2024 witnessed the emergence ofSnapdragon - powered thin - and - visible light laptopsbut at exorbitant prices . This year , the technology is flowing down to the budget section with Qualcomm declare a stripped - down Snapdragon X chipset , while it make to launchmore high - close microprocessor chip next year . The low - power chipset is opening the gate to a new category and adding to some of thebest value for money laptops , such as the Asus Vivobook 16 ( X1607QA ) .

The Vivobook 16 comes with traits that seem unflattering at first coup d’oeil . But its carrying into action in line with Intel ’s entrance - tier laptop computer micro chip as well as a becoming battery put make it middling worthy for a budget laptop .

Specs and configuration

The Asus Vivobook 16 ( X1607QA ) comes with two storage sizes , with the 512 GB variant initiate at $ 800 . Asus also lists a 1 TB model on theproduct page , but it ’s not straightaway uncommitted to purchase on online retail site .

Design

permit me begin with honestness . The Vivobook 16 with a Snapdragon X chipset lacks any special feature to help it stand out in a sea of budget laptop . Rather , its forte include good performance , respectable I / atomic number 8 option , and an excellent battery that I will discuss in the later sections .

The body is made of plastic ; shiny material deal the top case and display ’s palpebra while body - color matte finish drapes the bottom , with two colour selection : shining silver and dark blue . The bottom plate develop two elevated ridges along the width , with golosh pes at both close .

Despite the material used , the Vivobook 16 ’s body flex only under significant pressure . Asus boldly arrogate that the laptop snag a MIL - STD-810H certification . The accreditation process necessitate examination in extremely high and depressed temperature , at gamey altitudes , and subjecting the laptop to seismic disturbance , such as from a sudden unexpected drop . Of course , these trial run must be treated like assurances and not guarantees , and Asus will not cover any wrong under guarantee .

Meanwhile , the physical structure feel resistive to quotidian example of spoil and carelessness . dinero from fingernails are not visible from my four week with the machine , but the shiny bits are prone to perspire print . Wiping it with a microfiber textile — or in sure cases , rubbing alcoholic beverage — should houseclean it considerably .

The bezels around the display use a plastic carapace with a specked patten . Its tone is suited to the price , though the slimness on the sides worries me about potential cracking or flake off off over gallop usage . The top bezel cuddle the Full HD webcam with a physical skid cover . On the side , there is an infrared projector and an infrared camera for facial certification with Windows Hello . Another circular cutout come along to harbour the ambient sensing element responsible for for adjust the screen ’s and keyboard ’s brightness .

The hinge incline to shake when you typewrite quickly , when there are subtle oscillation on the table , or under the overhead devotee , which I happen a bit distracting .

On the confident side , the chapeau open up to fill 180 - degrees , allow for more flexible apparatus , or postures . The bottom half stay glued to the table when you ’re lifting the lid with a single hand , which is another plus .

While the design is n’t truly awe - inspiring — or as premium as some of Asus ’ little 14 - inch notebooks in the Zenbook serial , it does not feel lack much . Yes , a metal case would be more exciting but would also add to more weight . Overall , the design feels practical even while miss the glamour of some of the likewise priced laptop computer . Instead , it makes up for those shortcoming with other strengths that I will talk over below .

Display and audio

As implied by its name , the Vivobook 16 gets a 16 - inch video display . This is an direct - backlit IPS - level panel with a WUXGA ( 1920 x 1200 ) resolution , a 16:10 aspect ratio , and a 60Hz refresh pace . It also gets an anti - reflective coating to fan out intense beams of lightness .

The exhibit does n’t waver much from other 1200p liquid crystal display in a 16 - inch format . It gets the job done , but is uninspiring in terms of sharpness . The colour are n’t telling either , and while they do n’t necessarily seem dull , they are nowhere as striking as on theM4 MacBook Air . At the time of this review , I did not have a colorimeter William Christopher Handy , which is why I ca n’t divvy up the exact colour gamut insurance coverage this display provide . However , if I were to believe Asus ’ words , the display brood only 45 % of the NTSC gamut , which is not very exciting .

Despite that , the exhibit is sufficiently bright for indoor usage . While Asus claim a 300 nit brightness , my light meter record 267 nits at max . There are incompatibility in whites , conduce to unlike brightness , across different spots on the panel , which can be ignore easily . The sensors mechanically adjust the luminousness with ambient light , while the IR scanner for face unlock also serves as a proximity sensor that dims the display when you ’re not around .

It ’s intemperate to recommend the Vivobook 16 for creative endeavors , primarily because of the of colors . This is a disgrace because the internals have sufficient powerfulness to run apps , including I from Adobe . You may also discover yourself yearning for better visuals while playing telecasting depicted object , specially at low-pitched brightness level .

For audio , the Vivobook 16 gets two bottom - fire speakers . Asus does n’t specify the powerfulness paygrade , believably because the audio quality is n’t worth exalt over . The verbaliser are fairly loud and filling , and you’re able to utilize Asus ’ Smart Amp technical school to make the sound even louder .

However , lineament is another aspect altogether . The speakers in the first place focus on upper mids and highs , while seriously compromising bass and low mids . song and dialogues are audible but not very laconic .

I could save some of the auditory sensation by using EQ presets from the MyAsus app and make it operable for watching YouTube videos . Music , on the other hand , felt a touch soulless .

Keyboard and touchpad

The Vivobook 16 mother a full - sized chicklet keyboard with a white backlight . There ’s plenty of key travel ; 1.7 millimetre to be exact , and the key be given to bounce back in a spirited fashion . Whether you will savor that or not will count on your old experience with keyboards .

Asus apply slightly dished keycaps that permit your fingertips land more naturally , especially if you tend to typecast faster . However , the small size of the keycaps can counter that outcome . The numpad , with even lowly headstone , feel especially crammed . These traits could translate to some challenge , at least initially , especially if you are coming from a laptop that lacks a numpad all .

During this review article , I switch between this laptop computer , my14 - inch MacBook Pro , and a Keychron K2 with neckcloth keycaps , and often found myself hitting keys on the periphery . You may be less prostrate after spend some time coach your fingers to typecast on this keyboard .

Despite my discomfort with the keyboard , I did not feel the same about the touchpad . It ’s expansive and feels fairly reactive , particularly while using multi - finger gesture .

While the Asus utilise charge card here as well , I did not feel any stickiness , even while using the touchpad with damp or sweaty fingers . The large size of it also countenance my palm to easily navigate to the operable country , and did not require any tussle getting used to .

In addition to the stock gestures , Asus also consecrate the left and correct edge for sliders that can be used for increasing or minify the volume and luminosity , while the top bound can be used to scrub the progress in a media histrion . These gesture are highly optimise , and I never toggle them accidentally when I did not desire to .

Webcam and connectivity

The Vivobook 16 gets a fixed - focus camera up top with a Full HD resolution . This feel like a discharge - of - the - mill tv camera , do for telecasting yell as long as you rest adequately lit . Being a Copilot+ personal computer , it receive Windows Studio Effect for better form position , improved ignition , and background blurring , all of which are power by the consecrate neural central processor . Without these features , I would n’t sincerely apply the webcam , and instead swear on my Android phone .

I adore the fact that Asus offers a physical shutter to jam off the webcam when it ’s not in use . However , you may need you keep the webcam open to apply applications , such as automatonlike advance signal detection or screen dimming .

For these functions , as well as for unlocking , the Vivobook 16 gets an infrared photographic camera setup , including a projector and a sense organ that knead in tandem with the main camera . This is also useful in sense when you look away or move away from the filmdom , so the covert is automatic dimmed or locked after a certain fourth dimension . The screen automatically lights up when it notice you come nearer , and confront unlock bent into legal action .

While the unlock mechanics is reliable , it is not entirely thoroughgoing , and often rejects my facial expression unless I am staring dead into the camera . It can be useful for automatic log into on-line business relationship using yourpasskeys , but a physical fingermark scanner would unquestionably make it simpler .

For I / O , the Vivobook 16 drive the indispensable embrasure , include two USB - degree Celsius with Thunderbolt 4 , two USB - A Gen 1 interface with 5Gbps speeds , an HDMI 2.1 , and a 3.5 mm headphone jack .

Performance

The Asus Vivobook 16 drives a Snapdragon X ARM64 chipset , which is design for big businessman efficiency above everything else . The CPU comprises eight Qualcomm Oryon cores , include four performance and four efficiency cores . All cores can clock a frequency of 2.96GHz , though the “ LITTLE ” substance tend to lessen back to lower frequency when in Balanced or Power Efficiency mode , for better barrage fire life . Besides few CPU cores compared to the 10 - heart or 12 - core Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite SKUs from Qualcomm , there ’s no boost available for the Snapdragon X , which can be bound if you were hop to practice this for tasks beyond web pasture or position employment .

In terms of GPU , the Snapdragon X also gets the slowest integrated GPU in the Adreno family with an output of 1.7 TFLOPS ( teraflops ) accord toQualcomm . This positions the chipset beneath the least powerful Snapdragon X Plus variant which power theAsus Vivobook S15or the thin - and - lightZenbook A14 .

To measure how the Vivobook 16 performs , I run our staple bench mark tests and compared them with the existing termination .

The Vivobook 16 does astonishingly well , especially in CPU - have-to doe with test , scoring almost as well as the Vivobook S15 . compare to Intel cow chip , it performed well than the Core Ultra 5 125H on theLenovo ThinkBook 13xin Cinebench as well as Geekbench multi - core tests and got much closer to the Core Ultra 7 155H power theHP Spectre x360 14 .

Of of course , both of these are from last year , and the gap widens when compare to Core Ultra 200 serial “ Lunar Lake ” chip shot inLenovo Yoga Slim 7ior theSamsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 . But I could n’t aid but be amazed by this low - lodge Snapdragon chipset giving much more pricier machine a rugged competition .

The Vivobook 16 lets you toggle the various fan modes using the MyAsus utility or by pressing Fn+F primal combo , which can also be synced to Windows ’ power modes . However , despite setting the buff to “ Full hurrying , ” it seldom revved hard enough , even with intensive tasks , except while lead the Cinebench tests . I ’m not quite sure if that is by figure , and Qualcomm wants to limit power delivery to prioritise better bombardment .

avowedly , the GPU felt importantly weaker in comparability , tally far below than any other gadget in the table , with the only exception of Vivobook S15 , which uses the same GPU .

On the positive side , the Vivobook 16 gets the same neural processing unit or NPU up to of 45 upper side ( trillion operation per second ) . Some app of the NPU admit functions admit Windows Studio effects for webcam , such as ameliorate video calls with better scope bokeh , heart contact , and automatonlike frame , as well as noise suppression during video recording call . Since this is a certify Copilot+ PC , the more bright applications programme will remain in on - gimmick processing while using inherent Copilot features on Windows or Microsoft Office once they are amply unleashed — Windows ’ Recallthat records all your activity using screenshots could be a feature that employ it — though the applications , as well as shipway to appraise the NPU ’s impact , are restrain at the moment .

The chipset ’s support for Thunderbolt 4 is splendid , and the Vivobook 16 use it on both USB - C ports .

Finally , the Vivobook 16 gets 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM , which is solder onto the board , and , therefore not upgradeable . There are alternative between a 512 GB and a 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD , with brilliant read and write speeds .

Gaming on Asus Vivobook 16

The Vivobook 16 will be a choice far from ideal for play , and Asus is n’t to blame for this . ARM64 - base Windows personal computer are not optimise for gambling and alternatively positioned to be thin and portable laptop computer , despite sufficient gaming chops .

you could , theoretically , run game on an subdivision machine , but there will be hiccups .   I finagle to persist democratic games , includingNeed for Speed : Hot Pursuit Remastered , It take Two , Anthem , Counter - Strike 2 , andTeam Fortressbut had to get down down quality to 768p while still drive only 20 - 30fps along with an unforgivable postponement in register fundamental pressing . Other titles , includingValorant , Battlefield 1,Apex Legends , andCall of obligation : Modern Warfareinstalled but did not run .

Battery life

The Asus Vivobook 16 throng a 50 W - minute shelling , which is n’t sizable by any means . However , the low - power ARM64 chipset ensures the laptop delivers a middling good battery backup man — at least when compared to others of its cost — and , thus , the targeted securities industry segment — as well as gauge .

For each charge , the Vivobook 16 easily hold up six to seven hours of introductory web - base usage , which include browse the web for research , checking emails and work Old World chat , and occasional visit to YouTube , all while setting the keyboard ’s backlight and display ’s smartness to automatic and the Windows power way set to Balanced .

I ran Digital Trends ’ standard stamp battery tests , and here ’s how the Asus Vivobook 16 fared in compare .

Asus does n’t exact the same exceptional battery as other thin and clean Snapdragon laptop , but we see some respectable battery backing in our web graze test . The Vivobook 16 seemed to rack up lower than other 16 - column inch LCDs in picture playback , but I suspect the poor color standardisation is to blame .

For rouse , the laptops get a 65W brick battery charger with a USB Type - ascorbic acid connector but can also be charged with a regular USB - PD ( Power Delivery ) brick . blame typically takes 1.5 to 2 hr before the laptop computer , which is n’t something I would necessarily labor my teeth over , though faster charging would be exciting . It also cultivate with slower chargers , which think you will be able-bodied to use your telephone ’s power brick or power bank with adequate output in emergencies .

Asus Vivobook 16: A great budget laptop, with quirks

The Asus Vivobook 16 has its benefits and drawback , but I ’ll start with the former listing first . The entry - floor ARM machine is idealistic for ethnic music who want to execute the basic software or get most employment done online without exhausting the bombardment speedily or without spending much on a new laptop computer . Its toughness ratings make it equally sound for educatee , permit them to be fairly regardless once in a while . consign over USB - C is another advantage and let you forget about carrying a freestanding courser always .

The Vivobook 16 compromise on the productiveness front , and is undesirable for creative professional person , unless they treat it as a backup machine only . For a petty supernumerary , Asus itself has exciting alternative , such as theAsus Vivobook S15or theZenbook A14 . If you ’re looking for good battery life , portability , and excellent carrying into action without breaking banking concern , the base MacBook Air M4 is the laptop computer to consider .

While the Vivobook 16 is not the most powerful budget laptop computer , it balances time value for money , reliability , and battery reliever quite well , while veer back on less important feature , such as a vivacious show , a in high spirits - resolution webcam , or even very plush keyboard - touchpad jazz group . It , however , does not skimp on honorable connectivity options , and offer Thunderbolt 4 for speedy connection alongside HDMI 2.1 for gamey - refresh pace exhibit , and is a peachy option if you are on a strict budget .