ASUS Vivobook 16X M1603QA Review – A Screen that Let’s You See More for Less

The ASUS Vivobook 16X M1603QA is one of the newest laptop in ASUS’ ever-growing line of laptops that features a 16 inch 16:10 display screen in an affordable price range.

Specifications

Design

Coming right out of the box, the first thing you can notice is its sleek and minimalist design, which compliments the professional Quiet Blue variant that we got. It’s a subtle and low profile design which I’m honestly a big fan of. However, the one aspect that I have a minor gripe with is how they plastered on the words “ASUS Vivobook” on the cover of the laptop screen.

It’s definitely a personal bias thing, but I honestly would’ve preferred with having just a simple logo instead. I’m not saying it’s a bad design per-say, but if they want to go for a minimalist design, having less is more.

The main thing you’re going to notice with the Vivobook 16X is as the name suggests, the 16 inch display screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution. Another neat feature with this laptop is that you can push the laptop screen all the way to the back, laying it flat on 180 degrees.

Another feature that I appreciate a lot is the subtle design on the bottom of the laptop that has this extra part sticking out; which essentially raises the laptop up to a certain degree. Not only does it give an overall ergonomic design which is amazing for someone like myself who spend countless hours typing away on the keyboard; it also helps out with the thermals, giving a better airflow to keep the laptop cool at all times.

In terms of sizing, its dimensions are 35.84 x 24.77 x 1.99cm and weighs a little over 1.8 kg. It’s fairly compact but it’s not the lightest laptop in the market. However, it’s still a nice choice to get if you travel around frequently for work or classes.

Display & Audio

Going in depth with the Vivobook 16X’s screen, it has 1920 x 1200 resolution which makes it a 16:10 aspect ratio display and supports up to 60 Hz refresh rates. It’s an IPS LCD screen with LED backlight panel. And while I personally have no qualms about it, I’ve seen some discussions about people having some difficulties viewing the screen in extremely bright or well-lit places since the brightness can only go up to around 300-nits.

I’m personally not too particularly nitpicky when it comes to visuals, but the Vivobook 16X does a pretty good job at it. The colours are vibrant and striking when I was using the laptop to play some games and watching various Youtube videos.

Another thing that I’m satisfied with the Vivobook 16X is its 86% screen-to-body ratio, and just how much I can get out from the screen without the bezel getting in the way. Talking about the bezel, one other thing I want to bring up that I think it’s neat is the physical webcam privacy shield. I’m personally pretty paranoid when it comes to these things, so it’s nice to have a slider where you can manually cover the webcam.

In terms of audio quality, it’s nothing too mind-blowing but it gets the job done just fine. The sound quality is clear and is fine for casual use with playing audio or music.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Typing away on the keyboard on the Vivobook 16X and I had an enjoyable experience. The keys feel really responsive and have this “clicky” feel that gives off enough of that bounce, making it feel really fun to type on. When I was testing out the keyboard, it felt really easy to adapt to and I didn’t need to exert that much force when pressing down the keys. The laptop also has backlighting on the keyboard, which can come in handy when you’re doing work in the dark.

The keyboard also has a number pad built into it, and while it’s good for people who on data entry and numbers often, it’s definitely not for me.

Bringing up the trackpad, it looks significantly bigger compared to most laptops out there. It’s also positioned slightly off-centered to align with the keyboard typing zone; and while this doesn’t seem like much, it does surprisingly help out with an overall smoother user experience.

One thing that caught me by surprise was the palm rejection on the track pad and how well it works. With how the trackpad is much bigger than most laptops, it wouldn’t be surprising that you’ll leave your palms on the trackpad, even subconsciously; so it’s nice that the palm rejection works as intended so that it doesn’t mess up your workflow. The trackpad even comes with a built-in fingerprint scanner on the corner, which can be pretty useful at times.

Connectivity

There’s a handful of ports to go around with the Vivobook 16X. There’s one USB 2.0 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, one HDMI 1.4, one 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack and on DC-in.

And while all of that is fine and dandy, one personal gripe that I have is the placements of the ports. The only port that’s positioned on the left side of the laptop is the USB 2.0, while the rest are on the right side. It might just be me but I’m personally very accustomed to having most of my ports on the left side.

I usually plug in a second monitor while using my laptop and have it placed on the left side, so having the HDMI port on that side just made sense to me. And given how I have my right hand as my dominant hand, having the HDMI cable from my second monitor protruding out on the same area as where my mouse makes it very awkward. Not to mention, both the USB 3.0 ports are also on the right side, so if I wanted to use the high speed ports, I’m definitely going to be hitting a lot of things.

Battery Life

The Vivobook 16X has a 50WHrs battery and the laptop could last around 5 hours where I used the device in Silent Mode, with my usual workload which consists on working on some documents, browsing on Firefox while listening to Spotify, and some Youtube videos being thrown into the mix.

But if you’re only using the laptop for some light work and nothing too intensive, it can last for nearly a full day of work, which is pretty decent.

Benchmark

3D Mark – 787

PC Mark 10 – 5341

Cinebench Single Core – 822 points, ranked 9th

Cinbench Multi Core – 8336 points, ranked 7th

Game Test

The Vivobook 16X is by no means a gaming laptop, but I tested out some games to see how it fares. The first game I tested out was with Apex Legends, and on the lowest settings I was able to get around 30 FPS, which is less than desirable considering how it’s a fast paced shooter.

The second game I tested out was The Settlers: New Allies, and on the lowest settings the game ran about the same as Apex Legends with around 30-ish FPS. This was a bit more acceptable since the game is more slow paced and isn’t as intensive as with Apex.

Hades was the last game I tried out with the laptop. And much to my surprise, the game ran pretty smoothly at around 60 FPS.

Bottom line is, don’t expect to run modern day AAA titles on this laptop. But if you’re a big indie games junky or just into casual games, the Vivobook 16X will work just fine.

Verdict

All in all, the Vivobook 16X is an overall affordable choice for good laptop, priced at RM2599 geared towards students and as a work laptop if you often travel around to places often. It even comes with Microsoft Office Home & Student right off the bat which is super useful.

It comes packed with some good features with its massive 16 inch screen, responsive and amazing keyboard and trackpad, a decent battery life, all of which is bundled nicely in a decent price range. The Vivobook 16X is a recommended pick for those with a budget.

For more information and details, do check out the official product page here.

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