laptops – Tech Raman

HP Envy 15 ep0123tx review

Lakshmi — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 04:18:55 +0000

Buying a laptop can be a daunting task. With so many options around, you need to really sit through to make the right buying decision. If you are looking at a big-screen laptop that can perform well without getting into the gaming laptop territory, go ahead read my HP Envy 15 ep0123tx review, the latest refresh from HP in their Envy series that promises a lot. The Envy series comes in a lot of many configurations, while they share a common design and certain elements, the performance might vary depending on the key hardware specifications. The machine I got here is a fairly good powerhouse running on Intel core i7 10th gen, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and GTX 1660 Ti GPU.

HP Envy 15 ep0123tx Specifications:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)
Display: 39.6 cm (15.6″) diagonal, FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 300 nits, 72% NTSC
Storage: 1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2×2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo
Battery: 6-cell, 83 Wh Li-ion polymer cell
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10
Camera: HP Wide Vision HD camera, IR Thermal sensor
Audio: Audio by Bang & Olufsen; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost 2.0
Size: 35.79 x 23.68 x 1.84 cm
Weight: 2.14 kg
Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB-C (Thunderbolt + DP + Power Delivery), SD card reader, HDMI, Headphone / mic combo

What’s in the box?

The laptop and a 83Wh power adapter and some paper manuals.

Design and Build Quality of HP Envy 15

My very first laptop I owned is an HP, so I been following them for quite a long period. When it comes to design, they are a bit restrained but they mean business. You will not find yourself out of place carrying an HP machine. They can blend well.

The device sports a clean design with aluminium chassis. The silver-grey tone comes out well for a classic look. When I weighed it, the scale tipped at 1.997 kg. It looks well chiselled with aggressive lines and corners. It gives a comforting good build vibe. There is the HP logo on the top lid, the lid itself is easier to lift with a single finger, which I have struggled with on many laptops.

The back hinge has ENVY branding subtly etched with a clean line drawn horizontally for aesthetics.

The backside is angled at three sides at the edges. The speakers are housed at the angled edges on the bottom sides. The dual speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen. There is a large vent for the airflow. There are two long rubber footers to enable space beneath for air circulation and also avoid scratches at the bottom.

The bezels are thin and the black colour bezels strike a good contrast with the silver-grey body tone. The top bezels house a webcam, there is no physical shutter in the bezel area but the privacy shutter can be enabled via a dedicated button on the keyboard. Nevertheless, it is a physical shutter and not software that disables the camera, you can actually see a plastic veil that closes the camera when you click the button.

Ports

Talking about the ports, on the left side you got a power jack, USB Type A port, HDMI 2.0a, two USB Type C ports (Thunderbolt 3) and a SD card reader.

The right side offers a Type A port and an audio and mic combo. There is an air vent too here.

Display of HP Envy 15

15.6-inch IPS panel, 300 nits brightness, 72% NTSC
1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
No touchscreen control

The variant I got here has a full-HD IPS panel, though the series also offers a full-blown 4K OLED panel. The display offers an anti-glare coating, which I prefer over reflective panels. You won’t have to worry about any light source behind you to distract your viewing. The 300 nits brightness proved to be sufficient for my daily use. The viewing angles are good, I worked on it for some days writing articles, watching movies and it catered well to my requirements.

Speakers

When you open the lid, you see a grille design on either side of the keyboard and most likely you would assume it would be speaker grille. I did but it is not. The actual speakers are at the bottom like I mentioned earlier. This grille design flanking the keyboard gives a false impression. I am not sure what was the purpose for this may be aesthetics but I would have preferred a cleaner look. Coming to the actual speaker, it’s a dual speaker tuned by Bang & Olufsen. There is a Bang & Olufsen audio control that gives you a 10 band equalizer along with many presets, noise cancellation feature and other general controls. The speaker output has a very good clarity and sharpness, though lacks a bit of bass which you can control by dabbling on the equalizer to your liking.

Bang & Olufsen Audio control app

Keyboard and Touchpad

Being a large 15.6 inch display laptop, there is a lot of room for accommodating a good keyboard. HP has done exactly that. Though, I had to get used to many of the special function keys baked into the keyboard right from the camera shutter key to the fingerprint sensor and power button. I like the font HP uses on their keyboard. The keys are well spaced and are comfortable to use without jumping at the wrong key. The travel length is pretty good too. There is a white backlight for the keys which can be activated by the F4 fn key. It also has two levels of brightness.

The touchpad is large enough for use. It supports Windows gestures. I am a mouse guy but you can get away with the touchpad if you are not carrying it or fine with this.

Biometrics

The HP Envy 15 supports Windows Hello Fingerprint login but not Windows Hello face. The fingerprint scanner as I mentioned earlier is tucked in the last row of the keyboard. I personally prefer the scanner in the touchpad but you can get used to this once you start using it daily. The scanner is very accurate and reliable.

Performance of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

The buck stops at the performance. So let’s find out what HP Envy 15 delivers. Under the hood, the variant I got is powered by an 10th-gen Intel Core i7-10750H CPU clocked at 2.6GHz. This is combined with a 16GB 2933MHz RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and GTX 1660Ti GPU. The 10750H CPU maxes at 2933MHz RAM and that is on cards here. It’s a dual-channel RAM. There is always an option to further boost the RAM, in case you want to.

For most of us, this configuration would be good enough to sail through most use cases. As a content creator, I could even work on some of my premier pro video edits. Though if you are buying it for regular video edits and 4K, I would suggest you upgrade to 32GB RAM, if not for 4K 16GB should be good enough. This should be good at almost everything, unless you are a hardcore gamer, if that is your priority use case, you should really be considering a full-blown gaming laptop. It does not mean this machine cannot handle gaming, it can play comfortably well. I had no issues playing PUBG with graphics set to High. It tend to warm up a bit.

In the synthetic benchmark scores, PC Mark 10 delivered 4793 overall score.

Battery life of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

The HP Envy 15 boast an 83Wh battery inside. The company claims 16 hours of battery life, which I initially rubbed off as a tall claim. Usually, I find the test results on lab conditions behave differently in real use cases. But I was pleasantly surprised, the laptop did indeed delivery a good battery life if not the 16 hours but it did manage really well. The battery test is a difficult thing to calculate on laptops since each one use case is very different, the way we put the hardware to use. But rest assured, this laptop gives better battery life than most others in its league.

Verdict:

If you want to mix work and play, wear your suit and carry it for work meetings, later loosen the tie and play games on it – this is a great machine for it.

Pros of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

Neat design
Great battery life
Dependable performance
Good display with anti-glare
physical shutter for webcam

Cons of HP Envy 15 ep0123tx

No face login

HP OMEN 15 2020 Laptop Review|15-ek0019TX

Lakshmi — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 12:52:21 +0000

My very first laptop was from HP and I have fond memories of it, when HP send me the HP Omen for review, it rekindled the memories. Rest assured, it would not cloud my judgement when I take a deep drive into the HP Omen 15 2020 review here.

HP Omen 15 2020 has a wider choice of configurations to choose from. The HP Omen 15-ek0019TX I got for my review is powered by Intel Core i7 10th gen combined with a modest NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti. You can also get more adrenalin rush with GeForce® RTX 2070 with Max-Q configuration, if you are into higher spectrum of gaming.

HP OMEN 15-ek0019TX Specification

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
Graphics adapter: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)
Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080pixel, 300 nits, 144Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
Connections: 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-C 5Gbps signaling rate (DisplayPort™ 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate (HP Sleep and Charge); 2 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 Mini DisplayPort™; 1 HDMI 2.0a; 1 RJ-45; 1 AC smart pin; 1 headphone/microphone combo
Networking: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2×2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo
Battery: 52.5 Wh Li-ion (3-cell)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Camera: 720p
Audio: SAudio by Bang & Olufsen; DTS:X® Ultra; OMEN Audio Control Support DTS:X® Ultra; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost 2.0
Weight: 2.36 kg

Design and Build Quality

With the 2020 model, HP had toned down the aggressive dash of curves and lines in their gaming machines. When you call out gaming laptops these days, there are flurry of offerings with strong accentuated cuts and psychedelic LED colors popping out. The HP Omen 2020 lineup is muted in comparison and follows traditional laptop looks with robust build. It can sneakily blend in an office environment.

It is made of a combination of aluminum and plastic with the underlying chasis in metal and gives a sturdy and robust feel to it and probably can handle few knocks too. The matte finish on the lid tend to catch grease easily and is a fingerprint magnet. The lid has a diamond-shaped mirror-like logo which glistens in green and blue, depending on the angle viewed. Personally, I find the logo too bland but on hindsight, this subtle logo would appeal to even non-gamers.

Weighing 2.36 kg, the Omen 15 2020 definitely has fair bit of heft to it and measures 22.6mm in thickness. If you are planning a machine to carry often, this should be kept under consideration. A Wide Vision 720p HD web camera is housed on the top bezel. There is no privacy shutter, a while light indicator glows when the camera is active. Like most webcams in laptops, this is passable for video calls. The power button finds an odd place between the F12 and delete button.

The bottom has a large ventilation grills, which could inhale lots of air towards the heat sinks.

Ports

The HP Omen packs a lot in terms of port selection. On the left, you get a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an HDMI port, an full-sized SD card reader, a Gigabit Ethernet port, headphone/microphone jack, and power jacks.

On the right side, you get a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports along with a mini DisplayPort and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Thunderbolt Type-C port.

Display

The Omen 15 2020 laptops can be flat laid to 180 degree and the hinge mechanism is confident. The Omen 15’s 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel display is love at first sight. I liked the popping colors, deep blacks and the colors are vibrant. Details are crisp and you will not miss anything in good game scenarios. It clocks 313 nits brightness which I find to be adequate and 71.8% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is impressive. In short, the display is extremely likeable. There is also Nvidia G-Sync support.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The chiclet keyboard is almost silent which I kind of like for my laptops unlike the mechanical keyboards I like for my desktops. HP might also have gone for the silent treatment inline with the design choice of blending it in office ecosystem. The keyboard is full-fledged with separate numeric keys and calculator and arrow keys. I didn’t have any issues while typing. The travel distance is comfortable to use.

Then there is the RGB lighting, which most games would love to see. The back lighting can be customized from the OMEN command center. They keyboard is split into four zones for RGB lighting. The customization is not free wheeling but you can pick the colors for the four zones and the lighting is static. There is no strobbing, breathing or other dynamic effects.

The trackpad is large and easy to use. There are no separate dedicated left and right buttons. Omen 15 supports gestures and responds very well to them

Performance

Coming to the performance, if you are looking at top-notch gaming performance you should go with the GeForce® RTX 2070 for the max performance but that also costs a bit more than the unit I have here. Though the RTX 1650 Ti is not the powerful GPU from Nvidia, you can’t disown it, it still has in it. If you are aiming to mix gaming and work and a machine for multimedia editing, this variant proved to be fairly good in my use. This could be a good mid-level gaming machine. I used it for some of my video rendering and real-life use cases and it proved it to be a good reliable workhorse.

In 3D mark benchmark test we got 3897 in Time Spy test and 1761 in Time Spy Extreme test.

It has a Samsung NVme 1TB SSD storage. On Crystalmark 7 test, we got the following results in real-life performance and peak performance tests. There is 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory (8GB x 2 sticks), which can be upgraded to 32GB.

Omen Command center is you go-for destination to customize the keyboard lighting, adjust fan speed, monitor system diagnostics. For gamers, it also has an AI-based software that maps your play and throws pointers on your weak points. The game stream functionality aids to stream your game to another device in the same local network.

Battery life

The Omen 15 packs a 3-cell 52.5 Wh Li-ion battery. I could get a bit above 6 hours on an average on Omen 15 laptop, which is pretty good for a gaming laptop.

Verdict

The HP Omen 15-ek0019TX is a great mid-segment gaming laptop. If you don’t fancy the over the top design cues of gaming laptops and want something that would blend with your office environment, this is a great buy. Plus, the display is stellar and you get decent battery life for this segment.

Asus Zephyrus M GU502 First Impression – Charmer for Work and Play

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 18:18:01 +0000

Asus has a solid reputation for gaming laptops in their ROG lineup. Within the Republic of Gamers series, there are many sub-series including the Strix and Zephyrus. Between them, the Zephyrus offers slim yet powerful gaming laptops. They are designed for people who want a powerful work and play laptop on the go and yet have a relatively less weight and dimensions. The Taiwanese company has refreshed the ROG Zephyrus gaming laptops with new machines featuring 9-th Gen Intel CPUs, Turing-based Nvidia Graphics, RTX 20 series GPU, Pantone validated display. What I have today is the Zephyrus M GU502, which offers a potent mix of power and practicality for folks like me who want a work machine that seriously plays well, after all, who doesn’t want to fire the gaming adrenalin after a good day’s work.

Box contents:

Out of the box you get the,

GU502
Power adapter
Cable
Few documents

Zephyrus range gets a good treatment in terms of build quality and the GU502 follows the tradition. It’s encased in a metal chassis with a combination of magnesium, aluminium and plastic materials giving it a compact and lighter profile. It weighs 1.9Kg, measures 18.9mm in thickness and the moment I took it out of the box and unwrapped the plastic sheet, the build quality was reassuring. The finish is one of the better you can find in the market. The top lid gets the typical Asus matte brushed finish with their backlit ROG Logo glowing red when the machine is on. The design language, in general, is in sync with the Zephyrus lineup. An interesting addition to the GU502 is type C 3.1 Gen 2 with display port and PD charging support. Yes, the laptop can be powered by a power bank. It has an input rating of 20V/3A and 9V/2A output. Apart from this, there are in total 3 USB ports (two on the right and one at the left), one HDMI port and an RJ45 ethernet port. A Kingston lock, 2 audio jack one for headphone and another for mic completes the bells and whistles. There’s still no card-reader and no Thunderbolt 3. The power plus is placed in the middle of the left side, which I find a bit awkward. The Zephyrus M GU502 is well-spaced and promises a good experience, let me admit it’s early days for me and will talk about that more on the full review. It has a dedicated multimedia keys and an extra row of function keys at the right. The keys gets RGB illumination with Aura sync. Asus’s packs an Armoury Crate app for full control over the machine, you can do a lot there including creating different profiles. There is a fairly large trackpad but there is no fingerprint sensor for login. More on that in full review. The GU502 has a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) IPS-level panel. The display offers 144Hz refresh rate with 3ms response time and the colours are Pantone validated. So apart from gaming, if you are a content creator, the display would be apt for photo editing or video editing offering good colour accuracy. The bezels are relatively narrow for a gaming machine. Talking about the specifications, the machine is powered by 9th gen Intel Core i7-9750H with Intel HM370 chipset. The graphics are handled by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM Optimus. You stash up memory up to 32GB with 16GB onboard. It comes with NVMe PCIE 3.0 512GB SSD storage. There is a quite a fat 230W brick included for charging the traditional way. The built-in battery is rated 76Wh lithium-ion polymer battery. Look forward to the review very shortly. ]]>

The all new ASUS VivoBook 15 X512 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 23:50:03 +0000

Asus covers lots of ground when it comes to laptops – they got mainstream laptops and niche gaming laptops. Within mainstream mobility, they have Pro series, S Series, Flip series and the VivoBook range which is more affordable and aimed at masses. I personally own a VivoBook S410U, a compact machine that fits my needs on the go. At CES this year, the updated the VivoBook series with VivoBook X412 and X512, I got the later here and in this VivoBook 15 X512, let’s find out what it brings onboard.

Key highlights of the VivoBook 15 X512 (as well X412)

Asus claims the new VivoBook 14 and 15 now offers thinner bezels and what they call as NanoEdge display offering four-sided frameless display offering 87% and 88% screen to body ratio respectively.
The ErgoLift hinge design elevates the laptop base at an angle for comfortable typing experience.
The top variant now offers upmarket specifications – up to 8th generation Intel Core i7-8565U processor with the VivoBook 15 coming with a choice of NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics.
If you are bored of silver and Slate grey, there is also a Peacock Blue and Coral Crush colour options on offer.

In this review let’s focus on the X512 which I got here.

Asus Vivobook X512 Detailed Specs

Design and Build Quality

The VivoBook series so far offers plastic chassis and the trend continues here too but the build is fairly robust. There is a bit of flex on the lid but should not be much of a concern and it doesn’t hamper my experience either. The machine weights 1.6 kg and measures 357.2mm wide by 230.4mm deep 19.9mm thick. The bezels have narrowed down all over on all four sides. It does make it look visually better and compact and offers an immersive experience. A noticeable engineering introduction is the ErgoHinge that lifts the machine by a few degrees slanting for comfortable typing. As you lift the lid, the hinge brings the bottom of the screen down behind the keyboard base and lifts the top part of the keyboard up at a slight angle. It does feel better while working on the laptop. The lift is about 5mm, a slight lift but enough to give a comfortable typing mode instead of the flat surface. The screen can tilt to maximum up to 135 degrees and the hinges give it a 2-degree slant. The right edge has a single USB 3.0 port, a USB-C port, a full-size HDMI connector, a 3.5mm headset jack and a MicroSD card slot. On the left edge, there are two USB 2.0 ports. Unfortunately, there is no USB 3.1 here. microSD reader support is still there. I do miss the lack of SD card reader in many of the laptops these days that come handy for me many times to transfer images from my camera.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Moving from my VivoBook S14 410 which is one of my main travel laptops, I was at home using the X512’s keyboard but is not comfortable for longer typing sessions. For new users, lack of no noticeable ‘click’, the keyboard action is spongy and not springy while this does not hamper everyday use but I need to state it here. Having said that, the keyboard does tend to get used to as I got with my 410. The keyboard is also backlit and you can change the brightness level. The keyboard also accommodates a number pad but the keys are slightly narrowed down on width but maintaining the same full height. There is a large glass layered trackpad with fingerprint sensor only placed at the top right corner. The touchpad is responsive and you can toggle it off with an Fn key. The trackpad supports Windows gestures.

Display of VivoBook X512

Wrapped in the ‘NanoEdge’ bezel the screen looks immersive, the side bezels are 5.7mm, the upper bezel is at 8mm and houses the webcam, the lower edge is around 18mm, this is a considerable improvement over the previous generation of Vivobooks. The screen itself is a bit of a dampener. Personally, I prefer the matte finish display with anti-glare IPS panel and this one has got it and a full HD (1,920 x 1,080). But the colours are washed out. If you take a look at the screen in my earlier image taken outdoor, you would notice a lack of decent brightness. The display is underwhelming even when full brightness is turned on. Viewing angles are also bit restricted. I just moved to this machine after reviewing the Asus Zephyrus which had a brilliant display and suddenly felt let down here.

Performance of VivoBook X512

Both the X412 and X512 comes in various combination and permutations. I have got the top variant – VivoBook X512FL. The VivoBook 15 X512 I have gets the Intel Core i7 8565U processor and comes paired with 8GB DDR4 RAM as standard. Asus has also upped the ante with the Nvidia MX250 graphics card for dealing with graphics-intensive tasks. For storage, there’s a combination of a 256GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive. A stand-alone NVIDIA GeForce MX230 graphics card gives a big boost to the machine. With such hardware might, the laptop can’t disappoint for most of your needs. Thanks to the SSD, the bootup time is also fast. The 8th Gen Core i7 means your most of the tasks would be dealt at ease, I had opened around two dozen chrome tabs and had no issues. With a dedicated graphics card, you can also indulge in some decent gaming on this machine. You should be able to play the in-trend games like PUBG, Apex Legends and Fortnite. I was even able to edit few vides on Premier pro while on transit though this may not be my ideal machine for video or photo editing but can handle the tasks on emergency situations, though the display is not encouraging for those needs. As a daily laptop for browsing, working on Microsoft office, email and stuffs the portable compact form factor with this set of hardware makes it a good work horse. The speaker is bottom-firing and the sound is just about average.

Battery Life of VivoBook X512

The X512 packs a 37Whr battery. On my regular usage real-life tests, I managed 4-4.5 hours of battery life which suggests an average battery life.

Verdict

In India, the Asus VivoBook X512 price starts at Rs 34,990 and goes up to Rs 65,990 which makes it to the affordable consumer laptop price bracket. The X512 offers a competitive good choice of hardware and design, the 8th gen Intel Core does give a performance boost and if you are buying the models with the discrete graphics it does add the extra sweetness. But the laptop is not without its own share of drawbacks, particularly the not so impressive display. The top variant packing the 8th gen Core i7 with dedicated graphics is still a value for money offering at its price. The entry leve variant at Rs 34,990 is a great buy for those seeking an entry level budget laptop, If you want a sleek machine this should be ideal but you should really be buying it a basis of what your real life requirements are. ]]>

Asus TUF Gaming FX705DY – Gaming Laptop on a Budget

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 13 May 2019 00:04:33 +0000

Asus unveiled the TUF FX505DY and FX705DY at CES 2019 this year with AMD chops. The new machines come with all AMD inside and also the first to carry a Zen+ Ryzen 5 3550H CPU. Before we dive into the review let’s be clear about a few things. While ROG series goes all out with guns blazing targetting the mainstream hardcore gamers, the TUF Gaming series is focussed on mainstream gamers on a budget. Asus is trying to give a feel of the gaming machines here without having to spend a whole lot. So it’s quiet a difficult task but TUF gaming series tries to the balancing act. Coming to the machine we have, the FX705DY can this TUG Gaming laptop tough enough for your gaming binge? Let’s find out.

Difference between TUF FX505DY and FX705DY

While both the machines share key hardware muscles, the difference lies in the screen size and the battery. The 15-inch FX505DY laptop features a higher refresh rate range of 48Hz to 120Hz on FreeSync, the FX705DY, on the other hand, is restricted to 40 to 60Hz on its 17-inch FreeSync display. So it depends on your gaming choices while higher rate would be recommended for games like Counterstrike: GO, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and CS: Global Offensive and Overwatch, if you are mainly playing eSports games the FX705DY would suffice. It purely boils down to your gaming style and preferences and how much precise you need to be in certain games. The FX705DY also has a bigger 4 -Cell 64 Wh Polymer Battery to cater to its larger screen display while the FX505DY has a 48Wh battery. Due to the differences to the screen size, the overall battery life should be comparable though.

TUF FX705DY Design and Build Quality

Asus has taken some cost cutting but hidden it really well. To start with, it’s an all-plastic build which might be deceiving when you look at but you realize once you feel it. The lid has a textured brushed aluminium look combined with the design elements on the lid with marked lines flowing from the sides, it does give a mean tough look to the machine. But a closer look or side by side comparison will make higher-end Zephyrus or Strix series stand apart from this, which is understandable with the huge price differences though. The signature Asus gaming range feel is there in the machine. It feels robust too. The textured finish flows in too when you open the lid. The chassis design as last year’s FX504 but shorter in length. The lid can open to a maximum of 150 degrees. The bezels are thinner around the display, making it one of the compact 17-inch gaming laptops in the budget segment. Asus claims these TUF Gaming has passed the rigorous military-grade MIL-STD-810G durability test and reliable against solar radiation exposure, high altitude, and temperature extremes. while these might look too much for you for normal use, they also assure adequate shockproof that can withstand accidental falls.

Keyboard and Trackpad

In India, the Asus FX507DY is available in what Asus calls as Red Matter colour variant basically a black machine with red finishes. The Keyboard gets a red backlit to go with the colour scheme. It’s not colour customizable LED lighting. The keys have travel of 1.8 millimetres and Asus claims the keys are rated for up to 20 million keystrokes. They also employ Asus’ Overstroke technology, which helps them register keystrokes better. I found the keyboard easy to type and was comfortable. Though there is a bit of flex in the middle if you have to nitpick. The WASD keys are highlighted for easy recognition and the W key has a small raised dot on the surface to figure the key easily. If you are an ardent gamer though you would not need this it does help when you adapt to new machines and for those who have difficulty in reaching out to the keys. The keyboard also has a dedicated num pad. The arrow keys are aligned towards them and I often ended up confused between the upper arrow and zero 0 key. On a short note, the keyboard I found to be comfortable both for gaming and regular use for typing. The trackpad is big but has a flex when applied pressure. It has a tiny arrow mark on the four corners pointing in to let know may be where the trackpad ends. The bottom has the left and right clicks. The pad works with multi-finger taps and swipes. F10 Function key in the keyboard can turn on/off the trackpad. The trackpad for me was a bit of a disappointment mainly for the flex.

Connectivity options of FX507DY

Let me pull out the disappointing note first, there is no USB Type-C ports which by now should be standard for the gaming laptops to future proof them for the gaming peripherals. There is no place for SD reader too. The ports are all positioned on the left side. There is AC adapter, Gigabit RJ-45, HDMI 2.0, USB 2.0 Type-A, 2x USB Type-A 3.1 Gen. 1, 3.5 mm combo audio. The right side has a Kensington lock.

Display of Asus FX507DY

The Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY features a 17.3 -inch IPS backlit LCD screen with a Full HD resolution and a non-glare matte finish. As mentioned earlier, it offers a Freesync refresh range of 40 to 60Hz. The bezels on the sides, in particular, are narrow making it one of the compact gaming laptop in the segment. Its only 7.1mm thickness on the sides and Asus calls this Nano Edge display. The top bezel accommodates a 720p HD webcam. The display offers 1000:1 contrast ratio which is good. Personally given a choice between the glossy and matte panel, I prefer the later, so this was good for me. The display may not be comparable with the higher end machines but was way acceptable. The viewing angles are good too. The outdoor visibility suffers a bit, with ambient lighting causing washed out colours and glare evident in spite of the matte panel. Being a budget offering the display is not on par with the big brother higher end gaming laptops. When playing some heavy 3D gaming titles, you might note ghosting.

Performance of Asus FX507DY

The machine is fired by quad-core Ryzen 5 3550H CPU and Radeon RX 560X GPU. While the CPU is new, curiously Asus has combined it with almost two generations old Radeon RX 560X GPU. The GPU has 4GB, GDDR5 VRAM. The machine I have comes with single-channel 8GB DDR4 2400MHz SDRAM. It has a 2 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion to accommodate up to 32GB SDRAM. For storage, the review unit came with a Seagate 1TB hard drive spinning at 5,400 rpm. Asus FX507DY scores decent benchmark results for a budget gaming laptop. What matters the most though is the real world experience, which is not disappointing either. To begin with, you will not find any hiccups in normal use of the laptop which is expected though. Of course, being a gaming machine this is bulkier and heavy compared to normal mainstream laptops so I would not be suggesting you to buy this unless your thought process is gaming first. A slow hard drive puts a partial brake though and Asus could have done something about it. On a positive note, there is an empty M.2 slot inside which could be put to good use if you really want to do something about the speed, how about an SSD to speed up things. Now let’s focus on gaming, that’s what you would be buying this machine for. Like I said earlier the Asus FX507DY gets discrete graphics in the form of an AMD Radeon RX560X GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 vRAM. It’s not one size fits all for all your gaming. Depending on your game, you might have to tweak the graphics and resolution settings to get the best of the gaming performance. On the most part, the games handled well in low or medium settings well depending on the game. Not heartwarming but then consider this as a budget gaming laptop with its inherent ups and downs. You want more firepower, you need to stretch the budget and the whole world of ROG steps in. A good gaming machine should keep the temperature in check, and with a twin fan inside and their technologies like an anti-dust tunnel, Hyper Fan which automatically adjusts fan speeds according to CPU and GPU temperatures the heating part is taken care of. There is also an option for Turbo, Balanced, and Silent modes. There is audible sound when you stress the machine on graphics intensive games when all the fans come into play. Asus has included an Armoury Crate for key system insights and also configure the settings. You can also add gaming profile here.

The battery life of TUF Gaming FX705DY

On a real-life scenario, you get a battery life around 3 hours 45 minutes on mixed normal use. If you are putting into gaming on a stretch expect much less but like in most gaming laptops heavy gamings work better on the power source. Charging from 0% to full charge takes around one and a half hours. The battery is not the key strength of the laptop to mildly put.

Verdict – TUF Gaming FX705DY – To Buy or Not

If you are not into gaming, then clearly this is not the laptop you should even think of. But if you are an avid gamer and want to own a gaming laptop on a budget – this might work for you. Also, if you prefer AMD Ryzen-powered machine. The FX705DY is available for Rs 59,990, at this price it brings a gaming laptop features onboard with decent looks, rugged build, upgradability options. For a gaming beginner on a tight budget and game enthusiasts who want a portable gaming machine with a bigger display, this could be an option you could try.]]>

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331U Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 13:50:15 +0000

Sleek and ultraportable are the two characteristics of the Asus’s Zenbook series. The series in itself has a wider portfolio with many models listed in their product page broadly categorized into two sub-categories the Zenbook and the Zenbook flip. Measuring 13.9mm thick at its fattest region, ZenBook 13 UX331U is also one of the thinnest laptop in their porfolio. Plus, it comes with decent specs and a Full HD 13-inch display which makes it look good as a productive machine for those on the move. Read on my Asus Zenbook 13 UX331U review. Key Specifications:

13.3-inch FHD display
1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U / 1.8 GHz i7 8550U Processor
UHD Graphics 620
8GB DDR3 SDRAM
Solid State Drives: 256GB SATA3 M.2 SSD Solid State Drives: 512GB PCIE Gen3X4 SSD
2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 3.1, 1 x HDMI, 1 x microSD
962g
Windows 10 Home

Design and Build Quality of Zenbook UX331U

Slim? Check. Rapid start? Check. This Zenbook is on the borderline of an ultrabook being slender, light weight slightly under 1kg. It is a highly effective portable machine. The finish of the lid is nothing particularly differentiating. The lid though is not very firm and can bend only with very slight pressure. It can also slightly wobble when working on a moving vehicle. Open the lid and the chassis looks sturdy in a matte finish. It’s made of magnesium-aluminum alloy material which is a super-light material compared to the regular alloys used in most laptops. It comes in two colors deep blue and rose gold, I got the later for the review here. Personally, I would prefer the deep blue though. The right side has the charging port, a HDMI port to connect to displays and projectors, USB 3.0 port and a type C USB 3.1 port. On the left side sits another USB 3.0 port making it a total two in this machine, audio jack and a microSD card reader.

The UX331U also has a fingerprint sensor, located on the palm rest to the right of the touchpad. In this Smartphone era with all sorts of facial and fingerprint sensor security, this makes sense and easy to use than keying in password to swiftly unlock the laptop. It works well, responsive and accurate.

There is a subtle Zenbook logo on the hinges at the back. The hinges itself is sturdy and self assuring while using and yes, it can be opened with a single finger too.

Coming to the keyboard something which we use extensively on a laptop, this Zenbook doens’t dissapoint. It houses an iIlluminated chiclet Keyboard.The key travel is good and the typing was quicker and accurate. The key felt right, firm and gentle and not stiff. The touchpad lets the keyboard down and is the laptop’s biggest flaw. It’s useable, but the tracking of precise movement often feels off. The touchpad seems to lack crisp response, leaving an ambiguous grey area between a tap, a drag, and a click. While it’s a Windows Precision touchpad, gestures like two-finger swipes felt clumsy, as did precise controls like selecting text.

Display quality of Zenbook UX331U

First thing first, this is not a touch screen nor does the display has a stylus support. For what it is, the display is pretty impressive. The UX331U has a high contrast ratio and deep black levels. Viewing angles are good, watching a movie is enjoyable on this with the lighting almost accurate to the original. Since I work on a lot of Smartphone camera comparisons, this is one laptop I could fairly trust on color gamut and accuracy. This 13.3-inch, Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS display is something you can bet on this segment. Another aspect I loved about this laptop is the matte display which reduces the glare and makes it more readable under sunlight and other light sources you might come across. The brightness level of 256 nits might read a little underwhelming with 300 nits considered in general a preferred minimum but I had no issues with this display.

ZenBook UX331U performance, the key mantra

You can choose the UX331U in two configuration – Intel® Core™ i5 8250U Processor or scale up to Core™ i7 8550U Processor for more firepower. What I got here is the former one which is still a fast, agile processor which should satisfy most of the buyer’s needs in this category. It’s quite a capable internals for typical workloads that might involve couple of running applications, multiple open tabs and few other tasks all at once.

If you are interested in benchmark results, this is what we got on this machine.

PCMark 8: 3211

Geekbench single core: 4137

Geekbench multi-core: 14137

The results put this machine slightly ahead of many of the laptops with the same processor. The solid-state drive is quick enough for your daily tasks. Coming to gaming or graphic intensive tasks, the UX331UA doesn’t have any dedicated graphic add-ons and uses integrated Intel 620 UHD graphics at 1080p resolution. What does this mean? Well, the UX331U is not meant for gaming in the purest form. That doesn’t mean you cannot play of course you can but for games that demand more graphic capabilites you might have to pare down the graphic settings to low and the resolution to 720p for better smoothness to play games. I did miss dedicated graphics when card for my video editing. On the positive side, travelling with this laptop is easier, thanks to its size and weight distribution.

Battery life of Zenbook UX331UA

When a laptop gets thin and lighter, it gets less room for bigger battery, which means relatively lesser battery life. Forget the benchmarks and synthetic tests, on a real life scenario on a moderate mixed use, you can expect five to size hours of battery life from this Zenbook.

Verdict:

The Zenbook UX331UA is for those who particularly want a compact, lighter laptop for travel. This may not be for those who put the laptop for intensive graphical use but for moderate use.

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Asus ROG Zephyrus M GM501 Review – The Gaming Beast

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 23:17:06 +0000

Gaming is a serious play for some. For hardcore gamers, the right equipment matters a lot. While desktop has always been preferred by gamers for their customization and easy configuration capabilities, for true gamers who would want to play on the go and everywhere they go, a good gaming laptop really matters. Asus has been one of the strong players in the gaming laptop segment with their Republic of Gamers (ROG) sub-brand. The ROG portfolio itself has a wide range of gaming machines and what I got here is Zephyrus GM501 which is manageable as an ultrabook but delivers the performance of a gaming PC to bring the best of both the worlds.

General Specifications of Asus ROG Zephyrus M GM501

Dimension \| weight	15.1 x 10.3 x 0.7~0.8 inches; 2.5kgs
Display size/resolution	15.6-inch, 1,920×1,080-pixel display
CPU	2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H
Memory	16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz
Graphics	8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
Storage	512GB SSD
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)

Design of ROG GM 501:

Gaming laptops are different breeds when compared to the regular laptops which focus more on aesthetics in a please-all way or being functional or thinner the better design language. On the other hand, the gaming machines need to have a unique DNA and more importantly be a powerhouse. The Zephyrus instantly catches our attention when you hold it or even touch the brushed aluminium chassis. It comes in what Asus calls Black Titanium colour. Most gaming laptops with muscles are comparitively chunky but GM 501 manages to be more portable as a day to day machine comparatively. The lid has two distinct panels with linear marks diagonally split – one has horizontal lines and other vertical lines. The brushed finish gives the machine a robust look and feel and it does feel robust when you hold it. A chrome ROG emblem sits boldly and gets lit in red when you open the lid with the machine powered on. It does mean a powerful statement of the brand with confidence. On the back of the lid towards the hinges proclaims Republic of Gamers which again is not garish in the branding but bold. The hinge part also sports the Zephyrus branding. A copper accent finish goes around the sides of the system to cut the monotonous of the alluminum finish. On the right, you find a type-A port and also a Thunderbolt 3 port along with a secure lock slot. On the left, you get an HDMI port, a combination microphone/headphone jack and a power jack along with another 3 USB Type-A ports. All the four type-A ports are 3.1 types. What I didn’t really subscribe to the design part is the power jack positioning which is at the middle rather than the top end which is the regular position in most laptops.

Display of ROG GM 501 Gaming laptop:

The Zephyrus GM 501 has a 15.6-inch matte display with full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution tailormade for gaming. How is it tailormade for gaming? It offers a seamless refresh rate of 144Hz, now your generall all-purpose laptops probably have a 60Hz which is considered decent in their world. This is possible with the Nvidia G-Sync technology which almost nullifies the latency and little to no screen tearing or latency. The display is also good for watching movies when you take a break from gaming. The 178-degree viewing angles mean sit around anywhere and you don’t find the display fading or dimming. Keyboard layout of GM 501: The Zephyrus has a traditional keyboard layout including a number pad at the right. The chicklet keys are well placed and there is also good palm rest for comfortable typing. The key travel is also pretty neat and also produces a nice clicky sound.

For the visual lightings what most gamers love, the keyboard lits up when you touch. You can sync your colour schemes with Asus-compatible monitors, mice and other peripherals via the cloud. You get the Auto core utility app for customization of the light elements with a 16.8 million colour wheel allowing to pick your own colours. You don’t get to individually program each key but four designated zones.

The trackpad is fairly large and has a 4.1 x 2.3 dimension.

The audio performance of ROG GM 501:

A good audio performance is a big advantage for a gamer to listen the direction of the sound and react to the opponents especially in shooting games. The included Sonic Radar 3 software pinpoints sound direction like footsteps and gunshots which helped me eat many chicken dinner in my PUBG gaming. Coming to the quality of the sound, the Zephyrus 501 delivers a deep bass which was of my liking. I love such bass and I enjoyed it. While am not necessarily going to spend my time listening songs on this machine, which my phone serves better the audio when watching movies or gaming is a winner for me. Of course with a predominant bass, the lows do get crowded a bit. The software also has four presets for music, movie, gaming and communication preferences and many effects like bass boost, treble boost, surround, clarity, smart volume and reverb which can be turned on/off.

Performance of ROG GM501:

Now let’s focus on the core competence of the machine – the gaming aspect of how it handles the graphics and the processing capabilities. With a Core i7-875OH and Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, this machine is an absolute beast or at least amongst the top of the and can rival desktops rig of similar configurations. The six-core chipset is highly capable and hits the sweet spot for gaming. It will run at around 3.9GHz for brief periods, before falling back to 3.3–3.4GHz during workloads such as sustained rendering. Even the GTX 1070 GPU consistently hovers over 1700MHz even on a long run of gaming. The 144Hz refresh rate also aids in a butter smooth, slick gaming experience. Even the synthetic tests benchmarks are very impressive with a whooping 20,590 on Geekbench 4 for overall performance.

Battery life:

The machine lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes on our battery tests.

Does the ROG Zephyrus GM 501 heats up?

To be frank, all gaming machines worth its salt are bound to get hot, it is inevitable with all the desktop competing muscle power packed into a laptop format what matters is how the OEMs match this with proper thermal control. For Zephyrus, Asus has come up with few tricks. It has designed with Nvidia, an Active Aerodynamics System with hardware modifications for heat management. When you open the lid, you find a 0.24-inch gap. The gap draws air into the system, which is then blow out of vents along the sides. There is also 71 thinner blades in the system. Having said that the machine does heat up but not to the point of uncomfortable propositions, you can still play while resting on the lap. The fans do make a bit of sound when you start playing not at alarming levels though.

Verdict – Is this the perfect gaming machine?

I cannot say if this is the perfect gaming machine, I haven’t tried all the mighty beasts out there but what I can confidently say is that the Asus Zephyrus ROG GM501 sits right on top of best gaming laptops system. It is amongst the best high configuration desktop machines in laptop form. For intense gamers, the Zephyrus ROG is a great pick offering a slim yet powerful machine.

What works for Zephyrus ROG:

Excellent build
Beast of a configuration
Good audio performance
144Hz refresh rate
upgradable memory
Good thermal management

What is bad

Short battery life
no built-in Ethernet jack

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Asus VivoBook S14 406UA Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 22:08:41 +0000

Asus has a wide portfolio in laptop ranging from the premium upmarket Zenbook series to the gamer’s delight ROG series and inbetween they also have the VivoBook series which offers a stylish, sleek look but at a price step lower than the Zenbooks. Within the VivoBook there are VivoBook, Vivobook S, VivoBook Flip, VivoBook Pro lineup. What we got today is the Asus VivoBook S14 406UA, a light weight sleek machine for on the go. Within the S14 there are two variants , the S406U which we got here and the S410U. While the design looks identical, there are few changes. To start with, the S406U has a HD panel while the S410UA models have a fullHD panel. The S406U has only SSD storage while the S410UA models have hard drive in addition to the SSDs, and hence also is slightly heavier and thicker.

Asus VivoBook S14 604UA Specifications

Display:

14″ TN LED display
1366 x 768 pixel

Processor :

Intel Core i5-8250U
Intel UHD Graphics 620

Memory:

8192 MB RAM DDR3L-1866, Dual-Channel
No memory slots

Mainboard:

Intel Kaby Lake-U iHDCP 2.2 Premium PCH

Storage:

SanDisk 256 GB SSD

Connections:

1 USB 2.0,
2 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1,
1 HDMI,
3.5mm audio port
Card Reader: MicroSD,
1 Fingerprint Reader

Networking:

Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless Network Adapter (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2

Battery:

39 Wh, 5070 mAh Lithium-Polymer, 7.7 V

Vivobook S14 604UA Design and build

What strikes an immediate note is that the VivoBook S14 604U is compact and lightweight, offering ultra portability. It weighs 1.2Kg and has a dimension reading 0.58 x 12.91 x 8.92 inch. It’s stylish and can work well for both professional and casual users. It is available in two color variants – the gold color if you want to flaunt it or the go quiet but solid looking grey color. While the chassis is made of plastic, the back of the display lid of the VivoBook has a metal construction. Its a mix of both, obviously to cut down the costs. The top side has a pleasant brushed metal effect, the trademark Asus concentric circle design is missing though. The plastic chassis also means you can notice quiet a bit of flex on the slightest of effort and can be bent with little pressure, it lacks firmness and hardness. The chassis lacks both firmness and rigidity. It can be bent or twisted with little effort.

The display can be pushed 120 degrees backwards, which was comfortable for usage in different positions. Tough the display can wobble easily and inherent poor design of the hinge that does not give amble support. While working on a desk or being stationary should not cause any wobbling, if you constantly work on a moving vehicle you might have a slight wobbling issues.

The sides of the laptop are fairly thin at 18.8mm enough to fit in the ports. The left side houses the DC power jack, USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-A), MicroHDMI, USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-C). For some reasons or may be due to the form factor, they have not included a full sized HDMI port. The other variant 410UA has a SD card slot and an HDMI port as well, both full-sized in case that matters for you.

The SD card reader (MicroSD), headphone/microphone combined jack, USB 2.0 (Type-A) are positioned at the right side.

The trackpad is wide enough and there is a fingerprint sensor in the corner. Again due to the plastic body construction, you notice good measure of flex on the trackpad when you press.

The S14 406U is equipped with a backlit chiclet-style keyboard. I found the keyboard even though on the same frame quiet easy to use, the keys have a short travel distance and a clear actuation point. We can conclude it has a decent keyboard that you won’t have difficulty for normal typing needs. Though, again the flex is noticeable at the middle but again this is not the top-of-the-line machine we are talking about.

There is also a HD-resolution webcam and the stereo speakers are tuned by Harman Kardon.

VivoBook S14 604UA Display

I was surprised Asus has opted for a resolution of 1366×768 for this machine, while the 610UA gets treated with a fullHD panel. There is no touch screen across the S14 variants. The screen has an anti-glare finish. So while using indoors under artificial lights, it works good. I found the brightness to be fairly adequate, though on technical side, the contrast ratio is a bit low. The bezels around the display are thin, which helps Asus to fit in a 14-inch panel in a normal 13-inch body.

Peformance

The S14 406UA comes in different processors – i5 8th generation and i3 7th generation, what I got was the i5 variant. So the internals of my unit has the Intel Core i5-8250U (Kaby Lake Refresh) quad-core processor with an integrated Intel UHD graphics 620. The processor comes with a base clock of 1.6 GHz. By means of Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology, the clock rate can be increased up to 3.4 GHz. It is also equipped with a 8 GB DDR4 1866MHz SDRAM. The SSD comes from SanDisk and has a total capacity of 256 GB. Right out of the box, only 205 GB is available to the user. The rest of the storage space is occupied by the Windows installation files and the Recovery Partition.

The VivoBook comes with Windows 10 Home preinstalled and full version of Microsoft’s office suite. Asus also has couple of their programs installed, for driver updates and battery management. Surprisingly, it also comes with CyberLink’s PowerDirector 14 video editing program, which I haven’t tried frankly since am at ease with Premiere Pro.

Booting takes around 13 seconds. The laptop was cool most of the time, I didn’t face any heating issue except when I was putting it through the Premier pro video tasks when I could hear the fan and the heat. If you are sucker of benchmark scores, on PCMark 10 it hit 3,536 points in PCMark 10, encoding the test video file in Handbrake took about 1 minute and 51 seconds. If you are keen at gaming, this is not really ideal for gaming, yes you can play games especially casual games should not be problem but if it is heavy graphic intense games it would be at low graphics settings for a smoother play.

These particular Vivobook is meant for productivity on the go and when I mean productivity it is not exactly heavy tasks like video editing, but I did use premier pro on few occasions when I had to edit video desperately and it did manage to get it done. So, the machine is quiet capable for the task but basically aimed at normal uses on the go. For everyday tasks, this machine is at ease. The battery life can extend to 7 hours on normal tasks.

Verdict:

What works for VivoBook S14 S406UA:

Good looks
Compact, sleek design
Light weight
SSD storage
Good for normal tasks
Decent battery life

What doesn’t work for VivoBook S14 S406UA

Flex due to plastic and thin construction
Only SSD storage and limited
No full-sized SD card slot

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Asus VivoBook S510U Review – Performance, Features and Verdict

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 13:27:44 +0000

Asus VivoBook S is an underrated laptop range overlooked by many, it has the looks and features that very few competing models offer for the same kind of money right now and comes packed with backlit keyboard, matte IPS screen, good IO, fast wireless and modern hardware. VivoBook range is a wide series of laptop with different configurations to choose from. Aavailable in a bunch of different options, with dedicated graphics (S510UN – MX150, S510UQ – 940MX, S510UR – 930MX) or without (S510UA), as well as various Intel Core U processors, screen options and amounts of memory and storage to fit your needs. If you are thinking of buying a laptop, go ahead read our Asus VivoBook S510U review, and see what I have to conclude after using the laptop for a week now using it for both work and play. Specs of the model I reviewed:

	ASUS VivoBook S15 S510UQ
Screen	15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, IPS, non-touch, matte
Processor	Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-8550U CPU
Video	Intel HD 620 + Nvidia GTX 940MX 2 GB GDDR5
Memory	8GB*2 DDR4
Storage	128 GB SSD (SATA3) + 1TB 5400 rpm HDD (2.5″)
Connectivity	Intel AC 8265 Wireless AC , Bluetooth 4.1
Ports	2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.1 gen 1, HDMI, mic/earphone, SD card reader
Battery	42 Wh, 65 Wh charger
Operating system	Windows 10
Size	362 mm or 14.25” (w) x 242 mm or 9.52” (d) x 18 mm or 0.70” (h)
Weight	1.62 kg + .24 kg charger and cables
Extras	white backlit keyboard, VGA webcam, stereo speakers

Design and build quality

The VivoBook S series uses a mix of aluminum and plastic for its construction. The top is metal with a gold, brushed finish while the bottom and the interiors are made of plastic. A clever mix of materials to make the laptop look good while ensuring it weighs less. The gold brushed look reminds me of the many Smartphones you see these days. The laptop is easy to carry around and is fairly thin. Thanks to the metal lid, it feels adequately strong to protect the screen beneath. When you open up, the main frame is plastics and unless you are used to a sturdy, metal chasis in your earlier laptop, you won’t find it bothering much. What you get is a matte IPS screen, which I personally prefer over glossy displays. The bezels are thin measuring just 7.8mm. The palm rest is spacious enough to work with and it fits in a proper keyboard and still have space for a big trackpad. The screen can tilt back to about 150 degrees. The model I have sports a 1920 x 1080 resolution, while there is also a 1366 x 768 option available. The display is sharp, with vivid colors and saturation and free of reflections. The brightness could have a been a little more, if I have to nitpick. The texts are sharp and watching movies had been a good experience. The right side houses the 3.5mm audio jack, a lone USB C port ( Gen 1 without Thunderbolt 3), full-size HDMI, a USB 3.1 port, and the DC charging port. The left side is where you’ll find both USB 2.0 ports and a standard SD card reader. You do feel the keyboard flex at the center not during regular use but if you deliberately apply a bit of pressure, a tell-sign of the plastic construction. The keyboard is nicely spaced and I had no issues or nags while punching the keys. The keypad is backlit, with white white LEDs and you can choose from two brightness levels. There is no separate numerical pad though, while I didn’t miss it for those working on a lot of numbers, the absence would be felt. The fingerprint reader is located in the top-right corner of the trackpad. The placement at the top right corner of the trackpad doesn’t hinder the general gestures you use on the trackpad. The fingerprint sensor works with Windows Hello to personalize sign-ins.

Performance:

Talking about daily use and pefrormance, overall the VivoBook S is a one good machine to work with. Though I should mention, I had one of the top line model with a highly capable hardware. It’s a nimble workhorse and I didn’t find it strain at the tasks I put it to. It delivers sprightly performance, with quick system startup and app launches and hiccup-free multitasking. It didn’t sweat during my office work, web browsing and even some bit of video editing on it. The machine I used was not entirely quiet, the hiss was a bit audible. Connectivity wise there’s Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.1 in this laptop. Asus has opted for Intel 8265 wireless and I didn’t had any issue with the wireless signal quality and performance.

Battery Life:

Asus claims a battery life of eight hours , but let’s do a reality check. The 42 Wh battery inside might be slightly lesser than what some of the competition offer at this range. It got me around 4 hours in average when put to use. The power brick is compact and you can quickly charge the battery’s capacity to 60% in about 50 minutes. The small sized power brick is a bit of a consolation since it occupies relatively less space in my bag compared to the one that comes from my own laptop.

Verdict:

Asus VivoBook S510U offers a good options if you are scouting for a laptop. It’s light weight and easy to carry around, the gold-brushed metal does look good though not exactly flauntable material. It’s a practical machine to own and comes in various configuration with modern requirements and bells and whistles like fingerprint sensor. The battery is a let down though, though not bad enough. The top model I used, hits all the checklist for a decent performance.]]>

Smartron tBook Unboxing and First Impression

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 01:34:18 +0000

While the tablets market is nosediving, the 2-in-1 segment is booming. They are convenient and are versatile. While the Surface Pro is the ultimate dream machine at one end of the spectrum, the other end has many entry-level machines running on piddly Intel Atom processors but Smartron, a new desi brand takes the middle path. It’s affordable, functional and can perform decently well running on Intel Core M and it got the good looks too. In case you were living in dark lately, Smartron is an Indian company with big ambitions in IoT and they launched the tBook, a 2-in-1 detachable a few weeks back at Rs 39,999 and tPhone, their first Android Smartphone will make the debut next month. That Sachin Tendulkar has been impressed with the company and is backing it as an investor and brand ambassador gives the brand the extra visibility. We got the retail box of the Smartron tBook and here is the unboxing and first impression of the convertible which runs on Windows 10 and retails at Gadgets360 and I was told will also hit the offline market very soon. The packaging is interesting. Once unsealed, it cannot be reused. So when you buy this from a store or online, you can be rest assured that its a fresh piece from the manufacturer and is not opened up for demo purposes or for any other reason earlier. A neat sturdy, white box sits inside with Smartron branding. The box gives a positive vibe, detailing matters at every stage and so far, so smart. Open the lid and sits the tBook. The box content also includes the keyboard And the power brick with type-C adapter. The t-Book has a 12.2-inch WQXGA display with IPS technology and supports multi-touch, the display has an oleophopic coating that avoids fingerprint smudges. The 2560-by-1600 resolution (2K) is a surprise addition at this price segment. It looks very similar to Surface Pro but has a noticeable weight to it but it also gives the user a sturdy, solid build quality. It is made of Magnesium and Aluminum chassis. The dual tone shade of burnt orange and grey gives it a very characteristic look. We don’t come across color dressing in this category routinely but there is also an all grey variant, in case you like to go subtle. I personally is fond of this oxidized orange shade and Smartron has done a fab job at the finishing and build quality. A flip out stand is tucked in to the surface and is easy to release and is secures well. A cut out on the right bottom helps to easily flip the stand out and a 3.5 mm audio jack sits next to it. The power and volume bottons are at the top. The right side has all the ports. • 2xFull-size USB 3.0 • Micro HDMI port • Micro SD card slot, expandable upto 128GB • Type C(for charging) along with USB 3.0 The bottom has the magnetic pogo pin for keyboard. The detachable keyboard docks easily to the tablet to get into the laptop mode. The keyboard is full sized and is easy to type. Though the track pad was over sensitive and a slightest touch annoyingly makes the browser smaller in the middle of the work. When the feedback was given to the Smartron team, they assured an update will fix the issue. Otherwise the keyboard works well plus it also serves as a flip cover for the display. The t-Book has dual stereo speakers at the front and dual microphone nor noise cancellation. It is also equipped with a 5MP rear camera with autofocus and a front facing 2MP camera that can take HD video. Powering the t-Book is 64-bit, Intel Core M processor offering a ‘good enough’ level of performance and a better power management operatimg at a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of just 4.5 watts. A 4Gb of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM is included and the tB0ok comes with a SSD storage of 128GB capacity. The microSD card can support another 128GB. Smartron t-Book has a 10000mAh battery and the company claims it offers 10 hours of web browsing and 28 days of standby time. I will validate the battery life in my complete review after testing the product for a week. My initial impression on the tBook remains optimistic. Good looks, attractive dual-color, solid build quality , neat display with brilliant touch response and my few hours spend on it so far (in fact am drafting this article on the tBook) has given it a positive start. ]]>