Intel’s 10th generation chips are finally arriving in ASUS’ mid-range, youth-oriented VivoBook series, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Laptop sales are through the roof as workers and students scramble to find devices to help them either work from home or to study remotely. Their new VivoBook S14 S433J has enough features to keep both segments happy at a price that’s reasonable enough for what you’re getting.
And while we’re still working on our full review of the laptop, check out our initial thoughts on ASUS’ new stylish VivoBook S14:
Made for the youth
ASUS is marketing the VivoBook S14 S433J at Gen Z’s and home workers on the younger end of the age scale and designed it accordingly. The laptop is available in striking colors like Gaia Green, Resolute Red, and Dreamy White. There’s also the Indie Black color for people who want their laptops to blend with more corporate surroundings.
Interestingly ASUS also includes a multitude of stickers that you can plaster the lid of the notebook with if your that type of person, which certainly makes it easier to personalize the notebook.
Aside from the color choice, ASUS spiced up the design for the VivoBook S14 S433J via a color-blocked neon green Enter key which certainly breaks up the mostly grey coloration of the keyboard.
The laptop is mostly made out of aluminum, with the chassis sporting chamfered edges for a cleaner, more premium look. For some reason, ASUS took out its incredibly useful ErgoLift hinge for the new VivoBook S14, which is a little disappointing. The overall weight is 1.4 kilos, pretty light for a mid-range laptop.
The VivoBook S14 S433J has a 14-inch LED full HD display that has a 16:9 aspect ratio. The bezels are very small, coming in at just 5.7mm for the side and 10.5mm on the top, giving the notebook a 86% screen-to-body ratio. There’s a small webcam on the top of the panel despite the small bezels.
Colors on the 14-inch model look great, thanks to the 100% sRGB coverage of the panel. Serious snappers can probably calibrate the display enough that it can pull double duty as a photo editing machine, though the device’s limited RAM might impede it when utilized as a video editing platform.
There’s a nice smattering of ports on both sides of the VivoBook S14 S433J, including three USB 3.0 ports, as well as a single USB Type-C port, HDMI port, and a microSD card reader.
The keyboard is backlit, and the size is pretty generous considering the overall footprint of the laptop. That color-blocked Enter key breaks up the monotony of the grey keycaps well. Like most modern notebooks today, the keyboard is backlit for easier use in dim environs. The trackpad has a fingerprint sensor on the upper left side for more secure unlocks via Windows Hello.
ASUS’s partnership with Harman/Kardon has been going strong the past few years, and virtually all of the company’s mid-range and top-end notebooks make use of that audio partnership to good effect. The VivoBook S14 S433J is no exception, and sports two bottom-firing speakers from the audio brand.
ASUS’ new batch of VivoBooks sport Intel’s brand-new 10th generation processors, specifically either a Core i7-1065G7 or a Core i5-1035G1. RAM is pegged at 8GB which can’t be increased, sadly, though storage is pretty generous, as the notebook uses a 512GB SSD solution.
You’re also getting an NVIDIA GeForce MX350 discrete graphics with the new VivoBooks, and while that’s not quite enough for serious gaming, it’s good enough for light gaming use and for accelerating any application that gets a bump from a discrete GPU.
The notebook comes with a rather large 50 Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery, which should last around 6-9 hours depending on use. We’ll be doing our own endurance test on the VivoBook S14 S433J’s battery to see how it’ll hold up.
ASUS’ new laptop certainly hits all the right notes for an all-around device, though the price will be a big factor. There’s a huge demand for laptops right now and ASUS is in a great spot to reap the benefits of a booming local laptop market if they price the VivoBook S14 S433J right. We’ll find out when the brand announces pricing on July 31 at their official Facebook page.
