Asus VivoBook S 15 OLED Snapdragon 8-core laptop review - An almost silent everyday companion with the Snapdragon X Plus

We tested the Vivobook S 15 OLED with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor just a few months ago. It was a good everyday computer with a great OLED screen. In addition to the limitations of the ARM architecture and the associated compatibility problems, the price was particularly problematic, as the RRP was US$1,269.99 and therefore on a par with (or even higher than) the comparable variants with Intel/AMD processors.

To coincide with the launch of the new Snapdragon X Plus models with 8 CPU cores, Asus is bringing a corresponding configuration of the Vivobook S 15 onto the market. However, the price jump is not as big as expected, as the RRP is 1,149 euros (~US$1,270). Apart from the processor, the equipment is identical with the high-resolution 120 Hz OLED screen, 16 GB LPDDR5x-8448 RAM, and a 512 GB SSD. But what compromises do you have to make with the new Snapdragon chip, and is the performance still sufficient for most everyday tasks?

In this review, we focus on the performance of the new Snapdragon X Plus as well as emissions and battery life. In the other sections, there are no differences to the previously tested Vivobook S 15 OLED, which is why we refer you to our review of the Snapdragon S 15 OLED for more information on the casing, features, input devices and display our test report of the Snapdragon X Elite variant for more information.

Note: We have recently updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. Further information can be found here.

Qualcomm has introduced a total of three new Snapdragon X Plus models, and the Vivobook S 15 is equipped with the slowest variant. The X1P-42-100 offers eight cores and is combined with 16 GB LPDDR5x-8448 RAM, which cannot be upgraded. The NPU with 45 TOPS is identical to the other Snapdragon X processors.

Asus offers various energy profiles in the pre-installed MyAsus app, which we have listed in the following table. The TDP specifications come from the manufacturer, the pure CPU share of these are rounded values, as this value cannot be read out individually. The TDP specification for the current Snapdragon X processors also includes the controller and memory in addition to the processor. We carried out the following benchmarks and measurements with the default profile Standard. The Performance profile only provides better multi-core performance. There is also the Full Speed mode, but this only increases the speed of the fans.

We have already tested the new X1P-42-100 in our Analysis article in detail. Basically, only the performance cluster (8 cores) with a maximum clock rate of 3.2 GHz is used here, whereas an active core can reach 3.4 GHz. The efficiency cluster of the more expensive Snapdragon SoCs is not installed here.

Due to the identical clock rate, the single-core performance in the benchmarks is unsurprisingly on par with the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78-100) in the Vivobook S 15 and is also very respectable. This also puts the smallest Snapdragon ahead of AMD's Zen4 chips and Intel's Meteor Lake CPUs. However, the current AMD Zen 5 processor is slightly faster. In the native multi-core tests, the small Snapdragon X Plus is clearly outperformed by the comparison devices with the Snapdragon X Elite or the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. Our analysis has also shown that AMD is also ahead here.

The other CPU benchmarks that we perform on all devices are emulated on the ARM laptop. The performance here is again quite weak, and the Vivobook S 15 is actually always in last place in our comparison group. At least the performance remains almost identical under continuous load and in battery mode. Further CPU benchmarks can be found in our technology section.

The results are mixed in the synthetic system benchmarks: The small Snapdragon performs quite weakly in the cross-system CrossMark, but the browser tests show a different picture. In practice, you don't notice any differences to the faster Snapdragon chips most of the time, and the Windows experience is very smooth and responsive. However, we had a few situations where the system had slight stutters or pauses, for example when waking up from standby or in the settings. However, as long as you use native apps, there should be no problems with performance. We have already discussed the problems with x86 apps and peripherals in detail, and Microsoft also points out the limitations.

We were unable to carry out our standardized latency test as the LatencyMon application does not work. However, we can at least say that there were no dropped frames when playing a 4K YouTube video.

The 512 GB version of the WD SN740 is installed in the test device. It is an M.2 2280 SSD with PCIe 4.0 connection and solid transfer rates. In addition, the performance remains completely stable even under prolonged load. After the initial start-up, the user has 426 GB at their disposal. Further SSD benchmarks can be found here.