Initial Verdict: As the first Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ laptop coming to the Philippines, the VivoBook S 15 2024 shows a lot of promise, but we need to spend more time with it to check out all its AI features and to see how it fares against conventional x86 systems.

Pros

• Sleek design
• Plenty of ports
• Runs quiet even on heavy loads

Cons

• Only a MicroSD card slot
• AI features still need further testing

After Apple has shifted to ARM with its M series processors on its MacBooks, Windows laptops are going for the ARM shift with the Snapdragon X series. ASUS’ VivoBook S 15 2024 is one of the first ARM-powered laptops that’s coming to the Philippines and is also one of the first Copilot+ laptops. We got our hands on the VivoBook S 15 2024 for a quick demo at ASUS’ office for our first impressions.

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Design

Compared to previous VivoBooks, the S 15 2024 looks very subtle with minimalist branding on its lid. It’s only available in Cool Silver, adding to the more subtle looks of the VivoBook S 15 2024. Despite being a 15-inch laptop, it is thin and light at 1.47cm and 1.42kg respectively. It is more premium than the usual VivoBook with its all-metal aluminum frame that has a solid build devoid of any flexing.

There’s a mix of the good and bad when it comes to the VivoBook S 15 2024’s port selection: the good part is that you have four USB ports (2x USB-A 3.1, 2x USB-C 4.0) for all your connectivity needs, along with a HDMI 2.1 port for connecting a high-resolution monitor to it. The USB-C ports can connect a display, and ASUS told us that the VivoBook S 15 2024 can handle up to 3 displays.

The bad part of the VivoBook S 15 2024 is that you’re only getting a MicroSD card slot instead of a full-sized SD card reader. Considering that this is a 15-inch laptop, we’re perplexed at why ASUS did not fit a full-sized SD card reader to the VivoBook S 15 OLED despite having enough space to do so.

As for other features, you get a webcam with a physical shutter on the vivoBook S 15 2024, along with the necessary sensors for Windows Hello logins.

 

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Display

ASUS has a good reputation with its OLED displays, and you’re getting the same quality panel on the VivoBook S 15 2024. Its 15.6-inch display has a 3K resolution, 120hz variable refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 600nits. It supports over a billion colors and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making the VivoBook S 15 2024’s display color accurate.

We played a few KPop music videos during our time with the VivoBook S 15 2024 at the Tech Seminar, and the colors are very vibrant–with deep blacks to make videos pop out.

 

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Keyboard and Trackpad

The VivoBook S 15 2024 makes good use of its size to include a numpad on the keyboard. The keycaps are typical of what you expect on a VivoBook, where they have a boxy design that’s adequately sized for most users. The keyboard has a dedicated Copilot key for easy access to Windows’ suite of AI-powered features.

Aside from having a large trackpad, what makes the VivoBook S 15 2024 unique is that its keyboard backlight is not limited to white: you can change it to different colors according to what you desire. It may only be a one-zone RGB backlighting, but it’s a nice feature to have on a non-gaming laptop.

 

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Internals and Battery

The VivoBook S 15 2024 is powered by a Snapdragon X Elite processor, which boasts 12 CPU cores running at up to 3.8GHz and has a 45w TDP. Being a Copilot+ laptop, the Snapdragon X Elite has an NPU that’s rated for 45TOPS–which is above the minimum 40TOPS that Microsoft has set. The model that’s coming to the Philippines comes with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, with the latter being upgradeable.

We were not allowed to run benchmarks during the Tech Seminar, but the VivoBook S 15 2024 performed smoothly while we were being demoed its variety of AI-powered features. We should be able to properly benchmark it once we get hold of a retail unit, so stay tuned to our full review for that.

The VivoBook S 15 2024 comes with a 70wHr battery, with ASUS claiming up to 18 hours of battery life. That’s a bold claim from the brand, and it is something that we want to verify in our full review. Charging the battery is done via 65w USB-PD, which is typical for most ultrabooks.

 

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Features

Beyond using a Snapdragon processor, the main highlight of the VivoBook S 15 2024 is that it is one of the first Copilot+ laptops that will be made available in the Philippines. Copilot+ users a new era for Windows, utilizing the power of AI.

During the Tech Seminar, select Copilot features were demonstrated to us including Live Captions with videos, Cocreator with Windows Paint, and ASUS’ StoryCube app. All three features performed as promised based on the demonstrations made, and a deeper look at its activity showed that the Snapdragon X Elite’s NPU is responsible for processing these AI tasks. The NPU utilization was very evident with the Cocreator feature of Windows Paint, where it took around 30 seconds to create an image based on our initial prompts.

These are on top of the initial Copilot features that were demonstrated to us by Microsoft Philippines last year, where you can even utilize it to help you brainstorm your essay or article in Word, create formulas and macros in Excel, and make a rough design for a briefing deck in Powerpoint.

The features demonstrated to us are only scratching the surface of the full potential of Copilot+. Other features like Recall will be available at a later date, and we need more time to use the other available Copilot+ features see if Microsoft’s AI promise delivers.

 

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Wrap-up and initial conclusions

The VivoBook S 15 2024 is the most premium model under the VivoBook line, and it. shows a lot of promise as a Copilot+ laptop that uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series chips, ushering in a new era of Windows laptops. We still need to do further tests on the VivoBook S 15 2024–particularly with the performance of its Snapdragon X Elite processor and how good are all of its AI features–before we can give a proper verdict to one of the first Copilot+ laptops that’s arriving in the Philippines.

VivoBook S 15 2024 Philippines: Price

The VivoBook S 15 2024 is priced at Php 84,995 and will be available for pre-order on July 2.