Asus VivoBook X505 Review: A Versatile Machine Thanks to AMD Ryzen
Just like the upkeep smartphone category that's cluttered with so many confusing options, the budget laptop market is no exception. If you hop onto any e-commerce platform correct now, you lot'll find a multitude of options and information technology's piece of cake to exist overwhelmed, specially since y'all don't want to buy a laptop with dated specs or inferior performance.
Further, Intel already has a massive grip over the laptop market, but AMD is at present looking to break that dominance with its Ryzen Mobile processor lineup. AMD has partnered with Asus to finally launch the VivoBook xv (X505) lineup in Bharat earlier this week. The Asus VivoBook X505 (starts at Rs 30,990) is a slim, lightweight laptop that's backed by Ryzen 3 or 5 processors, paired with a nano-bezel brandish, and other amazing features.
Well, I had never tested out a Ryzen-powered laptop before, so I instantly pounced on the opportunity of reviewing the Asus VivoBook X505. Asus was kind enough to loan us a gray color variant of the laptop for a week and here's my feel with this machine.
Asus VivoBook X505: Specifications
Earlier we dive into our consummate review, first allow usa get the internal specifications of this machine out of the way. The VivoBook X505 is powered by the Ryzen iii 2200U in the depression-terminate variant and goes upward to Ryzen 5 2500U in the highest-end 1. It is coupled with upward to 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB of 5400RPM HDD, and upward to Radeon Vega 8 graphics memory. Here'south the detailed specification table of the VivoBook X505:
| Dimensions | 36.ane 10 24.iv 10 1.89 cm |
| Weight | one.6 kgs |
| Display | xv.vi-inch Full-Hard disk anti-glare panel, with 1920 ten 1080 resolution and 45% NTSC |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen iii - 2200U or Ryzen 5 - 2500U |
| Graphics Retentivity | 1GB AMD Radeon Vega 3 or Radeon Vega 8 |
| RAM | Up to 8GB DRAM DDR4, 1 SO-DIMM socket for expansion up to 16GB |
| Internal Storage | 1TB SATA 5400RPM HDD |
| Connectivity | Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/grand/north/air-conditioning (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth iv.ii |
| I/O Ports | 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-A 3.0, USB Blazon-C, HMDI output, Ethernet, multi-format bill of fare reader, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
| Battery | 3-jail cell 42WHrs |
| Colors | Icicle Gilded and Star Gray |
Asus VivoBook X505: Design and Build
Starting off with the pattern, Asus VivoBook X505 doesn't look a whole lot different from any other laptop in the visitor'south budget lineup. It closely resembles the VivoBook X507, which we reviewed earlier this twelvemonth, in terms of aesthetics and I'm not saying that it's a bad affair. It's a design language that works for Asus and the laptop looks sturdy and functional.
Asus VivoBook X505ZA brings to the table a premium build fifty-fifty though it may be made out of plastic. The brushed metallic finish on the lid, besides equally the palm balance, makes the laptop look outstanding, and the pattern around the keyboard and hinges, that don't have the same curvature as the X507, adds to the visual appeal.
The metal finish feels absurd to the touch and doesn't hands catch gunk or appear oily after prolonged use – that is 12 hours of continuous apply. The body of the VivoBook X505 feels quite sturdy but the brandish panel has quite a bit of flex. Although that doesn't disrupt the user experience in any way.
Ane of the highlights of the VivoBook X505 is its ultra-sparse structure and light blueprint. The laptop might not have the well-nigh compact build and is about the same size as whatever other 15.half-dozen-inch laptop and weighs only 1.6 kilograms. Yeah, it's really light.
The laptop is surprisingly handy and you can simply selection it up, with one paw and bear it effectually with you at all times. It doesn't add together much weight to your backpack either, and it'southward 1 of the chief perks of buying the VivoBook X505.
The VivoBook X505 offers a wide drove of ports, which nosotros will talk most in detail below, and I really don't have any qualms in the blueprint section except for ane. I adore the build quality, but there'southward ane minor thing that's been bugging from day one and I need to tell yous about it.
The charging port and battery LED indicator are placed on contrary sides, that doesn't make sense to me from a design point of view. I'd love if Asus places the LED indicators higher up the keyboard, which is the platonic identify to put them as they're easily visible there.
Asus VivoBook X505: Display
The display on the VivoBook X505 is splendid, because it's a mid-range laptop and makes for a cracking amusement experience. The 15.6-inch screen on this laptop is surrounded by slimmer 7.7mm bezels and offers a striking 81 percent screen-to-body ratio.
It'southward a slight improvement over the Nanoedge display we had seen on the VivoBook X507, however, you even so become sizeable tiptop and lesser bezel to hold the webcam, sensors, and the Asus branding. Apart from the bezels, Asus sweetens the deal by offering a Full-HD brandish, with a 1920×1080 pixels resolution, in an attempt to outshine many similarly-priced competitors. It also comes with an anti-glare coating, which feels like a matte cease, and that's a neat added impact.
During my fourth dimension with the VivoBook X505, I constitute the brandish panel to be quite bright in most lighting conditions, merely it fell short in super-bright conditions. Asus is also offering proficient colour reproduction and a 178-caste broad viewing angle, only the colors sometimes appeared done out and not up to the marker. This is my biggest qualm with the console used here, otherwise, it's all good.
Asus is known to sprinkle its own software into the mix and here also information technology enables y'all to choose betwixt iv different display modes, namely Normal, Bright, Eye Care, and Manual. The brandish is set to normal by default, but you can selection Eye Care to apply a night light filter.
Asus VivoBook X505: Keyboard
Moving on to the keyboard, the VivoBook X505 packs a standard chiclet keyboard with no numpad. We know non having a numpad may be a dealbreaker for some but it didn't really touch me much.Asus is looking at professionals and students to market its latest entrant into India and if the keys are well-spaced out instead of being stuffed into the limited space then it's all fine, correct?
While I was mostly in favor of the comfy layout from the kickoff, the cheap plastic build of the keys was a big turn off for me, especially since I use a MacBook Air every solar day. While got used to their quality over a few days of usage, but at that place was another thing that troubled me.
While the keys here did offer me a good corporeality of travel, something I love on my older MacBook, and didn't demand too much force to register a key printing, however, the keys are wobbly and the keyboard deck has some flex to information technology. Each time I went a little too fast and difficult with my writing, the keyboard wasn't actually stiff plenty to handle the pressure.
Also, at that place is no LED indicator in the Caps Lock key, nor does the laptop bear witness when the function has been activated with an on-screen toast, so it was a huge pain to write uppercase letters. Yous can't know when you accidentally hit the Caps Lock central.
The overall typing feel is okay-ish here and I would surely take to give a upkeep keyboard a pass, in my opinion, considering it is certainly good plenty for the cost yous're paying, especially the base model with Ryzen 3.
Asus VivoBook X505: Touchpad
Asus has included a decent-sized touchpad on the VivoBook X505 with a single button at the lesser, where the left and right clicks are divers with a pocket-size line downward the middle. The touchpad here is fabricated out of plastic with a matte texture so that it doesn't feel cheap and icky to the touch and offers a comfortable scrolling experience.
The touchpad has a fair amount of travel, which I appreciate, and the clicks don't feel empty. Coming from a MacBook Air though, the touchpad was a lilliputian rigid for my liking and I besides had to suit the sensitivity multiple times, but that'south something which can exist toyed around with, for a personalized experience.
However, Asus has elevated the experience by including Windows Precision Drivers on the VivoBook X505. Many budget laptops don't place focus on the touchpad experience, which will be used extensively every twenty-four hour period over the lifetime of the laptop, but this laptop is extending a multitude of swipe gestures, that make it easier to navigate around.
Overall, I would say that the touchpad on the VivoBook X505 is quite good for a budget laptop in its price segment and on par with what you would get these days for this price.
Asus VivoBook X505: Ports and Connectivity
While Apple has taken the minimalist route with its MacBooks, those are super premium and the company knows that users tin can spend a few more bucks on a dongle that makes the required ports available to you. Well, upkeep laptop makers don't really accept such liberty and VivoBook X505ZA has all the ports that you might need for daily use.
Asus has evenly distributed the ports on both sides, instead of heavily packing them on any one side. The left, every bit you lot tin come across above, packs the DC port, an RJ45 Ethernet port, an HMDI port, a USB Type-A 3.0 port (also referred to as SuperSpeed USB port), and a USB Type-C port.
It's really good to see Asus adopting the USB Type-C standard, even though it may have included but one port, and even if information technology's not a Thunderbolt 3 version. You can as well use the USB Type-C earphones, as I did. I tried the Google Pixel USB-C earbuds and Xiaomi'southward Type-C earphones with the USB Blazon-C port and they both worked but fine.
Moving our attention to the correct side, there'southward the Kensington Lock, coupled with ii USB-A 2.0 ports, a philharmonic headphone jack (will support an earphone with an in-line microphone), and a multi-format card reader.
As for the connectivity attribute, well, the VivoBook X505 too offers Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/1000/north/air-conditioning with two×2 MIMO back up and I faced almost no connectivity issues – exist it at home on a 5GHz network or the Beebom part's firewall. There's also Bluetooth 4.2 support that comes in handy for using wireless headsets, Bluetooth speakers.
Asus VivoBook X505: Performance
Though we might have already see a few hardware kinks, information technology's the performance that I was secretly excited to bank check out with this laptop. This is the first Ryzen Mobile laptop that I am testing out, so I was really excited to see how information technology performs. And then, allow'due south not waste more fourth dimension and dive in.
Getting the specs out of the mode offset, this automobile is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor, clocked at 2.0GHz, and paired with 8GB DDR4 RAM (expandable up to 16GB) and 1TB 5400RPM HDD storage. The do good of an AMD processor hither is that it brings along 1GB dedicated graphics retentiveness with the Radeon Vega 8 and it makes the VivoBook X505 a much more powerful laptop than nearly others in this price range.
The APU in the VivoBook X505 makes it a highly versatile machine, which is not only capable of handling daily workloads merely tin also tummy casual gaming sessions. The 1TB spinning difficult-deejay is disappointing, but you lot can replace that for an SSD. So, let's take a different route than we usually do for laptop reviews and talk all about the performance of the laptop in 2 situations- the twenty-four hour period-to-day tasks and casual gaming.
Operation in Productivity and Tasks
In regular day-to-day utilise, the VivoBook X505'south performance has been pretty adept in the one week that I got to spend with it. The laptop was able to handle my daily writing needs with ease, where at a time I had close to fifteen-20 tabs open in Opera and Microsoft Border at the same time.
To thoroughly examination out the Ryzen v 2500, I decided to install Photoshop CC on this laptop as we tend to utilise at Beebom to edit images on a regular basis. I so tested the opening time of the software, which was about 12 seconds, and edited images all day without whatever hiccups. The system didn't hang or stutter, which is a positive sign.
I was running Photoshop, the browsers, and streaming music through YouTube, then there was a fair amount of load on the laptop simply it managed to power through – even though it stumbled a couple of times and my browser crashed. I am pretty satisfied with its performance and wouldn't listen recommending Ryzen PCs to people in the future.
Performance in Gaming
Asus VivoBook X505 tin handle heavy workloads and that's evident just what about the gaming performance? Well, let me preface this section by saying that VivoBook X505 is certainly not made for gaming in listen but you can enjoy a few popular game titles like CS:GO, Fornite, PUBG Mobile on emulator, and many more.
I'thousand not going to prevarication, I was quite skeptical about playing games on this laptop and all the skepticism was met with equal strength past the VivoBook X505. Firstly, the graphics drivers were missing and I had to go through the problem of finding those on Asus' website and installing them, post which I started my gaming effort and it wasn't good.
PUBG is one of my favorites and I started off the testing with it. Even though all settings were punched downwards to very low (720p) just the game couldn't deliver over 20fps. I and so moved on to PUBG Mobile, which I played using the Tencent Gaming Buddy, and well, I don't take the numbers to prove it, but the title (automatically ready to low graphics settings) runs smoothly and yous can savour some boxing royale action with friends using the same.
We also tried our luck some other pop games, including Fortnite, which seems to be well optimized as the game was playable, too as enjoyable, at 720p low settings. We were able to become an average of 36 fps, with a peak of effectually 44 fps, which is just peachy.
I even tried out Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:Become) that recently went free-to-play and was easily able to notice an boilerplate 100 fps frame charge per unit in 720p low settings and too around 42 fps in 720p high settings. Even multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles such as Dota 2, as well every bit League of Legends, were easily playable on the VivoBook X505. You can check out our statistics in the table attached below:
| Game Title | Graphics Settings | Avg. FPS | Peak PFS |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUBG | 720p, Very Depression | 18 | 24 |
| Fortnite | 720p, Low | 36 | 44 |
| CS:GO | 720p, Depression | 100 | 120 |
| CS:GO | 720p, High | 42 | 50 |
| Dota 2 | 1080p, Medium | 53 | 62 |
And then, the laptop may non be a gaming animate being only it can surely handle some casual gaming. I believe the depression-frequency DDR4 RAM and the spinning difficult disk could be creating a bottleneck here and if yous program on upgrading it, the gameplay could be improved by a wee flake. I'd, however, suggest yous utilise a cooling pad to regulate the heat and not play hours-on-finish.
Asus VivoBook X505: Benchmarks
Though we've already seen that the performance of the Ryzen five 2500U processor on the VivoBook X505 is quite decent for the price, let united states see if the benchmark figures back the aforementioned. And well, some users actually rely on criterion numbers to better understand the overall operation, so here we go.
Like we always exercise, I ran the standard set of benchmarks including Geekbench 4, PCMark, 3D Marker, Cinebench R15'southward OpenGL test, and more.
I started off with the PCMark 10 and 3DMark test, where the VivoBook X505 scored a decent two,627 on the former (which is actually below my expectation) and about v,700 on the Night Raid test in the latter.
In the Geekbench exam, the Ryzen 5 2550U on our VivoBook X505 gave us a single- and multi-core score of 3378 and 9048 respectively, which is very respectable. These figures are amend than the official Geekbench results of the Intel i3 8130U, that has a single and multi-score score of 3680 and 7090 respectively.
I then resorted to running the BMW Benchmark from the Blender demo archive and the VivoBook X505 was able to render the image in 15 minutes and 40 seconds using the GPU on lath, which is quite skilful for a upkeep laptop.
So, equally you lot tin run into, the quad-core Ryzen 5 processor is able to handle the taxing load of the criterion software and offering results that are on par with 8th-generation Intel i3 U-series mobile processors. Notwithstanding, I would similar to signal out that the Intel processor will take more ease in treatment CPU-intensive tasks whereas the AMD chip on lath here is going to come up in handy for GPU-intensive tasks.
Asus VivoBook X505: Thermals
With coincidental gaming possible on the VivoBook X505, it became important for us to explore the thermal performance as well.
This laptop includes only a single fan module at the rear end, sitting right under the SonicMaster logo that'southward visible above the keyboard deck. While the VivoBook X505 stays cool during regular employ, i.e. while browsing or even while using Photoshop, simply information technology tends to heat upwards when you're gaming on it. Not extremely hot, but mildly hot!
Asus has equipped the laptop with its proprietary IceCool technology that should keep the temperatures low using smart fan command, internal oestrus pipes, and the fan pattern. All this means palm rest should exist at room temperature even while gaming, and it worked.
After playing Fortnite for nigh an hr, I institute the external temperature to be around 44-45 degrees simply the high-temperature zone was full-bodied around the top, in a higher place the keyboard. The keyboard deck and the palm rest, nevertheless, stayed cool and didn't meddle with the experience. The heat didn't reach the keyboard during the gameplay and that'due south awesome.
Asus VivoBook X505: Camera
Nowadays, you tin can detect some decent cameras being integrated into budget smartphones but the webcam on laptops are still crappy and haven't improved over the years. Same is the case hither as VivoBook X505 comes arranged with a 0.3MP VGA camera and the moving picture quality is obviously sub-par – similar ever!
Considering the price indicate and slim build of this laptop, I'yard not going to fret over the movie quality every bit it would mostly be used for piece of work-related Skype calls and it's decent enough for it. Nonetheless, if you'd similar to click some personal photos and videos, so the Microsoft Camera app volition come in quite handy.
The Microsoft Camera app shows what y'all're recording on the screen in real-time (up to 480p @ 30fps) and it's good to see that the webcam on board has a decent refresh rate. There are no stutters in the video recording when you motility your head around. You can also play effectually with the app settings, enable Digital Video Stabilization, to brand it just slightly ameliorate.
Asus VivoBook X505: Sound
This laptop is designed and priced to address the needs of a casual user, who is likely to carry information technology to the workplace or lectures during the solar day and use it as their chief source of entertainment at night. It is non merely the display that plays a major function but instead, the audio output tin help make the experience worthwhile. Nosotros cannot say that about the Asus VivoBook X505 that nosotros have correct here.
Asus may like to boast about the SonicMaster audio tuning and applied science, but the audio output here is just average. The poor placement of the speakers could be a large factor.
The SonicMaster branding may excite users at first, merely the speakers are pretty average and nothing close to what Asus boasts of.
The VivoBook X505 has 2 tiny speaker grills on either border, at the lesser front (equally seen below) and the sound output is not well-balanced and lacks bass. I tried watching a popular Spanish crime thriller, The Invisible Invitee, on Netflix the past weekend and the speakers were bit of a disappointment.
The output was sufficiently loud when the VivoBook X505 was placed on a table, however, moving to the condolement of your bed or placing the laptop on your lap deadened the audio. I found Asus Zenfone phones to exist louder. My iv-year one-time 11-inch MacBook Air also sounds sounding than this laptop, and that's a tiny car.
You can certainly jump into the Sound Wizard software on board to choose from amid 5 different sound modes, such equally movie, music, and gaming, to tweak the audio output, merely that doesn't bear upon sound quality too much.
Asus VivoBook X505: Battery Life
Turning our attention to 1 of the more of import factors, well, the Asus VivoBook X505 carries a small three-cell 42WHr Lithium-ion battery and information technology's decent enough to offer you up to three.5 hours of backup on a single charge.
During my calendar week-long time with this laptop, I mostly used information technology at 90 per centum brightness and was able to squeeze out somewhere between 3-3.5 hours from the battery during a usual solar day at the Beebom office, which sees me using the Wi-Fi, Photoshop, and multiple Firefox tabs open at the same time.
The battery life, in my stance, is decent for the price betoken of the VivoBook X505, only if you're looking to travel around with this laptop then you might want to lower the brightness or make sure you have a ability outlet close by to accuse upwardly every few hours.
Talking about the charging capabilities of the VivoBook X505, Asus bundles a 45W (19V, 2.37A) charging adapter with the laptop and my tests saw it fully accuse it in about 2 hours and xv minutes– which is quite decent merely nevertheless a bit slow when you consider the amount of charge information technology holds.
Only similar VivoBook X507, this laptop likewise comes backed by Asus' fast-charging engineering that it boasts will assistance juice up the laptop to sixty% in but nether one 60 minutes (49 minutes, if you want to be precise). Well, these claims are essentially truthful as the laptop charges very rapidly in the initial run when the bombardment is almost depleted, but slows down later in the charging procedure.
Asus has also bundled its ain 'Battery Health' monitoring software on the VivoBook X505 and yous can choose from iii charging modes- Full Chapters, Balance, Maximum lifespan, to cap the charging capacity and prolong the battery life.
Asus VivoBook X505: Pros and Cons
Now that you know almost everything about the VivoBook X505, information technology'south time to see if Asus' latest mid-range laptop is worth buying or not. Well, the Taiwanese giant has gotten an equal mix of good and bad in this laptop. I mean, information technology does check all the correct boxes when you talk most the blueprint and performance, but there are some negative quirks like the average bombardment life and keyboard quality that might be a turn off for some.
Asus VivoBook X505 (starts at Rs 30,990) offer you an ultra-slim build, with a metal finish and it'south awesome. We even adored how light it was, making it easy to carry effectually, and well, nosotros've already shown that the Ryzen APU breathes life into this machine, and is powerful enough for light gaming as well.
This makes it an platonic laptop for college students and professionals, who usually need to comport out their work in discussion processors, browse the web, Netflix and chill, and besides take some fun game time – if they demand to. Asus has built a perfectly fine laptop in its sub-Rs 35,000 toll segment but there is a possibility that y'all don't want a 15.6-inch screen, so I'd propose you become for the Lenovo Ideapad 330S (Rs. 34,990) for its unproblematic build and smaller 14-inch Full-Hard disk drive screen.
Y'all tin fifty-fifty check out the VivoBook X507, which is priced slightly lower and has dated Intel internals right here. Notwithstanding, if you lot want to explore more Ryzen-powered options, then you can check out the Ryzen 3-backed HP 15 (Rs. 27,990) or the Ryzen five-backed Acer Aspire 3 (Rs. 39,990) as well.
PROS:
- Slim bezels
- Anti-glare brandish
- Skillful performance
- Precision Touchpad
- Good for coincidental gaming
- Decent thermals
CONS:
- Crummy bombardment life
- Defective audio experience
- Keyboard flex
SEE ALSO: xv Tips and Tricks to Speed up Windows x
Asus VivoBook X505 Review: A Versatile Machine With Small Faults
The VivoBook X505 is certainly a versatile machine as it non only offers you lot the ease and comfort of using it as your daily commuter for simplistic tasks but as well using heavy software and gaming on the same. It proves that the Asus-AMD partnership could exist quite fruitful over the coming months.
However, I would still like to point out that the VivoBook X505 is a mid-range laptop and though it'due south going to provide you all the essential functionality, there are laptops which have better battery life and keyboards at this toll range. Ultimately, I'd like to conclude by proverb that VivoBook X505 is definitely worth the asking cost and much more than powerful than competing laptops in its class.
So, if you're in the market for a budget laptop, would y'all consider buying the VivoBook X505? Share your thoughts with united states in the comments below.
Purchase Asus VivoBook X505 from Paytm Mall (starts at Rs 30,990)
| REVIEW OVERVIEW | |
| Blueprint And Build 8.5 | |
| Display viii.5 | |
| Keyboard vii.5 | |
| Touchpad eight.v | |
| Ports and Connectivity 9 | |
| Functioning 8.5 | |
| Thermals 8.5 | |
| Audio 7 | |
| Battery Life seven | |
| Value for Money 8.five | |
| SUMMARY The Ryzen-powered Asus VivoBook X505 is one versatile machine that'south not just a decent workhorse, with slim bezels and a well-spaced keyboard, but also a good companion for casual gaming sessions and creative productivity. It may have some minor issues in terms of bombardment life and a spinning HDD, but it is platonic for someone who needs a machine for daily use. | 8.2 OVERALL SCORE |
Source: https://beebom.com/asus-vivobook-x505-review/
Posted by: lopezbehiden.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Asus VivoBook X505 Review: A Versatile Machine Thanks to AMD Ryzen"
Post a Comment