Asus Vivobook Go 15 OLED - Nuclear Review

Summary

The reviewer thoroughly evaluates the ASUS VivoBook Go 15, a budget laptop with notable features like a vibrant AMOLED display, a Core i3 N305 processor, and 8GB of RAM. While the laptop impresses with its display, keyboard, and battery life, it suffers from poor performance, flimsy plastic build, and loud fan noise. Gaming and high-demand tasks struggle on this machine due to its low-end hardware. Despite some positives, the overall value is questioned, making this laptop suitable only for basic tasks. The reviewer hints at more reviews to come in this series.

Takeaways

• 💻 The Asus VivoBook Go 15 is a budget laptop with a Samsung AMOLED display and a starting price of $697.
• 🔍 Despite its low cost, it includes a Core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage, indicating a focus on essential features.
• 🎨 The laptop features a vibrant AMOLED display with excellent brightness, contrast, and color gamut coverage, which is a standout feature for its price range.
• 😕 The build quality is questionable, with flimsy hinges, plastic construction, and a keyboard that feels squishy under pressure.
• 🔌 Connectivity options are limited, with outdated ports like USB 2.0 and HDMI 1.4, and only one replaceable USB port.
• ⌨️ The keyboard offers a good typing experience with a full-sized layout and strong feedback, despite the white backlighting flickering at certain brightness levels.
• 🔊 The downward-firing speakers are underwhelming, and the audio chip provides insufficient power, requiring an external amplifier for high-impedance headphones.
• 💾 The PCIe 4.0 SSD has decent peak speeds but is limited by its QLC NAND flash and lack of a second device slot, indicating a compromise on storage performance.
• 🔋 Battery life is impressive, with the laptop achieving over 23 hours of runtime on a single charge under light usage conditions.
• 💡 The Core i3 processor is a significant step down from typical Core i3 CPUs, featuring Atom-like performance and limited support for RAM, leading to poor overall performance.
• 📊 Gaming performance is extremely limited, with the laptop struggling to run modern games at acceptable frame rates, making it unsuitable for gaming.

Q & A

What type of laptop is being reviewed in the script?

The laptop being reviewed is the Asus VivoBook Go 15, a budget variant of Asus's mid-range lineup.

What are the key specifications of the Asus VivoBook Go 15?

The key specifications include a Samsung AMOLED display, Intel Core i3-N305 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 512 GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 50W battery.

What are some of the design issues mentioned in the review?

The design issues include mismatched plastic materials, a poorly placed badge, ports being located mostly on the right-hand side (which can interfere with a mouse for right-handed users), a hinge that scrapes the desk, and downward-firing speakers.

How does the reviewer rate the keyboard of the Asus VivoBook Go 15?

The reviewer finds the keyboard to be a standout feature, offering a fantastic feel and strong feedback despite being plastic. However, the palm rest squishes when typing, and the white backlighting flickers at lower brightness levels.

What are the reviewer's concerns regarding the durability of the display hinge?

The reviewer highlights potential structural issues with the display hinge. The force required to open the lid may put stress on small screws anchored into soft plastic, making the hinge likely to break over time.

How does the Samsung AMOLED display perform on the VivoBook Go 15?

The display offers excellent brightness at 381 nits, infinite contrast, and full coverage of the sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB color gamuts. However, the AMOLED panel's PenTile subpixel layout causes some chromatic aberration on text and object edges.

What are the limitations of the audio system in the VivoBook Go 15?

The audio system, powered by a Realtek ALC 3251 chip, delivers decent sound quality but suffers from low volume output. Additionally, the integrated headphone amplifier provides very limited power, making it insufficient for high-impedance headphones.

What are the reviewer's thoughts on the included Intel Core i3-N305 processor?

The reviewer criticizes the processor, calling it misleadingly named since it only contains eight efficiency cores (formerly known as Atom cores) and lacks high-performance cores. It also only supports single-channel RAM, which hampers overall performance.

How does the laptop handle thermal management during heavy workloads?

The laptop struggles with thermal management, with a tiny cooling system that ramps up the fan frequently due to its low thermal mass. Despite the low power consumption, the CPU heats up quickly under load, and exterior surface temperatures become uncomfortable in some areas.

What are the reviewer's final thoughts on the Asus VivoBook Go 15?

The reviewer concludes that the VivoBook Go 15 is a low-performance laptop with fragile construction, a loud fan, and a laggy user experience. While it has some positives like the display, keyboard, and battery life, these are not enough to offset its overall poor performance.