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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom of Tech Chap, and this is, well, as it says on the tin, the new ASUS
00:12Vivobook Pro 14X OLED.
00:14Bit of a mouthful, but there's an awful lot going on here.
00:19From packing some pretty beefy hardware, we've also got this very nifty ASUS dial built into
00:24the touchpad, along with this unique sort of creator meets gamer vibe to the design,
00:30solid battery life, a webcam privacy filter, a pretty decent range of ports, and a whole
00:34bunch of other stuff.
00:35But the best bit is this screen, 16 by 10, 90 hertz OLED.
00:42It doesn't get much better than this.
00:43And actually, Samsung reached out and offered to sponsor this video of the ASUS Vivobook
00:48because Samsung displays make this screen, which we get on all Vivobooks, of which there's
00:54about a billion different SKUs.
00:56But as always, all opinions are my own.
00:58And having been using this for the past few weeks, I have to say I am very impressed.
01:03So ASUS make a ton of laptops.
01:05We've got the slightly higher-end ZenBook range, and then we've got the sort of ProArt
01:10Studio books right at the top for creators, and then we've got the ROG and the Zephyrus
01:15sort of on the gaming side.
01:16Vivobooks are generally a little bit more affordable, but with the Vivobook Pro and
01:20then the X variants of the 14 and the 16-inch models which I've got here, this is the 14X,
01:26which hopefully is not actually coming to the UK.
01:30Different SKUs for different markets, although a 16-inch version of this will be coming here.
01:34And to make things even more complicated, there are Intel and AMD versions of each one.
01:39So either a Ryzen 5000 series or an Intel 11th Gen H series.
01:43But crucially, all new Vivobooks do come with these OLED screens.
01:46So the most affordable Vivobook, the Pro 14, starts at about £700.
01:51My higher-end spec 14X is about £1,300, while the top-end Pro 16X starts at about £1,400.
01:59But let's talk about the screen.
02:00Not just because Samsung are sponsoring it, but because it is a real showstopper.
02:05And going back to a regular LED LCD laptop just feels a bit washed out and lifeless after
02:10you've been spoiled by an OLED.
02:13So there's actually a couple of screen options.
02:15Either this 2.8K resolution 90Hz or a full-fat 4K OLED, but with a slower 60Hz refresh rate.
02:22So it depends what you're going to be using this for, but for me, I reckon the 2.8K is
02:27a good balance on a 14-inch screen.
02:29And even though it's not full 120, the bump up to 90 does make everything noticeably smoother.
02:34And I'm also really happy they went with a 16 by 10 aspect ratio, which is a little bit
02:39taller than regular laptop screens and just makes everything feel less constrained and
02:43letterboxy.
02:44Although you do get slightly thicker black bars when you're watching videos or movies.
02:49Now I measured around 530 nits of brightness in HDR mode, which is actually pretty decent.
02:55And also of course, because it's OLED, the pixels can turn themselves fully off, which
02:59means blacks are actually black.
03:01So contrast and dynamic range in movies and games is incredible.
03:05Non-HDR content was closer to 400 nits of brightness, which is still enough to see in
03:09all but the strongest sunlight.
03:12So this is very much aimed at the sort of casual to prosumer creator.
03:16And if you are a photo or video editor or sort of graphic designer or something, you
03:20will of course appreciate a color accurate screen, and that's pretty important.
03:23But the good news is this is extremely color accurate.
03:26We're talking 100% sRGB, 100% AdobeRGB, and also 99% DCI-P3 in my tests, although Samsung
03:34claim 100% P3, but there will always be some minor differences between panels.
03:39And it's already Pantone verified, meaning it's already well calibrated.
03:44But that's not all, because another less obvious benefit of the Samsung OLED panels
03:48is that they emit way less harmful blue light than regular screens, which can affect your
03:52health and particularly your sleep rhythms.
03:55So by putting this nifty filter in front of my camera lens next to a regular laptop screen,
04:00you can really see just how much less blue light it's emitting.
04:03Okay, let's talk about this design.
04:05And I do want to give credit to ASUS for using recycled materials on the lid.
04:09And I quite like this embossed logo area as well, although I could maybe live without
04:13these corny hashtags.
04:15But I would definitely be interested in seeing a fully recycled laptop chassis at some point.
04:20Inside we have this two-tone white grey layout and the light-up dashed pattern on the enter
04:24key.
04:25Now apart from the lid, the rest of the body is aluminium and it feels solid with only
04:29a little bit of flex around the keys.
04:31Tipping the scales up 1.45kg, it's not the lightest 14-inch laptop on the market,
04:36but given its specs and the performance, it is pretty portable.
04:40Also the regular non-X Vivobook Pros get a slightly more basic but still a fairly classy
04:44looking interior.
04:46The keyboard is lovely to type on and there's plenty of travel and feedback.
04:49We also get a fingerprint reader built into the power button and also this glass trackpad
04:53is much bigger than previous Vivobooks and it's nice and responsive.
04:57Now ASUS are pretty famous for adding extra features to the touchpad.
05:01We've had numpads, we've had the full screen pad, but now with a little swipe in from the
05:05corner we have the ASUS Dial.
05:08And it's basically a virtual version of this physical ASUS Dial that we get on these ProArt
05:14Studio Books from ASUS, which also use Samsung OLED displays as well.
05:19If you want to spend a bit more money on the sort of ultimate creator laptop, then definitely
05:22give the new ProArt a look.
05:24And that physical dial is pretty nifty, I'll leave a little link to my review of this at
05:29the top right.
05:30Functionally this is the same, but it's not a physical dial.
05:34So as I say, you just swipe in from the top right, give it a little tap and up comes an
05:38on-screen wheel with customisable controls, with Windows Volume and Brightness by default.
05:43But it really comes into its own when you use it with a supported app, which right now
05:46is limited to Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects.
05:52That's it.
05:53But if you open up the ProArt Control Hub, which is pre-installed, you can choose which
05:57controls you want to assign it to, from scrubbing through a timeline, tweaking exposure, you
06:02can really set it up to how you like it.
06:04The problem is though, unlike the physical ASUS Dial on the ProArt, this isn't nearly
06:09as easy to use.
06:10You have to activate it first when you want to use it, and also I found I had to keep
06:13an eye on my finger or else I'd be going too far inside or outside the circle.
06:17The benefit of the physical dial on the Studio Books is you can feel your way around.
06:22So it's a pretty cool extra and you don't have to use it of course, but it's not something
06:25I found myself wanting to use long term on this.
06:30That's pretty cool.
06:31So we actually have a physical privacy little filter slider that you can bring in front
06:36of the webcam.
06:37It doesn't stop it from recording as you can see, but it does physically block it, which
06:41is quite nice if you're concerned about privacy.
06:44Now in terms of ports, it's a bit of a mixed bag.
06:47We do get a full-size HDMI 2, a micro SD card slot, although a full-size would have been
06:51more useful, along with a headphone jack and a USB 3.1 Type-A and USB-C port.
06:57On the other side, we get two USB 2 ports, good old 21-year-old USB 2, which is fine
07:03for a mouse and maybe older peripherals, but USB 3 should really be the standard now across
07:07the board.
07:08We do get Wi-Fi 6 though.
07:12So it's not ridiculously expensive, we've got quite a nice design, the screen is top
07:16notch.
07:17What about performance?
07:18How fast is this?
07:19Well, I can only speak for the spec I have here with the Ryzen 7 5800H, 3050 Ti graphics
07:25card, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.
07:28So it's a solid spec, although the 3050 Ti is a lower-end 35W Max-Q part, although it
07:34can boost up to 50W dynamically.
07:37But really this is meant for photo and video editing and maybe moderate 3D graphics work.
07:42Although since I shoot in 4K 10-bit 422, I did use proxies for my Premiere Pro project,
07:48but then again I had to do that as well for my 3090 desktop PC as well.
07:51But the good thing about these so-called creator laptops is that with these dedicated GPUs,
07:57they can moonlight as pretty decent gaming machines, particularly with this new 90Hz
08:01refresh.
08:02In Rainbow Six Siege, with DLSS enabled and the resolution set to 1200p, I averaged 150fps
08:09with ultra settings.
08:10At native 2.8K it was closer to 100 and in Fortnite I was averaging about 70fps.
08:16But even so, we were still taking advantage of that higher refresh.
08:19The stereo speakers are down and slightly outward firing, which means your desk or your
08:24lap muddles the sound a little bit.
08:26Speech and music is clear and it does get fairly loud, but like most laptops, it's
08:30lacking a bit of bass.
08:36And finally, battery life.
08:38And we get a 63Wh cell inside here and I've been getting about 7 hours of normal, non-gaming
08:44use out of this.
08:45Not as significantly as resolution or brightness, but particularly with dark mode enabled or
08:49when you've got darker backgrounds on screen, as OLED pixels are self-emissive so they can
08:54individually turn themselves off when not needed, you might see a few percent longer
08:58battery.
08:59Although while I haven't tested the larger 16X, from reviews I've seen it does look
09:03like battery is a lot better.
09:05In fact, in the Digital Trends review they claim it lasted longer than the LG Gram 16,
09:10even though the Vivobook has much faster hardware.
09:13So the big question, should you buy one of these new Vivobooks?
09:17Well, yeah, I think so.
09:18I think it's a pretty easy recommendation.
09:20I'm tempted to say that the standard non-pro Vivobooks, like the Vivobook 14, which starts
09:25at £700, might be a better value option as you still get a 3050, the latest CPUs and
09:30also an OLED screen.
09:32But if you want that little bit extra performance, then the 14X here is definitely worth considering.
09:36It's just a bit of a shame this particular model isn't coming to the UK.
09:40But what really sets this apart is that Samsung OLED screen, which is just unbelievably good.
09:45A touchscreen would have been nice and maybe glass bezels that are flush with the screen
09:48rather than these slightly protruding plastic ones.
09:51Also these USB 2s should really be USB 3s and a full-size SD card reader would have
09:55been a lot more useful.
09:57But aside from that, there really isn't much to complain about.
09:59So if you do fancy checking this out for yourself, I'll leave links in the description below.
10:03But what do you reckon?
10:04Would you be tempted to buy this?
10:05And what do you make of that OLED screen?
10:07Let me know in the comments below.
10:08Thank you so much for watching guys.
10:10If you did enjoy the video, a cheeky little like and subscribe would be very much appreciated.
10:13Again, a big thank you to Samsung Display for sponsoring this video and I'll see you
10:17guys next time right here on The Tech Chat.