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ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA)

8.8

The OLED display is a very nice addition to round out the feature list. Combined with solid performance, long battery life, a comfortable keyboard, and a sleek design, the Vivobook S14 delivers exceptional value for money.

What's Good?
  • Premium build
  • ASUS Lumina OLED still stuns
  • Battery life for days
  • Impressive connectivity
  • Comfortable keyboard, with RGB now!
What's Not?
  • Less-than-stellar audio

The ASUS Vivobook S line has consistently impressed us with its ability to deliver solid performance and stylish designs at competitive prices. The latest Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) expands on the Vivobook series’ signature bang for buck, maintaining the same all-metal design, but refreshed with Lunar Lake under the hood to enable even better performance and battery life than its already impressive Vivobook S16 with the last-gen Meteor Lake chip.

ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) — What’s Good?

Premium build

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review design

The Vivobook S14 sports a sleek and modern aesthetic that straddles the increasingly blurred line between the more wallet-friendly Vivobook series and the premium Zenbook series. The aluminum lid and overall slim profile give it a premium feel, defying its mid-range positioning. With a full metal chassis, the build quality feels plenty sturdy. And of course, there’s the confidence-inspiring coolness of metal whenever you pick it up. It’s also remarkably portable, slipping easily into a backpack or messenger bag. The ASUS Vivobook S14 also weighs just 1.3kg, making it a really easy pick for anyone who needs an ultraportable laptop.

ASUS Lumina OLED still stuns

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review screen ASUS Lumina OLED

After all my years of using ASUS Lumina OLED laptops, I still love the blinding brightness every time I turn one on for the first time. The 14-inch panel boasts vibrant colors, deep blacks, and excellent contrast, making everything from browsing the web to watching movies a visual treat. The only downer might be the FHD+ resolution, but it is still more than sharp enough for most tasks. And as you will see shortly, it translates to downright mind-blowing battery life figures.

Battery life for days

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review PCMark 10 battery life

Did you think the ASUS Zenbook S14‘s battery life was great? Well, this is even better, by nearly four hours. The lower resolution display really helps here, giving us over 22 hours of battery life in PCMark 10. In my daily usage, the ASUS Vivobook S14 gave me over two days of use, and surprisingly Lunar Lake’s sleep efficiency is significantly better than any x86 chip that came before. I never shut down the laptop between my sessions, and it still held up really well. Will shutting down Windows laptop be a thing of the past? Well… One can hope.

Impressive connectivity

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review ports

For a laptop this thin, the Vivobook S14 offers an excellent selection of ports, including two full-sized USB-A ports, a full-sized HDMI, and a headphone jack. There’s even a microSD card slot for those of you who might want to use the Vivobook S14 as part of your content creation setup. There’s also two Thunderbolt 4 ports for the few peripherals that support it, while wireless connectivity is handled by the WiFi 7-capable Intel BE201. My favorite feature is the two USB-A ports, which is quite rare in this segment. They are capable of just 5Gbps, but I would rather have two 5Gbps ports than one 10Gbps port.

Comfortable keyboard, with RGB now!

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review keyboard

Key travel is usually the first thing to be sacrificed when slimming down laptops. But ASUS didn’t skimp on that here, with the ASUS Vivobook S14 featuring a class-leading 1.7mm key travel. That’s almost as much as what desktop low-profile keyboards offer! There’s RGB too, which is cool. But I wouldn’t really consider the RGB a key feature though, as it’s not really as bright or vibrant as what you get from gaming laptops like the ASUS TUF Gaming A14.

ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) — What’s Not?

Less-than-stellar audio

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review-6

The dual downfiring speakers on the ASUS Vivobook S14 here are… serviceable, for lack of a better word. It can go loud, but that’s about all there is to it. The mids are pretty well-represented, which bodes well for listening to talk shows, but the lows and highs are both missing. If you are listening to music, you might find that it lacks the punch and sizzles that you will expect from your songs. With that said, I may be slightly spoilt by the recent quad-speaker and even hexa-speaker laptops that crossed my desk.

ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) Specifications

ProcessorIntel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V, 8C/8T (4C + 4 LPE) @ up to 4.8GHz
12MB L3 cache
28W TDP
TSMC N3B (Compute tile), TSMC N6 (Platform Controller tile)
Memory32GB LPDDR5X-8533 on-package, quad-channel
GraphicsIntel Arc Graphics 140V, 8 Xe-cores @ up to 1.95GHz
Storage1TB WD PC SN5000S SSD (M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD, NVMe 2.0)
Display14-inch FHD+ 16:10 (1920 x 1200) 60Hz OLED Samsung SDC41A0 display
600 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 gamut
90% screen-to-body ratio
ConnectivityWiFi 7 + Bluetooth 5.4 (Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 320MHz)
2 x Thunderbolt 4 with display-out, USB-PD
2 x USB-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1, 5Gbps)
1 x HDMI 2.1 (TMDS)
1 x microSD card reader
1 x 3.5mm combo jack
AudioDual-speakers with Smart Amp Technology
harman/kardon (Mainstream)
Array microphone
Power75WHr, 4-cell Li-ion battery
65W USB-C power adapter
Dimensions310.5 x 221.9 x 13.9 mm
Weight1.3kg
Included AccessoriesBackpack
ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) Specs

ASUS Vivobook S14 (UX5406SA) — should you buy this?

ASUS Vivobook S14 S5406SA Review-8

The ASUS Vivobook S14 (S5406SA) is a compelling option for anyone looking for a stylish, portable, and capable laptop without breaking the bank. At RM5,299, it’s a tad pricier than its brethren that came before it, but we have here the incredible battery life only possible with Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chips. The OLED display is a very nice addition to round out the feature list too. Combined with solid performance, long battery life, a comfortable keyboard, and a sleek design, the Vivobook S14 delivers exceptional value for money.

ASUS Zenbook S 14 UX5406 Review-14

For those who want a more premium option, there’s also the ASUS Zenbook S14 (UX5406SA) to consider, although the RM6,999 price tag probably means most won’t be cross-shopping between these two models. Just for the sake of clarity, you do get quite a lot of premium touches with the Zenbook — a sleeker design with a Ceraluminum lid, better speakers and an uprated 3K 120Hz OLED display are worth forking out for, especially if you’re among the lucky few who can afford to seek the finer things in life.

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