Review: Asus Vivobook Pro 15 (K3500) laptop
The Asus Vivobook Pro 15 offers mainstream computing capability at an affordable price.
I have owned laptops by Taiwanese computer maker Asus over the years. They weren’t the fastest guns in the west, but they were feature rich with comfortable large keyboards and great options for plugging things in, and they got the job done.
That’s not to say some Asus computers blow you away, such as the company’s ROG (Republic of Gamers) gaming laptops. Nevertheless, Asus laptops had what I needed and were affordable in a period of my life when I consumed lots of instant noodles.
The Vivobook Pro 15 (K3500) aspires to be that laptop. It’s a tempting proposition to buy, not just drool at. Asus flags young creatives who like aesthetics, convenience and performance bundled with a reasonable price, but the young don’t have a monopoly on demanding value-for-money.
The Vivobook does make compromises. The chassis is plastic and you can slightly flex the screen. It isn’t totally rigid. It’s not metallic although the design is attractive. At 1.65kg, you might find a lighter 15.6-inch laptop but this is light enough; I can easily carry it short distances in one hand. The screen displays bright, colourful images but it is not a touch screen.
Nevertheless Vivobooks, when sold with reasonable pricing, are an attractive proposition.
Three models go on sale in Australia, starting in December. All have full HD (1080p) screens rather than 4K displays. That’s fine with me. 4K soaks up too much juice when you’re out and about.
I prefer displays that are bright, support accurate colours (these are Pantone validated & VESA DisplayHDR 600 True Black certified) and offer features such as HDR (high dynamic range) which can show subtle shades of colour in movies in dark and in bright image areas.
The entry level model costing $1499 has an 11th generation Intel Core i5-11300H processor with 8GB of memory and a 512GB solid state drive.
Pay $2099 and you get the model I am testing with a faster Core i7-11370 processor with double the memory (16GB), 512GB of storage and, importantly, a separate GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, which makes it a good option for everyday video editing.
Don’t get over excited because these two processors – the 11300 and 11370 – are four cores and eight threads, and not eight cores. These laptops will be okay for mainstream uses, gaming and programming, but if you wish to perform many tasks simultaneously, or perform more intensive video editing, you are better with an 8-core processor.
The saving grace here is the dedicated graphics. The Cinebench 15 graphics test returned 84.11 frames per second which shows the Vivobook does have potential for gamers provided you don’t push too far.
The CPU score of 844 cb reveals what I thought; it’s more for mainstream rather than high-end use.
There is a coming Vivobook model with an AMD Ryzen chip if you prefer that to Intel. It also has an RTX 3050 graphics card and costs from $2099.
You can opt for on-board graphics if you don’t need a dedicated graphics card. All systems run Microsoft Windows 11.
The Vivobook Pro 15 has a decent range of ports around the sides but I question the mix. There are 2xUSB 2.0 slots at left, and USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, HDMI 1.4, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm combo audio socket at right. That’s lots of connectivity.
While it’s great to have an HDMI port for connecting a monitor, HDMI 1.4 can only handle 1080p and 4K up to 30 Hz output. It limits the ability to display faster action 4K games from your PC on your TV. The newer standards are HDMI 2.0 and 2.1
My main concern is that you get just one USB-C port. In 2021, more people use devices supporting USB-C. Laptops with 2 or more USB-C ports are becoming popular. That and a legacy USB-A slot is a more contemporary mix.
The ASUS laptops I used previously and this device have comfortable large backlit keyboards with full sized keys. The keyboard includes a keypad at right which is great, although having the numeric keys up against the regular keys creates a cluttered look.
The small half-height keys across the top row and the half-height arrow keys are not my favourite.
The Vivobook supports the current Wi-Fi 6 wireless internet and has a decent sized 63 watt hour battery. My test unit lasted 8 hours 35 minutes playing full HD video at 50 per cent brightness which is well below, say, the battery longevity of a MacBook Pro we recently tested.
The Vivobook does charge quickly, achieving around 60 per cent charge in 40 minutes with the standard brick charger.
You can charge the laptop using a lightweight 120W GAN charger and a USB-C cable. It took under two hours to charge completely. It’s great if you can live without a brick charger and charge using a small, light, yet powerful Gallium Nitride plug.
The audio is Harman Kardon certified, but audio gets lost if you place the Vivobook on a soft surface such as a couch as the sound is directed underneath, and it’s trebly without solid bass. Frankly, I always listen to music from a desktop using headphones so it isn’t a deal breaker.
To sum up the Vivobook Pro 15 (K3500) in a phrase, I’d say mainstream and mid range. It’s a very comfortable largish but not too heavy laptop with a colourful screen, very good keyboard and lots of connections for everyday users.
You get value for money and Nvidia pushes the laptop’s graphics capability with Nvidia Studio and Nvidia Studio Suite, if you are a creative type on a budget.
However, the Vivobook has its limitations if you want high end connectivity and performance.