There are plenty of options in the budget laptop segment, but most of them have boring and unattractive designs. It’s 2018, and from phones to televisions, everything seems to be becoming bezel-less and expecting laptops to have a bezel-less display could be the new norm. There are laptops with sleek and thin bezel designs, but most of them come with high price tags.
Buying a budget laptop having a Full HD, bezel-less screen seemed impossible until the launch of the Asus VivoBook X510U. Asus has made a bold move by launching this laptop at a price tag which is closer to Rs.30,000. But with a great design, can it also offer great performance? Read our full review on the Asus VivoBook X510U to find out can if it can meet your everyday computing needs.
Design and build
The Asus VivoBook X510U comes with a strong plastic body which feels sturdy and doesn’t make any kind of creaky noises. The plastic body has a brush metal finishing giving the laptop a metal-like feeling. It weighs just 1.7 kg, so whether you keep it in your backpack or sling bag, you are barely going to notice its weight. The back of the laptop has a textured finish to it with an Asus logo in the center. The textured back adds a grip to the laptop and also ensures it doesn’t attract fingerprints or scratches.
The first thing you will notice after opening the laptop lid is an 15.6-inch Full HD display with a narrow (7.8mm) bezel. The display has a matte finish to it with a stated viewing angle of 178 degrees. This makes images and videos look crisp even when viewed from different angles. The display is connected to the main body with a strong hinge ensuring that the display stays steady even with rough use.
If you are someone who types papers or takes notes, you are going to love the keyboard on the Asus VivoBook X510U. The keys are generously spaced, with a textured finish to them. They are responsive and makes a click noise, which is somewhat like a mechanical keyboard. It also has dedicated function keys which many users will appreciate.
With a generous size keyboard, the Asus VivoBook X510U also comes with a generously size trackpad. The trackpad has multi-touch and gesture support. These gestures can be easily customised by accessing the settings menu. The trackpad has a matte finish to it, with a thin chrome border. There is also a thin chrome lining at the bottom of the trackpad, to divide the left and right click buttons. Asus has included a fingerprint scanner which many of the laptops in this segment lack. This scanner comes embedded with the trackpad and can come handy in quickly unlocking the laptop.
Features
The Asus VivoBook is powered by Intel’s 7th generation Core i3 7100U processor which is clocked at 2.4 GHz. This dual-core processor should be more than enough for general computing needs. The X510U also comes has 4GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB of hard disk drive. The Asus VivoBook can handle basic games with its Intel HD 620 integrated graphics solution.
The Asus VivoBook X510U has a 15.6-inch Full HD display with Asus’ NanoEdge technology. With its 7.8mm bezel, it has an incredible 80 per cent screen-to-body ratio which is rarely seen on laptops at this price. We played some 4K video on the laptop, and the results were impressive. Most of us will enjoy watching content on this display as the colours are vivid and the details, sharp.
The heat vent on the Asus VivoBook X510U are conveniently placed below the hinge, which helps in blowing hot air away from the laptop. This creates an efficient cooling system. During our tests, we hardly noticed any kind of heating issues with the laptop.
Asus is kind enough to offer two USB 2.0 ports however, it only has a single USB 3.0 port which is disappointing. It uses WiFi 802.11n but lacks a RJ45 Ethernet port. It has a SD card slot which can be used to copy data from cameras easily. It also has a reversible USB Type-C port that makes connecting devices quick and easy. The VivoBook also has a HDMI input which can be handy in connecting to projectors or televisions, to project presentations and enjoy movies.
One of the features most of us will appreciate is fast charging. Asus claims that the laptop can charge 60 per cent of the battery in just 49 minutes. During our tests, we found out that the claims made by Asus are pretty accurate.
Performance
Even if a laptop has great aesthetics, it is useless unless it performs. We ran a number of tests on the Asus VivoBook X510U and the results were impressive. The VivoBook X510U runs on Intel’s 7th generation Core i3 7100U which is capable enough to handle generic computing tasks. We ran PCMark 10 in which, the Vivobook managed to get a good score of 2359 which is at par with its competition. The VivoBook can be a great laptop for web browsing, for using productivity applications like Microsoft Office. It will give you a hard time if you decide to run heavy running content creation and editing software.
We ran CineBench to test the VivoBook’s Integrated HD 620 Graphics and the results were satisfactory. It achieved a score of 25.31 fps in the OpenGL test. In the CPU test, it scored 2.86 pts, which is fine for this processor. Considering these results, the VivoBook might do a fair job at running software such as Autodesk Maya or 3D Studio Max for starters, however we don’t recommend using this laptop for professional work.
To test hard disk performance, we ran CrystalDiskMark on the Asus VivoBook X510U and the results were nothing short of impressive. It manages to achieve 128.7 MB/sec in the read test, and 135.2 MB/sec in the write test, which is sufficient for everyday use. It is a bit higher than most hard drives on laptops.
No matter for what we use our laptops, it can turn into a great package if it comes with decent gaming abilities. We tried the Street Fighter IV gaming benchmark on the Asus VivoBook X510U in two different settings. The Vivobook gave a score of 10,827 with an average of 71.61 fps with the screen resolution set to 1366x768. However, the numbers drastically fall as you bump up the resolution. With the resolution set to 1920x1080, the VivoBook gave a score of 7,946 with an average of 45.6 fps. The Asus VivoBook X510U can handle basic games or older titles, but not the latest ones. If you should try them, you will need to turn the visual quality settings all the way down.
Verdict
The Asus VivoBook X510U is a highly recommended, budget laptop. You may not like gaming on this, and it would have had more USB 3.0 ports. Keep those aside, and you have a full HD screen in a format factor that you find on laptops nearly twice its price. You will definitely have a good time watching movies and browsing through photos. It offers the performance, which most of us will find sufficient to run every day software. Considering the price of Rs. 33,799*, the Asus VivoBook X510U is a good value-for-money machine that offers a perfect balance of design and performance.
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