Summary

ASUS’s Vivobook is a fantastic entry level laptop for those looking to spend less than $500. It’s packed with features, fast, and built well – still it’s not without its quirks. None of which are deal breakers, but let’s drive in a little deeper into this eco-notebook to find out if its right for you.

Specs

Our review model is configured with:

• 15.6″ FHD LED Display
• 10th Gen i3 CPU
• 8GB DDR4 RAM
• Wifi / Bluetooth / Webcam

Screen

15.6″ Full High Def. Quality isn’t great. Colors are muddled and it’s not as crisp as it should be. This could be rectified had they calibrated it better from factory, but they’re using cheap panels and not paying attention to calibration. Still, I’d rather this cheap FHD screen, than a high end low res screen. Hotter colors like red, pink, purple seem to suffer the most. Display is adequate however and still gets the job done. Also, it gets bright enough to work in doors in almost any setting, and the matte finish helps keep light at bay, though outdoors may be problem for very bright days.

Sound

Despite being badged as having great speakers, they are OK. Bass and Treble are fine, volume is decent and there isn’t a lot of distortion. They’ll do find for around town usage, watching videos with vocals, but if you want to jam out to tunes, you’ll want to use a set of headphones or external speakers.

I/O

Great I/O. USB-C, USB-SS, HDMI, 2x USB-A and Micro Camera Card Reader. Plenty of ports to do what you need.

Features

Finger print scanner, Bluetooth, fast WiFi AC, and a decent enough webcam for Skype and Zoom. No Windows Hello camera.

Keyboard / Trackpad

Keyboard is crisp and clean. Good size keys, feels good to type on, and you wont make a lot of typos. The trackpad on the other hand ghosts a little bit. It’s not quite as precise as it should be (or as other laptops are). Most people may use a mouse regardless, and if you’re in class or airplane and have to use the trackpad, it’s more than “usable”.

Conclusion

It’s too failings are its trackpad and its screen. Both of which aren’t deal breakers. I recommend the Vivobook. I think there are other machines I like better such as the ACER Aspire. But for those not wanting to spend a lot of those who can’t acquire an ACER Aspire, the ASUS Vivobook offers great bang for your buck and you can’t go wrong.