Asus VivoBook S14 S433FA, hands on: Stylish and affordable, with all-day battery life Review

The new £699 (inc. VAT)/$699.99 Asus VivoBook S 14 is a solidly constructed 14-inch Windows ten notebook running on a tenth technology Intel Main processor. And if you’re wanting for a thing a little bit a lot more placing than regular, it is obtainable with a environmentally friendly or crimson lid in addition to black and white. That stated, I could only locate it on the internet in the Uk with the identical black lid I was despatched for review.

The steel chassis presents superior safety for the innards. I was equipped to bow the lid in my arms a tiny, but all round this is a long lasting system. You can expect to have to carry 1.4kg (3.08lbs) all around in your backpack or bag, nevertheless, and this notebook will occupy a house 32.49cm extensive by 21.35cm deep by 1.59cm thick (twelve.79in. x eight.4in. x .62in.). The base has ‘diamond cut’ edges to the upper of a few sides, which even when the lid is closed provides visual fascination.

When you open up the lid the eye is drawn to the Enter important, which has been given a marker-pen yellow surround. It really does appear odd. The keyboard alone is cozy to use, and particular person keys are significant and springy. Even so, you will find a whole lot of flex — adequate for even a light-fingered typist like me to discover. This is really the only establish issue of take note, and it is a little bit of a disappointment.

The trackpad has a really great truly feel to it, and is responsive. Asus presents second screens in the touchpad on some of its ZenBook laptops (the ZenBook Flip fifteen UX563FD and ZenBook 14 UX434FL for case in point), but the trickery is a lot more muted in the VivoBook selection. There is a small icon in the best correct corner of the touchpad that, when tapped, brings up an embedded calculator that allows you to do some primary maths. I instead like this plan — it is effective, very simple, and doesn’t appear around-specified. If my notebook experienced this aspect I am guaranteed I might use it. There is an option with no calculator and a fingerprint reader best correct of the touchpad instead.

The 14-inch display screen is what Asus calls ‘frameless NanoEdge’, though in fact you will find a little bit a lot more bezel listed here than on some other styles, and ‘frameless’ is a little bit of a extend. Asus doesn’t give us bezel proportions but I calculated the small edge bezels at 7mm and the best edge at 11mm (loads of room for the webcam, though it does deficiency a sliding privateness include). The recess of the display screen makes it appear a tiny aged-fashioned, and it is not contact sensitive. Nevertheless, it has good viewing angles, is quite bright, and the matte complete will attractiveness to these who really don’t like staring at their own reflection.

The Intel Main i5-10210U processor in the £699/$699 iteration of this notebook has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You also get a twelve-thirty day period subscription to Microsoft 365 Private and 1TB of cloud storage. There is also a Main i7-10510U variant, and options for up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of on-board storage, but none of these are obtainable in the Uk.

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There are loads of ports and connectors on board. On the correct edge are two USB two. ports and a MicroSD card slot, although the still left edge houses the round-pin ability jack, a full-sizing HDMI port, a USB 3.two port and a USB-C port as well as a 3.5mm audio jack. It really is great to see Wi-Fi six rounding out the connectivity choices. 

SEE: Microsoft 365: A cheat sheet (free of charge PDF)

Battery daily life is very superior. I spent one particular 4-hour session writing into a net application although streaming tunes about 50 percent the time and performing some net browsing, through which time the battery went from one hundred percent to 55 percent. All-working day battery daily life may well be achievable with equally undemanding workloads.

The Asus VivoBook S14 S443FA is a long lasting and effective Windows ten Pro notebook with a nifty aspect in the touchpad-embedded calculator. All-working day battery daily life is one more additionally place, but beware the flexy keyboard.

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