Asus has come out with a range of new VivoBooks, the S15, the S14 and the S13, being dubbed as laptops for the “young at heart”. What an interesting tactic to drive attention, yet, will the features be enough to make them remarkable? These VivoBooks aren't exaggerated with unseen, overly distinct designs, nor have they been created to be completely different than other notebooks. However, the overall package could be what the young, or “young at heart”, would have a nice time with. People of this age group like bright and bold colors, and the VivoBook S15 (S530) in particular, is a slim 15.6-inch notebook with multiple color options, and a more comfortable, ergonomically-friendly build. These laptops also use quad-core CPU processors, discrete graphics, as well as dual-storage (on the S15) for both SSD and HDD access.

The first demo of the VivoBook S lineup was at the Asus press event at Computex this year. The design, as mentioned, isn't anything too radical, however, these laptops have an amazingly smooth and an aesthetically pleasing look to them, which definitely set them apart from competitive notebooks. It is no wonder that these could be geared towards students. The colors offered include firmament green- the only version with full color throughout; as well as star grey, silver blue, gunmetal, and icicle gold. These latter options simply feature the color on the side panels of the machine, with the rest maintaining an all grey, textured-woven finish surrounding the keyboard. Besides the firmament option being fully green throughout, the perk of the icicle gold model is obvious with it slightly edgier look, described as a “brushed finish and diamond inspired motifs”. This may be Asus’s design ploy to catch the eyes of so many people, especially in time for their new school year, a graduation gift, or even for consumers who simply love color. As you may notice, the S15 features the lovely NanoEdge display, and if you haven't heard that term before, it means very thin bezels in Asus terms, to the point of giving a 15.6 inch display more room than ever. The mere 6.3mm narrow bezels also mean that the S15 has an 86% screen to body ratio.The bezels may be a bit wider than Dell’s InfinityEdge approach on its XPS 15 9560, but we wouldn’t exactly consider these two laptops to be in the exact same league of comparison. Still, thin bezels are popular.

But looks are not everything. While Asus has its ErgoLift hinge on more than just the VivoBook S line up, it is nice to see this addition to the VivoBook S15- it basically means the hinge lifts the base of the laptop upwards as it is opened. When this happens, and it is open, the keyboard is tilted 3.5 degrees underneath its base. Asus intended to make typing more comfortable, and it’s understandable how the downwards tilt would feel nice as you are typing, instead of something so flat on your lap or desk (the norm). Additionally, the keyboard is full-sized, with key travel far enough to provide the utmost satisfying click-and-stride feeling that we love. As far as the touchpad, it has plenty of room, is responsive, and features a small fingerprint sensor to securely login with Windows 10’s Hello attribute.

Weighing only 3.96 pounds, the 15.6-inch 1080p VivoBook S15 measures in at just 0.71 inches. It might be a cute stylish little thing, but let’s give the internal specs some attention. Inside, users may utilize Intel’s Core i5-8250U processor (1.60GHz/ 3.40GHz Turbo), Nvidia GeForce MX150 discrete graphics, or a less pricey option of an Intel-Core i7-7500U at 2.7GHz, with 128MB Intel HD Graphics 620. There is also 8GB to 16GB of DDR4 SDRAM for RAM memory, and a 128GB m.2 SSD to a 256GB SSD (which can be configured all the way up to 512GB SSD if desired), as well as up to a 2TB HDD.

Of course, users will find Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and for those times when a external component is needed, there are two USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, a full-sized HDMI for peripherals, as well as USB 3.1, USB 3.1 Type-C, and of course a head and microphone combo jack. No support for Thunderbolt ports, but most could get by. The entire line of Asus VivoBooks have considerable amounts of appeal to the mass market, as they have been primitively stylish, slim, and handy from the get-go. The VivoBook S15 gives consumers a reason to want to update. Beyond the added splash of color, Asus updated the processors well, provided dual-storage design, and slimmed-down the bezels for an updated look. Additionally, configuration options are only fair and helpful if Asus is claiming to appeal to a younger crowd. So, travel around without the added weight you may have had before, whether or not you sported a VivoBook. Also remember you can configure your laptop to be less than a thousand bucks if you want to (as low as $799)- a perfect price range for a fairly mainstream laptop with exceptional updates in hardware. A good warning to give is, if you are picky about battery life, or have a pet peeve of relying on a charger near by, the VivoBook S15 does need a good charge more than you may have wanted. This is seen as a compromise made by Asus, however it definitely won’t negatively influence all interested buyers, who should be looking at the overall picture.