Zippy and perfect for long-term use. There will always be compromises when a laptop needs to be bought on a budget but what are the features you are willing to skip? On the ASUS shVivoBook K15 OLED, performance is not something you have to worry about, especially because it comes with Ryzen 5 Hexa Core 5500U processor.
It’s that time of the year when upgrades are taking place because of the festive season, be it phones, TVs or laptops, plus, with people slowly returning to office, there is a need to get a good laptop. We tried out the ASUS VivoBook K15 OLED and tell you what, it’s a stunning computer if you view an abundance of content on a laptop or use it as a machine for all office duties.
OLED screens can be expensive on a laptop but this one has you covered. The 15.6-inch FHD screen offers 100 per cent DCI-P3 colour accuracy, there is a very high contrast ratio and blue light is not an issue. Over the course of two weeks, there have been no complains about eye fatigue and the screen can get bright enough for work even in full sunshine.
A lot of my personal work involves photo editing, which I could do even on the fly (the machine weighs around 1.8kg, which is fine for most users to carry around) and viewing angles are quite good. When faced with videos, once again, there are no issues and the colours pop while the sound is not only loud, it’s clear, thanks to the down-firing Harman-Kardon stereo speakers. More like a quibble, it would have been worthwhile had the company’s ErgoLift feature been there, which allows to get the most out of speakers while delivering a clearer sound.
Coming to operations, it’s a full-size keyboard with a number keypad. Though the shift keys are slightly small in size, there is no discomfort while typing. Good key travel (though I would have liked a bit more of the clicktey-click magic) and good quality keys make this laptop a good choice for those who key in a lot of documents during the course of work. The trackpad is of good quality with zero flex but allow me to split hairs. The fingerprint scanner is housed within the trackpad, so there is a little dead space and the size of the trackpad could have been slightly bigger. The backlighting on the keyboard has three levels, which is sufficient in most use cases.
The area where the laptop scores in plenty is performance. Powered by AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor with Radeon Graphics, I managed to do a fair bit video editing with a couple of layers. There are six cores and 12 threads while the version I had for review came with 8GB RAM. Was it as fast as MacBook Pro with M1? No, the two are in different categories, so a comparison doesn’t work. Most games can be played on medium graphic settings, which is enough for most users, which is basically the office-going crowd. Photo-editing wasn’t a problem either, especially because of the excellent OLED screen. In fact, there are quite a few variants of this machine in the market and if you are into content development, I suggest you go for the AMD version. The slightly thick bezel on the top is home to a 720p webcam, which is enough to get work done but the quality of the microphone is exceptionally good.
To get the maximum out of this machine, adjust the performance mode with the Fn-F control, which toggles between Whisper, Balanced and Performance modes. If you like to watch films, browse or use the machine for editing, keep it in Whisper mode. For light gaming, move to Balanced mode, which is perfect for most activities, or switch to top gear. The thermals are quite good and the machine doesn’t heat up and at the same time offers a sustained performance. You wouldn’t hear the fans going bonkers at any point. Once again, ErgoLift could have been a good addition for thermals.
Since I used the machine for a fair bit of video consumption, some photo editing and a little bit of video editing, I managed to get seven-odd hours easily (and that too keeping the brightness very high). The machine comes with Windows 10 but during set up (or later) you have the option to upgrade to Windows 11. Juicing up doesn’t take too long but I would have liked to see USB-C charging.
In case you are looking for a new laptop, this is a serious contender, especially because of the OLED screen and AMD processor. Reliable and comes with a premium finish, ASUS VivoBook K15 OLED fires on all cylinders.
At a glance
Device: ASUS VivoBook K15 OLED
Price: Rs 61,990
Ports: USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, two USB 2.0 Type-A, HDMI 1.4, microSD card reader, mic/headphone
High notes
• OLED screen without breaking the bank
• Ryzen 5 Hexa Core 5500U processor makes the computer function smoothly
• Premium finish
• Good audio output
Muffled notes
• The fingerprint scanner could have been outside the trackpad
l Shift keys could have been bigger
