Asus VivoBook S15 S510UN-BQ121T

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Reviews for the Asus VivoBook S15 S510UN-BQ121T

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Model: This laptop, I wanted to buy so bad, but I was not sure about it, because I wanted to use it for gaming. Now, it is not a gaming laptop of course, but with MX150 GPU you can use it for lightweight gaming such as LoL, CS:GO and other non demanding games. Why did I change my mind? I talked to a friend who bought it already and he told me about some fan issues and the problem with the plastic case that wore of a bit after a while. I ended up buying a Zenbook Pro, soon after I realized they share some similar issues, which is fans.

Now, fans may or may not be an issue for you. The problem with them is, when you put powerful hardware in a small case, they get triggered a lot. A constant fan noise is not something you want to have. But unfortunately this is what happens most of the time. Of course if you use headphones that problem goes away, but that is the general problem with small cases. Weighing only 1.5 kg is a great achievement for a 15.6 inch laptop. Asus does a good job here.

Besides the form factor, I think this laptop is a good powerhouse too. In my opinion, the only missing piece is 16 GB of RAM. There is another SKU comes with that, but of course for a higher price. 8 GB of RAM are already enough for most of the users, it is just to make sure you have everything.

The reason why I wanted to buy this laptop is, as I said, for light gaming and having something powerful enough to do my daily stuff. With that I mean actually everything. 256 GB SSD, 8 GB of RAM, MX150 GPU, 8th generation i7 8550U CPU in a laptop that only weighs 1.5 kg. It is a great package. What is the bad part? Connectivity. 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3 is all you get. USB 3 is something that you can live with, but why USB 2.0, Asus, just why?

Other than that, maybe the keyboard layout could be a problem for some. Combination of FN keys can be sometimes complicated and makes it hard to operate the laptop with just one hand. But I think this is something that again most people can live with.

Overall, I think the Asus VivoBook S15 S510UN-BQ121T is a good laptop if not great. I can suggest it with all my heart. But if you are searching for something cheaper, you can go for Acer Aspire 5 series.

Hands-on article by Ümit Yılmaz Güneş

NVIDIA GeForce MX150: Pascal GP108 based laptop graphics card and mobile version of the desktop GeForce GT 1030. Offers 384 shader cores and usually 2 GB GDDR5 with a 64 Bit memory bus. Manufactured in 14nm. With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution. » Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.  
8550U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.8 and 4 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,150 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
15.6":

15-16 inch is a standard display size for laptops and offers the biggest variety of products.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
1.5 kg:

This weight is typical for big tablets, small subnotebooks, ultrabooks and convertibles with a 10-11 inch display-diagonal.

Asus: ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated, a Taiwanese multinational company, produces motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, PDAs, computer monitors, notebook computers, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems. The company's 2007 revenues reached US$6.9 billion. ASUS also produces components for other manufacturers. The Eee PC initiated the netbook boom in 2008.

In the notebook sector, Asus had a global market share of about 11% from 2014-2016, making it the fourth largest laptop manufacturer. In the smartphone sector, Asus is not among the Top 5 and has only a small market share (as of 2016).

80%: This rating is not convincing. The laptop is evaluated below average, this is not really a recommendation for purchase.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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