By A 14-inch laptop featuring an Intel Lunar Lake CPU is the Asus Vivobook S 14. With a battery life of more than 20 hours on our usual benchmark, it offers a significant amount of all-day computing performance. It is a good deal for $1,199 if you are searching for a durable Intel-powered laptop with a stunning OLED display, 32 GB of RAM, and a substantial 1 TB of storage.
Specs
The Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) “Lunar Lake” processor is a feature of the Asus Vivobook S 14 (S5406). This CPU gives up some multithreaded CPU performance to prioritize long battery life. This type of machine performs well in daily computing chores, but it is not the best choice if you want high-end CPU performance for workloads that are especially CPU-hungry, and battery life is not an issue. The Asus Vivobook S 14 (S5406) has the Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) “Lunar Lake” processor. Long battery life is prioritized over multithreaded CPU speed by this CPU. While this kind of machine is good for everyday computing tasks, it is not the ideal option for workloads that require high-end CPU speed and battery life is not a concern.
- Number of models: S5406SA-DH76
- CPU: 258V Intel Core Ultra 7
- Memory: LPDDR5X, 32 GB
- GPU and graphics: Intel Arc 140V
- Intel AI Boost (47 TOPS) as the NPU
- Display: OLED 1920 x 1200
- 1 TB PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD for storage
- Webcam: a 1080p camera with a shutter
- Two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1) ports, one HDMI 2.1 port, one combination audio jack, and one microSD card reader are all connected.
- Networking: Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7.
- Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition using an infrared camera
- 75 Watt-hour battery capacity; 12.22 x 8.74 x 0.63-inch dimensions
- 2.87 pounds in weight
- MSRP as tested: $1,199
Design and build quality
The 14-inch Asus Vivobook S 14 feels sturdy and exhibits no strange flexing. Around the keyboard, the laptop’s base has a pleasingly metallic feel. It is easy to open and adjust with one hand, and the lid is lightweight. However, it appears that the lid material rapidly picks up finger smudges.It weighs 2.87 pounds and is 0.63 inches thick, making it a highly contemporary “ultraportable” laptop.
This machine, which features a lot of black plastic and metal with some smooth curves, comes in the appropriately titled “neutral black” color scheme. However, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the design: Matthew S. Smith described the Asus Vivobook S 15’s identical appearance as “bland” in his review earlier this year. This design works flawlessly, but people will not look for it. the laptop somewhat compensates for the absence of color in the design—it is primarily black—by having colored keyboard lighting. Under Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting, you can adjust the color.
Keyboard and trackpad
A full-size “chiclet-style” keyboard with 1.7mm of key travel is included with the Asus Vivobook S 14. That is a respectable quantity: This keyboard does not feel soft or shallow. I could get up to speed typing on it quite quickly. Although it lacks the speed of some more expensive business computers, such as ThinkPads, it is nevertheless a reliable keyboard with no dubious design choices.
The keyboard on this Lunar Lake-powered machine, of course, has a Copilot key that activates Microsoft’s AI chatbot. You may anticipate seeing that key on almost all Windows laptops in the future. In contrast to many PCs of this kind, the keyboard incorporates backlighting and allows users to select the color of the backlight. Backlighting in plain white is not your only option: The backlight is blue by default. (However, since there is only one zone, you are only selecting one color for the keyboard’s lighting.)
ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED Laptop, Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, 16GB, 1TB SSD, Neutral Black, S5406MA-AS96, Intel Evo Edition
The trackpad is just the right size—neither too large nor too little. Additionally, it is positioned well, in the middle, directly beneath the keyboard. It performs admirably, precisely tracking multi-finger motions as well as finger movements. However, it feels less upscale than the glass trackpads on other laptops I have tried and has a little rubbery surface. Although the click action is pleasant, this trackpad is not haptic like the one in Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7. The majority of laptops still lack haptic trackpads, even though they feel significantly nicer.
Connectivity
The ports offered by the Asus Vivobook S 14 are respectable. It has a microSD card reader, two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) connections, an HDMI 2.1 out port, and a headset combo audio jack on the left side. There are two USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1) ports on the right side.
It is a sensible configuration, however, keep in mind that this laptop charges via USB-C, therefore one of those USB Type-C ports will be utilized throughout the charging process. Additionally, there is one very peculiar design decision: the laptop’s charging status light is located on the right side, while the charging cable plugs in on the left. That is not a huge deal, though.
Battery life
The battery of the Asus Vivobook S 14 has a capacity of 75 Watt-hours. We would anticipate substantially longer battery life because Lunar Lake is focused on long battery life, which is similar to or even better than that of a laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, like the Surface Laptop. Lunar Lake provided a long-lasting all-day battery life, just like the other Lunar Lake-powered laptops we have lately evaluated.
We use Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled to play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel repeatedly until the laptop suspends itself to test the battery life. The screen’s brightness was set at 250 nits for our battery benchmarks. Given how effectively local video playback works, this is the best-case situation for any laptop; in actual use, day-to-day battery life will always be lower. Because OLED screens require less power to display the black bars surrounding the video, the Asus Vivobook S 14’s OLED display offers a little advantage.
Conclusion
An affordable 14-inch Lunar Lake laptop is the Asus Vivobook S 14. For $1,199 at retail, it comes with an OLED screen, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and good build quality. It is difficult to disagree with that, particularly if you can get it on sale for a few hundred dollars less.
It is a fantastic option if you want a 14-inch laptop with a long battery life and decent software compatibility. It will not have any problems like a laptop with an ARM processor or a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor.
