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The Asus Vivobook X1504VA is a deliberate attempt to deliver a fully functional 15.6-inch laptop for under £500. A while back, at this price, all you could get was an ugly behemoth with pedestrian specs, but that’s changed and it only keeps getting better. Take the Asus Vivobook, for instance, it’s not very expensive, but it still offers much in terms of build quality, style and performance that laptops costing considerably more.
For the money you’re spending, you don’t expect US MIL-STD-810 military-grade resistance against daily push and shove, 6GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, or a look that rivals the latest Dell XPS 13. But surprisingly, the Vivobook X1504VA delivers all those without being too expensive.
And while it’s not the most powerful laptop in this category, it’s still fine and it works OK. Beyond that, there’s no charm about it. It’s not a laptop that’s going to make heads turn at the coffee shop or library. However, it’s reasonably priced, and sometimes fine is good enough depending on your needs.
Design & Build
- Looks and feels premium
- Silver plastic exterior
- Military-grade durability
For the price, the Asus Vivobook 15 is a beautiful laptop. Asus offers blue and beige colorways in other markets, but for the UK market, you’re only getting an all-silver paint job that gives it a modern clean appearance. Gladly, it’s not a fingerprint magnet and the plastic case feels surprisingly solid and the lid doesn’t have too much flex to it. Simply put, it sports a premium look and feels like it should cost much more than the around £500.
Above the premium look, another design touch that I find impressive is the faux carbon covering the screen bezels. It looks great and is pleasant to the touch. The bezels are thin, at only 8mm at the sides, 12mm at the top, and 16mm at the bottom. The 15.6-inch display folds back to 180°and the hinges are reasonably robust. The Asus Vivobook X1504VA measures 360 x 233 x 18mm and weighs 1.7kg, making it exceptionally light and compact for a full-sized laptop.
The VivoBook 15 has a decent collection of ports for a laptop that’s quite slim, but I wish it had Thunderbolt 3 input. Port selection is decent enough for a budget laptop: one USB 2.0, one USB Type-C, two USB 3.1, an HDMI port, and a headphone/mic combo jack.
Display, Keyboard & Touchpad
- Decent 15.6in LCD display
- Small touchpad
- Average 720p webcam
The Vivobook 15 X1504VA has a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 NanoEdge display with a small bezel on either side but a bit more at the top to accommodate the webcam. However, beyond the widescreen display, the display’s dim color profile and unsettling viewing angles make it an underwhelming device for consuming online videos.
While you can get through YouTube videos without recognizing the display’s middling color quality, it becomes apparent once you switch displays. The viewing angles on this laptop are a bit odd, too. You have to look at the VivoBook 15 at an exact angle – about 100 degrees – to see the contents on the screen without a sheen.
The inside of the Asus VivoBook 15 holds a keyboard fitted to the rest of the laptop body; the same design available on Asus’ premium model. Also, the trackpad is flush on the wristrest without being an eyesore, and it also gets a fingerprint scanner for locking up the system.
The keys offer a decent amount of travel and tactile feedback, resulting in accurate and responsive typing. The inclusion of a numeric keypad is a welcome addition for those who require it for data entry or calculations. The touchpad is smooth and responsive, supporting multi-touch gestures and providing accurate cursor control.
Specs & Performance
- Intel Core i5-1335U processor
- Spectacular 16GB of RAM
- Great for everyday tasks
The Intel i5-1335U is a mid-range mobile CPU designed for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture (Raptor Lake-U) series, released in 2023; and has since been replaced by the newer Intel core Ultra 5 125U, released in 2024 and offers 2 more physical core, more powerful Arch Graphics and more than 10° C higher critical temperature.
That said, the Core i5 used here offers enough power to run office applications and browsers. The 16GB RAM is a nice inclusion as the extra headroom provides some wiggle room without necessarily having to send data to and from the SSD to keep things running smoothly. Notably, the Core i5 processors remain popular amongst gamers who pair them with an external GPU for budget desktop setups.
There’s no dedicated GPU on the Vivobook X1504VA. Instead, it arrives with an Intel Iris Xe that’s not badly off as far as integrated rendering solutions go, but don’t go expecting to run Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield on this machine. That’s not what it was designed to do, but you can get away with less demanding titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, Fortnite, or the many thousands of games released ten years ago or more.
The Intel Core i5 is not a bad chip, it offers decent performance here for tasks like web browsing and office apps.
Additionally, you can do some light image editing and 1080p video editing provided you don’t go full-blown with effects, and thanks to the 16GB of RAM, everything will run smoothly. However, the slow USB ports will bottleneck the transfer of large files, and the screen’s color output doesn’t manage to deliver the full gamut required in the professional color space.
Battery life
- Not all-day battery life
- Fine 45W charging
Lately, budget-to-midrange laptops tend to offer up to full-day battery life, but the Asus Vivobook manages to last for six hours, which might just get you through a day’s work, but you might need to take a few breaks in between. Without the breaks, it means you’re likely to reach out for the charger before the workday ends.
The Vivobook 15 comes with a 45W power adapter – it doesn’t charge via the USB-C port – it can charge 30% of the 42Whr battery in under 30 minutes, which is pretty OK, and the charger itself is incredibly small and slimline, easy to stash into a bag and carry around.
Asus Vivobook X1504VA Review: Verdict
The Asus Vivobook X1504VA is one great laptop, but it doesn’t do much out of the ordinary. It’s especially great for working, browsing, streaming, basic photo editing, and some light gaming. But the battery doesn’t last all day, the screen isn’t particularly bright or colorful, and it’s far from the most powerful machine out there. The Acer Swift X is a fine alternative, especially for creatives, rocking an AMD Ryzen 7 chip, 16GB RAM, and a dedicated Nvidia RTX 3050Ti GPU.
And while the competition from Chromebooks and other midrange laptops makes it rather difficult to recommend as an Editors’ Choice, the Asus Vivobook X1504VA will still serve you well as a work-office or college laptop.
Asus Vivobook X1504VA Specs
- CPU: Intel Core i5-1335U
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
- RAM: 16GB DDR4-3200
- Storage: PCIe 4.0 1TB SSD
- Screen: 15.6in 1080p LED-backlit LCD, 60Hz refresh rate
- Connectivity: USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and Type-C, USB 2 Type A, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, headset jack
- Dimensions: 35.97 x 23.25 x 1.79 cm
- Weight: 1.7kg
Best Deal Overall
ASUS Vivobook 15 X1504VA 15.6" Full HD Laptop
£407.00 in stock
