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Review: Asus Vivobook K15

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Price: From ₹46,990

Asus Vivobook laptops have been value-for-money offerings, and the K15 takes this a notch higher by bringing an OLED screen to affordable levels. As Asus says, the K15 is designed with Gen Z users in mind.

The Vivobook K15 features a polycarbonate and aluminium alloy chassis that appears tough for a budget-friendly laptop. The device is thin and light for a 15-inch laptop, about 18 mm thick and weighing 1.8 kg. The laptop is available in Indie Black, Transparent Silver, and Hearty Gold colours. The touchpad includes a fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello login, and it proved quite responsive. The keypad offers good feedback and is quite comfortable for long-form typing with 1.4 mm key travel. I found the compromise in arrow keys a little frustrating at the start, but then it became less of an annoyance after a few days of use. The keyboard offers three levels of backlight and the Enter key has a neon green backlight. The touchpad felt somewhat lagging. The device offers a full suite of I/O ports including three USB-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, two USB 2.0 Type-A, one HDMI and a MicroSD card reader along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It provides up to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) dual-band and Bluetooth 5.0.

Coming to the main USP of the laptop, the Vivobook K15 features a 5.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) OLED display that provides 100 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut, ideal for videos. The display proved to be vibrant with true blacks and rich saturation. The panel is certified by TUV Rheinland for low blue light and flicker-free operation to reduce eye fatigue. The display has been validated by Pantone and comes pre-calibrated by Asus. However, we felt the factory calibration had over-saturated the warm tones, making it even more strenuous to look at for a long time. So, we attempted a hardware calibration using the i1 Display Studio device to DCI-P3 and found the pre-calibrated setting to be off by a wide margin. If you are into photography or colour-critical use, we would not recommend this display in its native calibration setting. We hope Asus would take care of this in future since the buyers of this laptop are not likely to have a colorimeter lying around to calibrate their displays.

The K15 is available in various configurations. The options in processor include 11th Generation Intel Core i3, i5 and i7, while Asus also offers up to 16GB DDR4 RAM, up to 512GB of SSD and up to 1TB of HDD. We received the i5 variant with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD and the review is based on this configuration. The laptop features Intel UHD or Intel Iris Xe graphics. We used the K15 for photo editing and multimedia other than the regular light tasks, and the device handled all these without any problems. The laptops are equipped with an upgraded 8 mm heat pipe and a new fan to dissipate heat more efficiently. We did not feel any uncomfortable heating while using the device, and the fan ensured near-silent operation.

The K15 uses a 42 Wh battery, which lasted for about 5 to 6 hours in our use. The charger tops up the battery in about an hour. The MyAsus app lets you customise power, performance, audio and other parameters according to your use.

The Harman Kardon certified audio system provides good sound output for video calls and presentations, though this is not the best we have experienced. The camera also provided image quality of the expected levels. The laptops come with Windows 10 pre-installed but are eligible for a free Windows 11 upgrade.

RATING

★★★★

WE’RE IMPRESSED Lightweight, full-sized keyboard, good response, excellent display

WE’D IMPROVE Display calibration, Touchpad response

THE LAST WORD The Asus Vivobook K15 is a competent value-for-money laptop that exceeds the usually expected specs by a wide margin.

Lenovo’s flexible Yoga Duet 7i and IdeaPad Duet 3

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Lenovo has launched its premium detachable PCs – the Yoga Duet 7i and the IdeaPad Duet 3. Both these lightweight laptops are designed with high quality screens and have a host of features which are suitable for users ranging from students to work professionals.

The Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i

The Yoga Duet 7i is Lenovo’s first-ever PC in the Yoga series which comes with a detachable and backlit Bluetooth v5.0 keyboard. The Yoga Duet 7i weighs just 1.16kg and it is made with an adjustable kickstand for easier viewing. This laptop allows users to choose between a tablet mode (with or without a kickstand) and the traditional laptop mode after attaching the keyboard.  

The Yoga Duet 7i is powered by the 11th generation Intel Core i5 processors and also consists of the Intel Iris Xe GPU. With a 13-inch HD touchscreen with narrow bezels, the Yoga Duet 7i is armed with 100% sRGB color gamut at 450 nits brightness. Featuring a 10.8-hour battery life, the Yoga Duet 7i is also equipped with and 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM, Dolby Audio, Dolby Vision, 512GB SSD storage, Lenovo E-color Pen, HD Audio chip, two 1W stereo speakers, Magnesium-aluminium case material (slate gray case colour), and a front & rear 5MP camera.

Here is a virtual product tour of the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i .  

The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3

The 0.86kg IdeaPad Duet 3 comes with a detachable Bluetooth (v5.0) keyboard, and a folio kickstand supporting Lenovo Digital Pen. This laptop is powered by Intel Celeron processors and Intel UHD graphics. The 10.3-inch FHD IPS panel display offers a brightness of 330 nits. The IdeaPad Duet 3 is fitted with 4GB DDR4-2400 RAM and runs on Windows 10. It is also features dual 360-degree mics and a 7-hour battery life.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is equipped with a 128GB eMMC 5.1 storage, and it also has 2MP and 5MP front and rear cameras with a privacy shutter. Like the Yoga Duet 7i, this laptop, too, features an HD Audio chip, two 1W stereo speakers, and Dolby Audio.

“With the latest online learning, staycation and flexible working trends, we have witnessed a surge in the demand for light, portable yet multifunctional devices. Our screens have become our lifelines, and users are looking for devices that they can not only use at home but take with them to different places, not only for entertainment but also for professional and educational purposes. We are excited to introduce the new detachable PCs, which will take the grab-and-go form factor’s innovation to the next level and address the need for a portable yet practical and secure device”, said Pakaj Harjai, Director – Tablets and Smart Devices at Lenovo India.

The Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i is available for Rs. 79,999 on Amazon, whereas the IdeaPad Duet 3 is available for Rs. 29,999. For more information, please visit this page.

MSI’s Latest Laptop Line-up Merges Technology with Aesthetics

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MSI has unleashed its latest laptops featuring cutting edge technology enabled by the latest 11th gen Intel processors. However, this year’s products focus on the marriage between technology and design aesthetics.

Tech meets Aesthetic

MSI’s 2021 line-up draws inspiration from the design principles that emerged during the renaissance period and continue to influence modern artistic concepts. The finest artistic creations are based on precise calculation and design. Think about the Fibonacci sequence, also known as Golden Spiral, which defines the perfect proportion in terms of visual and aesthetic appeal. It is the golden rule to create harmony and beauty in visual art. A careful analysis of the world’s finest artworks, sculptures and architecture would reveal the use of Golden Spiral and Golden Ratio in various forms.

Modern technological innovations like laptops, wearables and other devices are part of our everyday lives and hence it is important for these to blend seamlessly with the décor of your room or workspace. These gadgets reflect the personality and taste of the user. Realising this, MSI has focussed their efforts to craft their latest premium laptops around the same design principles that inspire the world’s finest artworks, creating perfect blends of technology and aesthetics.

Evolution of Aesthetics

With the development of modern civilization, people invent and apply novel technology in life by learning from the rules of nature and the logic is then applied to user experience. Technology solves and improves the problems and quality of life. The rigid sound from the blacksmith when striking iron inspired Pythagoras to immerse in the beauty of the rhythm and form a mathematic sequence by the sound ratio which define aesthetics precisely. Aesthetics, the word was defined first by Alexandra in 1750 A.D, as the combination of sensor and emotion in Greek. St. Thomas Aquinas defined “beautiful” creation as one that had order, symmetry and definiteness. These rules were advocated by Aquinas in response to Golden Ratio in Renaissance.

Evolution of aesthetics

The Golden Ratio not only forms the fundamentals of modern art but also prompt the taste of art. The finest creations are often based upon precise calculation and design. Some of the most representative works comes from the Renaissance, the era that is known for mathematics and geometrical beauty formed by Golden Ratio. Golden Ratio comes from Fibonacci sequence, called mathematics code in Aesthetics, which was formed by Pythagoras. The law of mathematic and geometric beauty can often be observed in Mother Nature, and is applied in modern architecture and art creations. This forms the fundamental of modern day art. Da Vinci widely applied the Golden Ratio in his creations such as Mona Lisa and Uomo Vitruviano. We can also find Golden Ratio elements by mathematics applied on the “David Statue” by Michelangelo and the great works by Raphael.

Tech Meets Aesthetic – How Golden Ratio works

The Scientific Revolution brought the spirit of experimental science and the strict mathematical logic cultivated enlightenment. The golden age composed of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, whether in ideology or technology, directly or indirectly impacted the Industrial Revolution, Modern Art, and Postmodern Art. In the process of each period, it can be found that science and aesthetics were inseparable and influenced mutually. MSI has now adopted human-oriented product design, merging Golden Ratio Aesthetics design with modern day technology, assisting users to solve problems in life, breaking through boundaries and exploring more potential. The company reiterates that this will remain firmly embedded in the values of MSI’s product design henceforth. MSI’s new line-up combines the Golden Ratio of the Renaissance period with post-modernist architectural aesthetics on product design. This perfectly conveys the concept of “Technology meets Aesthetic” through the appearance of products.

Creator Series

The Creator series of laptops, as the name indicates, are designed specifically for creative artists who are into Videos, Music or 2D/3D creation. These professionals require accurate colour reproduction with minimal colour deviation along with high performance and extreme mobility. This line-up features devices that offer the best colour accuracy with MSI’s True Pixel technology, capable of reproducing a wide colour gamut that conforms to graphic and video industry standards, and hardware optimised for creative applications. The series presents a mix of streamlined surface and sleek edges, merging postmodernist design with modern technology.

The Creator Z16 is the flagbearer of this series with a body crafted from a single metal sheet employing precise CNC machining process to make it thinner and sturdier and creating an elegant curve at the sides. The laptop is available in Lunar Grey, a unique and subtle shade that reveals its splendour when light bounces off the surface and the laser-etched logo. The 16:10 display with QHD+ resolution follows the Golden Ratio so that it provides you the most comfortable visual experience. A 11 percent increase in viewing area and Touchscreen allow better productivity. The display is hardware-calibrated at the factory to reproduce 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and offers Delta E<2, which indicates minimum colour deviation. The display standards have been verified by Calman, a professional colour calibration solution designed for experts.

Gaming Laptops

To bring the vision of Tech meets Aesthetic to life,  MSI collaborated with two highly acclaimed artists, resulting in laptops that deliver the utmost in performance with revolutionary designs.

The design of the Katana GF has been developed on the concept by Tsuyoshi Nagano, a Japanese illustrator, famous for his cover artwork on “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” video game series since the 1980s. He has dedicated his career to gaming series for a long time his art style of realism has influenced many other series such as “Dynasty  Warriors”. The device has been inspired by the craftsmanship of the artisans who forged the blades of legendary Samurai warriors. Like the sharp and flawless blade and exquisitely carved hilt of the swords, the Katana GF encompasses the concept of blade and armour in the legend of the Dragon Island and the Dragon Clans — a blade as sharp as thunder, powerful and durable. One of the most powerful laptops ever released in the GF series, the Katana GF boasts a gaming-red backlit keyboard, redesigned keyboard layout, intuitive hot-keys and better key travel to make your gaming sessions intuitive and immersive.

Similarly, the Pulse GL  carries a visual identity developed in cooperation with Maarten Verhoeven, acclaimed digital concept artist and Zbrush World Champion. The design, as the name indicates, has been inspired by the armed super warrior carrying pulsed energy guns in modern futuristic sci-fi games. The claw blades overflowing with electric current hum in the background as the Dragon Clans traverse the galaxy provide inspiration for the futuristic design of the Pulse GL. The device features laser patterns and a sturdy titanium grey body, encompassing the concept of technology and strength. MSI’s 2021 line-up of laptops offers cutting edge technology combined with style and design options appealing to a wide spectrum of users. It is indeed heartening to see a brand considering visual appeal and aesthetics on equal footing with technology and functionality.

Dell XPS 17 makes a bold statement with its premium features

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Dell’s XPS series has, overall, been for those who require high computing power and desktop-level efficiencies in notebooks, and mainly for those who can spend that much to afford an XPS laptop. However, despite the high costs working against them, the Dell XPS 17 – which was launched in India on August 18 – comes off as a heavy-hitter offering some premium configurations and an overall ‘ultrabook’ feel to it.

Getting into the hardware and functionality of the notebook, the XPS 17 is powered by the latest 10th-Gen Intel Core i7 processors and its variants are equipped with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB DDR6 GPU, enabling users – ranging from gaming enthusiasts to creators – to even run the latest games and edit videos and photographs rather seamlessly.

The Dell XPS 17 offers a 17” display delivering an immersive 4K Ultra HD+ resolution of 3840×2400. To protect eyes from the blue light emissions, the display also consists of the ‘Eyesafe’ display technology, which is catching on in laptops and smartphones. The display offers a 100% Adobe RGB and a 94% DCI-P3 colour gamut as well.

Dell’s minimalist design is brought out in the XPS 17 which is made from two pieces of machined aluminium and aerospace-inspired carbon fiber. Dell mentions that it is lightweight but the laptops start at 2.11kg and go up to a maximum of 2.5kg, depending on the configurations the users choose.  

Along with a 16GB DDR4 RAM, the Dell XPS runs on Windows 10 Pro and consists of the 4 Thunderbolt 3 DisplayPort with power delivery in addition to a headset port. Similar to those on the XPS 15, the Dell XPS 17 features the Waves Nx 3D audio for speakers which have been worked on by the Grammy-winning producer – Jack Joseph Puig. The Dell XPS 17 is available in 2 customisable variants, with the lower variant offering a Full HD display resolution. The laptops start at a steep price of Rs. 2,09,500 and are available on Dell’s website and on Amazon.

For more information, please visit this page.

Review: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

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AMD Ryzen-powered notebook that’s got some tricks up its sleeve
From ₹80,990 (₹1,61,990 variant reviewed), asus.com/in

There’s no shortage of gaming laptops in the market today. You find them at various price points. Yes, they are portable but a majority of them are bulky. The ROG Zephyrus G14 from Asus, however, is different. It’s portable because of its lightweight and slim design and, more importantly, packs in enough power to run the latest games.

The ROG Zephyrus G14 is available in India in two design variants – one with AniMe Matrix and one without. What’s AniMe Matrix, you ask? Well, it’s a novel way to personalise your laptop for the world to see. The ROG Zephyrus G14 features 6,536 CNC holes on the laptop lid and houses 1,215 mini LEDs that allow the user to write or display a picture of whatever they like. Users can showcase the animated ROG logo, custom text, date, time, battery status and more. The possibilities are endless and the pre-installed Armoury Crate software allows a lot of customisations and helpful tips to get the most out of AniMe Matrix. Needless to say, AniMe Matrix stays off when the laptop is on battery and can even be turned off.

Available in Moonlight White or Eclipse Grey, the laptop looks good in either of the colours and feels sturdy and reliable, which is complemented with a magnesium-alloy keyboard frame and honeycomb reinforcement beneath the palm rest area. The laptop has vents on both sides of the laptop and two at the back that throws the hot air out directly on the screen’s bezel. The laptop also utilises Ergolift that elevates the laptop to improve better airflow at the bottom when the laptop lid is opened. Asus has also made it easy to open the bottom shell to add additional M.2 storage or RAM.

Asus ROG G14 Zephyrus

The display on the G14 measures 14-inch in size and comes with Full HD (1920×1080) and WQHD (2560×1440) resolution options. One major difference between both, besides the resolution, is that the former supports refresh rate to up to 120Hz whereas the higher resolution goes with the standard 60Hz. Our unit came with the WQHD panel that produced sharper-looking pictures and text. However, both IPS-level panels offer wide viewing angle with 100% coverage of sRGB with factory calibration and Pantone validation for colour accuracy. Furthermore, the panels support Adaptive Sync that helps to eliminate screen tearing and with the 4th Gen Ryzen chip, the integrated Radeon graphics now allows Adaptive Sync to work with the discrete Nvidia GPU.

Speaking of Ryzen, the G14 is equipped with a 35W AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor that’s not only power efficient but with 8 cores and 16 threads, the chip can handle demanding tasks like photo and video editing. Now coupled with the unit’s 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU, gaming on the G14 and given its size, is fantastic. Gears 5 with Ultra settings maintains a steady 60fps. The only thing that bothers is the heat it generates while trying to deliver this experience. During my gaming session, the laptop’s temperature hovered around the 90C mark, making the keyboard area hot. However, it’s completely opposite when you are doing productive tasks like editing office documents or web browsing.

Benchmarking apps also confirm laptop’s competency with CineBench R20 pegging the Ryzen 9 below the Threadripper or 3DMark’s Time Spy scoring it slightly over a gaming laptop or PCMark 10’s test scoring well above the best office laptop.

  • Time Spy
  • PCMark10
  • CineBench R20

The keyboard on the G14 also needs a special mention. It’s one of the best keyboards on a laptop with spaced out keys and excellent key travel. The power button at the top integrates a fingerprint sensor and works flawlessly that lets you login into your Windows profile instantly. There are four gaming hotkeys for volume, mic and ROG key for Asus’ Armoury Crate software.

Connectivity-wise, the G14 has two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports, one of which, supports DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery, one USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, HDMI 2.0b, Kensington lock and 3.5mm audio jack. 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 handle the wireless connectivity side. When it comes to audio, the G14 does not disappoint. The laptop features a 3.5mm audio jack for private listening and a quad-speaker setup of upward-firing tweets and two woofers if loudspeakers are your thing. They deliver a clean and crispy sound. The audio performance is further helped by Dolby Atmos support.

The laptop runs Windows 10 Home and comes pre-installed with the Office 2019 Student Edition and McAfee security and to be honest, the anti-virus solution just feels unneeded bloatware. However, you will find other pre-loaded Asus software that helps to enhance its gaming capabilities like GameVisual that provides 8 preset and customisable modes for the display, Armoury Crate that lets you see CPU and GPU information, sync RGB with Aura Sync and ROG GameFirst VI that prioritises packets for online gaming.

The battery life on the G14 is one of the biggest revelations. Doing productive tasks, web surfing and even listening to music, the laptop gives about 6-8 hours on a single charge. The battery life suffers when you are playing a game without connecting the power cord. However, for a laptop that’s pitched as a portable gaming device, the G14’s battery life is very impressive.

So it boils down to one question – is the laptop worth the price? The answer varies depending on the variant you go for. However, we like what Asus has to offer for its top-end model priced at ₹1,61,990. There’s of course, high temperature to take care of while gaming, but for the most part, the G14 walks the talk in terms of performance and long battery life packed in an attractive package.

RATING 4/5
WE’RE IMPRESSED Design, performance, battery life
WE’D IMPROVE Laptop temperature while gaming
THE LAST WORD the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 redefines a gaming laptop with its slender design, top-notch performance and stellar battery life.