Asus VivoBook Pro 15 (i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050) Laptop Review

The case of the VivoBook Pro 15 has an elegant gold color and is made of brushed aluminum. It is visually closer to the ZenBooks and looks quite sophisticated. The design is otherwise rather simple and typical for a business machine. A silver Asus logo is at the top, but there are no other colored items or gimmicks except for the small indentation at the front, which helps to open the lid.

The base in particular is very sturdy thanks to the aluminum surfaces. There is a lot of resistance when you apply pressure, and there is only some flex in the center of the keyboard as well as some creaking from the left side around the ports. It also looks as if there is a glue pad underneath the right palm rest, because it will stick to the surface beneath for a little while. The lid is very slim and not very torsion resistant due to the construction, but the stability is still sufficient. The inner display bezels are only made of thin plastic.

The only three ventilation slots at are the bottom of the notebook and the openings for the speakers are located at the front. The battery cannot be removed, and there is no maintenance cover. The bottom plate, however, can be removed, but more on that later.

The Dell XPS 15 is the smallest and slimmest device here, but the VivoBook Pro 15 otherwise fares pretty well. It is a bit bigger, but just slightly thicker than the Asus ZenBook. It is also the lightest device at 2 kg (~4.4 lb) next to the Dell and the ZenBook. However, the power adapter adds another 500 grams (~1.1 lb). Both the Acer and the Gigabyte are the largest and heaviest among the rivals.

The port selection is pretty functional and simple. The two USB 2.0 ports in particular are outdated in our opinion. We would have preferred USB 3.x ports only, especially since the only USB-A 3.0 connector on the left side is not marked with a different color. Thunderbolt is missing as well, because you only get a 1.Gen USB-C port. Monitors can be attached via HDMI or USB-C, which supports DisplayPort. There are not many audio ports either, and headphones and microphones share one combo jack. Finally, you also get an SD-card reader as well as Ethernet.

The port layout is okay, thanks to the limited number. The space between the individual ports on the left is not particularly generous, but sufficient. There are no connectors at the front or the rear of the notebook, even the status LEDs are located on the (right) side.

Our test model performs well in our communication tests, even though there are some mixed results. The transmitting performance of the VivoBook Pro is excellent, but it falls behind many rivals when it receives data. Gigabyte's Sabre is at the bottom of the ranking in both tests.

The notebook is equipped with a fingerprint scanner. It is sitting in the upper right corner of the touchpad and enables quick logins without passwords via Windows Hello.

The box of the VivoBook Pro includes only a warranty card, a small service leaflet as well as a special offer for McAfee Live.

The manufacturer offers a two-year Collect & Return warranty in Germany and Austria. Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

Keyboard

Touchpad

The Core i7-7700HQ is an Intel processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. It is a quad-core with Hyperthreading support, so it can execute up to eight threads simultaneously. It is 200 MHz faster than its Skylake predecessor and now runs with clocks between 2.8 and 3.8 GHz. It is the fourth fastest model in the mobile Kaby Lake range, so it is a fast processor with plenty of performance for all applications.

The clocks are not significantly reduced in our 30-minute loop of Cinebench Multi-core and we can see a steady 3.4 GHz, even though there are some deviations towards the end.

All the competitors are in the same ballpark in the PCMark 8 Work test, only the HP Pavilion falls behind by 42%, which is hard to understand. Our VivoBook is inconspicuous.

The Home score shows bigger differences. Our test model is ranked third behind the HP and ZenBook (+9 and +10%, respectively). The rivals from Acer, Dell, and Gigabyte are 4 to 10% slower.

We did not experience any issues and office applications in particular are no challenge for the system. Windows 10 always ran smoothly and without noticeable delays.

Modern games can usually be played smoothly at medium settings with the GTX 1050, which is supported by our gaming benchmarks. The VivoBook Pro manages 31 FPS (on average) in the “Witcher 3” at 1080p and high details, but the gaming experience was not smooth at all. You should therefore reduce either the resolution or the settings. Medium details in 1366x768 pixels resulted in 69 FPS, so there is still headroom for more challenging scenes, even higher details are still possible.

We can see a steady frame rate when the power adapter is attached. Our graph below shows there is no throttling.

This changes on battery power: As with our previous tests, the performance is heavily throttled on battery. We expect the “Witcher 3” will be unplayable in this state, so we tested it with the medium preset, where we determined 69 FPS on mains. This value drops to just 24 FPS on battery (-65%). There is significant stuttering and the game is basically unplayable – at medium settings! It is curious that the fans are almost inaudible, despite the gaming load, which is another indicator of an unbalanced fan control.

The VivoBook is slightly behind the rivals, but the deviations are pretty big. The rivals are often up to 10% faster (depending on the setting) in the “Witcher 3”, especially the Dell is much faster in Full HD and high settings (up to 30%), and the VivoBook is usually at the bottom of the ranking, but all the rivals are back on par in the ultra preset.

You can still play almost every game at medium settings, despite the small drawback. However, this is only the case on mains. Medium settings on battery power are usually not very smooth.

The fan behavior reveals unnecessary weaknesses. The noise levels of the VivoBook Pro 15 are actually inconspicuous and average within our comparison group, but the fans are never deactivated while idling. The ZenBook is quieter in general, which is also the case under load. Acer's Aspire is quieter too, but the other rivals are a bit louder.

However, the fans are very annoying in practice. We can notice a frequent pulsating of the fans for a few minutes, without any apparent reason. It already starts after the system is running for a little while, even though the device is still cold and we are performing usual office applications. The frequent pulsating can only be prevented by switching into Power-Saver mode. It seems that Asus can still improve the fan control, because the pulsating is completely unnecessary. The notebook is therefore often loud, which is particularly annoying in quiet environments. We did not notice any other annoying electronic sound or the like. We hope Asus will improve this behavior via firmware update.

Asus advertises a premium sound experience from powerful speakers co-developed by Harman Kardon. It is supposed to be up to 320% louder than standard laptops – including intense bass and obviously much better sound in general. The maximum volume is really a bit higher than comparable devices, but you should still not expect a wide sound spectrum or very good bass reproduction, even though the latter is still surprisingly good for this class of devices. Many other systems have problems delivering any bass at all, so the VivoBook definitely has the edge here.

Headphones and other external devices can only be attached via the combined stereo jack.

Frequency Comparison (Checkboxes select/deselectable!)

The VivoBook Pro is the most efficient notebook while idling in a direct comparison. The consumption is decent in general, even though the load values are higher compared to some of the rivals. All in all, the test model is still comparatively efficient, especially in practical office scenarios.

The maximum consumption in our stress test is 120 W, so the provided 120 W power adapter is working at its limit. We still measure 109 W in the “Witcher 3” (Ultra), so the power adapter should be sufficient in practice.

The battery capacity of our test model is 47 Wh, which does not appear to be much. We check how long the VivoBook will last in different scenarios.

We determine the maximum runtime with the Battery Eater Reader's Test and active Power-Saver profile, deactivated wireless modules, and the minimum luminance. The VivoBook lasts little more than 10 hours. A decent result, but both the ZenBook as well as the HP are even more enduring.

The opposite is the minimum runtime with active wireless modules, High-Performance profile, and maximum luminance. The Battery Eater Classic Test simulates a load scenario. The battery of the VivoBook lasts 82 minutes, so the VivoBook can beat the more expensive ZenBook.

Our practical test simulates continuous web browsing at an adjusted luminance and the Balanced power profile. We determine around six and a half hours. HP and ZenBook are once again better, but the other devices are beaten.

Our video loop runs at a luminance of 150 nits with the Power-Saver profile and deactivated wireless modules. The sample video runs for almost six hours. The ZenBook lasts almost two hours longer, which is a good result.

All in all, the runtime is decent and the VivoBook Pro is average within the comparison group. The device supports Quick Charge and charges the battery to ~60% within one hour. A full recharge takes about two hours.