The new Asus Vivobook Pro 15 epitomizes a laptop designed for graphics-intensive content creation and productivity. It offers a choice of two Intel Meteor Lake-H CPUs (Ultra 7 155H or Ultra 9 185H) and two Nvidia GPUs, RTX4050 and RTX4060. All models feature a colorful, color-accurate 2880 x 1620 OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a MUX switch to maximize the potential of the GPU.
Currently, only the top-end Core Ultra 185H RTX 4060 model is scheduled to launch in the UK for £1,599 (£1,333 ex VAT). There's no word on UK availability or pricing for the Core Ultra 155H and RTX 4050 machines, but it's probably safe to assume they'll cost around £1,300 (£1,085 ex VAT) when they launch in Blighty. It's not a bad price when the obvious competition in the form of Apple's MacBook Pro 16 will set you back perilously close to £3,000.
While the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is a laptop designed primarily for creatives, it also has useful gaming capabilities thanks to its powerful graphics hardware and 120Hz display, making it a worthy contender for anyone who just wants a Really good and competent multipurpose equipment. -portable purpose.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED: Design
The Vivobook Pro 15 is a fairly anonymous piece of design, especially when compared to some of Asus' other recent models, such as the impressive Zenbook S13. It is available in only one color: Earl Grey. British users will expect it to be some type of brown, but it is a dark gray bordering on black. Only the high-gloss silver Asus Vivobook lettering on the lid alleviates the aesthetic mundanity.
Looks aside, the Vivobook Pro 15 has a metal lid and a plastic body, and despite the latter it still feels very solid. Like many Asus laptops, it meets the US MIL-STD 810H standard for shock, temperature, and particle ingress resistance. At 1.8kg, the Vivobook Pro 15 is fairly light for a full-size machine, and at less than 20mm thick, it's not too thick either.
The Vivobook Pro 15 comes with a generous array of ports. On the right side, you'll find a Thunderbolt 4 port, a 10Gbit USB-C and a 5Gbit USB-A port, HDMI 2.1 video output, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet, 3.5mm audio, and a feeding. On the left, another 5Gbit USB-A port and an SD 4.0 card reader are available.
It's a solid selection, even if the design is a bit wonky. Only the Thunderbolt 4 port supports video output, although you can charge via either Type-C if you don't want to carry the standard 200W Asus power brick with you. With the Intel AX211 wireless card supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi Fi 6E 6 GHz, there is no need to worry about the modernity of wireless communications.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED: keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard is very rigid to the point that even if you press brutally in the center, you will only be able to detect the slightest flex in the deck. It's also an expansive keyboard, with a numeric keypad that's two-thirds wide. The only slight niggle we have are the half-height cursor keys, which are a bit annoying on a productive machine with ample room for a full-size set of buttons.
The dual-color keyboard features gray input keys, black alphanumeric keys, and a black numeric keypad. This isn't just a matter of aesthetics, as we found the design improved our focus on the middle of the keyboard when typing or on the numeric keypad when entering data. The keys have 1.4mm of travel, a comfortable 0.3mm platter, and a clean action with a positive stop. The writing action is effectively silent.
Integrated into the top left corner of the touchpad is the Asus DialPad, which is activated by swiping from the top right. The DialPad is a circular controller that gives you fingertip control over your creative applications. For example, you can use it to change the brush size or font. It is fully customizable and can also be used for system tasks such as adjusting volume or screen brightness.
Opening the Vivobook Pro 15 is a simple job, and once inside you'll find room for a second 2280 PCIe 4 SSD and a free SODIMM RAM slot. With 8GB of RAM soldered to the motherboard, you can load a maximum of another 16GB into the Vivobook Pro, bringing the total to 24GB. The battery can be replaced by simply removing four Philips screws.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED: Screen
The 15.6-inch, 16:9, 120Hz OLED display, made by Samsung, is impressive. The 2,880 x 1,620 pixel panel has a lower pixel density than the MacBook Pro, from 212 ppi to 254 ppi, but the difference is invisible to the naked eye. It's also not as bright as the MacBook, maxing out at 330 cd/m2 in SDR mode and 605 cd/m2 in HDR mode, but that's enough to earn a VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certificate.
The display has wide color gamut coverage, with 100% sRGB, 98.6% DCI-P3, and 95.3% Adobe RGB recorded on my colorimeter, all validated by Pantone. The display is also very accurate, with Delta E variations of just 0.66 Display-P3, 0.91 DCI-P3, and 0.7 sRGB. Those results are extremely impressive.
Being an OLED panel instead of Mini IPS, the black level is zero, providing an infinite contrast ratio. This means that HDR performance is excellent. If you want a laptop for streaming HDR content from Netflix, you can't do much better than the Vivobook Pro 15. Asus claims a 0.2ms response time for the screen, and we won't argue with that because motion fidelity is excellent, with hardly any ghosting or smearing.
The webcam is another high-quality component. It can record videos at a crisp and colorful 1440p resolution and supports Windows Hello IR facial recognition. Thanks to the Intel AI Boost CPU tile, it comes with Microsoft's Studio Effects features such as background blur, auto-framing, and eye contact. There's also a physical privacy shutter and the camera can function as a presence detector, so it can dim or turn off the screen when you walk away and turn it back on when you come back into view.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED: Specs and performance
The most powerful model in the series is the Core Ultra 9 185H and GeForce RTX 4060 machine, which will soon go on sale for £1,599. Our review model is the lesser model Core Ultra 7 155H, RTX 4050. Both models come standard with 16GB of RAM.
Our test model scored 420 in ITPro's Custom 4K multimedia test along with 6,468 in the PCMark 10 test and 8,708 in the 3DMark Time Spy test. That puts the Vivobook Pro in the same performance category as some hardcore gaming laptops, while the 4K test easily bested the entry-level Apple MacBook Pro M3, which scored a 292.
The 16-core Ultra 7 155H is one of Intel's latest processors, with a clock speed of 4.8 GHz, 22 threads, and 6 performance cores. GeekBench 6 and Cinebench R23 multi-core scores of 12,612 and 16,298 mean the Vivobook Pro 15 can handle multiple productivity tasks without breaking a sweat.
The Vivobook Pro 15 scored 75 points in the SPECviewperf 3dsmax workstation 3D modeling test, a very healthy result considering that a 140W RTX 4060 GPU would only score 20 to 25 points higher.
If you plan to use your Vivobook Pro 15 for gaming, you'll be pleased to know that the RTX 4050 GPU has a healthy TGP of 115W. This means you can run even demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 at 50fps without ray tracing. Nvidia's DLSS3 upgrade can easily double that frame rate or let you run at a slower speed with ray-traced lighting effects.
The 1TB Western Digital SSD in our review machine proved to be a mediocre performer. The sequential read speed of 4015 MB/s was fine, but the average write speed of 1985 MB/s was pretty mediocre for a machine that will likely be used to move large media and data files.
In our standard video battery drain test, a full charge of the Vivobook's 75Wh battery lasted 8 hours and 32 minutes, which isn't bad at all for a laptop with a 75Wh battery. Admittedly, that can't compare to the MacBook Pro, but it's very solid performance for an Intel Windows machine.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED: Is it worth it?
As an all-rounder, the Asus Vivobook Pro comes close to the highly regarded Apple MacBook Pro 16. The MacBook has superior battery life and a brighter screen, but I would expect quite a bit more given the price difference – if you want for a 16-inch MacBook with a 1TB SSD, you'll have to pay around £2,800 for the privilege.
Another machine that the Vivobook Pro handles more closely than the price difference would suggest is the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X. The 16X has a more powerful GPU in the form of the Nvidia RTX 4070, but even with the current discounts (one retailer is offering it for £1,999 instead of £2,499), the new Vivobook Pro 15 still offers better performance for £/$/ €.
The takeaway message here is that if you want a laptop that fully deserves a “Pro” badge but don't want to end up spending between £2,000 and £3,000, the new Vivobook Pro is an obvious choice, and remember that “I'm based on the price of top-end model If the RTX 4050 version arrives in the UK with a price tag of around £1,300 inc VAT, it will be an automatic choice for many because it has more than enough power under the hood.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED specifications
| Show | 15.6-inch OLED, 2880 x 1620, 120Hz refresh rate |
| Processor | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Processor |
| GPU | Nvidia RTX 4050, 115W TGP |
| RAM | 16GB LPDDR5 |
| Ports | Thunderbolt 4 x 1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 x 1, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 x 2, HDMI 2.1 x 1, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet x 1, SD card reader |
| 3.5mm audio jack | Yeah |
| Camera | 1440p webcam with Windows Hello IR facial recognition |
| Storage | 1TB SSD |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth v5.3 |
| Weight | 1.8 kilos |
| Dimensions | 356x235x20mm |
| Battery capacity | 75Wh |
| OS | Windows 11 Home |
