[Review] Asus Vivobook A510UF

The Asus Vivobook A510UF is the latest refresh of their Vivobook line that incorporates much of the same external chassis and design of last year’s S510UQ though the overall hardware has been revamped by several notches to meet current standards for ultrabooks along with aesthetic concessions to make it more affordable.

Externally, the Vivobook A510UF bears a similar appearance to the earlier S150UQ variant that we tested a while back though in this regard, the A510UF is made completely of polycarbonate. Surprisingly , the top lid actually looks and feels like it is made of aluminium though in actual fact its artfully engineered plastic with Asus’ signature concentric circle textured finish centered around its logo. It lends the notebook a premium touch and also handily repels fingerprints too.

Fortunately, its overall sturdiness and weight savings more than make up for the lack of premium aluminium in its construction, making it exceptionally portable for its size. Unfortunately, you’ll need to handle it with some amount of care as the faux metal finish tends to chip after a couple of years of use.

Much like the earlier S150, the right side comes with a power plug point, a USB 3.1 port, a HDMI-out, a USB Type C and a 3.5mm audio jack. The left side of the notebook comes with a pair of USB 2.0 ports as well as an SD card reader.

The underside is relatively nondescript bar two grilles for the forward-firing speakers as well as four rubberised feet to keep the notebook stable when in use.

Much like its S150 sibling, the A510UF variant has a similarly designed plastic hinge that is sturdy and is able to hold the display up without any wobbling though it still needs two hands to open it.

Not much has changed either in terms of the keyboard and popping the lid open reveals a similar full sized, backlit keyboard as its predecessor with large palm rests, a generously sized touchpad with a fingerprint reader inset in the corner and a power button in the upper right corner of the keyboard.

For good and ill, Asus has retained a nigh identical design and seems to have reused the vast majority of the chassis of the earlier Vivobook S150 except for the reworked top lid that has been given quite a bit more polish. You still get exceptional portability and reasonable build quality along with a sufficient number of ports but the power button being plonked next to the delete key still remains an onerous niggle.

Asus Vivobook A510UF Specifications and Performance

The new Asus Vivobook A510UF has a refreshed array of hardware over its predecessor with an eighth generation Intel Coffee Lake processor and an NVIDIA MX130GPU though it ditches the SSD as a concession to cost. Fortunately, the M.2 SSD bay is empty so you can augment it with your own SSD should funds permit.

For Malaysia the new Vivobook A510UF notebook sports a newer Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz processor that is paired with 4GB RAM, the aforementioned NVIDIA GeForce MX130 GPU with 2GB VRAM and a 1TB 5400 rpm hard disk. The Vivobook’s i5-8250U newer processor is of more recent vintage and sports a quad-core with 8 threads, superseding its predecessor the i5-7200U in the older Vivobook S510 by offering more cores and more threads so as to deliver faster multicore speeds and generally better overall performance. A pricier variant A510 variant exists that is otherwise similar but packs a better Intel Core i7-8550U processor for RM700 more.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, the Vivobook A510UF achieved a score of 7,319 in 3D Mark’s Skydiver while in Time Spy it achieved a score of 732 points. This is quite a bump up from the older Vivobook S510UF’s score of 4,592 on Sky Diver and 685 on Time Spy with equivalent benchmark settings.

In GeekBench, the A510UF achieved an OpenCL score of 33,549 and a multicore score of 11,696 versus the older S510’s notebook’s OpenCL score of 30,657 and a Multicore score of 6,249. In Cinebench, the A510UF achieved a decent 71.09fps in OpenGL and 689cb in the CPU test while in PCMark it scored 2,662 points.

The synthetic benchmarks give a general indication as to its overall performance though it’s not a definitive cut and dried conclusion nor is it an apple-to-apple comparison to its older predecessor as the A510UF has a newer processor and GPU.

In practical day to day use over the course of two weeks, we’ve toted it around for general paperwork – answering emails, watching YouTube and Netflix videos along with liberal use of Google Docs and spreadsheets. We’ve used it with up to a dozen open Chrome browser windows along with streaming video and it handled everything without keeling over.

It also managed last-gen games like Borderlands 2, BioShock: Infinite and the relatively recent Modern Combat Versus F2P FPS at low settings. In contrast, a relatively recent game like Deus Ex: Mankind divided managed an average of 11.9fps and a maximum 17.2fps in the built-in benchmark. Most games are surprisingly playable overall with some compromises, but they’re not at the pinnacle of pixel crunching perfection.

The built-in fan cooling solution is fortunately whisper silent and  it kept heat to a comfortable threshold even under heavy loads that won’t parboil your lap if you place it on your knees.

The matte display is bright and vibrant with good detail that lends itself to extended Netflix sessions. The speakers are tuned by SonicMaster and offer reasonably good levels of detail for what you pay for and sufficient volume to fill a small room though they aren’t particularly loud nor do they offer much sound staging. Combined, the notebook makes for a comprehensive portable entertainment package.

Bar the wonky inclusion of the delete key next to the power button, the Vivobook A510UF’s keyboard was comfortable to use and responsive to boot, allowing for a comfortable typing experience at a steady clip though some practice is needed to avoid accidentally whamming the power button.

In terms of performance, the inclusion of the new Intel processor makes quite a difference, allowing it a nigh equivalent, and in some scenarios, superior performance envelope though its hard disk remains a bottleneck albeit one that can be corrected with an SSD. The notebook also has a spare DIMM slot for you to double up the RAM too.

Asus Vivobook A510UF Price, Battery Life and Conclusion

Battery life is middling at best and the notebook lasted about eight or so hours on an average workload, Wi-Fi on and moderate brightness settings. You should be able to eke out the better part of a workday; gaming or heavy video rendering work as well as maxing out screen brightness will likely drain your juice in a much swifter fashion.

Asus set out to make an affordable entry level workhorse and they’ve by and large succeeded as the revamped VivoBook A510UF offers a well considered blend of cost and performance.

For RM2,799 you get quite a compelling mix of features with the Asus Vivobook A510UF –  a crisp 15.6-inch display, a decent keyboard and best of all, the latest eighth generation Intel processor to run the show. While the lack of an SSD in the stock configuration is a downer, it’s understandable to keep the notebook in the sub-RM3K price range though you can add one in later on. If you’re on the hunt for an affordable notebook with decent performance and a large display, this comes recommended.

Specifications
Price RM2,799
Display 15.6-inch LED backlit LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor Intel Core i5-8250U 1.8GHz
Graphics NVIDIA MX130 |
Memory 4GB RAM / 1TB hard disk
Battery 3 cell 42Whr
Size/Weight 361.4 x 243.5 x 17.9 mm / 1.5kg
*Review unit courtesy of Asus Malaysia

What we liked Comfortable backlit keyboard, large and crisp Nanoedge display, good speakers
What we didn’t Finicky touchpad, power button still next to the delete key, modest battery life
We say A highly portable workhorse that offers a great keyboard, a large display paired with good speakers and enough performance for basic paperwork without costing a bomb.