The new Asus Vivobook 15 M513 makes quite an impression right from the get go. It has great balance which makes it feel a good bit lighter than it’s 1.7kg, and it still feels sturdy despite the all-plastic body shell. Fire it up and Windows appears in seconds.
And that set the tone for all our tests. For a mid-range laptop the Vivobook proved remarkly fast, handling everything we threw at it nimbly and with sure-footed pace. That is probably down to several things, from the top-notch AMD Rizen 7 5000 series CPU to the 1TB SSD and critically, the gorgeous OLED screen.
OLED laptop screens are still a rarity, and almost unheard of on a mid-range laptop, but this 15-incher delivered superb images for both work and play. Lightweight gaming is certainly posible on the Vivobook 15, and things do look rich and bright thanks to the extraordinary 600 nits only possible with an OLED screen. But the clincher was the rapid response time of 0.2millsecond, which Asus claims is the fastest of any laptop on the market.
Other than the solid specs, the light and ergonomic build and the delightful screen the Vivobook offers a lot of practical features too. There’s wifi 6 on board and a generous number of ports including USB-C and two USB-A ports, and HDMI our (which supports 4K video!). We especially like the fingerprint unlock in the corner of the trackpad.
It has a full backlit keyboard with a number pad, and while the keys felt a little small for my man hands, they are extremly light to type on.
We found a lot to like on the Asus Vivobook 15 M513, and it’s good value at the price.
15.6-inch FHD OLED screen, AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage, 360 x 235 x 20mm, 1.7 kg, R15,000
