlight. Then again, the panel does 600 nits of peak brightness in HDR content, and for that, the experience is unmatched.
Ports, Audio, and Connectivity
The Vivobook S 14 OLED offers a healthy selection of ports, ensuring you can connect all your essential peripherals. On the left side, there’s a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C port, a USB4 Type-C port, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Over to the right side, there are dual USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. It’s an AMD machine, so it makes sense why there are no Thunderbolt 4 ports here. However, I would have preferred the second USB-C port to support USB 4 standards as well. Additionally, considering the excellent power underneath and the stunning display, ASUS could have offered a full-sized SD card reader. Then again, maybe they want to reserve that for the ProArt lineup.
In terms of audio, the laptop features bottom-firing stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. While the audio quality is decent, with good volume and clear mids and highs, the bass could be more pronounced. However, the speakers are more than adequate for casual listening, video calls, and enjoying multimedia content.
There’s also a built-in 1080p IR camera with a physical privacy shutter. This allows for secure login using facial recognition through Windows Hello. The webcam incorporates AI-powered features, including automatic framing to keep the user centered during video calls, along with background and portrait blur effects.
Of course, the primary footage itself needs to be good too, and in that aspect, the Vivobook does a decent job. It’s not the best, but should get the job done for your work calls.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Vivobook S 14 OLED features a well-designed keyboard that offers a comfortable and enjoyable typing experience. The keys are well-spaced, have a good amount of travel, and offer tactile feedback. Interestingly, there’s a single-zone RGB backlight here to add a touch of personalisation.
Again, I need to reiterate that this is NOT a gaming laptop. And honestly, the RGB lighting doesn’t work well in ASUS’ favour, since any colour light doesn’t seem to pass easily through the silver keycaps. The experience might be better on the Neutral Black colourway. So if the RGB lighting is what you prefer, that’s the option to get. For me, I was using the RGB light set to white anyway, so there’s that.
It’s also worth noting that while the MyASUS app was installed on the laptop, there was seemingly no option to control the RGB lights there. Instead, you need to head over to Windows Settings and use the Dynamic Lighting option there. Just to be clear, I actually don’t mind this. On the contrary, I prefer having to use a single tool to control the RGB light of my system as well as my accessories and peripherals, so this is a nice touch from ASUS.
Then there’s the touchpad, which is quite spacious and responsive. It’s larger than the touchpads found on many other ultrabooks, providing ample space for navigation and gestures. Oh, and speaking of gestures, ASUS has added gesture control here.
You can scroll on the right edge to control the display’s brightness and the left edge for volume control. Additionally, you can also scroll on the top edge to seek a video if you’re watching some content. I’d say this is an excellent feature and one that I feel would appeal to more masses, as opposed to the previous Numpad that ASUS used to offer.
Performance and Battery Life
Our unit of the ASUS VivoBook S 14 OLED comes with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor coupled with 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM clocked at 7500MT/s. There’s a 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD on board from Samsung, which performs quite adequately. It’s not quite there at the 7000MB/s mark, but it should suffice for most users.
As for the CPU itself, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is one of the most powerful processors in this segment, and the numbers speak for itself. In all of our benchmarks, the CPU had some of the highest numbers across the board. For instance, a score of 112 pts in Cinebench R24 ST is something that most gaming processors also struggle to achieve. Similarly, its GeekBench scores of 2829 and 15315 in Single Core and Multi-Core benchmarks are a testament to how good this processor really is.
For context, I compared the Vivobook S 14 to the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2024), which is powered by the Intel Core i7-14700HX processor. As you can see, the AMD processor had a clear win in single-core performance while giving good competition in multi-core tests too.
A similar story can be seen in the GPU department, where the AMD Radeon 890M graphics show strong results. It has excellent scores across the board in all of 3DMark’s benchmarks, be it Time Spy or Fire Strike. Additionally, it manages to outshine the Intel ARC graphics on the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor housed on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus as well.
The GPU is also capable of some casual gaming if you wish to do so. GTA V runs flawlessly on this with most of the settings set to ‘High’, while still resulting in a smooth 60fps at 1080p resolution. I also tried playing Far Cry 6, and once you drop everything to Low, you can achieve around 55-60fps on that title too. As for eSports gaming with titles like Valorant and Deadlock, you can easily game over 100fps with everything set to Low, but there will be consistent frame drops from time to time.
Of course, you shouldn’t push the laptop too far for gaming. Despite having a dual fan setup, it’s a slim chassis, and the laptop will heat up if stressed for an extended period. The fans will also get considerably loud when pushed. Thankfully, under realistic loads, the laptop stays quite cool while also being quiet. Also, while we are taking a look inside the laptop, it’s worth pointing out that only the SSD is replaceable – everything else is soldered on.
A big chunk of the internal space is occupied by the 75WHr battery, which ASUS claims should last about 17 hours or so. That’s a pretty bold claim, but the good news is that the laptop does deliver on that front. In our testing, the laptop lasted a little over 11 hours in PCMark 10’s video battery loop test. That’s a solid start, and if your workload involves working in dark windows that leverage the OLED panel, then you can easily expect better numbers.
Verdict
Priced at Rs. 1,04,990, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 delivers a compelling blend of performance, features, and battery life that makes it a strong contender against its rivals. The laptop’s standout feature is undoubtedly its vibrant OLED display, which, coupled with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, is more than capable of handling everyday tasks, multitasking, and even casual gaming, outperforming competitors like the Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Core 200V processors.
There’s also an excellent battery life of over 10 hours at the very least, which should be fine for most users. However, if you can compromise a bit on the performance front and want to squeeze more juice, the Acer Swift 14 AI with the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor is an excellent option. Further, if your use case doesn’t involve running x86 applications, a laptop powered by the Snapdragon X Elite chipset, such as the ASUS VivoBook S15 OLED can also be considered.
Editor’s Rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Stunning OLED Display
- Powerful Performance
- Excellent Battery Life
- Sleek Design with RGB Keyboard
Cons:
- Slight Fan Noise Under Heavy Load
- Limited Upgradability Options