The Snapdragon X Elite has been making me nervously excited for the past few months. Promises were high and benchmarks from Qualcomm’s own reference laptops were encouraging.
But those results were cherry-picked to show the company’s chip in its best light (it’s marketing, after all), and we didn’t know anything about battery life other than some big numbers thrown around at Microsoft Build and Computex 2024.
And now, after using the Asus Vivobook S 15 with the new hand-based silicon for a while, I can safely say one thing: Qualcomm wasn’t kidding. Microsoft is looking for its big moment to take on the might of the M3 MacBook Air and all of Apple Silicon. Snapdragon X Elite laptops are ready to do just that.
From the impressively fast performance through my daily life (including some professional tasks) to the sheer longevity of the 70 Wh battery, the Arm is a complete U-turn from the x86 story we always see in the best Windows laptops of half-decent performance and bad life of the battery.
There are several reasons to be a little hesitant. The design is very basic, Copilot+ PC features take some time to launch due to security risks, and the wait time for native Arm versions of all your favorite apps can also be long.
But such disappointments did not stop me from loving my M1 MacBook Air in 2020. And thanks to this shocking durability, combined with very competitive speeds, it did not stop me from heralding the revolution that Windows craved for so long.
Asus Vivobook S 15: Cheat Sheet
- What is? A super premium laptop — one of the first to feature the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip!
- Who is it for? For people looking for a large-screen laptop that perfectly balances great performance with stellar battery life.
- How much does it cost? You can pick one up for $1,299 / £1,299.
- what we like The OLED screen is mouth-watering (of course), and the Snapdragon X Elite is a tectonic shift in the durability and speed you’d expect from a Windows laptop.
- What don’t we like? The much touted Copilot+ PC features have been delayed, Arm versions of apps will also take some time (meaning you have to rely on a mostly sequential translation layer). And while it certainly feels premium, this laptop looks a little boring.
Asus Vivobook S 15: Specifications
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Asus Vivobook S 15 |
|---|---|
| Price | $1299 (start) |
| Display | 15.6-inch 3K OLED with 120Hz refresh rate |
| processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78,100 (up to 3.4 GHz, 12 cores) |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno GPU |
| RAM memory | 16GB LPDDR5X (up to 32GB) |
| Storage | 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD |
| Ports | 2x USB-4, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, MicroSD card reader, HDMI 2.1, 3.5 mm audio jack |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
| Dimensions | 13.9 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches |
| Weight | 3.1 pounds |
Asus Vivobook S 15: What I liked
This is our first foray into the world of the Snapdragon X Elite — and the love affair with Qualcomm has already begun. But first, just a quick warning that these test results are my own, not numbers pulled from our test lab. Be sure to see our official numbers soon!
It’s (mostly) faster than the M3 MacBook Air
The Snapdragon X Elite has the MacBook Air M3 in its sights – something Qualcomm isn’t shy about admitting. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Vivobook S 15 absolutely keeps up with performance.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Asus Vivobook S 15 (Snapdragon X Elite) | MacBook Air (M3) |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single core | 2418 | 3082 |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 14352 | 12087 |
| Handbrake (4K movie transcoding time to 1080p) | 6:50 | 7:19 |
That’s not the 28% performance increase advertised by the company, which could be down to the TDP (total power driving the chip) of the retail laptops being lower to achieve a better performance balance and battery life, but multi-core tasks and rendering processes move along at a faster pace than you see on the MacBook Air M3.
What does this mean? Photoshop edits are faster, video transcoding and exporting are faster, and multitasking is handled much better than you’ll see elsewhere in the laptop space. All this happens with your fans, who also do not cause a storm. Thermal management is certainly much better here, with temperatures barely reaching what I’ve experienced on other Intel or AMD laptops.
Interestingly, some 3D Mark benchmarks rely on the x86 architecture, which means the benchmark must go through a Prism translation. In general use of non-arm applications, this emulator works well, but in the numbers reflected, you’ll notice that emulation adds another workload to the X Elite.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Asus Vivobook S 15 (Snapdragon X Elite) | Huawei MateBook X Pro (Intel Core Ultra 9) |
|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Time Spy | 2568 | 4048 |
| 3DMark Fire Strike | 5061 | 8708 |
| 3DMark Night Raid | 26284 | 29550 |
For games that run on Windows on Arm, you get a surprisingly good experience with these Adreno-integrated graphics. Baldur’s Gate 3 looks good and runs locked at a respectable 30 FPS, while Devil May Cry 5 (provided you turn down some of the effects and texture detail to a combination of Medium/Low) is able to run at a full 60 FPS.
When it comes to integrated graphics, Qualcomm stands head and shoulders above for fast-paced gaming without the horsepower of a discrete GPU. Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Ryzen AI 300 chipsets have a mountain to climb to come close to power efficiency here.
Lasts longer than MacBook
In fact, the MacBook Air has been beaten before. Some Intel Core Ultra 9 setups, like the one in the Huawei MateBook X Pro, were able to achieve a faster multi-core result, but it came at the expense of battery life.
Here, however, with a mobile chip setup, the Vivobook S 15 stood up to the might of the MacBook (in my own experience). Of course, once again, this is just a reflection of my own usage.
I’ll go into more detail soon, but to recap, a full day’s work involving lots of Photoshop use, 20+ tabs in Chrome, music playing in the background, and a subsequent evening of binge watching Bridgerton with Ms. Netflix, while surreptitiously watching the Euro in the background (don’t tell her I’m doing this), saw the battery percentage drop from 100 to 47 over a 12-hour period.
For me, this is carefree territory for battery life. This is a rare feat that only Apple laptops have enjoyed. But now Asus is also joining the party.
Let’s not forget everything else
Of course, there’s also a whole laptop here, and the rest of the package is pretty tasty too. This 16:9 OLED panel is super bright with nice 3K clarity and a smooth frame rate. Pair that with the four-speaker Harman/Kardon array with Dolby Atmos—providing a nicely detailed soundstage that has a hidden slide of bass warmth—and you’ve got a lovely laptop to work on during the day and watch at night.
The keyboard has a nice tactile feel, meaning you can type to your heart’s content without any of the discomfort you’d expect from low-profile laptop keyboards, and the touchpad is massive, responsive and quick to click.
And some of the additional AI-driven features available here make for a really nice user experience. Presence monitoring goes beyond simply going to sleep when you leave, as it can even dim the display to preserve battery life based on your eye contact.
Windows Studio effects seem much more accurate to use and launch much faster, and this NPU is used in more places in third-party applications than you might think – offloading intensive processes and easing that CPU load, for to maintain this longevity.
It’s not just a new chip for the sake of a new chip. Microsoft has really thought about where it applies.
Asus Vivobook S 15: What I didn’t like
There are a few frustrations with the S 15 specifically, along with one bug that will fade into the background while you’re using it.
It’s a bit pedestrian, isn’t it?
Let me be clear. This is not about build quality. That aluminum build looks nice and premium while keeping things light and slim. But it’s almost aesthetically utilitarian to a fault. What I mean by that is there aren’t any unique frame qualities or design details to match the Snapdragon X Elite case here.
I’m not looking for excessive RGB brightness or bold styles that might end up making you feel uncomfortable showing this notebook in public. But staring this machine in the eye gives you more of a “family laptop” feel over something you can actually do stuff with. Some people will find this modest design great, but I wanted something a little more individual for this first foray into Arm.
Also, can we stop using MicroSD? It’s a *checks notes* 15-inch laptop — you have room for a full-sized SD card reader!
You will wait a while to get everything
This applies to two different areas. First, as you’ve probably read, Recall — the core Copilot+ PC feature — is being delayed due to major security concerns. This means a more gradual rollout of things that will really take this laptop category into its own space.
And second, although Prism’s emulation layer is mostly reliable, there is some falsehood with certain applications built for Intel or AMD chips. Given the huge and diverse ecosystem, this transition period will likely take longer than during Cupertino’s transition from Intel to Apple Silicon. But luckily, the most used apps are already Arm enabled.
There will simply be moments of frustration during this teething period.
Asus Vivobook S 15: Early verdict
And that’s the story of the Asus Vivobook S 15 — an understated, legendary laptop that sets Microsoft on a new path to truly take on the mighty MacBook line.
Even without every feature promised for these Windows 11 machines touting a big enough NPU, you can feel a significant difference in its performance and longevity. So much so that you’ll feel the worry about battery life disappear.
Of course, we’ll wait for the official benchmark results from our lab and the full feature set of the Copilot+ PC to rate it. But all signs point to this being a milestone. This is the start of something big.
