Asus Vivobook Flip 14 (2023, TM420IA) Review. Asus vivobook flip

01.06.2023 derrick_rogers Reviews

I Bought an Asus Vivobook Flip 14 2-in-1 Convertible 2-in-1 Tablet

I don’t know how exciting this is. The Asus Vivobook Flip 14 is not a bleeding-edge piece of hardware. It is definitely not one of the nicest 2-in-1 ultrabooks, but the price was just too good for me to pass it up.

Costco had the maxed out version of the Vivobook with a Ryzen 7 5700U, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB NVMe for 600. That was 100 less than the Vivobook Flips on Amazon with half the RAM and half the storage, and a good bit less than other brands and models with an 8-core Ryzen chip.

I didn’t expect to buy this laptop

I post good deals every day on the Butter, What?! Discord server, and this looked like a good deal. I’ve been saying that I should keep lugging my giant gaming laptop around until there’s a good deal on a 6000-series Ryzen 2-in-1, but nobody has even released one of those yet. I imagine it will be a long time before I’ll see a good discount on something like that!

I thought I did a good job, but the charging port on the laptop is pointing down! piccom/upzVmPgZFr

— Pat Regan (@patsheadcom) May 10, 2022

NOTE: That’s the Asus Flip 14 sitting in its temporary home to left of my two monitors.

Since I don’t have a membership, Costco charged me a 30 fee. After the fee, shipping, and taxes, my Vivobook Flip 14 cost me 692.78. I was expecting to use my American Express card to extend the 2-year warranty to 3 years, but Costco doesn’t accept the card. I was however surprised find a card in the box that explained that registering the warranty with Asus would provide me with a year of accidental damage protection. That was a nice bonus!

I’ve been wanting a nice 2-in-1 for a years

I’ve had my little 12” Chuwi tablet six years. It was a really nifty, and really inexpensive device. It has the same beautiful 2160×1440 screen as the Microsoft Surface Pro from the same year, and sitting on the couch surfing Reddit on a tablet like that was delightful.

The trouble with the Chuwi Hi12 was its slow Atom Z8350 with barely enough RAM to run a web browser. It was just enough to tease me with how awesome a giant tablet would be, but it was slow enough to be miserable to use for most tasks.

What am I giving up here by saving money?

I skimmed through some reviews, and the worst thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that the Asus Vivobook Flip feels like a cheap, plastic laptop. That is kind of what I expected to hear, and I am OK with this. The Asus isn’t a super thin wedge like the 13” Dell or HP 2-in-1 models, but it seems to be pretty well made for a block of cheap plastic.

I didn’t need reviews to tell me the disappointing things about this laptop. They are all right on the spec sheet.

The screen is only 250 nits. That’s the same brightness as my old Acer gaming laptop, and I know I have to switch Emacs from solarized-dark to solarized-light to be able to use it at a picnic table. I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I think they should wait until after I’ve put some miles on the machine.

I don’t know why, but this Asus convertible laptop doesn’t charge via USB-C. It has a port, but it doesn’t support USB-PD. I assume this means it doesn’t support video output via USB-C. The Vivobook Flip 14 is quite a few years newer than my Acer VX15, so I can’t imagine what their excuse is here.

The weather hasn’t yet permitted me to take the Asus on a field trip to the park, but the screen is plenty bright enough around the house at about 30% brightness.

The Vivobook has an HDMI port, but it is only version 1.4. That means it can support 1080p60 or 4k30. That would be a real bummer if I ever expected to dock this thing.

I am mostly OK with this. It is very likely that I will plug this tablet into a TV to play some FPV simulators like Liftoff and Velocidrone. I may never plug it into a monitor.

None of these limitations are things that make me want to spend hundreds of dollars more to circumvent. The super premium Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Titanium Yoga has comparable hardware under the hood, but it has better build quality and one of the brightest screens available in a 2-in-1. It costs somewhere around 1,600 to 1,800.

There was a deal on a 13” Ryzen 5700U Lenovo Yoga 6 convertible while my new laptop was in transit. This particular Lenovo has a 20% brighter screen, charges via USB-C, and the video output is the USB-C port, but it also had half as much storage. This may have been the better value, but I’m not going to nitpick.

This convertible isn’t my primary workstation

This will be the device I grab when I ride my electric unicycle to the park. I’ll use it to scroll through and Reddit on the couch.

It is going to be a handy device, and it is going to make my life easier and more enjoyable, but this most definitely does not have to be the ultimate convertible laptop for me to get a ton of mileage out of it.

I think the Asus Vivobook Flip 14 is going to get the job done just fine.

Will it run Linux?

I’m sure it can boot Linux, but that’s not really what I’ve been wondering. Will Linux have support for the accelerometer? Would something like Ubuntu and Gnome know how to flip the screen to the correct orientation when I rotate the device? Does any of the touch-screen support work well on Linux?!

I have no idea, though Reddit seems to think I might do OK right out of the box with Ubuntu and Gnome!

Am I doing a good job? My plan was to eat that frog and just get the frame of the pick and place assembled, but @OpuloInc snuck two stepper motors, a limit switch, and the umbilical mount into that first step! Is it legal to use hashtag #arduino on this? piccom/b9dSQGz03Q

— Pat Regan (@patsheadcom) May 14, 2022

My plan is to attempt to use Windows. I want to treat the Vivobook like I treat my Android devices. It is just going to be an appliance with a web browser, Emacs, Davinci Resolve, and a stack of games.

We will see how that goes. I don’t have a whole lot to complain about so far.

” probably isn’t too big for tablet, but 16:9 is really tall!

I have only been using the Vivobook Flip for two days. The first thing I noticed is how ridiculously tall it is when I prop it up on my lap in portrait orientation, and it hasn’t gotten any less ridiculous!

My Chuwi Hi12 has a 3:2 aspect ratio. That seems more appropriate for a big tablet, but I imagine LCD panels like that are rare. You’ll probably get a better deal when the manufacturer can just pick a common 16:9 panel off the shelf!

How is the battery life?

I don’t really know what counts as good battery life, and I certainly haven’t done any exhaustive testing. I’ve just messed around with the brightness, looked at the estimated battery life meter, and did math. The numbers in the next paragraph are very rough estimates.

With the brightness cranked to the max, I should be able to surf sites like Reddit, Hacker News, or for nearly 6 hours or watch YouTube for a little more than 3 hours. It looks like I can get an extra hour of YouTube by turning the brightness down to about 30%, which is a comfortable indoor brightness.

I am under the impression that I could increase these numbers quite a lot by using a different browser. It looks like Edge might give me more like 5 to 6 hours of YouTube or Netflix playback at full brightness.

That is a pretty big difference, so it might be worth using Edge to watch YouTube and Netflix when I know that I will have to spend an entire day away from power. Using Firefox is more comfortable for me, because that’s what I am already using everywhere else. All my bookmarks, add-ons, tabs, and history are already in sync!

NOTE: I am going to need to revisit all those Firefox numbers. Setting gfx.webrender.all to true seems to have put it on par with Edge for video playback battery efficiency.

It has been nearly 20 years since I bought a laptop that runs all day on battery. It’ll be nice having one again. It looks like I could eke out more than 9 hours of Emacs in the kitchen at 70% brightness!

How do you carry this thing?

I have a simple AmazonBasics 11.6” shoulder bag. I actually like it a lot! It only cost me 11, and it actually holds quite a lot of stuff for such a small bag. I know it says 11.6” on the label, but I’m pretty sure it just barely fits most 13” ultrabooks just fine, and it very nearly fits my 14” Vivobook.

I wound up ordering the 14” version of the same bag. It is only about an inch wider and taller than my old bag, so it really shouldn’t seem much bigger, but it feels so much bigger! The 11.6” bag seems like a purse. The 14” bag looks and feels like comically sized version of a laptop bag I would have carried 20 years ago.

You heard it here first! I did a nice job! piccom/6EAnyEHK9f

— Pat Regan (@patsheadcom) May 8, 2022

I do wish my new laptop fit in the smaller bag. Both the 11.6” and 14” bags can easily hold a charger, an assortment of tools, connectors, and cables, and I can even squeeze the Nintendo Switch in there. It is good that I can actually close the zipper on the 14” bag, and I can also squeeze more gear in if need be.

If I really need to take more a ton of gear with me, I have larger backpacks. If I am traveling, I can even squeeze the entire AmazonBasics 14” shoulder bag into my old Targus laptop backpack.

I can of course just walk out of the house with just the bare laptop!

Conclusion (for now!)

I am quite pleased with my purchase of the Asus Vivobook Flip 14. I am reading Hacker News while sitting in a comfy chair. I can carry my laptop to the park on my electric unicycle without having to ride with a 12-pound bookbag on my back. I have a mobile OBS recording studio, and I can even finish this blog post while roasting coffee in the kitchen.

Sure, I could manage many of these things with my heavy old laptop, but almost everything is an improvement with the new hardware!

What do you think? Are you using an Asus 2-in-1 convertible laptop? Are you using a different 2-in-1? Do you think I should have splurged on a higher-end laptop? Do you agree with me that every laptop should have a 360-degree flip-around screen in 2022? Let me know in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев, or stop by the Butter, What?! Discord server to chat with me about it!

This Linux User Tries Windows 11
Games to Play on Your Windows 11 Tablet
Asus Vivobook Flip 14 at Amazon
The Chuwi Hi12 Tablet and Keyboard
Lenovo Yoga 6 13” at Amazon
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Titanium Yoga at Amazon
11.6” AmazonBasics laptop bag
14” AmazonBasics laptop bag

Posted by Pat Regan May 9 th. 2022 Hardware

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Asus Vivobook Flip 14 (2023, TM420IA) Review

It may not be an eye-catcher, but it can flip you off your socks with its performance.

This is a product of a great team-up between Asus and AMD. It has everything without you sending your money to oblivion: it’s portable, powerful, and just outright cost-effective investment for your work and personal entertainment.

The Good

It’s a 14-inch convertible with a high-end laptop’s power with the price of a mid-range one. Getting it is the most economical and smartest purchase you can pull off this year.

The Bad

Asus sacrificed a lot to deliver a lightweight and slim convertible. Some of those sacrifices are the Flip 14’s its shell durability, sturdiness, and aesthetic appeal.

Detailed Review Of Asus Vivobook Flip 14 (2020, TM420IA)

You are either looking for a powerful laptop with a modest price tag or researching more about the new iteration of Asus’s Vivobook Flip 14. If your reason is the former, then you’re in the right place. If your reason is the latter, you won’t be disappointed.

Asus is one of the prominent laptop manufacturers in the world. It’s well-known for producing long-lasting laptops, and for the past decade, it has never let people down. However, it seems that the company is reinventing itself and trying a different approach this year.

Instead of the usual solidly built machine, they’re gunning for performance and budget. Asus is pushing toughness and style on the backside, and we believe they want to be more aggressive in competing in the mid-range laptop market. Putting Asus aside, the Vivobook Flip 14 will surely entice you with its potential, and as far as we can say, it’s worth a look.

Asus Vivobook Flip 14 (2020, TM420IA) Configuration In Review

AMD Enters The Scene

The Vivobook Flip 14 uses AMD’s Ryzen 7 4700U processor. If you’re not a gamer or a tech enthusiast, you might be unfamiliar with what or who AMD is—it’s understandable.

For the past few years, Intel has dominated the laptop processor market. After all, it has name recognition. When people hear Intel, they immediately think of high-end business and professional computers.

That’s not just the perception of the populace. Intel CPUs are high performing, often used in business and professional settings. They are usually low powered, have excellent temperature management, and are incredibly resilient.

On the other hand, AMD has been mostly thriving on the gaming scene, particularly in providing high-performance gaming processors. People view AMD’s CPUs as processors that maximize their performance capabilities by utilizing the maximum possible power and temperature.

Also, their processors are inexpensive! You can get an AMD processor half the price of an equivalent Intel one. It has recently entered the mobile computing scene and has been pioneering its APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) technology.

By the way, an APU is a combination of a CPU and a GPU (Graphical Processing Unit or the core component in an external video card) in one unit.

Now that you have a bit of an idea about AMD and its products, you should know that the Ryzen 7 4700U is one of the top-end mobile processors. The nearest equivalent of the 4700U is Intel’s Core i7 1065G7; it’s a heavyweight lifter in terms of processing power, and it’s primarily inside the best i7 laptops.

Unleash your creativity, knock out your next work project, or watch videos — everything’s a breeze with VivoBook Flip 14

With the Ryzen 7 processor, you can almost do everything on your laptop. It comes with an integrated seven-core Radeon graphics that can handle regular browsing to heavy rendering tasks like creating 3D movie clips smoothly and beautifully. For reference, it’s as powerful as GeForce MX250 and MX350, both dedicated graphics cards for laptops.

Maximizing The Convertible’s Potential

When buying a Vivobook Flip 14, you can opt to get one with 8GB or 16GB RAM. As early as now, we want to recommend you to get the latter. We know that it will cost more, but if you intend to get a high-end laptop, you must never skimp on RAM and storage.

Sure, 8GB should be enough for casual users who just want to browse with tons of communications, productivity, and office applications in the background. However, if you’re specifically looking at this review to get a powerful laptop, you wouldn’t want your RAM to hold back your processor’s power and the laptop’s other components.

Also, getting a 16GB is the best way to go to future proof. After all, most program developers nowadays suck. They don’t care if their applications eat lots of computer memory as long as they run. Just imagine the full desktop/laptop version of Skype can quickly eat 0.75 to 1GB of RAM. And that’s just a messaging app!

Regarding the storage capacity of this laptop, you can opt for 256GB or 512GB. And just like before, we also recommend that you shoot for 512GB or 1TB. We’re sure you’ll still be below the 1,000 mark, like these laptops’ prices, after that upgrade.

However, you don’t need to if you think you don’t need a lot of space. Since this laptop has Thunderbolt 3, you can just get an external SSD that you can use to store your data.

Overall Impression

Asus has accumulated experience and customer feedback from its prior convertible releases. We believe that they learned what their target audience wants and addressed some of the critical issues in the convertible laptop/tablet market.

One of the most significant improvements in the new Vivobook is its long-lasting hinges. With the 360 ErgoLift hinges, you can rest assured that it can take some abuse whenever you “convert” this machine to a tablet, tent, or laptop.

These hinges are required to pass a 20,000 cycle test. Putting that into perspective, if you flip your laptop ten times a day (that’s a very generous number), the hinges will hold on for more than five years. Ten years if you fold the convertible only five times a day. You get the idea.

Of course, it won’t be a proper convertible if the monitor isn’t a touch screen. We might have harped on and sung more praises to this product since you can use a stylus on it, but we can’t. For some reason, Asus decided to sell the stylus or the “Asus Pen” separately.

Going back to the monitor, it’s a 14-inch, has an aspect ratio of 16:9, and has a resolution of Full HD. Not an ideal combination if you want to use it for work or gaming, but it’s suitable for watching movies and streams. Aside from those, it has a wide viewing angle, thanks to IPS tech.

Meanwhile, for those who hate bezels on their screens, be glad that the Flip 14 has a high body to screen ratio, which means that the laptop’s display compact and the bezels aren’t as imposing.

As a 14-inch convertible, it can be considered lightweight. It only weighs 3.31 lbs. You can carry it anywhere. And it’s comfortable to use as a tablet.

Lastly, the keyboard has a backlight. And its layout is island-style/chiclet buttons. Its keys have a travel depth of 1.4mm, which is the standard.

The versatility that flips the world on its head

Critic Reviews

The Asus VivoBook Flip 14 does a lot right for a convertible laptop, delivering top performance in its price tier. Still, its build and feature set to fall behind some less expensive alternatives.

The Asus VivoBook Flip 14 blew us away with its Herculean AMD CPU, but its battery life and dim display could be better.

A surprisingly powerful 2-in-1, the Asus Vivobook Flip 14 is an excellent multitasker with some remarkably good graphics performance for a hybrid laptop. Though the 8GB RAM slows it down a bit when working with many multimedia data or Chrome tabs, it’s more than enough for school or workplace productivity tasks.

Buy It If…

It’s a must-buy if you want a portable and powerful 2-in-1, standing out from its convertible brethren. It uses one of the best AMD performance CPUs out on the market, and we can comfortably say that it can do your bidding whatever it is (of course, it can’t let you perform magic!).

Aside from portability, one of its other strengths is connectivity. It comes with many ports, which can let you comfortably use it with every external peripheral you have. Also, it uses the new Wi-Fi 6 tech.

You see, having Wi-Fi 6 as your wireless adapter allows you to have a very stable and fast wireless connection if in the most crowded places you’ll ever be at any time.

If you also like games, Ryzen 7 and its integrated graphics can play most modern games. Just be warned that using this as a gaming laptop can give its battery some hard time.

Don’t Buy It If…

If you use any mobile device ruggedly, we’re afraid that this convertible may not keep up with you. The chassis flexes and bends too much. While it won’t break, you might not prefer it.

If you want a stylish device, this isn’t for you. It looks like an ordinary laptop until you may surprise people that it’s a convertible. But you might not want to risk doing that. They may look at you with pity.

Anyway, despite the NanoEdge technology Asus is boasting about, we don’t see anything special about this laptop’s display. And to be honest, it’s a bit dim for our preference. If video editing and photo manipulation are involved in your profession, this is a no go for you.

Verdict

If you like it, buy it! If you don’t, you still have a lot of options here in our fine list of the greatest business laptops in the world—in our opinion, of course!

Asus Vivobook S15 (2023, S530UN) Review
Asus ZenBook 14 (2023, UX431FA-EH55) Review
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Kenny Trinh

While he’s not editing articles on the latest tech trends, he likes to discuss business and entrepreneur. His writing has been featured in national publications such as Forbes, RD, Yahoo Finance, HackerNoon among others.

About Kenny Trinh

Kenny is the editor at Netbooknews for several years, overseeing all of the written and video content. The site helps millions of readers worldwide buying their gadgets with confidence. While he’s not editing articles on the latest tech trends, he likes to discuss business and entrepreneur. His writing has been featured in national publications such as Forbes, RD, Yahoo Finance, HackerNoon among others.

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Asus VivoBook Flip 14 review

If you’re after a 2-in-1 laptop on a budget, the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 touts compelling specs and cutting edge design without costing a fortune. For a certain class of 2-in-1 shopper, that’s a combination that wins out every time.

The latest Asus VivoBook Flip 14 is light on luxuries but big on value. It harnesses most of the benefits of a 2-in-1 form-factor and cuts down on the drawbacks where it matters. It’s not as pretty or portable as some other options, but it’s every bit as capable and a fair bit more affordable.

Asus VivoBook Flip 14 price in Australia

Many retailers are still stocking the 2020 version of the Asus VivoBook Flip 14, it features 10th Gen Intel Core processor hardware rather than the most recent 11th Gen processors but is otherwise identical to the model covered by this review. If you’re looking to save some cash, this may be a good option to consider.

What’s in the box?

In addition to the laptop itself, the packaging for the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 includes an AC-DC charging brick and power cable plus a Asus Pen stylus and stylus pen holder.

You also get a handful of stickers. hooray!

Design

As the name might suggest, Asus’ VivoBook Flip 14 is a convertible 2-in-1 PC built around a 14-inch display.

You can’t detach the keyboard as you can with machines such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, but you can flip it around to the reverse side. This means you can use it as a pseudo-tablet in a pinch.

On the iPad-to-Alienware scale, the VivoBook Flip 14 sits a little closer to the latter than the former. It’s slim enough that you can stuff in a bag, but there’s a heftiness here you won’t get with thin and light laptops like the new MacBook Air or Samsung’s Galaxy Book S. It’s lighter than some other options but not quite as lightweight as it could be.

Of course, what you lose in portability, you gain in performance and capability. The VivoBook Flip 14 might not have the premium flair of Asus’ ZenBook line, but it does give you a lot to work with here in terms of ports, performance and potential. You get the latest in 11th Gen Intel Core processors, Intel’s new Xe Iris integrated graphics and up to 1 TB of SSD storage.

The whole affair is built around a 14-inch FHD touchscreen display. Even if it’s only 1080p, the screen on the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 manages to do the trick when it comes to everyday usage. It’s got 100% sRGB colour accuracy and thin “NanoEdge” bezels that leave it with a modestly impressive 82% screen to body ratio.

Asus says the 360-degree hinge on the VivoBook Flip 14 has undergone a 20,000 cycle durability test. The hinge also incorporates the same ergo-lift design you’ll find in other Asus laptops, which translates into superior thermal management and a more comfortable screen viewing angles.

The other hardware-based get here comes in the form of Harman Kardon speakers. Compared to the speakers on an iPad or a laptop like the Samsung Galaxy Book, the speakers on the VivoBook Flip 14 sounded a little more rounded. The difference isn’t huge, but it’s still a nice bonus on a machine at this price point.

Alongside a tactile keyboard with 1.8 mm of press, the VivoBook Flip 14 also comes enhanced by Asus’ NumberPad 2.0 tech. Tapping the touchpad icon on the trackpad will enable this feature, temporarily turning the trackpad on the convertible into a digital number pad when needed.

Last but not least, the Asus VivoBook Flip 14 comes bundled with the Asus Pen Stylus. This accessory works with the 2-in-1 right out of the box and touts 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity plus 10 months of battery life per charge.

Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip 2022 Review

The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip has an excellent budget friendly price point of under 700 while still including a nice 360 degree hinge and touch screen.

Readers like you help support now. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read

An affordable tablet PC convertible now with Antibacterial Guard

The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip has an excellent budget friendly price point of about 676 while still including a 360 degree hinge and touch screen to convert the laptop to a tablet PC mode. That’s nothing new for the Asus Vivobook Flip series though. Something that is new with this series and a number of other Vivobooks is an Antibacterial Guard coating. The new Antibacterial Guard is a silver-ion coating applied to certain parts of the laptop such as the keyboard, touchpad, palm rest, and fingerprint sensor. It has been shown through ISO 22196 testing to inhibit bacteria growth by over 99% over 24 hours and should provide over 3 years of protection.

What’s in the Box

The packaging boasts environmental friendliness which is very important these days. It does use a lot of cardboard, but it’s plain brown recyclable cardboard with simple black ink printing, so we’re not wasting a ton of money on glossy full color expensive printing here.

Besides the laptop itself and some small documentation/warranty printed papers, we’ve got a nice rectangular 240 volt barrel shaped power charger. Personally I prefer the cylindrical barrel shaped chargers since there’s no need to align the ports in a specific way. It’s a circle, so there’s no orientation required; just point and push. It’s much easier than USB-C chargers.

Hardware

For internal specs, the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip has an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 8Gb RAM, 512Gb PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 50 watt-hour battery, and a 14 inch 16:10 IPS touch display with a 1920×1200 pixel resolution.

The display isn’t nearly as good as some of the displays on other Asus laptops (like the ones with OLED displays). Of course, you have to cut the cost somewhere to get to the desired price point, so that seems to be what happened here. It’s glossy so there’s glare and the colors are more muted with lower contrast than other displays, but again we’re talking about cost savings here.

Having the 360 degree hinge on the laptop means we can also use it in “tent mode” for a smaller desktop footprint and simple touch-screen interaction.

You can also fold the keyboard away completely and use the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip in a Tablet PC style manner. Unfortunately this model does not include the pen for more precise interaction, but the screen does support the Asus Pen 2.0 with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity if you want to buy that separately.

Here you can see the back part of the Flip’s hinge. The hinge bridges are extra shiny and smooth for some reason, but I kind of like this design choice. The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip is about 18.9mm thick and 1.5kg in weight.

On the left edge with have a big fan exhaust grill as well as one full USB 2.0 type A port. You’ll want to use that for peripherals that don’t need too much speed like a mouse or pen tablet accessory.

The right edge is where all of the serious ports are located. You’ve got an LED to indicate battery charging, an LED indicating that the screen is on, a 3.5mm headset/microphone jack, a USB 3.2 gen 2 type-A port, a USB 3.2 type C port, 1 HDMI 2.0a port, and a circular DC-IN charging port.

On the bottom we’ve got a large ventilation grill for airflow along with a few rubber feet to put some space between the bottom and a desk or table. Asus calls their cooling technology “IceCool”, which uses 8 6 mm heat pipes, and a 97 blade “IceBlade” fan with an empeller made of liquid crystal polymer for lighter and thinner hardware but quieter more efficient airflow.

Under heavy load, the “IceCool” cooling system works quite well. at least on the left side of the laptop. I was still able to get the right side to get pretty hot.

On the back of the lid there’s an interesting little raised logo area. I can’t think of any reason for it to be raised. There’s no tactile advantage, nor does it provide any extra damage protection.

The raised logo area is embossed with a couple hashtags, which is kind of silly to me. One says #GoFurther which links to college sports, travel companies, and Ford car stuff on The other says #BeFearless which links to mostly police videos about snitching on people with fireworks at the moment.

You’ll also notice the “cool blue” color changes significantly depending on the lighting. Above, it looks more grey. Sometimes it looks more black, but with the right light, you’ll see the blue color shine through. I really like this about the finish here. It’s a subtle color change, but it looks really nice when you do see the blue.

While the keyboard is fairly average, there are some minor improvements over the awful flat key chicklet style keyboards that have become standard on laptops these days. This keyboard actually has a little bit (0.2mm) of concave/convex ergonomic shaping to the keys. It’s not as good as the thicker keyboards we had 20 years ago, but it’s a step in the right direction. We’ve also got a decent 1.4mm of key travel for that nice tactile feedback.

You’ll also notice some etched “Harman/Kardon” branding as well as some interesting design accents in the keyboard. I don’t know why the Enter key has zebra stripes on it, but that does make it stand out a bit visually. It’s an interesting design choice and I like the unique style.

The power button between the Print Screen and Delete keys on the top row also has a nice trick. It doubles as a fingerprint scanner for biometric logins AND it supports on-boot fingerprint scanning, so that when you press the button to turn the laptop on, the authorization is passed straight on to Windows and it logs you in right away. It’s similar to what Huawei first did with the Matebook X back in 2017 and it’s awesome. See: Huawei MateBook X Review: thin, light, and quite a looker | now In my opinion, all computers should work that way.

The trackpad also has another awesome trick. There’s a little icon in the upper right corner of the trackpad that will turn on a backlit number pad. Sliding your finger on the trackpad still allows you to move the pointer around, but now you also have a very easy touch pad for numeric operations. The upper right corner icon enables this for any application, while there’s another icon in the upper left corner of the trackpad which changes the backlight brightness levels, or if you tap and slide that icon, it launches the calculator app.

Software

The Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED ships with Microsoft’s new Windows 11, which has a lot of usability and efficiency problems. See: Explaining Windows 11’s bad design | now

While some parts of Windows 11 are customizable, many of the options and capabilities you’re used to from Windows 10 and below are gone. Luckily there are numerous 3rd party tools to fix this such as: ExplorerPatcher, StartAllBack, and Stardock Start11.

There’s a MyASUS program included on the Vivobook Flip which includes a lot of customization options as well as promotional offers. The customization options have a lot to do with the hardware. For example, you can change options on the cooling fan performance to get a cooler system versus a quieter system. You can also change noise cancelling options, battery health/charging options, connectivity options, touchpad, and function key options. Asus also includes links to some other interesting utilities like their GlideX app which allows cross-device screen mirroring and extension features. There’s also a phone link software option and a file transfer utility.

There are also some bloatware programs included with Windows 11, but the desirability of these will certainly vary by the user as some are very popular. The Asus Vivobook Flip is bundled with things like Spotify, Disney, WhatsApp, Prime Video, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Messenger. They’re easy enough to uninstall though.

A trial of McAffee antivirus is also included, but personally I would uninstall this and use the built in Windows Defender antivirus instead just so I don’t have to worry about paying extra when the trial is done.

I installed a bunch of graphics and photography programs on the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip as well since that’s the field that I work in a lot. Asus includes a 15% off Adobe Creative Cloud subscription discount by the way. I definitely had to hold back on some tasks due to the 8Gb of memory and only 512Mb of GPU memory. If I pushed things too hard, I might get a GPU error in things like Adobe Camera RAW or Adobe Photoshop. I think this is just a limitation of the hardware, so if you’re going to work with graphics or gaming or other high-end tasks, you’ll want to be sure to stick within the capabilities of the hardware (or buy a more expensive model that’s more likely to handle the things you need to do.) To clarify, if you’re editing 1-10 photos at a time, the Vivobook S 14 Flip will handle that just fine. If you want to edit 1000 photos at a time, you should look for something more expensive.

Sources:

https://blog.patshead.com/2022/05/i-bought-an-Asus-vivobook-flip-14-convertible-tablet.html
https://www.netbooknews.com/product-review/Asus-vivobook-flip-14-2020-tm420ia-review/
https://www.reviews.org/au/technology/Asus-vivobook-flip-14-review/
https://now.com/Asus-vivobook-s-14-flip-2022-review/