ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED Laptop, Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, 16GB, 1TB SSD, Neutral Black, S5406MA-AS96, Intel Evo Edition

Long Battery Life PC Champion is here!
I used Macs exclusively for 29 years until I felt Tim Cook wasn’t innovating enough to warrant the big prices. So I switched to Windows 10 PCs and Android and — have never looked back.Well… until 6 years later when Apple released their own silicon M series chips in 2021. I’m often asked to recommend equipment and I had to confess — if you need an all day battery — you have to get a Mac. No contest. Less expensive PCs managed 4 hours at best OR REALLY needed to plugged in a lot.So the PC world has been waiting for laptops that can do the same and they’re phasing in now. They’re not identical (yet?) but you get an all day battery — which is all the matters to college students or people who travel A LOT. (One way these new PCs cheat is by simply making the battery bigger by a third, lol.)This Asus was a Black Friday steal at $765. It was a little more PC than I wanted but the cheaper versions of this unit aren’t here yet. And with tariff fears I decided to nab it now.I didn’t need an Ultra Core 9 series Intel Chip. An Ultra Core 5 would have been fine. I’d also have been fine with 500GBs of storage instead of twice that. But to get both for this price is a WOW.Also a WOW –1. The OLED screen is gorgeous. Bright enough for outside work too.2. The RGB keyboard is thrilling my daughter (on her way to college soon)3. The keyboard itself is silent clicking awesome4. Trackpad is fine5. Build quality is amazing. Very sturdy but very light. If you threw this hard at someone they’d need to go to an ER6. Super thin and small, feels like a 13 inch somehow7. It’s so silent a laptop you’ll be stunned to learn it has TWO fans when they rarely complain. WARNING: don’t use this on blanket, or warm lap, because the bottom vents need to vent. Testing this unit I spread my legs a little to allow airflow and yet type on my lap. Desktop/table top is a better idea.8. Speakers are okay but I got my daughter a tiny Bluetooth speaker for better sound as well as inexpensive earbuds9. Everyone says it and its so true: fingerprint magnet. If you glance at this thing from behind a couch… it will leave fingerprints somehow. Wow. I know, that doesn’t seem possible, but it’s true. The one plus here is that the PC may end up looking ‘dirty’ and discourage thieves from thinking it’s awesome.Drum roll please –10. Here’s the best feature. If you desire a screen bigger than 13 inches and want a four year warranty, Amazon makes that happen for under $1000. The MacBook Air equivalent is a 15 inch non-OLED screen and costs twice that Applecare. SPOILER: and you only get 3 years.My Advice — if you want to save money, wait for the Ultra Core 5s to show up on Amazon. (If they ever do.) Best Buy offered such a model but their warranty schemes are so pricey that — this was cheaper. So if the current asking price doesn’t bother you, get it. If you wanted to spend more like $600 before tax and warranty… wait.

Light weight but fully loaded 14 inch ASUS laptop
I got a great deal on this top of the line fully loaded ASUS laptop on sale for $899. The OLED screen is one of the best I’ve ever seen on a laptop, and I’ve been in the IT business for three decades. The brightness and color accuracy would benefit anyone doing video editing or graphic arts. If you’ve never had an OLED tv or monitor you’re in for a treat. Each pixel produces light just like the old plasma monitors. Black is literally black. Colors are vibrant and stunning. HDR video is breathtaking. The laptop is ultra lightweight but sturdy metal construction. It has a high end Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU with 16 GB RAM memory and a huge 1 TB solid state hard drive which means this is a beast capable of running complex operations like virtual machines, video rendering, and AI onboard. I can run two external HD monitors while using the onboard OLED monitor at the same time. It has a micro SD card slot for all you drone pilots, vloggers, photographers, and videographers. Two built in USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports in addition to two old school superspeed powered USB-A ports and an HDMI port. The power supply connects on the side through one of the USB-C ports, so in my setup at home I use a powered USB-C hub to connect the external monitors and other peripherals. Plenty of inexpensive portable USB-C hubs are on Amazon for travel purposes. This laptop is so lightweight that you won’t hesitate to take it with you. The keyboard has good action for an ultra portable, and you can control the backlight colors. I have big hands and have no trouble typing on this excellent keyboard. The trackpad is excellent, although I tend to use a wireless mouse when at home and when traveling. The only criticism I have of this laptop is the heat produced and the fan noise when running tasks that shouldn’t be taxing to this modern CPU like web browsing. The dual fans do a good job venting heat through the back but are very loud. I haven’t yet tested how this effects video calls but even if noise cancelling software blocks the sound for the call It will be loud on your end. That is the case on telephone calls and so the fan noise and heat is enough to zonk my rating down to four stars. An M3 CPU MacBook Air costs more but doesn’t have the heat or noise problems.