Vivobook S 14 Review: Thin and light design, integrated AI but heats up quickly

+ Advantages:

- Slim, lightweight design.

- Strong performance.

- Screen has wide viewing angle, accurate color.

+ Limitations:

- When using heavy tasks, the machine heats up quickly and the fan is noisy.

- Missing SD card slot.

- Does not achieve 100% performance when not plugged in.

The overall appearance of the Asus Vivobook S 14 (M5406WA) is quite minimalist with flat cuts. The device weighs 1.3kg and is 1.39cm thin (at its thinnest point), making it easy for users to carry when traveling.

The left side has a series of connection ports, including an HDMI port, two USB-C ports that support fast charging with a capacity of 90W, a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. One drawback is that the device does not support an SD card slot, which is not convenient for those who do work related to image and video editing.

The right side features two USB-A ports.

The back of the device is equipped with a series of heat dissipation slots. At the same time, the rubber pads are also raised above the surface, helping to fix the device and increase heat dissipation efficiency when placing the device on the table. The speaker cluster is arranged on both sides, providing good detail reproduction. However, the volume is only average, lacking bass.

The keyboard system on the machine is arranged similarly to many other 14-inch laptops. The keys are moderately spaced, but the keystrokes are still relatively hard. The touchpad area is large, providing a smooth swiping and navigation experience.

The device's screen uses a Lumina OLED panel with 3K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, achieving 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. This screen provides vivid colors, high brightness and wide viewing angles, which can meet the needs of entertainment as well as image and video editing.

The device integrates an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Testing with the heavy graphics game Grand Theft Auto V for more than 30 minutes, the device can handle well at 50-60 FPS when setting medium graphics with 3K resolution. However, when handling heavy tasks such as gaming or video editing, the noise from the cooling fan is relatively loud. At the same time, the keyboard area near the heat vent also heats up significantly.

The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip integrates an NPU with a processing capacity of up to 50 TOPS. This allows the device to handle many complex tasks related to artificial intelligence (AI). Notably, the ability to create AI images from text directly on the device without connecting to cloud services.

The device is also equipped with a facial recognition system, integrated with the Windows Hello feature to enhance security. The battery that comes with the device has a capacity of 75Wh, enough to meet the needs of office work during the day. The plus point is that the AMD chip manages energy quite well. When left in standby mode overnight, the device only loses 1-2% of battery. However, the device still experiences a decrease in performance when not plugged in.

Asus Vivobook S 14 (M5406WA) is sold in the Vietnamese market at a price of 33.99 million VND. The device competes directly with a number of products in the same price segment such as MacBook Air 15 inch M3, MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14IMH9.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-manh-so/danh-gia-vivobook-s-14-thiet-ke-mong-nhe-tich-hop-ai-nhung-nhanh-nong-20240825080056593.htm