Asus VivoBook S14 S435E

Asus VivoBook S14 S435E

With its thin and light design and dependable performance from an 11th-gen Intel Tiger Lake chip, the Asus VivoBook S14 S435E outshines many rivals in its segment and has become the midrange laptop most worth buying.

A refined, eye-catching Asus VivoBook S14 S435E design

The Asus VivoBook S14 S435E has a genuinely great design that strikes a harmonious balance between elegant good looks and bold lines. The body is made entirely of metal, so it feels solid and sturdy in the hand and doesn't flex or bulge even under firm pressure. The Asus VivoBook logo sits slightly off-center toward the right of the lid. Unlike ZenBooks and other VivoBooks, this Asus VivoBook S14 S435E comes in just one color, which Asus calls Deep Green, while the interior is finished in a lovely gray. The edges are finely crafted with precise diamond cuts. The thin screen bezels give you a larger viewing area and a better movie-watching experience.

Asus has also fitted a 720p webcam in the top bezel. Webcam quality is relatively good, but there is no IR sensor like on the Asus ZenBook & ProArt lines. Instead, the computer has a fingerprint sensor on the left, below the CTRL key. This Asus Vivobook 14 also inherits the classic hinge design of earlier Asus models rather than the EgoLift hinge found on most current ZenBooks. Still, the hinge is flexible and opens up to 178 degrees, which makes working more convenient.

Overall, the Asus VivoBook S14 S435E is slightly smaller and lighter than its predecessor. At 1.3kg and 15.9mm thick, it is easy to carry anywhere.

A sharp Asus VivoBook S14 S435E display

The Asus Vivobook S14 S435E is a midrange laptop, so it is no surprise that it has a 14-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels). For everyday work, web browsing and office tasks, that is perfectly fine at this price. In practice, images look crisp and even more vivid in games.

The display's 1462:1 contrast ratio is excellent, and it is paired with 400 nits of brightness. That means the screen offers great depth along with vividness. A Delta E value of 1.37 and a color temperature of 6277K are reasonable. Asus also posts good benchmark results, with 100% sRGB, 70.7% AdobeRGB and 73.3% DCI-P3 coverage.

The computer also uses an anti-glare IPS panel with viewing angles of up to 178 degrees horizontally, so users don't have to sit directly in front of it to enjoy the full image quality. The VivoBook S14's four-sided NanoEdge display has ultra-thin bezels, giving you a vivid, expansive viewing experience.

The Asus VivoBook S14 S435E has all the ports you need

Despite its thin and light design, the VivoBook S435E offers a fairly wide range of ports, making it easy to connect peripherals and get the most out of your work.

On the left side, the Asus has an HDMI port, two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support that can charge the laptop, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right side, there are two full-size USB Type-A ports and a microSD card reader. The VivoBook S14 is equipped with Intel WiFi 6 (802.11ax), delivering ultra-fast network speeds for quicker large file transfers, responsive online gaming and ultra-smooth video chats.

The computer is also enhanced with Asus's exclusive ASUS WiFi Master technology, including ASUS WiFi SmartConnect, which automatically picks a good WiFi source so your laptop connects reliably to strong WiFi signals and available mobile hotspots, whether at a coffee shop, office or airport.

Keyboard and touchpad experience

The Vivobook S435E offers a keyboard experience every bit as good as the Zenbook line. Key travel is shallow, and the keys are reasonably well spaced. The keys aren't overly soft, but they make up for it with plenty of bounce.

Asus has also given this keyboard white backlighting, so you can easily work at night without making mistakes. The touchpad is adequately sized and very smooth, offering high sensitivity and precision when multitasking. The touchpad also integrates NumberPad 2.0 for more accurate number entry and faster calculations.

Stable performance that handles all your work needs

The Asus VivoBook S14 S435E is powered by an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU, an 11th-generation Tiger Lake-U processor commonly found in thin-and-light and premium laptops.

The CPU has 4 cores and 8 threads, with 4 integrated Willow Cove cores running at a base clock of 2.4GHz and up to 4.2 GHz. It quickly handles office tasks such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as point-of-sale software. It is backed by integrated Iris Xe Graphics, which lets it run multitasking apps, 2D and 3D graphics software and some online games such as LOL and DOTA2 smoothly at medium settings.

The device has a 512GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe SSD and ASUS's new Intelligent Performance Technology (AIPT), which "boosts performance by up to 40% while saving battery, improving cooling efficiency and ensuring quiet operation."

The Asus VivoBook S14 S435E comes with a superior cooling system aided by an 8mm heat pipe and new Ice Blades fans, which speeds up heat transfer effectively.

The Ice Blades fans have 87 blades and a hub made of liquid crystal polymer, which makes them lighter and thinner than conventional fans. Each Ice Blades fan has an aerodynamic design with 3D curvature, producing excellent airflow with low noise. The Ice Blades fans also use pressurized fluid bearings, so they achieve lower vibration and better noise reduction during operation than conventional fans.

Battery life on the Asus Vivobook S435E

The Asus Vivobook S14 S435E is equipped with a 67 Wh battery that lasts long enough not to disappoint, delivering up to 12 hours of runtime for simple tasks such as web browsing and watching movies at 150 nits of screen brightness.

The laptop also supports fast charging up to 60% in just 49 minutes, so the VivoBook S14 lets you stay highly productive all day without interruption

Conclusion

In the midrange segment, the Asus Vivobook S14 S435E is an excellent Ultrabook that outperforms many competitors in its class. With a great-looking design, a vivid display, stable performance and long battery life, the Vivobook S435E is one of the best choices for you.