Asus VivoBook S14 S433FA, hands on: Stylish and affordable, with all-day battery life Review

The new £699 (inc. VAT)/$699.99 Asus VivoBook S 14 is a solidly crafted 14-inch Home windows 10 notebook running on a 10th technology Intel Core processor. And if you’re wanting for some thing a little bit more hanging than regular, it truly is out there with a environmentally friendly or crimson lid in addition to black and white. That reported, I could only come across it on line in the British isles with the identical black lid I was sent for overview.

The steel chassis delivers fantastic protection for the innards. I was capable to bow the lid in my hands a minimal, but total this is a resilient machine. You will have to carry 1.4kg (3.08lbs) close to in your backpack or bag, while, and this notebook will occupy a house 32.49cm large by 21.35cm deep by 1.59cm thick (12.79in. x eight.4in. x .62in.). The base has ‘diamond cut’ edges to the higher of 3 sides, which even when the lid is closed provides visual desire.

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The 14-inch Asus VivoBook S14 S433FA runs on 10th-technology Core i5 or i7 processors with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. Lid colors are out there in white, crimson, environmentally friendly and black.


Pictures: Asus

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In situation you can’t come across the Enter key, it truly is prominently highlighted.


Impression: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

When you open up the lid the eye is drawn to the Enter key, which has been provided a marker-pen yellow surround. It really does search odd. The keyboard alone is cozy to use, and specific keys are large and springy. Having said that, you will find a good deal of flex — ample for even a light-weight-fingered typist like me to discover. This is really the only construct situation of notice, and it truly is a little bit of a disappointment.

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Tap the icon in the major correct of the touchpad, and an embedded calculator appears.


Impression: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

The trackpad has a really great come to feel to it, and is responsive. Asus delivers next screens in the touchpad on some of its ZenBook laptops (the ZenBook Flip fifteen UX563FD and ZenBook 14 UX434FL for case in point), but the trickery is more muted in the VivoBook array. You will find a small icon in the major correct corner of the touchpad that, when tapped, brings up an embedded calculator that will allow you to do some essential maths. I relatively like this thought — it truly is economical, straightforward, and won’t seem over-specified. If my notebook had this aspect I am certain I might use it. There is an option with no calculator and a fingerprint reader major correct of the touchpad instead.

The 14-inch display is what Asus calls ‘frameless NanoEdge’, although in truth you will find a little bit more bezel here than on some other styles, and ‘frameless’ is a little bit of a extend. Asus won’t give us bezel proportions but I measured the quick edge bezels at 7mm and the major edge at 11mm (loads of room for the webcam, although it does deficiency a sliding privacy address). The recess of the display will make it search a minimal old-fashioned, and it truly is not touch delicate. Nevertheless, it has good viewing angles, is rather vibrant, and the matte end will attractiveness to individuals who never like staring at their have reflection.

The Intel Core i5-10210U processor in the £699/$699 iteration of this notebook has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You also get a 12-thirty day period membership to Microsoft 365 Individual and 1TB of cloud storage. There is also a Core i7-10510U variant, and solutions for up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of on-board storage, but none of these are out there in the British isles.

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There are loads of ports and connectors on board. On the correct edge are two USB two. ports and a MicroSD card slot, whilst the left edge residences the round-pin electric power jack, a complete-measurement HDMI port, a USB 3.two port and a USB-C port as properly as a 3.5mm audio jack. It really is great to see Wi-Fi 6 rounding out the connectivity selections. 

SEE: Microsoft 365: A cheat sheet (absolutely free PDF)

Battery everyday living is very fantastic. I invested just one four-hour session crafting into a world wide web application whilst streaming music about fifty percent the time and undertaking some world wide web browsing, in the course of which time the battery went from one hundred per cent to fifty five per cent. All-day battery everyday living may well be achievable with similarly undemanding workloads.

The Asus VivoBook S14 S443FA is a resilient and economical Home windows 10 Pro notebook with a nifty aspect in the touchpad-embedded calculator. All-day battery everyday living is one more moreover position, but beware the flexy keyboard.

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