it’s easy Get caught up in the flashy specs and designs of laptops in the high-end segment, but sometimes you just want a smooth experience without much flair. That’s exactly what the Asus Vivobook S 14 OLED offers, offering excellent hardware in a fairly simple case. It’s also reasonably well priced at $900, which is out of the range for a budget laptop, but strikes a good balance between performance and not hurting your wallet.
The model Asus sent me for review is the Vivobook S 14 OLED (S5406MA-AS96), which includes an Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 1 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of solid-state drive storage. Another version changes the processor to a Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor and 32 GB of RAM for $1,200. If that’s not confusing enough, another model forgoes Intel entirely for an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor for $1,200.
Simple power
The base model reviewed here probably has more than enough horsepower for most people. The Core 9 processor handled almost all of my daily tasks without breaking a sweat. You’ll want to look elsewhere if you do any graphically intense work (like video editing or gaming). We’re not yet at a point where 16GB of RAM is restrictive and the amount of storage on board leaves plenty of breathing room in the long run.
Photography: Dan Thorp-Lancaster
I really like the screen, although it’s not the brightest I’ve used on a laptop. The crisp OLED panel gives you vibrant colors and infinite contrast, making it ideal for kicking back and watching a movie or YouTube marathon. The 16:10 aspect ratio also offers more vertical screen space at the cost of width, making it ideal for documents, but it means you’ll see horizontal bars with full-screen video.
The camera setup is another highlight that, frankly, surprised me at this price. You get an HD webcam that looks clear on video calls and performs well in low-light situations. It also has facial recognition that you can use with Windows Hello to quickly log in to your PC, while an easy-access privacy shutter ensures you can quickly cover the camera when not in use.
The Vivobook has a good selection of ports, with almost everything you could want from a modern laptop. There are two USB-A ports for legacy accessories, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, one HDMI 2.1 for external monitors, and a microSD card reader. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack if you haven’t jumped on the wireless headphone bandwagon yet.