ASUS Vivobook 15 X515EA 15.6 Full HD Laptop (Intel i5-1135G7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Windows 11)

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing laptop, rubbish thermal paste application
First off, amazing laptop, top performance (i7 12th gen) OLED screen is beautiful, can’t praise this laptop enough, however…fan would ramp up often and I thought is was due to the performance of the CPU and not great cooling as it thermal throttled running Cinebench. I thought I would add some liquid metal thermal paste to see if I can improve cooling, I took it apart (a breeze by the way) removed the heat sink and found…just the worst application of thermal paste, didn’t cover the CPU!! added some liquid metal and the idle temps went from 55c to 25c, ran Cinebench and temps topped out at 65c!!! come on Asus a little product control would not go a miss. Should you buy this laptop…Absolutely and if your temps are high or fan ramps up often, check the thermal paste, you don’t need liquid metal just good application.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Laptop
This is a great laptop with a quality OLED Display. Very responsive and has a back lit keyboard which makes working at night that bit easier. All in all very happy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Superfast processor
I bought this laptop to replace an old very slow HP. First of all the setup was really easy I was up and running in minutes. The performance of this laptop certainly didn’t disappoint really quick and the Oled display is pin sharp. Not sure about battery life as generally I have it plugged in and I am not a gamer. For my needs this laptop is perfect and I thoroughly recommend it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Rapid laptop with incredible display, not the best battery life
The Vivobook S 14 OLED offers a ridiculous set of features for its price. With a 12th-gen Intel processor, 16GB RAM, lightning fast PCIe storage and a gorgeous display, the laptop really seems to sit in a league of it’s own when it comes to the £500-700 laptop bracket. The design is understated and well built, with some obvious nods to Apple’s recently refreshed lineup of Macbooks – the thin bezels, minimalist silver body and large touchpad. I wish they didn’t include the obnoxious harmon/kardon branding underneath the keyboard, and I’m not a fan of the orange escape key, but overall it’s a nice looking machine. The display is absolutely gorgeous, and is what ultimately drew me towards the Vivobook in the first place. It’s 2.8k resolution, 90hz refresh rate and 600 nits peak brightness make it stand out even against laptops worth considerably more, including the M2 Macbook Air. It’s a pleasure to watch movies, browse the internet and even play some lighter games. Colours are vibrant and blacks are deep, and the 90hz refresh rate makes the whole laptop feel buttery smooth. It features a decent I/O configuration as well. On the right side, we find 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (very nice), a HDMI port, a single USB 3 port and the headphone jack. On the right, a single USB 2 port, which is appreciated, but I would’ve loved to swap this with one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports to allow me to charge from both sides.

The combination of the i5-12500h and 16GB of 3200mhz means that this is a laptop capable of more than just web browsing. I use Ableton Live 11, and one of the main reasons for purchasing a laptop in the first place was to allow me to take my music with me to the studio or on long journeys, so a capable, powerful laptop was essential. The Vivobook does brilliant in this regard, handling multiple tracks with numerous plugins all at once without slowing down too much. Of course, compared to more powerful desktop pc’s and other higher end laptops, it struggles with larger projects, but for throwing down ideas and editing existing projects, the Vivobook is great. I tried playing a few titles from my Steam library as well, and, whilst you certainly won’t be doing any heavy gaming due to it’s discrete graphics, the laptop handled smaller titles well and was enjoyable to play. In fact, the display is so beautiful that I sacrificed higher frame rates for higher settings in some titles just to experience that OLED panel.

However, all these components need powering at the end of the day, and this is where, in my opinion, the weakest factor of the Vivobook lies – battery life. With a full charge, I was only able to make it to 8pm with light use throughout the day before the battery reached 10%, and this didn’t include any heavy-load programs like Ableton or games. To be fair, the incldued charger does charge relatively quickly, but I would definitely suggest taking it with you if you expect to be out the house for more than a few hours. It’s to be expected in a laptop of such a low profile with mid-high end specs, but it’s still frustrating to be constantly watching the battery icon as soon as you turn the brightness up or open a few different windows at once.

Overall though, this is definitely a laptop I would recommend, especially if you’re particular to a good display. It really is that beautiful, and is usually only found on laptops far more pricey. It’s got a clicky and satisfying keyboard, a big, responsive touchpad, and a display that makes even the most mundane tasks enjoyable. The battery life isn’t the best, but as long as you don’t mind carrying your charger in your bag, this isn’t too big of an issue. A sleek, fast laptop that you should seriously consider.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great laptop, amazing screen & lower battery life
The specs are great, no issues at all. The laptop is super fast and manages a big load, it is light and the screen is just amazing! Colours are very rich and it is nice to look at. The battery is a lower side unfortunately but doable (lasts around 4 hours of full use I think, but haven’t tested it that well yet). The keyboard is fabulous, touchpad as well. Speakers are of poorer quality so I use headphones for meetings to hear well. Camera cover that is fitted in is useful so you don’t need to stick anything on it. It scans finger print for a qucik sign in and has new useful ports. No problems with overheating even on flat surface. Overall, I am super pleased with this laptop that I hope will last long.