ASUS Vivobook S14 OLED 2025 Review [S5406S]: Beauty Meets Function

Asus has several intriguing laptop lineups that cater to every type of user and price range. Among all of these, I genuinely feel it’s the Vivobook lineup that makes the most sense because of its insane value-for-money proposition. You not only pay a lot less compared to Asus’ premium Zenbook series of laptops but also get a strikingly close experience of using a premium yet potent laptop.

Unlike other brands, Asus doesn’t slouch when updating its laptops, and the Vivobook lineup is no different. In it, Asus recently updated the Vivobook S14 OLED, arguably the most popular laptop in the series. Spoiler alert: The Vivobook S14 OLED will still, and probably will be, among the bestselling laptops in Asus’ lineup of thin and light everyday laptops.

While I am primarily an M1 MacBook Air user, I was left more than satisfied after my two-and-a-half-week time with the 2025 Asus Vivobook S14 OLED. Compared to its previous iteration, the 2025 version of the Vivobook S14 OLED comes with updated specifications, including the new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chipsets, upgraded design language, and much more.

This review elaborates on my experience using the 2025 Asus Vivobook S14 OLED [S5406S] extensively for over two weeks as my primary laptop. While the aforementioned laptop is available for a starting price of Rs. 99,990 for the Intel Core Ultra 5 variant, the variant I got for review has the Intel Core 7 instead, which retails for Rs 1,14,990. Let’s dive in!

Asus Vivobook S14 OLED: On-paper Specifications

Before you proceed, it’s good to have an idea about the device. To better equip you, here are the general specifications of the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED [S5406S]:

• Intel Core Ultra 7 256V Series 2 processor with integrated Intel Arc Graphics 140V
• 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
• 14-inch OLED screen with a 60Hz refresh rate, 1920 x 1200 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, and 600 nits of peak brightness
• 75Wh battery with 65W USB Type-C fast charging
• 310.5 x 221.9 x 13.9 mm and 1.3Kg weight
• Windows 11 Home Edition and Wi-Fi 7
• Harmon Kardon-tuned bottom-firing speakers
• 1080p webcam with privacy shutter and IR-based face unlocking
• Two Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, full-sized HDMI 2.1, audio combo jack, and a micro-SD card reader
• All metal construction and Mist Blue colorway

In-Box Contents: The Usuals, With a Bit of DIY!

To begin with the unboxing experience, you get the usual stuff you’d expect to find inside a laptop packaging. Apart from the laptop, which is the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED in the Mist Blue colorway, you get a standard 65W adapter with Type-C charging and a bunch of documentation. However, Asus has taken things up a notch by including a DIY laptop stand, which is nothing but clever.

After cutting a flat piece of cardboard along the markings inside the laptop’s packaging and doing some folding and origami, you are left with a perfectly workable laptop stand that can be used to hold the laptop in both elevated and standing positions. You would be surprised to know two things about it: how sturdy the cardboard structure feels, and why aren’t more companies coming up with such clever ideas for their otherwise throwaway boxes?

While including a DIY laptop stand is all good, I would have preferred seeing a sleeve inside to elevate the unboxing experience better. After all, the laptop doesn’t come cheap at over a lakh rupees, and Asus does provide a rather lovely sleeve with its Zenbook series of laptops. All in all, it’s a no-nonsense unboxing experience, especially because of the ingenious laptop stand.

Design and In-hand Feel: Airy Blue and Lightweight

Buying decisions are often a matter of whether or not you like a laptop’s design and form factor. Thankfully, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED excels in most regards in this case. My variant in the Mist Blue colorway weighs just 1.3 kg and measures 13.9mm in thickness. If you want to get an idea about its actual dimensions, it’s about half an inch bigger than an A4-sized paper on both sides. The color is a burst of freshness, and its bluish-silver tone is funnily similar to that of the M4 MacBook Air’s Sky Blue color. Either of them can’t be termed “Blue” in any correct sense.

Thankfully, thanks to the laptop’s all-metal build, Asus hasn’t skimped out on the build quality. The assuring build is paired with a silky smooth finish that’s very good to touch. Being the light color that it is, you won’t have to worry much about smudges and fingerprint marks on the lid. While the overall design doesn’t feel flimsy, the plastic display housing worries me. It’s an expensive OLED screen, after all, and a hastily fastened plastic housing is not something I can trust fully, especially since the housing shows noticeable flex when pressed from the front.

The two apparent words to describe the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED would be elegant and subtle. While the colorway in itself is subtle, it’s the CNC-engraved branding that takes elegance up a notch. It in itself won’t turn many eyeballs towards you, but those who do will undoubtedly appreciate its elegant design language. There’s also an opening indentation like that of MacBooks, which I genuinely adore. The laptop isn’t skinny like the M1 MacBook Air, for example, but thin enough to appreciate and stand against the newer MacBooks.

You are sure to be surprised by the laptop’s 1.3 kg weight. Despite all the additional components, it’s strikingly similar to an M1 MacBook Air. I was regularly complimented on my laptop’s lightweight form factor the second anyone held it. The construction still feels solid despite the lightweight metal chassis. As a result, you get impeccable lap usability, which you can do for hours in a stretch without feeling a thing. The laptop is US military grade MIL-STD-810H certified and has passed various tests, but you shouldn’t test the claims by any means.

The hinge is a crucial aspect of any laptop and often becomes a failure point after prolonged usage. Although I can’t vouch for its long-term durability, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED’s hinge feels solid in every way. One-hand lid opening? Check. The screen wobbles faintly if you type fast, but it’s not enough to disturb your typing spree. If you are wondering, the screen can be pushed all the way back, thanks to the 180-degree opening mechanism, which is of little use if you ask me. Asus has also given up on its proprietary ergo-lift hinge, which I am all in for.

Port Selection: Everything You Need, Nothing You Don’t

Like most Windows laptops, Asus doesn’t skip out on the I/O ports on its laptops, and the Vivobook S14 OLED is no different in this regard. Despite the thin and light form factor, an array of valuable ports is present. On the left edge, you get a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for display output, power delivery, and data transfer, a micro-SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone-microphone combo jack. On the other edge, you get the usual LED indicators and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, which support data transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps.

Other openings include the speaker grills on the underside of the bottom chassis and cooling vents on the laptop’s rear edge and bottom panel. While the cooling vents are positioned rightfully, the speaker grills’ positioning affects the sound output considerably. Moreover, Asus should’ve arranged the ports better by placing a USB Type-A and Type-C port on either side instead of the current port layout. Lastly, you get a privacy shutter on the screen to block the webcam’s feed physically. Coming from a MacBook, the port selection had me in awe, like always.

Display: Opulent OLED Takes It All

As the name currently mentions, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED packs a stunning OLED display. While the OLED trend has undoubtedly taken off, it is surprising that more manufacturers aren’t making the switch. OLED screens are a popular display found on smartphones. Compared to traditional LCD screens, they are well regarded for their impressive quality in brightness value, contrast ratio, and color reproduction. Most laptop manufacturers are notoriously stuck providing sub-par LCD panels even on their expensive laptops.

As far as the Asus Vivobook’s S14 OLED display is concerned, you get a 14″ FHD+ OLED non-touch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, a 16:10 aspect ratio, 600 nits of peak brightness, a screen-to-body ratio of 87.5%, and a 60Hz refresh rate. The screen features a glossy finish, meaning it somewhat acts like a mirror against a harsh light source. The screen is HDR compatible, thanks to VESA Display HDR, and offers 100% DCI P3 color coverage. Besides the bottom bezel, which is relatively thick and contains the Vivobook branding, the side bezels are minimal.

The screen will easily impress you and the people around you with its brilliance. In the world of dull LCDs, an OLED screen is very much a breeze of freshness. Pull up a YouTube video, and you’ll be left in awe, adoring the screen’s color reproduction, which can be adjusted to your liking in the MyASUS app. If you don’t prefer the ultra-rich, punchy colors, you can switch on the Tru2Life mode like I did or switch to the natural mode directly to reduce the saturation levels. However, I didn’t notice much difference after turning on the Tru2Life mode, which could be subjective.

Another magical aspect of an OLED display is its virtually infinite contrast ratio. This is because an OLED screen can turn its pixels off entirely in the regions where it has to show the pitch-black color. Thanks to the addition of HDR, you get an immaculate highlight control when consuming compatible media and playing supported games. Unfortunately, most of the display’s features in the MyASUS app get disabled, including the rather useful flicker-free mode to protect your eyes.

While you can never stop praising an OLED screen, I must tell you that the trade-offs included with an OLED screen include its fragile nature and lower lifespan. The latter, specifically, is an even bigger issue because of an LED’s limited service life, and thankfully, Asus has addressed it brilliantly. To prevent the infamous OLED burn-in issue, the MyASUS app offers a variety of settings, including Pixel Refresh to prevent the pixels from being stagnant and Target Mode, which allows for dynamic brightness control, which decreases the brightness of the area not in use while maintaining the brightness of the part that is being used.

While it may all sound merry, I still feel Asus could have done more, mainly because they have done it before. I consider Asus the democratizer of OLED screens on laptops, and seeing them back off disheartens me. For context, the 2022 version of the Vivobook S14 OLED featured a better OLED screen with 2.8K resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate for a much lower price. Degrading not just the resolution but also the refresh rate, especially when competitors like the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i give both, is unjustified. Asus clearly forgot about the famous “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” strategy.

Another negligible shortcoming I encountered while using the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED was when I noticed a few instances where a single pixel would flash white instead of the colors shown on the screen. I mainly saw it when I was typing something, so my guess is that it could be due to the OLED pixel refresh feature, which couldn’t refresh the pixel quickly. However, it’s barely an inconvenience since there’s a high chance you won’t notice it at all.

Despite the criticism, the 600-nit peak brightness is a godsend. Be it indoors or outdoors, I didn’t face any significant struggles with the screen only because of its insanely bright panel. You can notice a rainbow tint when viewing from extreme angles, so you’ll have to fiddle with the angle outside to obtain the optimum viewing quality, but it’s not an issue by any means. In most cases, your eyes will hurt looking at such a bright screen, hence I resorted to a 60-70% brightness level most of the time. Since the peak 600 nit brightness value is obtained during HDR playback, videos and games supporting HDR protocols look even brighter and better.

With 100% DCI-P3 coverage support, the screen is ideal for color grading work such as photo and video editing. Although professionals usually prefer IPS panels because of their even more true-to-life color reproduction, you can get close enough by setting the color temperature manually, switching to the normal display mode instead of vivid, and enabling Tru2Life mode. For most of us who would rather have a colorful viewing experience, the vivid color mode will surely leave you praising.

Now, I’m someone who doesn’t prefer a touchscreen panel because I hardly use it on my other laptop that has it. Plus, it would have incurred additional costs on top of it, so it’s best that Asus skipped it entirely. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED’s screen, its OLED technology, brightness value, color reproduction, and thin bezels. Indeed, it’s among the best screens you can find on laptops for the price and worth every praise.

Camera, Microphone, and Speakers: Actually Great

Up from the usual 720p webcams on most Windows laptops, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED features a 2.1MP full-HD webcam. It’s very good for the price and includes handy features like automatic framing and eye tracking, although none worked well in my case. There’s also an option for portrait blur alongside the standard overdone background blur, the former of which looks noticeably better in comparison. The low-light performance of the webcam is admirable if you can look past the slight addition of grains.

The internal microphone does a good job capturing audio during video and audio calls and recording videos using the webcam. There’s a dedicated mode for directional audio recording. Unlike other namesake features, the directional audio recording does make a difference compared to the standard mode, which picks up a little more background noise.

The Harmon Kardon-tuned speakers are surprisingly great on the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED. The dual speaker setup underneath the laptop’s body gets remarkably loud and offers a detailed output. I couldn’t notice any significant distortion, even at full volume, which is not something I can say for most Windows laptops. On top of all, there’s a volume boost mode that does what it says at a slight loss of quality.

Turns out, the Dolby Atmos branding isn’t for show, and as a pro tip, switching to the dynamic mode under audio settings in the MyASUS app gives the audio output the lively feeling that most Windows laptops lack. The only con is that the speaker placement on the underside of the chassis, instead of the filleted edge on the side, gets suppressed when the laptop is kept on a flat surface.

Keyboard, Trackpad, and Biometrics: A Bit More Than You’d Expect

A laptop’s trackpad and keyboard are enough to make or break the experience because they are the primary and, in most cases, the only form of user input. It pains me to see manufacturers messing up on their laptops, but fortunately, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED isn’t one of them in any sense. The laptop follows a standard 75% keyboard layout, meaning there’s no dedicated numpad on the side. As a standout feature, the keyboard offers single-zone RGB lighting with various lighting effects, which is not commonly seen in thin and light everyday laptops. It’s all controlled through the Windows Dynamic Lighting feature instead of requiring a separate app.

To speak, for most, the keyboard is excellent for typing on, but for me, I found the typing experience a little too springy and dull in terms of sound. It’s almost as if the keys bounce off your fingers quite prominently. The typing sounds are well under control, relatively low, and, in fact, something that many people prefer. With next to no keyboard flex while typing and the fact that I quickly restored my usual typing speeds on the new keyboard coming from my MacBook, I can confidently report that the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED’s keyboard is straightforward to get used to.

The trackpad is large compared to most Windows laptops, surprisingly even more prominent than an M1 MacBook Air, which is a big compliment. It offers subtle slicks, which I prefer a lot more on trackpads than keyboards because it makes the operation quiet and effortless. The trackpad supports the standard Windows multi-touch gestures and is exceptionally smooth to use. The big size makes all the difference.

Since Asus never shies away from pulling off insane innovation with its trackpads, the Vivobook S14 OLED is no different. The past versions of some Zenbooks had a touchscreen panel on their trackpads. Many even had a full-blown numpad that could be brought up with the click of a button, and now, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED houses various controls on the edges of the trackpad. Swiping up and down on the left and right edges of the trackpad lets you control the volume and brightness levels, respectively. The top edge houses a horizontal scroller, which I found very helpful while accessing Excel documents. Swiping down diagonally from the top-right edge brings up the Asys Screen Xpert widget.

I also witnessed a few inconsistencies that are strangely similar to those I found on the Asus ExpertBook B5 I reviewed late last year. For instance, the laptop’s trackpad once froze and became unresponsive a couple of times while switching between apps using swipe gestures. The right-click calibration needs some work, as clicking on the middle of the trackpad often brings up the right-click menu. However, these issues are pretty minor and hopefully aren’t present on other units.

IR-based face unlocking, also known as Windows Hello, is the only form of biometric unlocking present on the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED. The front camera housing includes an IR sensor to assist the laptop in detecting your face in low-light situations. While it sounds good, it works six out of ten times because of how perfectly you have to face the screen. You have to look into the camera dead-on for a flawless unlocking experience. It’s relatively fast but almost always slower than a fingerprint scanner, which I duly missed in my time with the Vivobook S14 OLED.

Performance and Thermals: Power Packed for Everyday Use!

Now, to get to the big part: how does the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED perform? To get started with the specifications, my variant houses the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V Series 2 processor coupled with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD. Being a thin and light laptop, there’s no dedicated GPU but an integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU alongside Intel AI Boost NPU for AI tasks. The processor has eight cores, eight threads, and a maximum clock speed of 4.8GHz.

By the looks of it, the laptop certainly isn’t meant for power users. It’s intended for professionals looking for thin and light laptops to get their job done, and that’s what it does beautifully. However, you’d be surprised to know that the Vivobook S14 OLED is no slouch regarding performance despite the lack of a GPU. Intel’s Ultra series of chipsets is excellent in this regard and doesn’t heat a lot, either.

If your workflow is rather casual and revolves around not-so-demanding apps like MS Office, browsers, media players, and more, the laptop flies across with a breeze. Even a laptop costing Rs. 60,000 ($700) is more than capable of doing that, so a laptop costing double the price shouldn’t give you any problems even in your wildest dreams. The 16GB RAM never caused troubles in such a use case.

However, if you do things similar to a power user, you might notice the laptop isn’t meant for it, at least not for prolonged periods. For instance, SolidWorks, a 3D modeling software I use, is highly resource-intensive. I noticed the laptop slowing down and becoming unresponsive upon juggling between multiple models frequently. The RAM got exhausted, too, as SolidWorks threw multiple warnings at me, stating there was low memory space. It was expected of the laptop since it’s not a performance powerhouse, especially not without a dedicated GPU.

Another heavy software I use is ANSYS, which is used for simulation and finite element analysis and is equally, if not more, demanding than SolidWorks. The Asus Vivobook S14 OLED performs admirably but takes longer than expected to generate meshes, which is a crucial aspect of finite element analysis. While I’m aware these are high-end software programs rarely used by a regular user, they gave me a good idea about the laptop’s performance capabilities.

I tried gaming, too, not just SolidWorks and ANSYS. Valorant, a game we all love, runs exceptionally well for a laptop working without a dedicated GPU. To give you an idea, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED churns out over 230fps on low settings, 200fps on medium settings, and about 170fps on high settings. Props to the HDR-compatible screen, Valorant, which supports HDR, looks gorgeous on the stunning OLED screen with exceptional highlight control. I didn’t notice any performance drops solely because of HDR.

All the matches were played in 1400 x 900 screen resolution (16:10 aspect ratio), and the fps drop wasn’t significant even when I cranked up the resolution to 1920 x 1200, the laptop’s original screen resolution. There was no alarming frame drop, especially during gun fights or fast-paced scenes, something which many laptops struggle with. Overall, I was delighted with the gaming performance of the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED. I didn’t face any issues with the laptop’s connectivity. There’s support for Wi-Fi 7, which is only suitable for future-proofing in its current stage.

Of course, it’s customary for reviewers to benchmark their laptop’s performance, so here you go. Below are the benchmark scores of Geekbench 6, Geekbench AI, Cinebench R23, and Cinebench 2024. The performance numbers are very good, if not better than other similarly specced and priced laptops. The MacBook Air M4 performs better in comparison when it comes to benchmarks. However, these scores aren’t indicative of real-world performance and shouldn’t be relied upon entirely.

The laptop uses a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, and it’s unlike those cheap ones, which can’t even touch 5,000 Mbps of read speeds. The Asus Vivobook S14 OLED uses a good quality Gen 4 SSD, resulting in a read speed of over 6,300 Mbps and write speeds close to 5,000 Mbps. This can be confirmed after running several rounds of the CrystalDiskMark benchmark, which tests a PC’s storage speeds. Despite the Intel Evo branding, the laptop failed to wake its screen in multiple instances as soon as the lid was opened.

After all this, you might wonder if the laptop heats up significantly. Actually, no, and I am even surprised to say this despite the laptop having a maxed-out cooling system. It turns out that Asus’ IceCool thermal technology, which relies on six heat pipes and two fans on the Vivobook S14 OLED, does miracles. The laptop only gets slightly hot at the top of the keyboard where the vents are, but that’s it. And, it’s not accompanied by jet engines on afterburners, meaning the fans function rather quietly even in high-performance mode. You can configure the fan mode within the MyASUS app.

Battery Life and Thermals: Never Lets You Down

Long story short, the 75Whr cell inside the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED works wonders. I could constantly touch the 7-hour screen-on-time (SOT) mark during my time with the laptop, with brightness set to 60-70% throughout, browser with multiple tabs open, WhatsApp, and a few other apps in the background. As a part of the browser tabs, I often had a YouTube video playing in 1080p resolution, so lasting over 7 hours in such a use case is commendable. Judging by its audience, which is everyday users and professionals, the battery life will keep up well.

If you reduced the brightness levels marginally, mainly used MS Office apps, browsed a few things, and had a couple of apps running in the background like I did a few times during my testing, the laptop lasted well over 8.5 hours, which is very respectable. In this case, my usage remained around browsing with several tabs opened, including Google Keep Notes, WordPress dashboard, Gmail, and my college’s dashboard. The background apps included WhatsApp and File Explorer to access files.

Considering most people’s use cases revolve around a similar workload, the laptop should last an entire working day with ease, but if your workload is demanding, you can still get around by turning on the battery saver for some time. The MyASUS app includes a handy Battery Protect feature that limits the charge to 80% to preserve the battery’s health.

To tell you about the rate of discharge a bit, the laptop sips through its battery life like a hot cup of tea – slow and steady while still enjoying every bit of it. I noticed no sudden battery drops, except for once when I was gaming without having the laptop plugged in, and the battery dropped drastically after over an hour of gaming. Regardless, the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED never seemed to struggle a bit with its battery life in my testing. The overnight standby drain was under 5%, which is very well contained.

The bundled 65W charger is adequately fast. The 5-80% charge time is about an hour, and a full charge from nil takes a little over 100 minutes, which is perfectly fine for a 75Wh battery pack. If you game a lot, I suggest keeping the laptop plugged in for better performance; in that case, the charging time doesn’t matter much. The laptop supports USB power delivery and can be charged using other chargers, including compatible power banks.

Software and First Party Apps: Feature Packed!

The Asus Vivobook S14 OLED boots Windows 11 Home Edition out of the box and comes with three months of complimentary access to Microsoft Office. Other than that, the laptop houses many first-party apps, the most utilitarian of them being the MyASUS app. The app not only packs a truckload of valuable features but also includes a built-in system diagnosis tool to run quick checks for your laptop.

A few of my favorite settings include the battery care mode, which lets you set an 80% charge limit, fan profiles that allow tweaking the cooling fans, and sound modes to play around with various presets, including a Dolby Atmos one. Additionally, Asus has put a lot of effort into the volume booster mode and various other display-related features to protect the OLED screen. The interface is quite praiseworthy, too.

As a standout feature of the MyASUS app, you can manually allocate memory to the integrated GPU, and yes, you read it right. Although the difference will only become significant if you do some extreme stuff on your laptop, I didn’t do anything close enough to notice a difference compared to the automatic memory allocation mode. Nonetheless, it’s still a good feature to have on laptops running without dedicated GPUs.

The diagnosis tool in the MyASUS app is excellent. Instead of the usual system scanning feature present in most laptops, it’s taken up a notch here by allowing you to diagnose individual parts of your laptop, including the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, battery pack, internal SSD, fans, and more. It also lets you check for software-related issues, such as driver and connectivity issues. With a plethora of more features to play around with, the MyASUS is a software you should set up the minute you start using your laptop.

Asus Vivobook S14 OLED 2025 Review Verdict

To answer the big question: is it worth getting the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED? I would wholeheartedly say so! To give my verdict about the laptop and conclude my findings, I found the laptop to be supremely ideal for most users looking for a thin, light laptop for everyday use. It doesn’t miss out on anything significant, except for a few things like a dedicated GPU, high refresh rate display, and maybe even a touch-screen panel, but most of us won’t mind such commissions if the rest of the things are great, which they are.

I can never stop praising OLED screens, and the same goes for this laptop. The performance output is better than expected, especially since it can comfortably run games like Valorant on high settings and heavy software. The design and form factor are worth envying, and the battery life is solid. And since we’re talking about Asus, you need not worry about service center availability, either.

I wouldn’t deny that the asking price of Rs. 1,14,990 for the variant I received is a little too expensive for the on-paper specs, especially since laptops with similar specifications, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i and the Acer Swift 14, are often available at a lower price. However, if you manage to grab it for a discounted price during sales or through promotions, you won’t be left disappointed after using the laptop. I truly enjoyed my time with the Asus Vivobook S14 OLED.

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