Generally speaking, two types of people own ASUS laptops: those who want to game on the go and those who want to work on the go. Gamers will opt for an ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) laptop (or the Steam Deck’s main rival, the ROG Xbox Ally). Everyone will probably be attracted to Asus’ main offerings: the Vivobook and the Zenbook. The former is much cheaper, but that price comes at a cost.
Simply put, Vivobooks are cheaper because they often use cheaper parts. The chassis exemplifies this design philosophy. The Vivobook’s components are housed in durable cases, but Zenbooks get special treatment thanks to a material called ceramic. This substance is a combination of aluminum and ceramic, making it both more durable and lighter than a standard laptop case.
While many Vivobooks and Zenbooks feature some of the same internal components, such as processors and SSDs (solid-state drives), Zenbooks are distinguished by the hardware they don’t share. For example, Zenbooks are more likely to have OLED, or at least superior OLED, monitors, and the Zenbook DUO has two monitors – Vivobooks only have one. Additionally, while you can spend extra money on a Zenbook or Vivobook to upgrade its internals, you can only go so far with the latter. For example, you can only upgrade a handful of Vivobooks to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9, but you can upgrade multiple Zenbooks with the more powerful and newer Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 3.
Cheaper is not always better
Like all computers, Vivobook and Zenbook prices vary depending on their specifications. If you order a Vivobook with the most powerful hardware it can handle, there’s a good chance it will cost more than a Zenbook with the most basic components. But just because you can save money doesn’t mean sacrificing performance is worth a few extra dollars in your wallet.
Let’s compare the Vivobook S16 to the Zenbook S16. The former starts at $1,499.99, while the latter starts at $1,599.99. Both include a terabyte SSD, but while the Vivobook’s monitor includes a 16-inch Full High Definition (FHD) resolution, the Zenbook includes a screen with 3K resolution – not quite Ultra High Definition (UHD), but better than FHD. However, it’s the processors that really set computers apart from each other. While the Vivobook comes standard with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 445, the Zenbook starts with a Ryzen AI 7 350. That’s a definite power advantage for the Zenbook, but this laptop has an extra trick up its sleeve: an AMD Radeon Graphics GPU. The Vivobook S16 doesn’t have an option for any graphics card, so it’s left in the dust by its counterpart when doing just about any task more arduous than running Microsoft Word.
If you plan to use a computer for general computing tasks such as internet browsing, data entry, or word processing, the Vivobook S16 – and its lower price – may be the right choice. However, if you want to play any type of game, the extra $100 spent on the Zenbook can mean the difference between frustration and hours of fun.
