The office-going crowd doesn’t care much about gaming during breaks at the workplace or for that matter, editing long videos. To them productivity apps are everything. And that is the crowd Asus Vivobook 14 OLED has in mind. It’s also a machine that will be a joy for anyone who likes to watch films and wants the best colour output.
Faultless display
It’s very difficult to pinpoint one big feature about this laptop. Be it the screen or performance, both are solid. Let’s begin with the display. The 14-inch display supports 90Hz refresh rate, which at once ensures a smooth scrolling experience. At this price point, most laptops come with an LCD screen. Not Asus, which is going for colour-rich panels. Of course, you maybe concerned with the longevity of OLED panels. Asus has you covered. The company has pixel refresh and pixel shift technology in place to avoid burn-in problems. Pixel shift slightly shifts every pixel on the screen a little bit over time, something you may have seen on your phone’s always-on display, while pixel refresh is just a screensaver, so nothing static stays on the screen.
I’ve used the laptop over 12-13 days and my favourite show has been Wednesday on Netflix, the supernatural comedy-horror series that has Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family. Each episode is packed with contrasting colours, especially black and white. Blacks appear inky and the whites are very bright. The display supports a peak brightness of 600 nits and for a laptop that is really bright while most laptops in this segment offer between 200 and 400 nits. The only feature I found missing is an anti-glare panel.
Build and keyboard
The build is equally fantastic. It is not that heavy and weighs around 1.6kg, which is normal for a laptop and it can easily slip into your bag. You can easily open the lid with one hand. It’s not only handy for day-to-day usage, it shows that the hinge is really good. Most budget Windows laptops give up on the hinge easily. Not this one. And there is no flex on the display, so while typing the screen doesn’t wobble.
For connectivity, there are three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port and one HDMI port.
The camera is passable and brands should look beyond 720pm webcams. Not that this 720p webcam won’t help during video calls but things can be better.
Typing on the laptop is very smooth and fluid. There is no flex. The keys and the trackpad are big enough for typing, which is important for any office-goer. And the trackpad has good thumb and palm rejection, which is really useful. The power button is the second key from the right on the top row. I like this move by Asus because users often accidentally hit the power button instead of delete.
Let’s talk about performance
The review unit came with 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U processor with 16GB RAM. It is blazing fast to run productivity-related software, be it working on PowerPoint presentations on the fly, Slack, CMS system, light photo editing and even some video editing. I kept multiple tabs open on Chrome without any issues.
What about gaming? You can certainly play most games if you compromise on graphics settings. This is primarily a laptop for the office crowd, so don’t expect anything extravagant in the gaming zone. Video editing can also be done but as long as you keep it to short videos.
Should you buy it?
In way of audio, the speakers are loud enough for everyday usage. If you are by yourself in a quiet room, the speakers should do the trick. Battery life is enough to take you through an average working day while the charger in the box is small enough to be carried around. Overall, Asus Vivobook 14 OLED is a practical choice for the office-going crowd.
At a glance
Device: Asus Vivobook 14 OLED
Price: Upwards of Rs 54,990
High notes
- Excellent OLED display
- Comfortable typing experience
- Sturdy build
- Light and portable
Muffled note
- 720p webcam