Asus Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review – Solid multitasking workhorse delight

The ASUS Vivobook series are their midrange laptop line-up and are arguably their most prolific series with the most models and variants in the market. The Vivobook S 16 OLED that has just been launched in Malaysia is an interesting configuration as it introduces more premium specifications including the latest Intel Core Ultra processors and an OLED display along with a commensurately higher price tag, making it seem more like their premium Zenbook series rather than a midrange Vivobook laptop. 

@hitechcentury The new Asus Vivobook S 14 OLED and S 16 OLED laptops sport the works – an all metal chassis, OLED displays, RGB backlit keyboards, Copilot AI and the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 and 5 CPUs with Intel Arc graphics! The new Asus Vivobook S laptops are now available in Malaysia! #vivobooks14 #vivobooks16 #asusmalaysia #asus #vivobook #asuslaptop #vivobooks16oled #vivobooks14oled #fyp #malaysia #techtok #laptops #intelarc #intelcoreultra #longervideos #hitechcentury @asus.my @asussg ♬ France Accordion Swing – MIZUSATO Masaki

We managed to get our hands on a review sample and put it through its paces. Here’s our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review where we see if it is truly worth what you pay for.

ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review – Build and Design

Out of the box, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review sample comes with a rather premium looking metallic blue finish that they’ve dubbed as Mist Blue.

In terms of build quality, ASUS hasn’t skimped on the laptop with the whole affair featuring an aluminium top lid and chassis along with a sturdier, redesigned hinge assembly. To wit, the S 16 OLED S5606 actually has a US MIL-STD 810H military-grade rating for drops, shock and extremes of temperature so it should survive minor mishaps without issue.

The top lid has a satin smooth finish in the aforementioned Mist Blue colourway  that also proves to be surprisingly resistant to fingerprints and is otherwise unadorned save for an engraved ASUS Vivobook wordmark. There’s a minor bit of give in the centre portion but the rest of the top lid itself is otherwise sturdily built.

The underside of our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit features a set of ventilation grilles, a series of rubber feet to elevate it slightly off the ground as well as grilles for a pair of downward firing speakers. While not immediately visible, the laptop has a hefty cooling array that consists of a pair of 97-blade Iceblade cooling fans to keep heat under control.

Keeping the underside secure are a set of eight torx screws which also prevent users from casually poking around the insides which is unfortunate though there isn’t much to modify in the laptop itself as the RAM is soldered in at the factory and there is only one SSD slot which means you’re stuck with what you get.

In terms of ports, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review sample is very well appointed. The left side holds the most important ports with a HDMI 2.1 port, a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports that allow users to charge the laptop and to output to a 4K UHD external monitor. On paper, you’re able to output to two 4K UHD displays by using one of the Thunderbolt ports and the HDMI port. You also get a microSD card reader and a single 3.5mm audio jack.

The right side of the laptop is more austere, holding a pair of USB 3.2 Type-A ports for docking in peripherals like flash drives, mice and the like. You also get fast WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity.

One of the telltale signs that a manufacturer has cut corners is the quality of their hinges. In this regard, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit did not disappoint and the redesigned hinges are sturdier while taking up less space. Opening it is a smooth affair, allowing for one-handed opening while remaining wobble free along with the ability to deploy completely flat in the unlikely event you need to do so.

Of note with our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review sample is the fact that it hosts a top-shelf 16-inch 3.2K OLED display with a tall 16:10 aspect ratio that makes it ideal for web browsing and productivity tasks. The display also has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and also has a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut meaning that it is ideal for content creators as it offers accurate colour reproduction. 

On paper, it’s rated with 600 nits peak brightness which is brighter than most of the cheaper LCD panels that ASUS issues in their other Vivobook laptops like the prior Vivobook 16 A1605 that we tested a while back. Perched up top, you get a 1080p/30fps webcam up top that is protected by a physical privacy slider. The webcam also doubles up as biometric identification for Windows Hello verification. 

ASUS certainly took feedback to heart and they’ve included a full sized keyboard complete with a numeric keypad with a dedicated Copilot key and which offers a relatively comfortable 1.7mm of key travel. You also get an absolutely huge touchpad that is 40% larger than its predecessor with a generous amount of space to rest your palms, making this one of the best layouts seen yet on a keyboard laptop. 

While RGB lighting is typically an afterthought on productivity oriented laptops, the S5606 actually has three-stage RGB backlighting though it is only single zone with a selection of lighting patterns to choose from but the fact that it even appears on a work-related laptop is a pleasant surprise indeed. Oddly enough, it lacks a fingerprint reader but this is otherwise one of the best designs we’ve seen yet. 

As far as laptop designs go, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review did not disappoint with build quality more akin to a Zenbook with its smooth hinges, all-metal chassis and otherwise sturdy design. 

While it sounds somewhat heavy at 1.5kg for an ultraportable, you’re effectively getting a 16-inch display and a surprisingly slim chassis in the bargain at 15.9mm thin which makes this a compact ‘big’ laptop. 

Out of the box, ASUS has thoughtfully bundled a 90W USB Type-C charger and while it isn’t exactly bundled as a physical item, the laptop does have a free copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student preinstalled which adds to its value.

ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review – Specifications and Performance

In terms of hardware, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit packs an impressive array of specifications. Powering the laptop is the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with a maximum 50W TDP paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB SSD along with Intel Arc graphics.

 
That’s not all as the laptop is also Intel Evo certified which is denoted by a sticker on the palm rest, indicating that it sticks to Intel’s strict criteria for fast boot-ups, endurance and overall performance. A variant with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H but with a similar amount of RAM and storage is also available in Malaysia for slightly less. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

Price	RM5,299 [Vivobook S 16 OLED w/ Ultra 7 155H – Blue/Black], RM4,399 [Vivobook S 16 OLED w/ Ultra 5 125H – Blue/Black]
Display	16-inch Lumina OLED 3.2K NanoEdge display, 3,200 x 2,000 pixels, 120Hz, 100% DCI-P3, VESA DisplayHDR 600 True Black, 89% screen-to-body ratio, 600 nits peak brightness
Processor	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
OS	Windows 11 Home w/ Copilot
Memory	16GB LPDDR5X RAM / 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
Graphics	Intel Arc
Battery	75Wh w 90W Type-C power adaptor, 49 min fast charge to 60%
Size/Weight	353.6 x 247 x 15.9mm / 1.5kg

Much like other ASUS laptops, the S 16 OLED has their own MyASUS management app preinstalled that lets you perform basic diagnostics as well as tweak performance settings with the inclusion of a full speed mode where the cooling fans are ramped to maximum speed and the processor is allowed to run at its maximum 50W TDP. Unfortunately, full speed mode is only accessible if the laptop remains plugged in.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks and set to full speed  mode, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review sample yielded the following results:

3D Mark Time Spy Extreme	1,797
3D Mark Time Spy	3,777
3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra	2,112
3D Mark Fire Strike Extreme	4,096
3D Mark Fire Strike	8144
3D Mark Night Raid	27,706
3D Mark Speed Way	447
3D Mark Solar Bay	11,549
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,173
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	11,273
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	23,199
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	23,751
Cinebench R24 Multicore	147,523
Cinebench R24	971,5170.34 x MP Ratio
PCMark 10 Extended Work Score	6,417
PCMark 8 Battery Life	4 hours 40 mins

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H proved its worth with benchmarks somewhat similar to the earlier Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405 that we tested earlier this year which also runs the same processor albeit with more RAM. While our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit has less RAM, the updated firmware and enhanced cooling array allows our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit to run at a higher 50W TDP and offer equivalent performance. 

Perhaps the oddest anomaly here is its poorer battery life at just 4 hours and 40 minutes in benchmark tests though this is likely attributable to its larger 16-inch display which drains more juice and also to the fact that this is an early review sample fresh off the production line. In more practical field tests, it was comfortably able to last the better part of a work day with about 6 or so hours of use with WiFi on with normal work duties like web browsing and paperwork as well as moderate screen brightness settings before needing a top-up near sundown while a basic looped 1080p video test yielded about 9 hours worth of battery life. In any case the bundled charger is sufficiently light and compact enough that topping it up in the field isn’t an issue.

Of note with the new Meteor Lake CPUs is the inclusion of Intel Arc graphics and Intel’s own Intel Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) tech which allows selected games to render at a lower resolution during gameplay before a training AI model upscales it to higher quality and frame rates to ensure smoother gameplay.

The caveat here is that this only works on selected games though most of the major popular ones like Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher 3 are supported, allowing it to act as an ersatz gaming rig of sorts in between crunching paperwork.

In its primary role for productivity, our ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review unit shines with its full sized, comfortable keyboard allowing for efficient, accurate typing while its large 16:10 120Hz OLED display offers luscious colours and pin-sharp text. The tall aspect ratio makes web browsing and especially poring through documents an easier task.

Content creators will appreciate the 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut of the display that, in tandem with its hardware allows for serious photo editing and all but the heaviest video editing as its soldered-in 16GB RAM precludes heftier work on Adobe Premiere Pro. The provided speakers are loud and punchy, lending themselves well to music and general listening duties.

Should you buy the ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606?

As it stands, the ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 offers surprisingly good value for what you pay for as you get a superb, colour-accurate display, excellent performance, a great keyboard and excellent build quality with an all-metal chassis.

If you’re looking for a more compact design, the Vivobook S14 OLED is also available with similar specifications albeit with a keyboard lacking a numeric keypad and a smaller display.

ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED S5606 review sample courtesy of ASUS Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.ASUS.com/my/laptops/for-home/vivobook/ASUS-vivobook-s-16-oled-s5606/