ASUS Vivobook 15 X515JA 15.6 Full HD Laptop (Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD, Windows 11)

Product Information

The VivoBook 15 is consistent and capable at distributing heat, and it felt temperate enough to use on my lap. In lab tests, the VivoBook 15's keyboard measured about 72 degrees Fahrenheit throughout, while the underside measured higher at 91 degrees. Overall, the laptop never felt too hot to use.

Colour gamuts are very narrow, with just 52.2% sRGB covered, along with 36.2% DCI-P3 and 36.2% Adobe RGB. With so little colour available, the Delta E accuracy score was never going to be good, and it wasn’t, registering at an excessive 6 against the sRGB profile in Vivid mode. In Standard mode, it is even worse at 7.1. Our Handbrake video transcoding tests gave the VivoBook 15 another chance to get outperformed. The VivoBook 15 managed to transcode 4K video to 1080p resolution within 28 minutes and 33 seconds. The Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15 were much faster, transcoding at 21:55 and 25:53, respectively. The VivoBook 15 was faster than the 40 minute average for other budget laptops that took this test. Asus VivoBook 15 review: Battery Life inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 aspect ratio, 60Hz refresh rate, 200nits, 45% NTSC color gamut, Anti-glare display, Non-touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)83%There's also a MicroSD slot, which is a nice-to-have and allows adding on storage space, but I would have preferred a standard SD slot to work with my DSLR on the go. Asus VivoBook 15 review: Display inch, HD (1366 x 768) 16:9 aspect ratio, 60Hz refresh rate, 200nits, 45% NTSC color gamut, Anti-glare display, Non-touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)83% So, is there a fly in the ointment? According to Asus, the Vivobook is available with three types of display, all 15.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080, and 60Hz, but in a crucial way, one of them is not like the other two. And that’s the one that came fitted to my review unit. Let’s dive in. Design and Keyboard

The VivoBook 15's 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 NanoEdge display offers little bezel on either side of the laptop, with a bit more at the top to accommodate the webcam. But beyond its widescreen look, the display's dim color profile and weird viewing angles make it an underwhelming device for consuming online video. It made episodes of vintage TV shows like Baywatch, already with a worn-in color palette, look older than they are, while movies like the recent remake of Emma were extremely hard to see in dark scenes. The SSD inside isn’t going to win any prizes for speed with average sequential read and write speeds of 3,044MB/s and 1,643MB/s, respectively but given that the motherboard interfaces are all PCIe 3 spec, that’s not an unduly poor showing for a budget laptop. SoftwareThe bottom-facing dual speakers on the Asus VivoBook 15 need a little boost. You can listen to music and watch a movie without headphones, but the sound will seem as if it's strained. The Midnight’s Deep Blue’s strong melody, for example, came through clearly enough, while the vocals seemed as if they were coming in from a distance. Bassier genres of music, like house and synthwave, sound just as hollow, and sometimes it's hard to hear vocals even on podcasts. While I was watching Emma, I could barely hear the dialogue with the laptop set down on a table. You're better off pairing the laptop with external speakers to listen to anything.

ASUS X515 is equipped with the reversible USB-C® 3.2 port, featuring an any-way-up design that makes connecting devices as easy as possible. It also delivers data transfer speeds up to 10x faster4 than older USB 2.0 connections! It also includes USB 3.2 Type-A and USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, and a microSD card reader — so you can easily connect all your current peripherals, displays and projectors with zero hassle.The Core i5-1235U processor inside the Vivobook 15 is a 10-core chip from the Alder Lake 12th generation and has 8 efficiency cores and 2 performance cores, and a TDP of 15W. It is combined with Intel’s integrated Xe graphics chip, 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a PCIe 3 512GB SSD. It seems like you can do plenty with the VivoBook 15, but most budget laptops feel this way at first. The VivoBook 15's benchmark numbers show how little the laptop has to start with. It scored 2,399 overall on Geekbench 5, a testing suite that measures everyday computer tasks like browsing the internet and rendering augmented reality effects. That's below the Acer Aspire 5, which scored 2,744, and even further down the graph from the industry average of 2,983. Specification: ‎ASUS VivoBook 15 X515JA-BQ129T (15.6 Inch 60Hz FHD/10th Gen Intel Core i5 1035G1/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/Windows 10/Intel UHD Graphics G1) inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 aspect ratio, IPS-level Panel, 60Hz refresh rate, 250nits, 45% NTSC color gamut, Anti-glare display, Non-touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)83% I didn't find the fans in the Asus VivoBook 15 to be as loud as other laptops we've tested, namely the Acer Aspire 5. Asus VivoBook 15 Verdict

I used the VivoBook 15 with low brightness and the least aggressive setting in Windows 10's battery-saving mode and noticed only slightly better numbers than the lab tests. The VivoBook 15 burned through 15 percent of battery after about an hour into a work session. Two hours later, the laptop used up 45 percent at the same setting. That's nearly 50 percent after three hours of use. Perhaps I could have eked out a bit more time by futzing with the power saving settings. It's clear from the numbers that the VivoBook 15 can barely manage six hours of continuous use. Asus VivoBook 15 review: Heat Thanks to the low TDP of the processor, there were no issues with thermal throttling, and the fan seldom had to spin up to full speed. The noise wasn’t remotely intrusive even when the cooling system ran full-chat. The Vivobook may have a low-power CPU, but it also has a small 42Wh battery, so the PCMark10 Modern Office benchmark only took a modest 6 hours 45 to drain a full charge. In less demanding use, you may be able to get close to the eight-hour mark but don’t depend on it.

Surpassing the Asus ZenBook 14 (UX425)'s selections, the lineup includes extensive combinations of specs, ranging from upper-mid range CPUs to entry-level ones such as the i7 and Pentium from Intel. The same goes for the other components like SSD and RAM too. The internal storage options start from 128 GB to 512 GB. For RAM, there are only 4 GB and 8 GB options. For display, shoppers can go with either a standard 1080p panel or a fancier 4K version for better multimedia consumption, though the low peak brightness stops it from being a valid choice in that case. Finally, the limited battery life further proves that it's a laptop purely made for web browsing or university assignments while mostly plugged in at home or a cafe. VivoBook 15 X515: Price UK Whether for work or play, ASUS X515 is the entry-level laptop that delivers powerful performance and immersive visuals. Its NanoEdge display boasts wide 178° viewing angles and a matte anti-glare coating for a truly engaging experience. Inside, it’s powered by up to an Intel® Core™ i5 processor with 8 GB RAM, and features Intel UHD graphics. Taking the base off the Vivobook 15 is a painless operation, and once inside, you can swap out the 2280 PCIe 4 SSD and replace the 8GB RAM card in the one free slot, the other 8GB being soldered to the motherboard. The wireless card is also easy to access, and surprisingly, the MediaTek card supports the 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E wavelength.