There are very few good laptops in the budget of around 35k. Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) is aimed to fill that void. It has modern stylish design and good internals. The base variant is priced at Rs.30,999 and the top variant is priced at Rs.35,990. Here is our Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) review with pros and cons.
Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Review
This review is based on the Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) variant which has following specification.
- 15.6-inch FHD anti glare display screen.
- AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx graphics.
- 8GB RAM and 1TB of hard disc.
- Windows 10.
Design
VivoBook 15(X505z) is smaller in size compared to most of the 15 inch laptops. It is relatively slim and lightweight. It has thickness of 18.9 mm and weighs around 1.6 Kg. This makes it easy to carry and never feels too bulky. Asus has not done any compromise on the ports. It has two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 (both Type-A), a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen1) port, HDMI, a headphone and microphone combo port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a full-sized SD card slot.
Display
The Asus VivoBook 15(X505z) sports 15.6 inch LED-back-lit FHD (1920 x 1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 45% NTSC. The viewing angles, Brightness are good considering the price. Overall with narrow bezel display provide good for watching movies and for gaming.
Performance and Battery life
VivoBook 15 comes in two variants. One comes with Ryzen 3 and the other one with Ryzen 5. There is difference in RAM and storage as well.
My review unit is the top end variant which has Ryzen 5 2500U processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB storage. There is one free RAM slot available. User can upgrade the RAM upto 16GB.
This laptop is powerful enough to do most of the regular work such as streaming videos from Youtube, Netflix, editing documents and playing light games. Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2×2 MIMO antennas is added advantage.
The stereo speakers are decent. It is loud. But quality is not great. Coming to battery life, for my usage it lasted around 4 hours. There is fast charging option as well. As per the claims it charges the battery 60% in just 49 minutes. In my usage, I got very close result to this.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on VivoBook 15(X505z ) is good. Keys are large and layout is decent. The keys has decent travel as well. Lack of LED indicator for Caps Lock is a drawback. Overall the keyboard provides good typing experience. The Touchpad is responsive and fairly accurate.
Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros and Cons
Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Pros
- Slim and Lightweight.
- Decent display panel.
- Good performance.
- Pricing.
Asus VivoBook 15 (X505Z) Cons
- No backlite keyboard. No indicator for Caps Lock.
- Audio output could have been better.