Asus has launched several laptops in the Vivobook line until the middle of this year. One of the newest variants is the Vivobook Ultra 15 (K513) which was launched last June.
This 15.6-inch laptop is designed for millennials and Gen Z who are looking for a professional but not too serious laptop. What's the performance like? Let's see the full review below.
Design
The first impression of seeing the Vivobook Ultra 15 is its minimalist design. The back is made of metal only decorated with the inscription Asus Vivobook engraved.
This laptop comes in three color choices, namely Transparent Silver, Indie Black and Hearty Gold, so users can choose a color variant that suits their personality. The variant that visited our own editor was Transparent Silver.
Asus champions the portability of the Vivobook Ultra 15 which, despite its large size, is claimed to be comfortable to carry everywhere. This laptop weighs only 1.7 kg, and the body is also relatively thin with a thickness of 17.9 mm which should still be quite light if you have to carry work while moving around.
The Vivobook Ultra 15 uses a 98-keys keyboard, including the numeric keyboard on its right side. This chiclet-style keyboard is quite large and soft when pressed. This keyboard is also equipped with a backlit whose brightness level can be adjusted.
Because this laptop has numeric keys, the location of the touchpad is slightly shifted to the left so that it is aligned with the main keyboard and so that it is not easily pressed when typing. The size of the touchpad is quite large and responsive to touch. In the upper right corner of the touchpad there is also a fingerprint sensor which is also responsive.
Vivobook Ultra 15 has quite complete ports and connectivity. On the right side there is an HDMI port, one USB 3.2 Type-A, one USB Type-C, 3.5 mm audio jack and a microSD reader. While on the left side there are two USB 2.0 Type-A. For wireless connectivity available Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
On the left there is also an indicator light that will light up when the battery is recharged and will change color when the battery is full. For charging itself, the Vivobook Ultra 15 still uses an AC adapter, not via USB Type-C.
Screen
Asus provides the Vivobook Ultra 15 with a 15.6-inch IPS screen. This matte screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) and a viewing angle of up to 178 degrees.
The screen bezels are quite thin on the left and right, but still quite thick on the top and bottom. Asus says the screen-to-body ratio of this laptop reaches 85% thanks to NanoEdge Display technology.
The colors displayed are fairly good, but unfortunately the visibility is somewhat reduced when the laptop is used outdoors even when the brightness level has been raised to maximum.
Feature
Asus has embedded many supporting features for the Vivobook Ultra 15. To add security and privacy, there is a fingerprint sensor on the touchpad that is integrated with Windows Hello.
To support work from home, the Vivobook Ultra 15 also has a low-quality 720p webcam and a microphone equipped with AI noise canceling technology. On the keyboard there is also a button that can be used to turn off the webcam when not in use.
The presence of audio from Harman Kardon adds to the multimedia experience offered by the Vivobook Ultra 15. Thanks to this technology, the laptop speakers produce audio that is more bassy and more suitable for watching movies than listening to songs.
Performance
Asus advocates the Vivobook Ultra 15 as a reliable laptop for work and gaming. Let's discuss the innards and performance of this laptop.
The Vivobook Ultra 15 comes with an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor which has a configuration of four cores and eight threads. As the name implies, this is an 11th generation Intel Core processor which is the latest variant at this time.
This processor is combined with an Nvidia GEForce MX350 graphics card which makes its performance when processing graphics and playing games more stable. Support for 8GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB PCIe SSD makes the multitasking process run smoothly without a hitch.
Asus also provides an extra slot for 2.5 "SATA which is useful for increasing storage capacity using a SATA HDD or SSD. There is also an extra SODIMM slot that can be used to upgrade RAM up to 16GB.
With the specifications above, standard usage such as browsing (while opening dozens of tabs at once), accessing Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point), and online meetings via Zoom can be carried out smoothly.
We did a benchmark test using PCMark 10 and this laptop managed to record a pretty satisfactory score of 4,661. While the benchmark test through Cinebench R23, the single core score recorded was 4,812 and the multi-core score was 1,346.
Asus claims the Vivobook Ultra 15 can be used to play casual games, and with specifications like this playing AAA games is still out of reach. We tried to play two games, namely Fall Guys and Genshin Impact.
This laptop can play Fall Guys games smoothly even with the highest resolution and 60Hz frame rate. When used to play Genshin Impact, it can be with Low resolution, but the frame rate cannot be increased to 60Hz because the game will stutter when fighting with many enemies.
When launched for benchmark testing or playing games, the laptop body and keyboard only feel a little warm but still comfortable to the touch. Asus has equipped this laptop with special cooling technology powered by the latest IceBlades fans.
Then what about the battery performance? The 42Whrs battery used by the Vivobook Ultra 15 can last about six hours when used for browsing, chatting on WhatsApp, watching YouTube, playing music on Spotify, and conducting video conferences via Zoom. Charging the battery fully takes about 70 minutes.
Oh yes, the Vivobook Ultra 15 sales package includes Windows 10 Home and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019. Asus guarantees that this laptop will get Windows 11 updates for free. We tried to run Windows 11 beta version on this laptop and all the functions worked fine.
Our opinion
The Asus Vivobook Ultra 15 is arguably a laptop that offers a complete package. The specifications make this laptop very universal, suitable for use by busy professionals or young people who like gaming and streaming.
The ports offered are quite complete, but it would be even better if the USB 3.2 Type-A and USB 3.2 Type-C ports were increased because they would support this laptop to be more future proof.
Another drawback is the battery. As a laptop that favors portability, Asus should have provided a battery with a larger capacity so that it can be carried around for work without having to worry about running out of battery.
But at least the Vivobook Ultra 15 is equipped with a fast charging charger that is quite fast, so the battery can be charged faster. As a laptop with an affordable price, the specifications and features are indeed solid but there are still many aspects that can be improved