1.Pricing & specs2.Design & ports4.Display5.Performance & battery life7.Keyboard & touchpad8.Camera, mic, & audio9.Competition10.Should you buy it?
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
It’s the firstSnapdragon X Elitedevice we’ve tested at home in a gadget people can buy.
The ASUS VivoBook S 15 looks like a modern Windows laptop.
A lot is riding on these chips, being as good as Qualcomm has promised them to be.
Find out in this review.
This review was made possible thanks to a review unit provided by ASUS.
The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.
This is the only configuration available in the VivoBook S 15.
The laptop includes a gorgeous 15.6-inch display with a high-resolution 2880 x 1620 120Hz OLED screen and thin bezels.
Before you ask, yes, Photos will reject certain key phrases.
I think the best Copilot+ feature is the enhanced Windows Studio Effects, which simply look great.
I will talk more about the Windows Studio Effects in the camera section of this review.
It’s really awesome.
The gadget is quite sleek, just 0.63 inches at its thickest point.
The laptop is also incredibly light for its size.
The ASUS VivoBook S 15 looks like a modern Windows laptop.
You won’t even notice it in your backpack.
It also passes the one-hand opening test, revealing that gorgeous 15.6-inch display.
That display is surrounded by noticeably thin bezels, which look great.
Built-in to the chassis is an excellent selection of ports.
Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports are on the right, next to a charging and power LED.
I prefer glossy displays over matte ones, as they help with text clarity on Windows.
Windows Studio Effects might be the most useful Copilot+ feature right now.
This display uses OLED technology, which means colors pop with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.
It also supports HDR content, with a peak brightness of around 600 nits.
Colors are also accurate with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
Generating images in Photos on Copilot+ PCs takes just a few seconds.
This display has only two notable downsides: the aspect ratio and lack of touch support.
This means you must scroll extra to view webpage content or documents.
The display also lacks touch support, which probably isn’t a big deal to everyone.
Cocreator can help bring a basic sketch to life in Paint.
In short, it absolutely does.
This chip is a beast, outputting incredible performance that you might feel in almost every task.
Benchmarks
So, does the Snapdragon X Elite live up to the hype in benchmark results?
There is a healthy selection of ports.
At least in the ASUS VivoBook S 15, the answer is yes.
Cinebench 2024 also benched well, with a single-core score of 108 and a multi-core score of 1128.
It’s fair to say the Snapdragon X Elite in the ASUS VivoBook S 15 is a beast.
Unfortunately, we could not get our benchmarking software to measure the performance of the NPU.
We’re waiting for a driver and software update to fix this.
We will update the review once we can successfully run that benchmark.
The display is one of the best things about this laptop.
Emulated app performance
Emulated apps run great for the most part.
No longer is this a problem in most apps.
It would always freeze and drop frames because the chip and emulation layer weren’t good enough.
The ASUS VivoBook S 15 is a bit of a beast, but it’s not a gaming laptop.
Now, XSplit behaves beautifully, as if it were native to Arm.
So, what was the exception I mentioned?
I could only find one that I could tell would benefit from being Arm64 native: Adobe Premiere Pro.
The Snapdragon X Elite lives up to the hype in benchmarks.
Can you edit and render a video with it?
But your experience will depend on the kind of video you’re editing.
You should be golden if you’re editing a simple 1080p 30fps video.
It’s even beating the latest Intel and AMD laptops.
You will see the app struggle if you’re working with multiple layers and effects or 4K and 60fps.
When this happens, video editing in Premiere Pro should match the experience found on Intel machines.
The chip is definitely capable, but the emulation layer is letting it down somewhat here.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
This was with the fans set to standard mode.
If I turned them to maximum performance mode, that temperature would be around 100F.
In performance mode, the fans registered around 30dB, which is perfectly acceptable.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
On maximum fan speed mode, they got pretty loud at 42 dB.
Gaming
The ASUS VivoBook S 15 is by no means a gaming laptop.
So, it quickly became apparent that other gaming storefronts would be our best bet.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
So, I loaded up Steam and began downloading some games.
The first three games I tried were Halo Infinite, Halo MCC, and Apex Legends.
Luckily, not all games are hard-coded to refuse entry if on an ARM CPU.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
GTA V loads and runs shockingly well, considering it’s running under Microsoft’s PRISM emulation layer.
At 1080p, I could average 60-70fps on medium to high graphics parameters.
I’d happily play this game from beginning to end on a Copilot+ PC.
Many apps will run emulated, and while most run great, some run less well.
I also tried Marvel’sSpider-Man Remastered, a more recent and graphics-heavy game.
I had some issues with this, but the game does run.
At 1080p low-medium graphics, I was able to hit around 40fps on average.
Rendering the same 4K 60fps project on Snapdragon X Elite under emulation and Intel Core Ultra 9: Snapdragon took 50 minutes, whereas Intel took 20 minutes.
However, there were some noticeable graphical glitches in cutscenes, where hair was clearly not rendered properly.
The game would also crash if I tried running the game on anything higher than medium graphics.
Cyberpunk 2077was next on my list, and it does run, but barely.
A lot of games won’t even let you try to play.
Everything was running under Microsoft’s emulation layer, and for the most part, they ran pretty well.
Battery life
Getting on to the battery life could be the make-or-break moment for many people.
The PCMark10 Applications battery test came in at 14 hours and 16 minutes.
While Spider-Man did run smooth, it also suffered from texture and graphical glitches in some parts.
In my usage of the laptop, this thing lasts and lasts.
This is unusual, as most laptops will opt for the “balanced” power profile when unplugged.
Starting with the keyboard it’s a full-sized keyboard with a slightly squished number pad on the right side.
Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t run particularly well at 1080p.
Because it’s RGB, the user can choose the backlight’s color.
I’ve had it be red, yellow, and blue.
it’s possible for you to also set the backlight to white for those who prefer a neutral color.
The keys on this keyboard deck are lovely to type on.
Even the clicking sound is nice and subtle.
If that’s something you prefer, great.
Picture and video quality is okay in well-lit environments, though it’s not very sharp.
The trackpad is a good size and easy to use.
Camera quality gets noticeably worse in low-light scenarios.
The camera is elevated somewhat by including new advanced Windows Studio Effects exclusive to Copilot+ PCs.
The more impactful effects are the filters, of which there are three to choose from.
The webcam leaves a little to be desired.
The laptop also supports Windows Hello face unlock, which works well for the most part.
Moving onto the built-in microphone, the ASUS VivoBook S 15 has a great set.
I set mine to around 90% volume, and the microphone sounds good.
Windows Studio Effects can help the quality of the webcam.
Lastly, we have the built-in speakers, which are fine.
I think a more comparable laptop is theSamsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, which is Samsung’s Copilot+ PC offering.
ASUS VivoBook S 15: Should you buy it?
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a close competitor.
You should buy this if…
You should not buy this if…
The Snapdragon X Elite elevates this laptop from a good one to a great one.
If you need a higher TDP, this is the laptop to get.
