The Vivobook Pro 15, equipped with a discrete GPU, provides commendable gaming performance, although gaming is not its primary purpose. Several games, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel Rivals, were tested. The presence of a 40-series GPU enables frame generation, achieving over 90 frames per second at Ultra settings, provided ray tracing is disabled and the resolution is set to 1080p. Conversely, lighter games like Marvel Rivals perform exceptionally well and suit the Vivobook Pro 15 perfectly.
Unfortunately, the battery life does not meet expectations. The combination of power-intensive components and the high-resolution OLED screen demands significant power. During a continuous video playback test, the battery lasted only 6 hours and 21 minutes before depleting. This test was conducted with the screen brightness set to a standardized 100 lux, and keyboard backlighting turned off. For more demanding tasks, the battery drains relatively quickly, making it less suitable for mobile work.
The Vivobook Pro 15 is priced at $1,500, which may be considered somewhat high. Despite the excellent OLED display and solid performance, there are more affordable alternatives with similar capabilities. For instance, the Vivobook Pro 16, released the previous year with an RTX 4050 GPU, is available for $1,000 due to price reductions. Although it features a lower resolution, as it lacks an OLED screen, it is more modern, partly due to its 16:10 display ratio. It comes with 16 GB of RAM compared to 24 GB, yet the $500 price difference is significant.
Another option is last year’s Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i, often priced at $1,350, which also features the RTX 4050 and is of similar size. While it does not have an OLED display, it offers a higher resolution IPS touchscreen with a faster 165-Hz refresh rate.
The main issue with the Vivobook Pro 16’s value is the absence of a new GPU. The generational upgrade of the CPU may not offer substantial improvements over the previous Intel chip, and given the same graphics card usage, justifying the higher cost is challenging. Additionally, the anticipated release of the RTX 5050 could be just a few months away. The high-quality OLED screen remains a highlight, albeit incorporated into an outdated aspect ratio.
