TAIPEI—Three brand-new additions to the Asus VivoBook S family arrived at Computex this year. All are thin and light, have extremely thin bezels, and feature unique hinges that position the keyboard at an angle for more comfortable typing when you open the display lid.
Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but we expect these machines to be excellent affordable options to consider during the upcoming back-to-school shopping season.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Asus VivoBook S13
The most compact of the new VivoBook S line is the 13-inch version. Asus says it features an 89 percent screen-to-body ratio, which puts it close to the Huawei MateBook X Pro as one of the smallest bezels we've ever seen.
Impossibly Thin Bezels
The bezels are slightly more than 0.16 inches thick, which is basically nothing, even when you look at them up close. Unfortunately, one of the casualties of that thinness is the webcam: the VivoBook S13 doesn't have any sort of camera at all.
ErgoLift Hinge
Other than the petite bezels, the most striking feature of the 13-incher is the ErgoLift hinge, which you'll also find on the 14- and 15-inch models. The hinge raises the keyboard to ostensibly provide a more comfortable typing experience and better cooling, but I didn't notice either of these things during my brief demo.
A Good Selection of Ports
On the plus side, you get an SD card reader and a USB Type A connector, in addition to USB Type C (not pictured), which means the 13-inch model has a leg up on other USB-C-only laptops like the Apple MacBook.
Pick Your Color
The next size up is a 14-inch model, seen here in a Gun Metal silver color that's one of five color options. The other colors are Firmament Green, Star Grey, Silver Blue, and Icicle Gold. The thin bezels are present here, too, but there's also a webcam, so the screen-to-body ratio is a slightly lower 84 percent.
15-Incher
The 15-inch version can be configured with a Core i7 and an Nvidia MX150 graphics card, which is more than adequate for editing large spreadsheets.
Texture Options
In addition to the numerous color options, the refreshed VivoBook line also features different texture options, including the woven texture pictured here on the 15-inch model.