Smartphones and tablets rule people’s screen time, but there’s still a need for a “real” computer sometimes (especially if you have an IT team at office that insists on a number of security features) — and for most people, that means a laptop. For school and office work and tasks like creating spreadsheets and editing videos, there are hardly any substitutes for a decent keyboard and a big screen. One option is to buy a MacBook and forget about everything else. But if you are keen on buying a Windows laptop, there are plenty of options.

Recently we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro, which is a great option, especially for Samsung users. What about something else? Asus Vivobook S16. If you need a thin, light and portable Windows laptop with good battery life to get you through a full day of work or classes, the option from Asus won’t disappoint. It’s powerful enough to do everything most people need a computer for.

Clean design

Asus manages to keep the design clean and minimal with only the logo on the cover. Instead of a wide hinge, you get two separate pieces holding up the display and the lid stays firm when you are working on the machine, no matter how hard you punch the keys. The display can go 180-degree flat because of the hinge but what’s the point of having this is beyond me.

There is a full-sized keyboard but the numpad feels cramped.

Despite having a massive 16-inch OLED display, the laptop is quite portable at 13.9 mm thickness and weighs around 1.5kg. Compared to the 2.5kg Legion Pro 7i, Asus goes easy on the shoulders. Even the build quality is appealing — Asus has used metal entirely. There are plenty of air vents at the back. Winning the laptop brownie points is the number of ports — two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a microSD card reader and an audio jack.

Asus is offering a biggish trackpad, which is highly responsive and the cursor movement is fairly precise with the movement of your fingers and the palm rejection is good. You get a full-size keyboard with a numpad as well. Here’s a quibble: The numpad is slightly narrow and the keys are small for my fingers. It’s so close to the enter and backspace keys that I keep pressing the numbers.

The full-sized RGB-illuminated keyboard otherwise is comfortable to work with. Keeping up the trend of adding AI functionality to devices, there is a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard but I wish they brought back the right Ctrl key. There is no dedicated fingerprint sensor, so users will have to use Windows’ Face Unlock. How does it fare with the keyboard on the Samsung laptop? The South Korean company is a few points ahead because of the clickety-click feel on its keyboard.

Asus has put in a webcam that should see you through a few years. The 1080p IR camera comes with a dedicated cover to protect your privacy. If you are using the camera app, you will get access to Windows Studio features, so you get automatic framing, eye tracking and background effects.

OLED magic

Asus has been trying to win hearts with its killer display. The OLED panel can reach a peak brightness of 600 nits. The 16-inch 3.2K Lumina OLED display with 3,200 x 2,000 pixel resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and 16:10 aspect ratio is brilliant and goes toes to toe with Samsung’s offerings in terms of clarity. The display has a 100 per cent DCI-P3 colour gamut and Pantone validation for professional-grade colour accuracy. I checked out plenty of HDR videos on YouTube and Netflix… they play out flawlessly.

The laptop has a metal chassis and comes with a powerful chipset.

The immersive screen is also good for browsing the Internet, keying in documents and for PowerPoint presentations. For best results, head into the MyASUS app and select the DCI-P3 colour option.

Keeping the colour-rich visuals company is the Harman Kardon-certified audio experience. When the sound hits flat surfaces, it bounces off to become loud. There is also support for Dolby Atmos and while it can get loud, even at peak volumes there is no distortion.

Inside out

Powering the unit is the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor — 155H. A powerful chipset with integrated Intel ARC graphics and up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, it presents top-of-the-line performance, even when running demanding applications. Be it editing short videos, correcting pictures on Adobe Photoshop, switching between video and audio streaming and going through office work, the laptop can handle everything with ease.

Playing a game like Forza Horizon 5 offers a decent experience and when it comes to indie games, expect excellent performance. After using demanding tasks for, say, one hour the laptop gets slightly warm but it manages to maintain the thermals during most benchmark tests.

Should you buy it?

Even if the company talks of 15-16 hours of battery life, expect to get around nine-odd hours because of demanding office tasks. That’s a decent figure for most users. Battery life will be shorter for users who are constantly playing games. Overall, I would recommend the laptop for offering fantastic value. It has the combination of what makes an ultrabook great: Offering fast performance, all-day battery life, a quality keyboard and a vivid screen, all in a light body.

At a glance

Device: Asus Vivobook S16

Price: Rs 116,990

High notes

• Vivid display

• Excellent processor

• Solid build quality and battery life

• Highly portable

Muffled note

• Numpad is cramped