ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review – New productivity powerhouse with Snapdragon X Elite CPU tested

Revealed at Computex 2024, the ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 is the first of a new generation of ARM-based laptops that are powered by the new Snapdragon X Elite processor that has been touted to be able to go head to head with the likes of Apple’s M3 processor and the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor. 

We managed to get our hands on one of the first laptops in Malaysia packing the new Snapdragon X Elite processor – the Vivobook S 15 S5507 for testing. After putting it through its paces, here’s our ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review where we share if this new Snapdragon-powered laptop is a hit or miss.

ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review – Build and Design

Oddly enough, ASUS has opted to deploy their first ever round of Snapdragon X Elite processors onto the midrange Vivobook series laptops rather than their more premium Zenbook series laptops though its deployment to the Vivobook line-up first is presumably for cost reasons or to work the kinks out of a new chipset before it reaches their posher designs.

In terms of build and design, our Vivobook S 15 S5507 review sample looks surprisingly premium, belying the fact that the Vivobook series is typically their budget line-up. The chassis is made entirely of aluminium including the top lid, keyboard tray and underside which does tip the scales at 1.4kg which is somewhat justified seeing its dual-fan cooling array though it’s relatively slim as notebooks go at 14.7mm.

The top lid itself consists of a brush-finished gunmetal grey that proves to be pleasantly fingerprint resistant with a simple Vivobook wordmark just off centre which lends it an understated look that fits well in office related deployments. 

On the underside of the Vivobook S 15 S5507, you get a ventilation grille stretching across its entire length for the two underside-mounted IceCool fans matched with two heatpipes along with a pair of grilles for the downward firing stereo speakers. There’s also a set of raised rubber feet to elevate the laptop slightly for ventilation.

In terms of I/O, our Vivobook S 15 S5507 review sample comes fairly well equipped with a fair variety of ports. The right side hosts a pair of USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports for peripherals, flash drives and the like with the left packing a HDMI 2.1 TMDS port, a pair of USB 4 Type-C ports that have DisplayPort and Power Delivery capability to charge the laptop off its bundled 90W USB-C charger. You also get a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card reader.

Closer inspection also reveals that the laptop has a more compact, redesigned hinge design that is 52% shorter and narrower without compromising smoothness and sturdiness with the whole affair enabling the display to deploy at up to a 180-degree angle. The revamped hinge is also smoother to deploy, allowing for easy one-handed opening.

Flipping our ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review unit reveals an aluminium keyboard tray framing a full-sized blue-backlit keyboard that also includes a numeric keypad along with a generously sized touchpad. Of note with the keyboard is the inclusion of a Copilot key with the laptop being one of the first to feature Microsoft’s more powerful Copilot+ which has more AI-powered features rather than the stock non-plus versions shipped on other laptops.

Despite their recent push for taller 16:10 aspect ratio displays, the 15.6-inch Lumina OLED panel used in our Vivobook S 15 S5507 review sample has a conventional rectangular 16:90 aspect ratio with a thicker bottom bezel and slimmer side and top bezels. The narrowed aspect ratio makes web browsing and paperwork slightly more inconvenient as you have to scroll around a bit more unlike a taller 16:10 display but it’s not a deal breaker. 

Of greater importance is that the quality of the display itself matches their other premium offerings with a 120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut which means it’s perfect for content creators. Up top, you get a single FHD webcam with a physical privacy shutter as well as Windows Hello biometric support so you can unlock the laptop with your mug if you’re in range. 

Overall build quality is solid and there’s no wobbling in the hinges with the top lid and chassis feeling sturdy. Beyond the charger itself, there’s not much else bundled with the laptop though the box itself has instructions that let you recycle it into a laptop stand though the laptop does ship with a free copy of Microsoft Home & Office 2021. Of greater importance is what the Vivobook S 15 S5507 has under the hood.

ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review – Specifications and benchmarks

The biggest draw to the new Vivobook S 15 S5507 is the fact that it’s powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. Qualcomm’s latest PC chipset is built on a 4nm process, utilising a 12-core Oryon CPU with Adreno integrated graphics and a Hexagon NPU that can handle up to 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Since the Snapdragon X Elite uses ARM architecture, which isn’t native to most Windows apps, some apps might need to be emulated, and a few may not work. 

For the uninitiated, the Snapdragon X Elite has four sub variants – the one integrated into our Vivobook S 15 S5507 review sample is the base entry level model, the X1E-78-100 that runs the slowest at up to a 3.4GHz multicore clock speed, is rated for up to 45W TDP and lacks dual core boost. Graphics are handled by an integrated Adreno GPU. Paired with the chipset is 32GB LPDDR5X RAM that has been soldered in along with a 1TB SSD plonked into the sole M.2 2280 SSD slot in the laptop. 

This means that upgrading the RAM and adding extra storage is not possible though you can alternatively swap the SSD out for a larger one. Other mod-cons include next-generation WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Here’s how our review unit stacks up on paper.

Price	RM6,299
Display	15.6-inch 3K Lumina OLED, 2,880 x 1,620 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio, 0.2ms response time, 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3, 600 nits peak HDR brightness
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 (45 TOPS NPU) 45W TDP
Graphics	Qualcomm Adreno GPU
OS	Windows 11 Home
Memory	32GB LPDDR5X / 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
Battery	70Wh (18 hours battery life, quoted) w/ 90W USB-C charger
Size/Weight	352.6 x 226.9 x 14.7mm / 1.42kg

At present, this is the only configuration available for sale in Malaysia. On paper, the laptop has the customary MyASUS app preinstalled that allows users to customise fan speed and performance settings ranging from a Full speed mode that ramps fan speed to maximum and the chipset to full 50W TDP, a 45W Performance mode for demanding tasks, the default Balanced mode that adjusts fan speed and processor based on workload and a low-power and low-noise Whisper mode that slows performance down to 20W TDP and reduces the fan speeds for quiet operation. 

You’re also able to adjust battery settings to optimise endurance and long term service life by limiting the charge to 80%. In full performance mode and plugged in, here’s what our ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review sample scored in synthetic benchmarks:

3D Mark Steel Nomad	492
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	1,948
3D Mark Time Spy Extreme	880
3D Mark Time Spy	1,872
3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra	1,615
3D Mark Fire Strike Extreme	2,989
3D Mark Fire Strike	6,132
3D Mark Night Raid	26,572
3D Mark Solar Bay	9.638
Geekbench 6 Single core	2,442
Geekbench 6 Multi core	14,478
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	21,012
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	23,729
Cinebench 2024 Multi core	974
Cinebench 2024 Single core	106 points x9.18 MP ratio
PCMark 8 Battery Life	6 hours 21 mins

During testing, the Snapdragon X Elite was incompatible with the PCMark 10 benchmark and seeing as the Snapdragon X Elite chipset does not support DirectX 12 Ultimate, it wasn’t able to run 3D Mark’s SpeedWay and Port Royal benchmarks which both test ray tracing effects. When tested with the new Procyon AI Computer Vision benchmark which tests AI performance, our Asus Vivobook S 15 S5507 review unit managed to score 1,652 points.

In terms of performance, our ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review unit with its Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 chipset consistently placed behind a test laptop running an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H with the same 32GB RAM especially in terms of graphical performance with the Adreno GPU pacing behind an Intel Arc graphics GPU in benchmarks.

Where the Snapdragon X Elite excels though is its single and multicore performance with higher scores in Geekbench 6’s single and multicore performance benchmarks Since these are still early days, it can likely see improvements with additional software updates though there’s no clear roadmap as yet on when this will happen.

Another interesting quibble with the Snapdragon X Elite and its ARM-based architecture is app compatibility. Web-based apps like Google Docs and the like as well as  run and core productivity apps like Microsoft office run smoothly without issue. Content creators will also find that Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve runs natively on ARM though Adobe Premiere Pro, at present, is sufficient for basic 1080P video editing but runs slower as it is being emulated.

If you’re keeping to general computing, the Vivobook S 15 S5507 is more than adequate to the task with its generous 32GB RAM allowing for smooth multitasking, multi-tab web browsing and other general tasks.

Gaming is somewhat of a mixed bag with the demanding Cyberpunk 2077 surprisingly able to run on low settings with the game at native resolution averaging 20fps in its internal benchmark and others offering fair performance like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and DOTA 2  while others like PUBG simply don’t run at all due to compatibility issues. This isn’t a deal breaker in any case as the S5507 isn’t intended for gaming anyway.

Arguably the biggest draw to our ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507 review unit is its enhanced Copilot+ though its smattering of AI-powered features seem more like entertaining distractions rather than radical productivity superchargers.

The Paint Cocreator lets you doodle something with the AI generating art from it though it’s not something you’d do beyond a lark. Live Ccaptions are a bit of a hit and miss with certain dialects and while it managed to translate Mandarin into English, it botched Cantonese completely. 

That quibble aside, the key improvement here is that Copilot+ has Windows Studio Effects that helps enhance quality for video calls, offering tangible lighting, sharpness and clarity improvements while also keeping the camera frame on the user in a call; a handy bonus if much of your workload requires frequent Zoom and MS Teams calls.

Where our VivoBook S 15 S5507 review sample excelled is in battery life with synthetic benchmarks exceeding what Intel’s current gen Core Ultra processors can offer at over 8 hours in PCMark 8’s work benchmark. Normal usage with WiFi on and general paperwork tasks including some casual YouTube viewing on the side for a good hour or so comfortably lasted a full day.

Performance aside, the Lumina OLED display on our ASUS VIvobook S 15 S5507 review sample is up to snuff with excellent colour rendition and brightness with its 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut making it ideal for content creators though you’ll need to test beforehand if your preferred photo or video editing apps run on it. 

On Qualcomm’s official website, it states that it is thus far compatible with DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and Lightroom along with CapCut and Canva which covers most of the more popular choices though Premiere Pro isn’t officially supported just yet. If you have an app that’s outside of the official list of support applications, you’ll need to test it beforehand first.

Should you buy the ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507?

The ASUS Vivobook S 15 S5507, powered by the new Snapdragon X Elite processor, stands out as a powerful and portable productivity laptop, delivering excellent battery life, a stunning 120Hz OLED display, and strong overall performance for everyday tasks. 

However, a few drawbacks remain: the narrow 16:9 aspect ratio isn’t the best for extended work sessions, and the ARM-based architecture may cause some initial hiccups with app compatibility. If you prioritise endurance in the field and the work apps in your workflow are compatible, this makes for a powerful, worthy proposition.

Review unit courtesy of ASUS Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.asus.com/my/laptops/for-home/vivobook/asus-vivobook-s-15-s5507/

Procyon Benchmark Suite courtesy of Procyon.