There’s a lot going on with the new ASUS Vivobook S16. As someone who owns an ASUS laptop, the Vivobook S16 is value PLUS. This new iteration of the Vivobook is thinner and lighter, giving it a premium feel. But how is this possible? What exactly is the draw? Snapdragon.
The ASUS Vivobook S16 isn’t just another thin-and-light machine riding the AI PC wave—it’s a surprisingly well-rounded companion built for students, professionals, and anyone bouncing between meetings, classes, and creative bursts.
Enter the Snapdragon
As mentioned, up front and center is the Snapdragon X Series chip and a beefy Hexagon NPU capable of 45 TOPS (trillion operations per second), which is above the minimum requirement for modern-day on-device AI tasks. Because it’s a Copilot+ PC, you get all the new hotness in AI productivity, including Recall and Click to Do, which let you scrub back through your digital life and interact with content intuitively. It’s like having a memory palace baked into your machine. It sounds mundane, but the truth is we spend so much time trying to Marie Kondo-ify our desktops, we tend to get overwhelmed with all the files we have on storage. On-device AI fixes all that:
Need to find that one image you saw last week but can’t remember the file name? Just describe it and Recall brings it up. Want to blur a photo’s background or summarize a wall of text? Click to Do handles it with local AI muscle—no cloud lag, no privacy trade-offs.
But this isn’t just a productivity play. ASUS took time refining the basics. The Vivobook S16 has a vibrant 16:10 2.5K IPS display that’s certified low blue light and bright enough at 400+ nits to work under the sun. Called ASUS Lumina Display, it touts the most accurate color displays but at the same time protecting your eyes with up to 70% less blue light so you don’t suffer from continued eye strain. Paired with Snapdragon Sound, the audio experience is crisp, punchy, and less laggy over Bluetooth audio devices. Without peripherals, you get natural bass as the speakers are located at the bottom of the laptop on opposing ends of the heat vent. In typical Qualcomm fashion, the laptop comes with an integrated Adreno GPU for graphics processing. Just like the high-end smartphones that have this chip, it can do light to moderate gaming. That makes it quite feature packed for work and for (some) play!
On paper, the 70Wh battery promises 32 hours of use. In the real world, that means two full days of productivity on a single charge if you’re not slamming it with video editing. Even under heavier workloads, the battery drain is minimal. Fast charging lets you juice up to 60% in under an hour—ideal if you’re constantly on the move. Again, this tech is possible because of this new generation of Snapdragon X chips and AI functions that help conserve non-essential laptop background functions.
Security? Check. Facial recognition via the AI webcam with auto screen dimming when you look away. ASUS Pluton security is embedded straight into the CPU, making it harder for threats to slip through as this is on-device. And yes, there’s a physical privacy shutter if you’re still a little camera-shy.
Port-wise, it has the essentials, a mix of the old and the new, with two USB A and two USB C ports, HDMI 2.1, and (audiophiles rejoice), a 3.5mm headphone jack for analog audio. Typing experience is solid, with a full-sized keyboard (a huge yes since ASUS has 16” of screen real estate to work with!) and a generously sized ErgoSense touchpad that feels great under the fingers. ASUS also wins points for its military-grade build. At just 1.59cm thin and 1.74kg light, it’s incredibly portable without feeling fragile.
Who is it for?
If you’re a student heading back to school or a parent looking for a dependable workhorse that can juggle AI features, study tools, and Netflix downtime, this one deserves a serious look. At ?50,995, it’s a fair deal. And with a back-to-school promo that throws in a Marshmallow Mouse until September 30 2025, Office Home 2024, Microsoft 365 Basic for a month, and ASUS’ solid 2-year international warranty + 1 year accidental damage protection? You’re getting value beyond the sticker price.
TL;DR: The ASUS Vivobook S16 is a smart, stylish, AI-powered workhorse that goes the distance. Snapdragon inside. Copilot+ on board. This is real-world stamina and polish that lives up to the promise. Plus, it’s an ASUS so you’re promised an ecosystem of tech support widely available in the Philippines from authorized vendors.
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