The major flaw with almost 90 percent of Windows laptop is the lack of portability. Well, even if a laptop promises portability it lacks behind in terms of performance. Consequently, it becomes a problem for users to find a laptop that is immensely powerful and profoundly portable. The ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U solves this problem and provides users with an unmatchable experience both in terms of performance and portability.
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ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Design
ASUS emphasizes on the design ergonomics of laptops be it their VivoBook lineup or the ROG lineup. The VivoBook S14 S406U is no exception to that. The ASUS VivoBook S14 offers impressive design ergonomics and the laptop looks and feels premium.
Well, this 14-inch laptop is just 14.8mm thin and weighs around 1.2kg which makes the laptop portable. Furthermore, the entire construction of the laptop has a premium brushed aluminum finish.
Ports
Even after being soo thin and lightweight, the laptop retains almost every computer port. Well, you get a Micro HDMI port, USB 3.0, USB Type C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. These ports are more than enough for day to day tasks and the inclusion of USB Type-C makes the laptop futureproof. There is also a microSD slot for data transfer, sadly no full sized one that you can throw directly from your camera.
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ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Display
The VivoBook S14 S406U offers a 14-inch FHD display with 78.5% screen-to-body ratio. During our review, we found the display to be vivid and bright. The Full HD display offers an anti-glare coating and 178° wide-view.
The laptop even calibrates the display to provide best viewing experience. Furthermore, the laptop doesn’t oversaturate colors hence the display seems more real and life-like.
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ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Keyboard And TrackPad
The S406U offers an impressive chiclet styled keyboard that makes typing a pleasure. Well, the keyboard has 1.4mm of key travel with little key float for a solid feel and all this helps to increase the accuracy while typing. On the downside though, there is a chance that you might press the power button while working (just might).
The touchpad has smartphone-like touch precision. Consequently, the trackpad is responsive and highly accurate, but sometimes act clumsily. Gestures on the trackpad act as an added bonus. These multi-touch and Smart Gesture input make working on the laptop much faster and efficient.
ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Performance
The VivoBook S14 is powered by the Intel Core i5 8250U processor, coupled with 8GB DDR4 RAM, and an extremely fast 256GB SSD. Well, the laptop can easily handle serious multitasking, heavy browsing, and chop through regular day to day tasks.
Do note, we faced occasional lag while using chrome and the laptop heats up within an hour of usage. The fast SSD storage helps increment the performance by offering faster read and write speeds.
The laptop comes with Windows 10 Home preloaded, making it plug and play machine. As far as gaming is gaming is concerned, we played CSGO and the game ran smoothly with occasional frame drops. To our surprise, the laptop was capable of running GTA 5 but at low graphics settings.
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ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Sound And WebCam
The S406U has impressive speakers but are downward facing apparently lacking crispiness. Well, you get high-quality dual speakers with larger 9cc speaker chambers. Lastly, the laptop has a decent WebCam that is perfect for Skype calls.
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ASUS VivoBook S14 S406U: Verdict
ASUS VivoBook is an amazing combination of performance, portability, and sleek design ergonomics. The laptop might be a perfect choice for office and school-related work. This can also be used as a media consumption device as it performs well in those aspects as well. For security purposes the laptop sports a fingerprint sensor with Windows Hello.
It is worth noting that this laptop is not meant for gaming but you definitely have a powerful integrated GPU when you need it. The only issue we faced with the laptop was gradual heating on prolonged usage and random lags while working.
Pricing
ASUS has managed a pretty aggressive range of prices for the VivoBook S14 series. The S406U variant that we reviewed is priced at Rs. 54,990 and is only available offline. But you also get the Flipkart-exclusive S410UA version priced at Rs. 59,990 with the same processor and specs, except for a 128GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive in place of the 256GB SSD, the full-sized ports and slots, and the increased thickness and weight.
BONUS VIDEO
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