Asus Vivobook 14X OLED Review: A powerful all-rounder for work, play & travel

Asus refreshed its 2023 line-up of laptops earlier this month. New Asus laptops in India come with 13th-generation Intel processors and OLED displays. For those who need a compact notebook to carry with them on the go, Vivobook 14X OLED can an option. The 14-inch laptop comes with up to Core i9 CPUs, up to 1TB storage, 2.8K resolution OLED Panels, and a large battery with 90W fast charging. While on paper, the specs seem premium-grade, but is it really worth an upgrade? Let’s find out.

Vivobook 14X OLED: Unboxing

The Asus Vivobook 14X OLED comes in a briefcase-style cardboard box that contains-

• Asus Vivobook 14X OLED notebook
• Adapter
• Power cable
• User Guide

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Vivobook 14X OLED Review: Design

The first thing that strikes me about the Asus Vivobook 14X OLED notebook is its compactness and portability. The laptop has a 14-inch display so it is smaller and its aluminum build makes it feel lightweight when held in hand. The laptop is 18.9mm thick and weighs under 1.5kg which makes it ideal for carrying wherever you go.

Although there are no stylish features on the keyboard (apart from the Enter key having a striped design), the trendy badge style Asus logo on the lid does sprinkle a hint of fashion on this device. The Vivobook logo is slightly raised that also gives the lid a distinctive look. The keyboard is backlit while the notebook itself is military-grade certified for rough and tough usage. There is an extra large touchpad that allows the hand to move freely and smoothly while gaming or performing any other tasks.

The Vivobook 14X OLED is available in 2 shades- Cool Silver and Indie Black. I received the Indie Black variant and though the notebook does catch smudges the visibility of these smudges has been reduced significantly when compared to past models. This is a relief as those imminent smudges did get annoying many times.

With Covid19 virus changing the landscape of the earth these past few years, the focus on keeping healthy has increased a lot. Asus has tried to help in this matter by introducing the Asus Antimicrobial Guard on almost all its laptops. This technology is applied to frequently touched areas of your laptop to keep it hygienic and protect the users from all bacteria. The same comes with Vivobook 14X OLED so now, I didn’t have to worry about my health even if someone else touched my laptop for a while.

The hinge of this laptop has a 180-degree lay flat design. This ErgoLift hinge allows easy sharing and creating and looks premium as well. One-touch login is possible with the fingerprint sensor provided on the trackpad. The sensor is fast and efficient.

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Vivobook 14X OLED Review: Display

The Vivobook 14X OLED features a 14.2-inch OLED panel, offering a resolution of up to 2880×1800 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio, providing a satisfactory visual experience with its decent size. It has a remarkable 0.2ms response time, a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and a brightness range of 400nits for SDR and 600nits with HDR.

Additionally, boasting a VESA CERTIFIED Display HDR True Black 600 certification, it achieves a high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and supports 1.07 billion colors, ensuring accurate and vivid visuals. Moreover, the display is PANTONE Validated. Coming back to brightness levels. 400nit is good enough for indoor viewing but if are sitting in bright atmosphere you might have to squint slightly.

The OLED display on the Vivobook 14X delivers rich, vibrant, and accurate colors, further enhanced by its 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. Watching content on this display provides a satisfying experience, characterized by sharp and crystal-clear visuals with exceptional color accuracy.

Vivobook 14X OLED Review: I/O Ports & Connectivity

The Asus Vivobook 14X OLED notebook offers a number of options when it comes to connectivity. There is a multitude of ports available. The right side houses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port that supports a 4K display, a DC-in port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The left side has a lone USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. The laptop comes with Bluetooth 5.2 and WiFi 6E connectivity as well, both of which allow fast and seamless sharing of data.

Vivobook 14X OLED Review: Keyboard, & Trackpad

The Asus Vivobook 14X OLED comes with an Ergonomic keyboard that aims to make the typing experience fast and comfortable. The keyboard has a full-sized 19.05mm key pitch similar to any desktop, 0.2mm keycaps that match the shape of our fingertips, and a long key travel of 1.4mm that lets you type without applying much force. The keyboard comes with 3 levels of backlighting that you switch to as per need and there is an enhanced number key layout that allows faster calculations.

Coming to the trackpad, it’s a large one for sure. The trackpad is 128.9×73.2mm and also houses a fingerprint sensor in the top right corner. The trackpad gives ample space for free hand movement and scrolling is seamless while performing any day-to-day task.

Vivobook 14X OLED Review: Performance & Gaming

The Asus Vivobook 14X OLED is available with up to Intel i9 processors, however, the variant I received is powered by 13th Generation Intel i5-13500H CPU. The Intel i5 processor makes sure that the laptop is fast while performing the majority of tasks. Though the i9 version would be much more apt if you are someone who needs a moderately powerful laptop for work and entertainment. The i5 processor was paired with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU. Together these two made sure that the I am able to do bit of gaming and graphic intensive work with ease. Also, my version had 16GB RAM and 512GB onboard storage so multitasking was a breeze plus there was ample space to store videos, audio, documents, images, and more. The laptop did not stutter or hang even when up to 22-25 tabs were running in the background simultaneously. Benchmark test results are given below-

The notebook runs Windows 11 Pro OS with customizations available to personalize one’s experience. MS Office 2021 Home and Student Version comes free for a lifetime with this one so you don’t need to worry about purchasing the office separately.

Coming to Sound, the Vivobook has a built-in speaker and an in-array microphone along with sonic master capability. The audio is boosted by DIRAC and Asus Audio Booster on paper and claims to turn up to 1.5x if needed, but even at maximum levels, it feels inadequate in a moderate-sized room full of people. The sound should have been at least 20-30% more. The notebook comes with a 720p HD webcam that comes with a privacy shutter that slides over the lens for instant protection. For audio during meetings, two-way AI noise cancellation makes sure that the voices can be heard and that you yourself are audible to the person at the other end. Background disturbances are mostly blurred out and you just need a stable internet connection to have meetings without any interruptions.

In terms of thermal performance, Asus equips Vivobook 14X OLED with 8mm and 6mm heat pipes and an 89-IceBlade fan for faster heat transfer. However, the thermal performance is just about average as the laptop does start heating up after 20 minutes of usage. So much so that you can’t work keeping it in your lap directly. This is one area, the brand seriously needs to look into.

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Vivobook 14X OLED Review: Battery

The Vivobook 14X OLED packs a 63Wh battery under the hood. With 100% charging, the laptop easily lasts for about 3.2 hours. The tasks include watching videos, typing, web surfing, social media browsing, and short gaming sessions. However, if you perform heavy-duty tasks like video editing and long gaming sessions, then the battery would need to be recharged frequently.

The 90W adapter inside the box charges up to 50% in 44-45 minutes. So if you are in a hurry to leave for somewhere, 30-40 minutes of charging will give you ample usage time for a short journey.

Vivobook 14X OLED Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

The Asus Vivobook 14X OLED is a compact and powerful laptop that can fulfill almost all your needs. It has a portable build, a gorgeous OLED display, a large battery, and a fast processor. Although audio levels and thermal performance are underwhelming and brightness levels are inadequate for the outdoors, but still for someone who wants to own a premium-grade notebook for under 1 lakh, this one can be an option. However, if you want the ultimate gaming experience with peak performance (i9 processor) then you can go for the top-end model priced at around 1 lakh 15 thousand.