Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip review | A stylish value-for-money 2-in-1 laptop 

With good performance, a sturdy build, and an amazing display, the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is a value-for-money device in its segment

April 19, 2023 01:26 pm | Updated 01:26 pm IST

The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip looks stylish with an all-aluminium metal body- it looks particularly attractive in the Quiet Blue colour.

The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip looks stylish with an all-aluminium metal body- it looks particularly attractive in the Quiet Blue colour. | Photo Credit: Nabeel Ahmed

Asus has established itself as a brand that provides good specifications with great build quality at competitive prices. The brand has consistently delivered laptops in clamshell and 2-in-1 designs that appeal to and easily satisfy the needs of users.

We received the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip 2-in-1 laptop with the 6 Core AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU, clocked at 4.3 GHz. The device we received came in the Quiet Blue colour. We tested it to see if it lived up to expectations and here is what we found.

In the box

The box comes with the device, a 45-watt power cable, and relevant paperwork. The box also housed the Asus Pen 2.0 stylus, which comes with four different nibs offering textures similar to HB and B pencils.

Design

The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip looks stylish with an all-aluminium metal body- it looks particularly attractive in the Quiet Blue colour. The Vivibook logo badge on the lid stands out giving the device a unique look. The device comes with an 85% screen-to-body ratio which makes it feel premium.

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Overall, the build quality of the device is good and its 18mm thickness feels sturdy in the hand. However, with a 14-inch all metal body weighing 1.5kg, it feels heavy when used in tablet mode.

The laptop comes with two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports and 2 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, one on each side. The charging port, HDMI 2.0 port and the 3.5mm combo audio jack are located on the right side. The ports are conveniently placed and we faced no problems while using them.

The full HD 3DNR webcam, which comes with a privacy shutter, is placed in the top bezel and does not intrude into the screen. The screen itself feels compact and sits flush with the body.

The touchscreen functionality on the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is good and was responsive when using it with our fingers.

The touchscreen functionality on the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is good and was responsive when using it with our fingers. | Photo Credit: Nabeel Ahmed

The fingerprint sensor, exclusive to the 16GB variant, is housed in the power button and is easy to reach. It is fairly accurate - it was only when we tried the sensor with soiled fingers that it took multiple tries to unlock the device, but this was enough time to have unlocked it via the face sensor.

Stereo speakers are placed on either end of the bottom panel.

Display

The Vivobook S 14 Flip gets a 14-inch WUXGA 1920X1200 IPS touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass. A 16:10 aspect ratio combined with thin bezels, on a device with an 85% screen-to-body ratio, makes the display an easy one to recommend.

With a peak brightness of 300 nits, we did not face any problems when using the device for streaming content, reading or light design work in brightly lit rooms. In outdoor environments, though, the 300 nits brightness does make itself felt. But while not great, it is usable.

Overall, we did not face any problems and enjoyed using the device for content viewing, day-to-day work, and light gaming.

The touchscreen functionality is also good, and it was responsive when using it with our fingers. However, the performance of the pressure sensitive stylus was unimpressive. We had to constantly check the angle at which the stylus touched the screen for it to be accurate. This, though, seemed to be more of a problem with the stylus than with the display, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Performance

The Vivibook 14 S Flip, as we mentioned, comes powered with the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU. Powered by 6 cores, the CPU clocks speeds of 4.3 GHz and is supported by 16GB RAM DDR4 RAM and 512GB PCLe Gen 3 SSD. The laptop also gets the AMD Radeon graphics card.

The machine is more than capable of handling day-to-day use, and we did not face any lags or drop in performance even after extended use. Noise from the internal fans is also muted and they only become audible when the system is pushed hard. Even then, they sound more like a background hum than fans from other convertible laptops we have tested.

The Vivobook S 14 Flip gets a 14-inch WUXGA 1920X1200 IPS touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass.

The Vivobook S 14 Flip gets a 14-inch WUXGA 1920X1200 IPS touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass. | Photo Credit: Nabeel Ahmed

The backlit keyboard is also up to scratch. We found the keys with 1.4mm key travel and 19mm key pitch to have decent feedback with good spacing. The 129X73mm touchpad, too, was responsive and easy to use. We would have liked a little more feedback from the buttons at the lower end of the touchpad, but the experience was nevertheless good.

The Full HD camera is also good for video calls and conferences. However, the performance of the speakers is not great. We found ourselves reaching for headsets to be able to consume content on the laptop when a window air conditioner was switched on.

Battery and connectivity

With its 50WHrs battery, the Vivobook 14 S Flip has enough power for 5 to 6 hours of content use with multiple browser tabs and simultaneous video playback. Charging speeds are also good and the device can easily charge from 0 to 80% in two hours, despite constant use.

The device comes with WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity. Internet connectivity speeds are good, and the Bluetooth was easily able to pick up devices for connection.

Verdict

The Asus Vivobook 14 S Flip, with its good specifications, great build quality and performance ticks all the right boxes for a convertible device in its segment. Though it does suffer from some of the usual Asus shortcomings like weak speaker and stylus performance, we did not feel like these were deal breakers.

The Vivobook 14 S Flip retails for ₹74,990.

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