Review verdict: The 2025 Vivobook S16 positions itself nicely as one of the most affordable Snapdragon X laptops in the Philippines, and shines particulary with its excellent battery life for a 16-inch laptop.
Pros
- Snapdragon X is decent for most tasks
- Great battery life for a 16-inch laptop
- High-resolution display for its price
Cons
- No SD card slot
- Non-upgradeable RAM
It has been a year since ASUS debuted the Snapdragon X Elite on the 2024 Vivobook S15, and the brand is expanding its Snapdragon-powered laptop portfolio with more Vivobook variants. For this year, the Vivobook S16 can be availed with a Snapdragon X chip, and we’ve been using it as our daily driver for a few weeks. As a more affordable offering, are Snapdragon laptops ready to go mainstream?
ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Design
Just like the 2024 Vivobook S15, the 2025 Vivobook S16 embraces the same minimalist design language with a subtle ASUS Vivobook branding on the lid. Unlike the S15, the S16 is not made completely of aluminum: only the top lid and bottom plate are made from aluminum, while the rest of the laptop is made from plastic. It’s not that of a big deal, since the 2025 Vivobook S16 is positioned as a more affordable offering.
Port selection on the 2025 Vivobook S16 is decent: you get two USB 4.0 ports, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Being a 16-inch laptop, we find it strange that there’s no SD card slot in its large chassis–the Vivobook S15 does have a MicroSD card slot, which makes it more unusual for ASUS to omit this. What’s also strange is the battery, as it has a 70wHr cell that’s the same as what you’d get on the smaller 2025 Vivobook S14.
When it comes to upgradeability, the 2025 Vivobook S16 has an upgradeable SSD, while RAM is fixed at 16GB. It is under 16mm at its thinnest point, which is thin for a midrange laptop.
ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Display and Speakers
A key strength of the 2025 Vivobook S16 is with its display, where you’re getting a 2.5K (2560×1600) resolution and a 144hz refresh rate. It may only be an IPS panel, but its 400nits peak brightness is adequate enough for outdoor use. It’s a fairly color accurate display with 100% sRGB gamut coverage to make the 2025 Vivobook S16 suitable for multimedia work, and its matte display does a great job in combatting glares. Aside from batch editing photos, I appreciate the 2025 Vivobook S16’s vast screen estate with watching videos and with multitasking.
The 2025 Vivobook S16’s speakers also surprised me: considering that it is several thousand Pesos more affordable than the ZenBook A14, the speakers on the Vivobook S16 sound way better. At 60% volume, the 2025 Vivobook S16’s speaker produced good mids and highs, along with a decent amount of bass. I appreciated the details of every recent Le Sserafim track on the 2025 Vivobook S16—and you’re getting high-end audio quality for a midrange laptop.
ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Keyboard and Trackpad
Being a 16-inch laptop, the 2025 Vivobook S16 has an expanded keyboard that includes a dedicated numpad. Key travel is better than previous Vivobooks, and the matte texture of the keycaps are nice to the touch especially when you’re typing away long documents like this review. The trackpad is generously large for a Vivobook, and is responsive. The palmrest is also just as large, giving you more than adequate space for your hands while typing.
ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life
Our review unit has a Snapdragon X processor, and is paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. While the RAM is soldered, you can upgrade the SSD later on with a higher capacity.
As the entry-level variant, the Snapdragon X is at par with Intel’s Core Ultra 5 processors. I echo my sentiments with the ZenBook A14 that the GPU is the Snapdragon X’s weakest point with scores lower compared to the integrated GPUs found on equivalent Intel and AMD laptop chips. This makes the 2025 Vivobook S16 more suitable for producivity and general multimedia work. Using it as my daily driver, the 2025 Vivobook S16’s general performance is good enough for my use case that include web browsing, writing articles on the site, watching videos, and batch editing photos in Lightroom.
While the Snapdragon X means you’re using Windows on ARM, support for it has improved significantly compared to last year: more apps now have native ARM support, and the majority of these apps are those that consumers would often use. Just like my experience of using the ZenBook A14, I’ve had a good experience with the 2025 Vivobook S16 as my daily driver, with apps like Chrome, Lightroom, Spotify having native apps that work properly on ARM architecture.
You get a 70wHr battery on the 2025 Vivobook S16, which is the same capacity you’d get on the 14-inch model. We got a little over 8 hours of battery life with our YouTube video loop test, and that’s an impressive number for a 16-inch laptop. The great battery life is proof that Snapdragon chips excel in power efficiency. Compared to my experience with the ZenBook A14, I got better battery endurance with the 2025 Vivobook S16 as I was able to use it from 9am to 9pm with enough juice left to catch up on emails the next day. You get support for 65w USB-PD charging, though the 2025 Vivobook S16 comes bundled with ASUS’ regular 65w charging brick instead of the ultracompact one that’s bundled with the ZenBook A14.
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ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
With the 2025 Vivobook S16, ASUS has found the perfect balance for a Snapdragon X powered laptop with an affordable price tag. While there’s room for improvement, the 2025 Vivobook S16 is a great midrange option for those looking for a large laptop with a reliable processor and a battery life that can last them the entire workday.
ASUS Vivobook S16 2025 Review Philippines: Price
The 2025 Vivobook S16 is priced at Php 50,995 and is available at all authorized ASUS stores nationwide.
