ASUS Vivobook 15 X515JA 15.6 Full HD Laptop (Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD, Windows 11)

Product Information

There's also a MicroSD slot, which is a nice-to-have and allows adding on storage space, but I would have preferred a standard SD slot to work with my DSLR on the go. Asus VivoBook 15 review: Display The SSD inside isn’t going to win any prizes for speed with average sequential read and write speeds of 3,044MB/s and 1,643MB/s, respectively but given that the motherboard interfaces are all PCIe 3 spec, that’s not an unduly poor showing for a budget laptop. Software

Specification: ‎ASUS VivoBook 15 X515JA-BQ129T (15.6 Inch 60Hz FHD/10th Gen Intel Core i5 1035G1/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/Windows 10/Intel UHD Graphics G1)inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 aspect ratio, 60Hz refresh rate, 200nits, 45% NTSC color gamut, Anti-glare display, Non-touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)83% The Vivobook may have a low-power CPU, but it also has a small 42Wh battery, so the PCMark10 Modern Office benchmark only took a modest 6 hours 45 to drain a full charge. In less demanding use, you may be able to get close to the eight-hour mark but don’t depend on it. We estimate Windows 11 support will end in October 2031. However, this laptop may be compatible with a future version of Windows that gets support beyond this date The VivoBook 15's 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 NanoEdge display offers little bezel on either side of the laptop, with a bit more at the top to accommodate the webcam. But beyond its widescreen look, the display's dim color profile and weird viewing angles make it an underwhelming device for consuming online video. It made episodes of vintage TV shows like Baywatch, already with a worn-in color palette, look older than they are, while movies like the recent remake of Emma were extremely hard to see in dark scenes. ASUS X515 is equipped with the reversible USB-C® 3.2 port, featuring an any-way-up design that makes connecting devices as easy as possible. It also delivers data transfer speeds up to 10x faster4 than older USB 2.0 connections! It also includes USB 3.2 Type-A and USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, and a microSD card reader — so you can easily connect all your current peripherals, displays and projectors with zero hassle.

Whether for work or play, ASUS X515 is the entry-level laptop that delivers powerful performance and immersive visuals. Its NanoEdge display boasts wide 178° viewing angles and a matte anti-glare coating for a truly engaging experience. Inside, it’s powered by up to an Intel® Core™ i5 processor with 8 GB RAM, and features Intel UHD graphics. Most budget laptops can last well over six hours on one charge of the battery, but the VivoBook 15 struggled to hit this mark. It lasted only five hours and 20 minutes through continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. Although this beat out the Acer Aspire 5 (6:55) and the HP 15 Laptop (4:57) in lab tests, it's at the tail end of the spectrum compared to the average of other budget laptops tested (6:39). The NanoEdge display gives ASUS X515 a vast screen area for an immersive viewing experience for work and play. Its wide-view FHD panel features an anti-glare coating to reduce unwanted distractions from irritating glare and reflections, so you can truly focus on what’s in front of you. Our Handbrake video transcoding tests gave the VivoBook 15 another chance to get outperformed. The VivoBook 15 managed to transcode 4K video to 1080p resolution within 28 minutes and 33 seconds. The Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15 were much faster, transcoding at 21:55 and 25:53, respectively. The VivoBook 15 was faster than the 40 minute average for other budget laptops that took this test. Asus VivoBook 15 review: Battery Life inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 aspect ratio, IPS-level Panel, 60Hz refresh rate, 250nits, 45% NTSC color gamut, Anti-glare display, Non-touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)83%

I didn't find the fans in the Asus VivoBook 15 to be as loud as other laptops we've tested, namely the Acer Aspire 5. Asus VivoBook 15 Verdict The benchmark results underlined that the U-series processors are intended for light workloads on the go, but they were not a million miles off the scores returned by the significantly more expensive LG Gram SuperSlim, which runs a P-series Raptor Lake processor. Thanks to the low TDP of the processor, there were no issues with thermal throttling, and the fan seldom had to spin up to full speed. The noise wasn’t remotely intrusive even when the cooling system ran full-chat. The bottom-facing dual speakers on the Asus VivoBook 15 need a little boost. You can listen to music and watch a movie without headphones, but the sound will seem as if it's strained. The Midnight’s Deep Blue’s strong melody, for example, came through clearly enough, while the vocals seemed as if they were coming in from a distance. Bassier genres of music, like house and synthwave, sound just as hollow, and sometimes it's hard to hear vocals even on podcasts. While I was watching Emma, I could barely hear the dialogue with the laptop set down on a table. You're better off pairing the laptop with external speakers to listen to anything.

There’s no support for Windows Hell IR facial recognition, nor is there a fingerprint scanner. Performance So, is there a fly in the ointment? According to Asus, the Vivobook is available with three types of display, all 15.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080, and 60Hz, but in a crucial way, one of them is not like the other two. And that’s the one that came fitted to my review unit. Let’s dive in. Design and Keyboard Surpassing the Asus ZenBook 14 (UX425)'s selections, the lineup includes extensive combinations of specs, ranging from upper-mid range CPUs to entry-level ones such as the i7 and Pentium from Intel. The same goes for the other components like SSD and RAM too. The internal storage options start from 128 GB to 512 GB. For RAM, there are only 4 GB and 8 GB options. For display, shoppers can go with either a standard 1080p panel or a fancier 4K version for better multimedia consumption, though the low peak brightness stops it from being a valid choice in that case. Finally, the limited battery life further proves that it's a laptop purely made for web browsing or university assignments while mostly plugged in at home or a cafe. VivoBook 15 X515: Price UKThe Core i5-1235U processor inside the Vivobook 15 is a 10-core chip from the Alder Lake 12th generation and has 8 efficiency cores and 2 performance cores, and a TDP of 15W. It is combined with Intel’s integrated Xe graphics chip, 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a PCIe 3 512GB SSD.