I got here the Asus Vivobook 14 OLED X1405ZA model, powered by Intel i5 12th gen. If you are looking into the mid-tier laptop segment, you should really be reading this review in full to make the right buying decision for you.

Specification of Lenovo Legion 5 2022 15IAH7H

Box contents:

• Asus Vivobook 14 OLED laptop
• Charging adapter
• User guide
• Quick start guide
• Office product activation card
• Asus OLED sticker

Design and Build Quality of Asus Vivobook 14 OLED

Outside their Gaming series lineup, Asus usually go for a minimalistic design with their mainstream laptops and that is evident with the Asus Vivobook 14 OLED too. The build material is polycarbonate to keep the cost low, the treatment is matte finish and it looks good. The lid has the Asus Vivobook branding on the right side. Weighing 1.60 kg, the laptop doesn’t feel very heavy and also a fairly slim profile makes it good to carry around. There is a bit of flex pressing on the top lid, but Asus claims the laptop confirms to US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard.

The lid cannot be opened with a single hand, there is a slight groove to lift the lid. The hinges are stable and can do 180 degrees flat lay of the display.

The right side is where most of the ports are nested. You get a 3.5mm audio jack, a single USB Type-C slot, two USB Type-A 3.2 standard ports and an HDMI 1.4 port. The power port also sits over here.

The left side has a USB 2.0 Type-A, two tiny indicators and air vents. There are no ethernet ports or card readers.

At the bottom, there is the ventilation grill and the speaker cutouts.

Keyboard and Touchpad of Asus Vivobook 14 OLED

It’s a backlit chiclet keyboard with a full-size six-row and has a 19.05 mm key pitch. There is no Num pad. The 1.4mm key travel is adequate. I did not face any issues with the typing experience. The backlit is white. There are three levels of brightness. And you can also turn off the lights if you would want to. There are dedicated function buttons, pressing F9 toggles the mic on or off and the F10 key controls to electronically turn on and off the camera. There is a bit of flex to the keyboard but not very bothersome. The trackpad is pretty large and very responsive. There is a right mouse button option to access the menus. The trackpad supports gesture-based inputs. The touchpad also has a Fingerprint sensor at the top right corner.

Speakers, Webcam and Biometrics

The speakers are placed at the bottom and tuned by their in-house ASUS SonicMaster. The sound quality is average. There is a 720p webcam on top and it comes with a physical shutter. Alternatively, you can also you the F10 key to control the webcam shield electronically. The webcam is good enough for your daily meetings. Biometrics include the fingerprint sensor which is placed on the trackpad’s top right corner. It works pretty well. It supports Windows Hello fingerprint recognition.

Display of Asus Vivobook 14 OLED

Asus has made a noticeable effort to prioritize the display of their laptops, and the Asus Vivobook 14 OLED laptop follows suit. Equipped with a 14-inch OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, the device ensures a superior streaming experience for users. It is not a touch display, the display can be 180 degree flatly laid.

The laptop’s display boasts a maximum resolution of 2880×1800 pixels, and users have the option to adjust the refresh rate to either 90Hz or 60Hz to suit their preferences. The screen also offers peak brightness of up to 600 nits and an 86% screen-to-body ratio. The display is Pantone validated and has a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, so the colour accuracy is well taken care of. It’s a glossy display.

Upon usage, I observed that the Vivobook 14 OLED laptop causes less eye strain while watching content or typing compared to my usual device. Additionally, the device is equipped with an SGS Eye Care Display feature, which helps to prevent eye fatigue during prolonged usage

Performance of Asus Vivobook 14 OLED

The Asus Vivobook 14 OLED comes with a 12th-generation Intel core-i5 1235U processor, paired with an Intel IRIS XE graphics processing unit (GPU). While it may not match the performance of heavy-duty machines available in the market, it is perfect for day-to-day professional work, as evidenced by the laptop’s benchmark scores.

However, it is important to note that the laptop is not suitable for playing games that require high FPS, as it can only reach a maximum of 65 FPS. It would be pretty decent enough to handle games like Fortnite in moderate graphic settings. The laptop has 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD, which offers reading and writing speeds of up to 3,041MB/s and 1,655MB/s, respectively. Despite being not primarily for gaming, the laptop performs well in daily tasks such as web browsing, running average-level software, and multitasking.

In terms of benchmark scores, the laptop achieved a score of 7,197 on the Cinebench R23 and 6,496 in the multi-core tests on Geekbench. It also scored around 5,169 in the PCMark 10 multi-core tests.

The laptop’s battery backup is decent, with the company claiming it can last up to eight hours once fully charged. However, during practical testing, it lasted only around five and a half hours. On the bright side, the laptop’s charging speed is impressive, as it can go from zero to 100% in just two hours.

Verdict

Clearly, the 90Hz OLED panel is the winner here. If you are someone who wants a laptop for regular use, works on MS Office, and presentations, do lighter photo and video edits, and watches a lot of video content and even for browsing, the OLED panel especially is a deal clincher here. This is not a laptop for heavy games or heavy software but otherwise, the i15 12-gen should be good enough for most normal use cases.

What is Good

• Brilliant 90Hz OLED panel
• Good performance for mainstream use cases
• Fingerprint sensor
• Privacy shutter for webcam

What is bad

• No ethernet port
• No card reader (both of which are ignored by most laptop models in this segment oflate)

Specification of Lenovo Legion 5 2022 15IAH7H

Design and Build Quality of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

The 2022 Legion 5 adds a metal lid cover, while the rest of the case is polycarbonate plastic. It has a matte finish. The metal lid reduces the flex compared to the last year’s plastic lid. Being a mid-tier segment, the chassis does have a bit of flex to it compared to the high-end Legion 7 series. While Lenovo has managed to make the 2022 model a bit more compact than the previous generation, the weight remains around 2.4 kg, considering it has a metal lid cover in the new model. Being a full-sized laptop and that too a gaming laptop, keep in mind this is still a slightly oversized machine with a dimension of 14.13 x 10.33 x 0.79 inches. This makes it slightly heavier and bulkier to some of the competitors but not considerably more.

The lid can be opened with a single hand. The little projection on the top housing the fullHD webcam, makes it easier to open. The hinges are stable and can do 180 degrees flat lay of the display.

Most of the IO ports are placed towards the back behind the screen, which in my opinion is good, and is also unobtrusive. You get a LAN port, another USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2), an HDMI 2.1 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and the power connector at the back.

On the right, there is a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and an Audio jack. Also you find the e-shutter physical switch for the webcam here.

And to the left, there is a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort 1.4 output, as well as a USB4

At the bottom, there is the ventilation grill and the speaker cutouts. The heat exhaust happens through two vents on the back and one on each side of the laptop. The footers are prominent and keep the laptop fixed in position when placed on the table.

Keyboard and Touchpad of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

Typing on Legion 5 is very comfortable and well, am typing this review right on this machine now. It has a full-size key and the spaced well. It has a Num-pad section and full-sized arrow keys as well. There is an array of function buttons on the top. The power button with a LED light is placed at the middle on top above the keyboard deck. The power button LED shines in blue, white or red depending on the performance mode you select.

The keyboard has an RGB backlit. There are 4 zones for illumination, and a profile in the Lenovo vantage software to customize it along with other lighting effects. There is no light-dimming button on the keyboard. You need to fiddle with the software for the tweaks.

The touchpad is quite big with a size of 75 by 120mm. Its Mylar surface is smooth, the tracking is good, and the response time is super quick, which is further aided by the 165Hz display.

Speakers, Webcam and Biometrics

There is a fullHD webcam housed in the small projection on top of the display, flanked by microphones. There is no privacy shutter for the webcam, but it can be electronically disabled by a press of a switch, which is found in the right side of the laptop. There is no fingerprint sensor or face recognition.

Display of Lenovo Legion 5 2022

The configuration of the Legion 5i 2022 we got for testing has a Quad-HD 165Hz IPS panel with a 15.6-inch size. It has a matte finish. The resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels with a pixel density of 188 ppi. The screen ratio is 16:9. Do note Lenovo offers many display options in the series.

The viewing angles are excellent. The display as mentioned earlier can be flat-laid. The maximum brightness is around 390 nits in the middle. The display has a 97% sRGB, 71.6% DCI-P3, 73.8% AdobeRGB. The panel has GSync and Advanced Optimus support.

The panel is good for daily use and the 160Hz in my model makes it good for gaming too with good response time.

Performance of Lenovo Legion 5i

Lenovo has refreshed the intel lineup with the 12th gen. The machine I have is powered by Intel Core i7-12700H, with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 16 GB of DDR5-4800 memory in dual channel, and 1 TB of GB of fast SSD storage. The graphics are handled by Nvidia RTX 3060 dGPU with 6 GB of vRAM and the Iris Xe iGPU integrated within the Intel processor.

A MUX is offered here, with several modes including dGPU-only or Advanced Optimus (several Hybrid modes). Switching to dGPU requires a restart while opting between the Hybrid modes does not.

For those who are interested in the synthetic benchmark tests, I have run a few tests for you and also benchmarked the FarCry 5 and Forza 5. Please note these tests are run on balance mode, and it might be notch higher score on performance mode.

In PCMark 10 test, it delivered a score of 7195 in the Timespy test. In 3DMark test, it returned a healthy 9344 score.

In the FarCry 5 benchmark test, it returned an average FPS of 125.

In Forza Horizon 4, the average FPS achieved was 81 fps.

The gaming performance is as expected for a high-power RTX 3060 laptop in 2022.

Lenovo has taken care of thermals with a two fans, four radiators and four heatpipes, there is an extra heatpipe for the GPU. Plus, there are radiator shields on top off RAM modules, SSDs and even the WiFi card. Legion 5 2022 manages a good thermal control for the gaming segment laptop. While playing game in balance mode, the thermal around the keyboard deck was manageable and was under 40 degree, it was only at the back bottom, you see it raises to 50 degree.

The read and write speed has pretty impressive results in the CrustalDisk Mark test.

Lenovo Vantage software

The Lenovo Vantage app is the one-stop place to access power profiles, updates, and other settings. The power profiles are Quiet, Balanced, and Performance, and you can select them from Vantage or switch between them with Fn+Q. Performance is only available with the laptop plugged into the wall. These profiles apply different power settings to the CPU/GPU and different fan profiles. The RGB illumination lighting can also be tweaked with various presets here.

There are three thermal mode settings – performance mode, which works when AC adapter is plugged in and delivers the maximum performance. It also gets noisier a bit since it runs on higher fan speed but helps in better thermal management too when you engage in full-throttle gaming.

Battery

My model of Legion 5 comes with an 80 Wh battery. The display panel is 165Hz and if you want more battery life you can manually set the refresh rate to 60Hz if battery life is your priority, you might end up with a bit more battery juice. The power brick is a chunky one, weighing around 1.2kg, adding considerably more to your travel weight. It is a 300W power brick. Alternatively, you can also use a 135W USB-C charger but optimal performance might be hampered with the USB charger while gaming. In my video loop test, I barely got 2 hours of battery life, which is disappointing. So basically it works, if you use it majorly on desk, connected to power.

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022 ) Review – Verdict

Overall, the Legion 5i is a good mid-tier gaming laptop that won’t disappoint you in gaming and also other intense use cases. It is a full-sized laptop, slightly oversized and a bit heavy at 2.4kg. It also comes with a chunky power brick, though you can use a type C charger.

What is Good

• Good inputs, IO and ergonomics
• Good performance.
• Comfortable keys
• Good display for gaming with 165Hz

What is bad

• Bit bulkier and heavy but it is expected being a gaming laptop
• Chunky power brick
• Poor battery life.

Specifications of Asus TUF 15 (2022) FX507ZM

• Processor: 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Processor 2.3 GHz (24M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 14 cores: 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores)
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 Laptop GPU, 115W (140W with Dynamic Boost) 6GB GDDR6 RAM
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 RAM, 2400Hz
• Storage : 1TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 SSD
• Display : 15.6-inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9, anti-glare display, sRGB:100%, Refresh Rate:300Hz, IPS-level, MUX Switch + Optimus
• Keyboard: Backlit Chiclet Keyboard 1-Zone RGB
• I/O Port: 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x RJ45 LAN port, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support DisplayPort™ / G-SYNC, 1x Thunderbolt™ 4 support DisplayPort™
• Speaker: Dual speaker with Dolby Atmos, Hi-res audio certification
• Battery: 90WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion
• Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax) (Dual band) 2*2 + Bluetooth 5.1
• 720p webcam
• Dimensions: 35.4 x 25.1 x 2.24 ~ 2.49 cm
• Weight: 2.2 kg
• Operating System: Windows 11 Home
• Software Included: MS Office 2019

Design and Build Quality of Asus Tuf F15 (2022)

Visually, there is no change to the Asus TUF F15 2022 model over the previous year, it is tad lighter by around 100 gms though and also marginally compact. It screams the same gamer centric design languages. A bit chunky, plenty of vents, gunmetal body complete with fake screws on the lid. I have seen more audacious gaming laptop designs which can have a very split in th middle opinions about it, but I feel this TUF F15 will have more acceptability in terms of design in this segment. Of course, if you are a non-gamer consumer, you might still have some reservations.

It has an angular design. the fake screws adding a dash on interest and TUF series logo embossed in the middle. The lid can be lifted by single finger. Asus claims the build quality meets MIL-STD-810H standards for resistance to shock, vibration, and other environmental extremes. In India it is available in two design variants but both are in grey color.

There is a unique clover-like arrangement of four LED indicators built into the keyboard deck which is also accessible when the lid is closed, these four LEDs give a status glance on key system information.

On the left, there’s the power jack, an RJ45 gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.0, a Thunderbolt 4 port, USB 3.2 Type-C port, USB-A and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Thankfully, the Thunderbolt is labeled to clear confusion with the adjacent identical USB C port.

On the right, you’ve got a Kensington lock and the second USB-A. I think these would sort every needs, well there is no card reader slot if you want to nitpick.

The bottom side has a maze of air vent grilles, speakers and firm footers, that also allow the air to flow underneath.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The deck that houses the keyboard, and trackpad is made of plastic. Having tested their premium ROG and Strix machines, you know some cost-cutting has gone into here. It looks slightly cheaper but in terms of practicality, it serves the job. The keyboard is spread edge to edge, almost the entire width of the deck. It’s backlit, while there is only a single zone but the RGB lighting can be customized via the Armory crate software, you get static, breathing, strobing and colour cycle lighting modes to choose from. There are four dedicated key rows on top – for volume controls and one button to quick launch Asus Armory Crate software. The W A S P keys stand out in white translucent keys.

The keyboard also makes way for the number pad on the left side. With an array of special keys, function keys, and number pads, the keyboard deck does feel a bit cramped. The keys felt good while typing, I did not find it very cramped and hard to type the way it seemed to be. I quite liked the tactile feedback and the key bounce.

The touchpad is large enough measuring 5.7 x 3.1 inches. The touchpad also has the TUF logo at the top right corner. There are no dedicated mouse buttons but the whole area works as a clickpad for your right and left clicks. The gliding is smooth.

Speakers , Webcam and Biometrics

The FX507 has dual speakers with Dolby Atmos and Hi-res audio certification. There are two speakers firing on the bottom and to the sides. It is Ok for daily use.

The webcam is housed in an outward protruding cutout. It houses the webcam and microphone. You get a standard 720p webcam, which does a basic job. There is no privacy shutter. The laptop does not support Windows Hello support, fingerprint scanner is also not available.

Display of Asus TUF F15 FX507ZM

The laptop I got here has a 1080p panel with 300Hz refresh rate, but the F15 series also offers other variants that have 1080p panel with 144Hz as well WQHD 2K resolution panel with 165Hz. All variants support MUX Switch + Optimus. .

If you are looking for eSports gaming, you should be going with FHD screen with a very smooth 300Hz refresh rate offering. You get a matte panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The 320 nits brightness, just about makes to the agreeable limit. While this is a decent display, if you want top-notch you need to shell out more for the premium series. While binge-watching movies, I was ok with the display but in certain games, you might find the colour contrast bit wanting. Nevertheless, for gaming, the higher refresh rate and MUX Switch + Optimus are a welcome addition.

Performance of TUF Gaming F15 FX507Z

This is where the FX508X sprints a home run. Equipped with Intel Core i7-12700K CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, it makes mince meat of almost everything you throw at it. Open over two dozen Chrome tabs, 4K video editing, and multi-tasking everything is a breeze.

On the 3D Mark Time Spy test, it got an 8442 score, and PC Mark 10 returned a 7064 score.

In the Far Cry 5 benchmark score, it threw an impressive 125 avg FPS, making for a good gameplay on high graphics. Even in the Handbrake benchmark, it crushes most other competitors in the segment by transcoding 4K video to 1080p in just four-minute 40 seconds much lesser than the segment average time.

The F15 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just four minutes and 49 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark,

So if you are going by performance yardstick, the variant I have is a beast at work. Be it gaming or video editing, it does a brilliant job.

Battery

The TUF 15 2022 comes with a 90Whrs 4-cell battery. The battery life is pretty impressive. For non-gaming usage, I got around 6 hours of battery life which is pretty good for a gaming laptop.

Verdict

The latest refresh to the TUF F15 series makes the series a serious contender in the affordable gaming laptop segment. The TUF F15 FX507ZM I tested, proved to be a very capable machine for gaming as well as video editing and other heavy tasks.

Pros of Asus TUF F15 FX507ZM

• Impressive performance
• Good battery life
• Good array of I/O
• Slightly smaller and lighter than previous gen
• Competitive pricing in this segment

Cons of Asus TUF F15 FX507ZM

• Not exactly a con, but gameresque look and build do not exactly suits everyone

Spefications of Asus Vivbook Pro 14 OLED (K3400)

• Processor: Intel Core i5-11300H
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB, Intel Iris Xe Graphics
• Memory: 16GB 3200MHz DDR4
• Storage : 512GB M.2 NVME PCI SSD
• Display : 14″ WQXGA+ (2800 x1800) 16:10 OLED panel, 90Hz, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, TUV Rheinland Eye care certification, Pantone Validated
• Keyboard: Backlight, with Asus numpad on trackpad
• I/O Port: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI 1.4. 1 x 3.5mm Audio jack combo, 1 x micro SD card reader
• Speaker: Harman Kardon speaker system
• Battery: 63Wh Li-Ion battery
• Dual band Wifi 6 802.11 ax | Bluetooth 5.0
• 720p webcam
• Dimensions: 317 x 228 x 19.2cm
• Weight: 1.4kg
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Software Included: Office Home and Student 2019

Design and Build Quality of Vivobook Pro K14 OLED

Vivobook is designed with a mix of metal and polycarbonate. The lid and the chassis are made of metal, giving it a fine balance between durability, weight and cost optimization. It felt comfortable and confident handling the device. It comes in Quiet Blue, Cool Silver colour options in India, with a Grey option in some markets. The unit I have here is their Quiet Blue colour variant, which actually borders towards the black territory, which I kind of like. Weighing 1.4kg, it is easier to carry around in your bag. The 14″ compact design makes it extremely portable. The lid flaunts their new re-designed Asus Logo in silver colour. The laptop lid can be opened with a single finger.

Connectivity options are well thought out. You get a Thunderbolt^™ 4 USB-C port, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and USB 2.0 ports, as well as an HDMI port and a microSD card reader. PD (Power delivery) is supported. It supports a wide range of standard 4-20V USB-C chargers. Additionally, it also supports ASUS 120-watt fast-charge adapter.

The bottom has the speakers flanking both the sides and the vents.

Display of Asus Vivobook Pro 14

One of the key highlight that stands out in this laptop is it’s display. It is simply put, brilliant. The 14-inch OLED display is one of the best I have come across. Packed with a 2.8k resolution ( 2800 x1800 ) it is very sharp. The colors are very vivid and you immediately understand the term “eye-popping” colors. The color contrasts are top notch and the blacks are deep. It’s a 90Hz panel, which makes it quiet smooth.

With 100% 100% DCI-P3 color gamut you are assured of good color reproduction .Pantone Validated display also is assuring for content creators since the colors are calibrated right way. Asus also boasts of TUV Rheinland Eye care certification, for those worried about spending too much on-screen time.

Webcam Privacy shutter

There are quiet many people who are worried about the always on webcam and you might have seen people taping the webcam even. Well, ASUS has included a physical privacy shutter for webcam, so you simply slide it and close the lens.

Keyboard and Touchpad

A full sized keyboard with a 1.35mm key travel finds place. The Enter key has a bit of zebra crossing line design to it to highlight it. The keyboard has backlit. I was quiet at ease typing on the keyboard, did not find any issues with it. It works the way it has to, no complaints.

The powerbutton also combines as the fingerprint sensor.

The trackpad is large enough for a 14-inch laptop. It supports gesture actions. What I like better though, pressing the small icon on the top right corner of the trackpad illuminates Asus Numpad. For those who number crunch a lot, this would be a sweet addition. The illumination also gets two dim levels.

Speakers , Webcam and Biometrics

While Windows Face login is not available, you get Windows Hello Fingerprint and it works fast. The powerbutton combines as fingerprint sensor. There is a 720p webcam which is like most laptops, just decent enough for video calls. The speakers are placed at the bottom, they are tuned by Harmon Kardonn and decently good adequate enough.

Performance of Vivbook Pro 14

The Asus Vivobook Pro 14 is powered by Intel i5, 11th gen ( Core i5-11300H) with Integrated Iris XE graphics but it also has dedicated GPU with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 onboard with 4GB RAM. There is 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM and 512GB M.2 NVME PCI SSD storage. This is a good specs for most use cases.

For those who are interested in benchmark tests, here are the screenshot,but I would delve more on the real life performance.

It is a promising laptop for gaming. In my Far Cry 5 gaming test, I got an average 88fps. This is pretty good benchmark for good gaming. I did not find any stutter while playing the game and it was quiet enjoyable experience. Plus, the stellar display means, the gaming is more immersive and treat to eyes.

For all my other experience with the machine, like video editing, photo editing on Adobe Premier pro and Photoshop, it handled well without any strain. So this laptop I find is a good find for those who want a compact laptop that can push itself as a good workhorse. Thermal is well managed, I did not find it heating much.

Battery

With a 2.8K OLED resolution and packing a lot within, I was bit sceptical about the battery performance. In my video loop test where I ran a 1080p video from 100% battery to 0%, I got a decent 6 hours battery life.

Verdict:

I been using the Asus Vivobook Pro 14 K3400 for over two weeks now, and it left me mighty impressed. A small laptop that punches a lot. If you are looking for a compact portable laptop, that you can mix for gaming and content creation, this is is a brilliant pick. Plus, the gorgeous display makes it great for media consumption.

Pros of Asus Vivobook Pro K14 OLED

• Gorgeous 2.8K OLED display
• Good array of ports
• Smooth performance
• Good build and design
• Decent battery life
• Physical shutter for webcam
• Asus Numpad

Cons of Asus Vivobook Pro K14 OLED

• I am afraid, there is nothing to crib about

Lenovo Legion 5 Ryzen 5 4600H Specifications

• Processor: Intel Core i7-11370H, Tiger Lake-H35
• Memory: 16GB RAM @ 1600Mhz, dual channel
• Storage : 1TB NVMe
• Graphics: GeForce RTX™ 3070 GPU with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
• Display : 15.6-inch,FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9,anti-glare display, 240Hz, IPS
• Keyboard: backlight chiclet keyboard
• I/O Port: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt 4.0 with Display port 1.4 and Power delivery, RJ45, audio combo jack, Kensington lock, power input.
• Speaker: 2 x 2W speaker system, DTS:X
• Battery: 76WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion
• Webcam: NA
• 2.0 kg, 19.9mm
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home

Design and Build Quality of TUF DASH F15

The Tuf Dash is available in two colours – Moonlight White or Eclipse Gray. White is a colour you don’t often come across, if you are good at cleaning the dirt off, you would definitely like it. For a gaming laptop, the Dash F15 is relatively lightweight at 2.0 kg and at 19.9mm thin as well for this segment. It makes it manageable for both work and play. The body is made of plastics and aluminium alloy, with the lid and keyboard, made more durable with a metal build. Asus states the machine matches with MIL-STD-810H standards. The 2021 model is significantly thinner and lighter than the previous TUF gaming laptops.

The top lid has prominent TUF branding. There are clean angles and cuts giving a sharper meaner look. The lid can be opened with one hand.

The machine would be easier to service or if you decide to upgrade, the underside is easier to open with a screwdriver. You can get quick access to the M.2 ports, there are two of them. The RAM can also be upgraded up to 32GB of DDR4. The bottom has nice prominent footers for good grip and vents.

The right side has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports,

Towards the left, you get one more USB-A, along with a Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Ethernet, a 3.5mm combo jack, and a dedicated port for charging. PD support is there, charge the TUF Dash F15 via USB-C.

Display of TUF Dash F15

The display could be one of the strongest points of TUF Dash 15. It’s a 15.6-inch FullHD panel with a 240Hz refresh rate. The screen is bright and has a good colour punch to it. It measures 100% of the sRGB spectrum. I liked the display. Especially, after immediately moving to this laptop after spending time with Legion 5 laptop that I reviewed earlier, the difference was palpable. The TUF Dash F15 screen stood out instantly. Additionally, it is also treated to anti-glare.

Speakers, Webcam and Biometrics

There are a pair of 2W speakers placed at the bottom. The loudness is not the best out there. It hit the max around 82db and hovered around 78-80db to the most part. It does not sound bad either. It is manageable.

Surprisingly, there is no webcam. It doesn’t mean the display bezels are so thin there is no provision for a webcam, there is placed above the display to accommodate but it could be a purely cost-cutting measure. So you might have to invest in a good webcam if you have a need. Anyways for gamers if they are streaming, it is always good to invest in a good webcam, since most laptop webcams are mediocre.

With no webcam, face recognition is obviously ruled out. There is no fingerprint sensor either. That means no biometric login and you have to rely on a good old trusted password.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Personally, when it comes to the territory of large 15.6-inch laptops, I prefer a full-fledged keyboard, one thing that I liked in the Legion 5. Asus has lots of space in the keyboard deck but still have not gone for a full-sized one, so there is no separate Numpad. Somehow, it took a while for me to get adjusted to the keyboard of TUF gaming. The key travel is good. The keyboard has a backlight, the white laptop comes with a light sea green lighting or teal colour. I assume it would be a white backlight in the black colour model, not sure. The WASP keys are transparent and distinct, which makes it a bit bright with the backlight on. There’s no RGB lighting customization. There are four special keys on top of the function keys array. The special keys are for volume adjustment, the mic on/off toggle and a special key to launch Armoury Crate, Asus’s own customization software, which I will talk about in a while. The power button is distinct too in shape and has a white LED to it.

The trackpad is large, supports windows gestures. The bottom of the pad has divided portions for the right and left clicks. I have no issues with the trackpad. They are functional.

Performance of TUF Dash F15

With Intel i7 11th gen combined with GeForce RTX™ 3070 GPU with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 16GB DDR4 RAM, I expected a good performance show from this machine. Let me begin with the benchmark tests if you are interested. On the 3D Mark Spy test, it returned a 7336 score, which is good. The PC mark test gave a 5817 score. On Crystal Mark Disc test, it showed 3526 MB/s read speed and 3085 write speed.

I played Far Cry 5, and I had no issues while playing. On the default high graphic setting, I got an average FPS of 82 and on the Ultra setting, it evened at 79 FPS. For an ultra-portable gaming laptop, this is a pretty good one. It could handle any games you can put it through and you should be satisfied. On a ultra-portable format, it might not bring the best out of the 3070 GPU but it still is impressive.

The Core i7-11370H based on the Tigerlake H35 architecture has four Willow Cove processor cores (4-core, 8-thread). All four cores can reach up to 4.3 GHz and the boost of a single and two cores under load can reach up to 4.8 GHz. For creative professionals, it cannot be a dream replacement for a workstation but I don’t see any reason why you cannot be doing a 4K editing on this, it should be capable of and the screen compliments it as well.

Armoury Crate software

Armoury Crate is Asus’s software package for the gaming laptop series that allows one to tinker with various settings and gives many performance insights. You can access CPU, GPU, memory stats. It offers system configuration and insight into various performance modes. While there is no RGB colour customization for this laptop, you can change the backlight to strobing or breathing effects instead of static. The game visuals also can be changed to various presets. It also has the option to customize profiles for various games.

Battery life of TUF Dash F15

The TUF Dash F15 comes with a 76Whr battery. In my video loop test with display brightness at 50% and volume at 60%, playing a 1080p video, gave me a battery life of 8 hours 15 mins.

Verdict

The Asus TUF Dash F15 is a good ultraportable gaming laptop, well designed and makes for solid work and play hybrid machine on the go.

Pros of TUF Dash F15

• Brilliant display with 100% sRGB and 240Hz refresh rate.
• Good battery life
• Good gaming performance for an ultraportable laptop segment
• Plenty of ports
• Thin and lightweight for the gaming segment

Cons of TUF Dash F15

• No webcam
• No RGB light customization

Box contents:

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420UA Specifications:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 5 5500U Processor, 2.1 GHz Base Speed, Up to 4.0 GHz Max Boost Speed, 6 cores, 12 Threads, 11MB Cache
• Memory: 8GB (4GB onboard + 4GB SO-DIMM) DDR4 3200MHz, Upgradeable Up to 12GB using 1x DDR4 SO-DIMM slot
• Storage : 512GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD from Samsung
• Display : 14.0-inch (35.56 cms) FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9, LED Backlit LCD, 250nits, Touch screen, Glossy IPS-level Panel, 45% NTSC, 82% Screen-to-Body Ratio
• Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon™ Graphics
• Design: 0.7 inch Thin | Metallic Lid | Laptop weight: 1.50 kg
• Keyboard: Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
• I/O Port: : 1x USB 2.0 Type-A | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C | 1x DC-in | Micro SD 4.0 card reader | 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack | 1x HDMI 1.4
• Other : Built-in speaker | Built-in array microphone | FingerPrint Sensor | 720p HD camera
• Wifi 6 | Bluetooth 4.2
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Software Included: Office Home and Student 2019

Design and Build Quality of VivoBook Flip 14

Asus comes in what the company states as Bespoke Black, an all-black affair. The construction is primarily plastic but has a metallic lid, likely an aluminium alloy. At the price it comes with the extra bells and whistles, we can overlook the absence of all metallic finish here. Visually, the laptop looks good. There is an Asus Vivobook logo in the silver finish on the top lid, and chrome trim around the touchpad. There is one odd choice in the design though, the Enter key is outlined and lettered in lime green, which is a baffling design element since there is no other reference to the colour elsewhere.

This Flip 14 weighs 1.5kg and measures 0.7 inches in thickness. This one is clearly not in the nomination for thinnest and lightest laptop out there. The laptop shows signs of flex in the slightest of pressure especially at the bottom and the keyboard deck. Nevertheless, aesthetically this is a well made machine. But just handle it with care.

With a screen-to-body ratio of 82%, the bezels are slightly prominent, unlike the more premium models. But for a 2-in-1 machine, I would again not nitpicking at it much especially for the price it comes at. Asus has used their 360-degree ErgoLift hinge mechanism here, which lifts the keyboard deck to a more comfortable typing angle. I also expected this angle to provide for better air circulation for air vents but there are no air vents at the bottom. There is a cutout at the left side which is for air exhaustion, the air is drawn in via the keyboard. The hinge is a bit stiff so the lid needs two hands to fully open.

The hinge though helps in the 2-in-1 actions – clamshell, tent, media, and tablet modes.

Ports on VivoBook Flip 14

On the left side, next to the large exhaust cutout, there is a Kingston security lock, and a single USB Type-A 2.0 port.

on the right, you’ll find the charging port, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, an audio jack, a MicroSD card reader, and the Power button,

Display of VivoBook Flip 14

The Flip 14 has a touchscreen Full HD IPS display. Its viewing angles are excellent. Brightness is just around 240 nits. The contrast is 720:1. Coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut came in at just 50%, and of the sRGB gamut at just 66%. These readings don’t excite me much but in the budget segment, we have many competitors offering similar displays. So this is definitely not an odd man standing in the crowd. If you are not a content creator, who is picky about the colour accuracy on the screen, you should be fine with your regular diet of browsing, watching videos etc. I watched a couple of videos, and it was not a terrible display for watching movies.

Speakers

There are two downward-firing speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. The speakers can get loud but tend to crack at volume above 80%. The audio is not rich, it lacks bass but the clarity is good and has good sound separations. Again, for your work video calls, random videos on Youtube these should suffice but for long immersive listening, you can pick a good pair of headphones or Bluetooth speakers.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard layout is good, it has got a backlight. The keys have 1.4mm key travel. Personally, I found it comfortably for typing with its clicky feedback and decent key travel. The Fn+F key combination toggles between Whisper, Balanced and Performance modes. The backlight can be turned off and additionally there are three brightness levels. The F10 key acts as a camera disable toggle. There is also a hotkey to take you to the MyAsus page that offers more insights and customization, which I will talk about below.

The touchpad is a bit small, but there is not much room either in the deck to accommodate a larger one. The touchpad also includes the fingerprint reader in the right-hand upper corner. The touchpad supports Windows 10 multitouch gestures.

Stylus

Out of the box, you also get an Asus active stylus pen. It comes with a convenient magnet sleeve that helps to latch the pen to the metallic lid. The addition of a stylus would be appreciated by those who love doodling and scribble notes. It gives a natural pen-like feel and is responsive. It is also pressure sensitive something you would appreciate while drawing.

Biometrics

Like I just mentioned above, there is a fingerprint reader positioned on the upper right corner of the touchpad. It works quick and supports Windows Hello Fingerprint. I have no complaints about this sensor. While there is a camera on the display, the face login is not supported on this machine, so no Windows Hello Face sign in.

Performance of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

The machine am testing is powered by Ryzen 5 5500U CPU, you also get Ryzen 7 option in this series. The review unit I received had 8GB of RAM, there are two slots. One has a 4GB soldered on the motherboard, the other has a 4GB plugged, which can be swapped for an 8GB chip if needed and increase your RAM to 12GB. Some markets also have a customization option for a maximum of 16GB. For this segment, I was quiet impressed with the performance. Though, it depends on the kind of action you want to put on this laptop.

If benchmark scores interest you, here are some stats. PC Mark 10-returned a score of 4890. In 3D Mark Spy Test, it showed an overall 1111 score, with a CPU score of 4904 and graphics 978. In the CrystalDiskMark test for read and write speed, it delivered 1813 MB/s read speed and 1312 MB/s write speed on the default test.

Synthetic tests aside, let me tell you how Flip 14 fares in real-world performance. The Ryzen 5 I feel outshines its Intel counterparts. The CPU performance is very impressive in productivity app usages. Like, I could even edit 4K video clips on Premiere Pro with some effects thrown in, if I have to use this machine for some edit on the go. I had no issues with my other office tasks working on the Microsoft Office suite of apps. It really stood up for the everyday tasks. Where it could let down is if you push it for graphic-intensive tasks. The Integrated AMD Radeon™ Graphics is not aimed at gaming. I was over-ambitious when I tried to play Far Cry 5, which it clearly stuttered, not playable. Though you should be able to play multiplayer online games like Fortnight and PUBG, though not at an intense level. If you are a casual player, you could pass through. Though, this machine fits perfectly for my work use and for content consumption.

MyAsus Sofware

Asus has bundled their MyAsus software with the laptop. There is Link to MyAsus feature for quick file transfer, screen sharing between two devices including your Smartphone. It also helps to access your phone from the convenience of PC including making calls and opening mobile apps from here. The customization section allows you to play around with the various battery and performance modes, sound and display settings. There is also this nifty Wifi SmartConnect feature to automatically connect to the wireless router with the best signal.

Battery life of VivoBook Flip 14

I was quite happy with the battery life I managed on this machine. In my video loop test, where I played Tears of Steel 720p clip on 50% brightness and 70% volume, the Flip 14 lasted close to 9 hours. Even in my mixed real-life use, I could get 8+ hours, which is still impressive. The Flip 14 is equipped with 42WHrs, 3S1P, 3-cell Li-ion battery. It supports fast charging with 60% battery topped in 49 minutes.

Verdict:

The Asus VivoBook 14 is a good everyday machine. Barring heavy gaming, it is quiet good on performance level for your CPU intensive tasks. Being a 2-in-1 convertible with touch screen, it is also a decent package for content consumption on the go.

Pros of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

• Decent performance for productivity apps
• Good battery life
• The convenience of 2-in-1 convertible
• Responsive touch screen
• Fingerprint sensor
• Active stylus pen bundled
• Upgradable RAM and storage
• Good thermals

Cons of Asus Vivobook Flip 14

• Bit of flex in the chassis
• Color accuracy could have been better

The ExpertBook P series in India at the time of writing this review has two variants P2415F the machine I am testing and P1440FA, the one I got is the most powerful beast between the two powered by intel i7 10th gen.

ASUS ExpertBook P2451F Specification

• Processor: Intel Core i7-10510U
• Graphics adapter: Intel UHD Graphics
• Memory:  8GB, DDR4-2666, 1 of 1 slot occupied (8GB Max)
• Display: 14-inch 16:9, 1920 x 1200pixel, IPS LED, glossy: NO
• Storage:  512GB NVMe PCIe Gen3 SSD M.2
• Connections: 1 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.2 (Type A), 1 x USB 3.2 (Type C), HDMI, Kensington Lock, VGA, Audio Connections: Combo audio, Card Reader: microSD card, Fingerprint Reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11b/g/n/ac) (2×2), Bluetooth 5.0
• Battery: 48Wh Lithium-Polymer (3 cells)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
• Camera: 720p
• Additional features: Speakers: Stereo, Keyboard: 6-row chiclet, Keyboard Light: Yes
• Weight:  1.6 kg

Box contents

• Asus ExpertBook P2451F
• HDD expansion kit
• Power Adapter
• Warranty and User Guide
• Driver DVD disc

Design and Build Quality – Rock solid

Asus has opted for no frills straight forward robust design and build quality for Asus Expertbook series. It is definitely not a head turner but it will blend with professional settings. It won’t catch unnecessary attention towards it.

The lid is made of aluminium alloy and it spots a 180-degree hinge, so can be laid flat on the desk, if you and your teammates are crowded around brainstorming and looking at the screen all eyes at it.

Under the keyboard has a steel plate support for the extra rigidity and protection which also means there is no flex when you are typing. Asus also claims the P2415F is quality-tested in accordance with US MIL-STD 810G military standards and can withstand certain degree of drops, knocks, and spills, and exposure to extremes of altitude, temperature, and humidity. In short, it promises good structural integrity. The shock dampening also gives more safety for your drive stored in the HDD.

So it is a practical design stressing upon the structural integrity and build.

Ports and Connections – Everything out there!

Asus has been lavish in-terms of ports. It has packed almost everything in this machine, so you might not feel the lack of any ports in any adverse situation. It even has a VGA connector something I haven’t seen in new machines for a while now.

On the left side, there’s a USB 3.2 Type C port that supports both Display Out and Power Delivery, an HDMI slot, a USB 3.2 Type-A, LAN port, and the charging connector.

While on the right side there two USB Type-A ports one of them being a 3.2 spec and the other one 2.0 spec, Kensington lock, a Combo audio jack, VGA port, and a microSD card slot.

Display – the Achilles heel

The Expertbook P2415F has a 14″ LED display with full-HD resolution (1920×1200) It’s an anti-glare panel and 60Hz refresh rate. What let’s down is the fact it has oonly 46% sRGB and its average brightness level is around 190 nits. The contrast ratio is also a big let down. The display is lackluster for this price segment. So if you are a content creator working on multimedia, this would not be the ideal machine for colour accuracy.

The size bezels are thin but there is prominent bezels on the bottom and a bit over the top. The top though has a physical shutter on the webcam which might be satisfying for many who fret over the webcam starring at them, and also comes handy to be double sure if you don’t want camera to be on while on virtual meetings.

Keyboard and Biometrics

I really enjoyed typing on the ExpertBook keyboard. It is backlit. There are three levels of brightness to the backlit and also an option to disable it. The keys are well spaced and big. The travel distance is mere 1.4mm which is a delight for someone who would spend a lot typing. Asus has included a pointing stick nicknamed SensePoint to control the on-screen sensor. The touchpad is adequately sized. It supports 3 finger swipes to change desktop, 3 finger touch to launch Cortana. There is a separate left and right keys on top of the pad.

On the biometrics side, there is a fingerprint sensor right next to the touchpad. Windows hello face is not supported though. You can opt for physical security key if required.

Performance – Force to Reckon

Equipped with a comes with 10^th Generation Intel Core i7 10510U,m dual channel 8GB RAM which can be upgraded up to 32GB. My unit comes with NVIDIA GeFroce MX110 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM and I believe there is a variant with Intel UHD graphics too for those who might be ok with a bit toned graphics power. My review unit has a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD by WD. Asus also gives a choice of dual-storage of SSD + HD to cater enterprise requirements.

The speakers are placed on front-bottom and is decent enough for business needs and can get the job done. Asus has bundled SmartAudio software to tune the audio, if you want to.

Battery

There is a 48Wh 3-cell battery, which lasts for about 9 hours in normal tasks. It takes around 50 mins to charge 50 percent of the battery. It also supports Power Delivery so you can use the Type C port for charging as well.

Verdict

Asus has made their first attempt at the enterprise segment with the Expertbook series. Knowing their capabilities and their existing laptop portfolio, this is a start to exciting more competitive products we can look forward to in the future.

The laptop comes packed with a 48Wh 3-cell battery. In our tests the battery lasted for about 9 hours with all the networking peripherals turned on, with the laptop on Airplane mode, you get up to 11 hours.

There is basic fast charging enabled and using the supplied 65W adapter, you can charge about 50% of the battery in under 50 mins. Additionally, you can use the Type C port for charging as well using a Power Delivery Charger.

Pros:

• Good build quality
• Adequate battery life
• Impressive performance
• Plethora of ports
• Fingerprint sensor
• Security add-ons
• Physical shutter for webcam

Cons:

• Average display

Yoga C640 Specifications

While there are many configurations, the Yoga I have, packs the following specs.

• 13.3-inch FHD (1920×1080) IPS display
• 300nits Anti-glare screen
• Intel Core i5-10210U
• Integrated Intel UHD Graphics
• 8GB DDR4-2400 RAM
• 512GB SSD
• 720p camera
• fingerprint reader
• Ports: One USB 3.1 Type-C x 1 + USB 3.1 Type-A x 2
• 802.11ac, 2×2, Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0, M.2 Card
• 1.35 kg

Design of Yoga C640

Lenovo Yoga C640 is a convertible. It is a highly flexible machine. It is sleek and flaunts a modern design with a solid build made of aluminum and weighing 1.3 kilograms and measures 0.67 inches in thickness. It is sturdy and brings confidence when you hold it. Typical of Yoga series, it has a 360-degree convertible hinge which enables it to be used from clamshell to tent, media, and tablet modes. But it is not a 2-in-1 detachable, if that is what you are looking at. The tight hinge is very assuring when used in various modes.

The look is conservative. It doesn’t scream its presence with anything outlandish. The gunmetal grey color is subtle and sober. There is no chrome trimmings to highlight and accentuate design language. Even the Yoga branding on the lid is very subtle.

For those paranoid about webcam on the laptops, there is a privacy shutter similar to what was seen in ThinkPad lineup. Lenovo calls it TrueBlock Privacy Shutter and you just need to slide a shutter to keep the camera eye shut. And it houses a 720p webcam.

Connectivity wise the options are bit limited one USB 3.1 Type-C port and two USB 3.1 Type A ports and one 3.5mm audio jack. There is no card reader and Thunderbolt 3 port. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. While it lacks an HDMI port, the USB-C port can connect to an external monitor with the help of an HDMI or DisplayPort adapter or dongle.

The right side has one USB 3.1 Type-C port and one Type A USB port along with the power button.

The left side has power port, one type A USB port and the audio jack.

The Yoga C640’s offers 2W Dolby Atmos speakers stereo speakers via a two rectangular grilles on either side of the keyboard. The sound is decent enough for regular use with good clarity and volume. The only bummer, when using on tablet mode, the speakers will be firing at the opposite rear side.

Hello Windows

There is no Windows hello face and the camera lacks IR sensors for face recognition, but you get Windows Hello fingerprint. The fingerprint reader is mounted on the keyboard deck on the right side. It’s very accurate and quite fast

Keyboard and touchpad

I was extremely comfortable with the Yoga keyboard. The spacing is right and the mechanism feels great too. There is a subtle flex at the bottom but that should not cause any worry and is fine. The touch pad works well too. Being a ultra compact laptop, the touch pad is not very large but still commendable proportionate size for efficient use.

Yoga C640 Display

The Yoga C630 includes a 13.3-inch FHD touchscreen thus packing big enough pixel density. The color levels were overall satisfactory and the contrast ratio is good too. The maximum 300 nits brightness means slight issue under direct sunlight but hey like me most of you might not be using it under sunlight at least not in Indian weather conditions. So under roof, I didn’t had any issue with the display. The screen is glossy though Lenovo boasts of an anti-glare treatment.

The display is touch type and supports pen input. In some markets you get the Lenovo Digital Pen out of the box. It is included in India.

Performance of Yoga C640

The Yoga C640 is powered by an Intel Core i5-10210U, though there are other configurations like i3 in certain markets. My typical work day includes lots of video editing which is not the intended use case for this machine. But I enjoyed it for my other work tasks like working on office suite on word and excel sheets, writing stories on my wordpress dashboard (the story you are reading is infact done on Yoga), browsing etc. It also comes very handy working on virtual meetups which we do more these days. Being convertible and ultra compact, it is very comfortable for google meets or teams meetings. I also binged heavily on Netflix on tablet mode and wireless headphone. It works well for all this use cases. Unless you are trying to do gaming which is not ideal for this machine, you will find the Yoga staying relatively cool and composed like a Yogi!

Battery life of Yoga C640

I am very particular about the battery life of a laptop, a concern shared my many users since laptop is primarily a device on the go. The Yoga C640 beats my expectation with its great battery life. It can give about 12-13 hours of battery life on a full charge plus there is a battery saver mode too.

Lenovo Yoga C640 Review Verdict

Lenovo Yoga C640 is a machine to go for if you like a compact machine for basic productivity use and offering multi “yogic” postures like tent, media, and tablet modes. Being a small machine, this is not a desktop replacement nor is it intended at gaming or video editing purposes. It is targeted at management guys who are on the move, great for virtual calls and good for binging on movies. A solid machine with versatile form factor and subtle characteristics.