Since the launch of Windows 8 all manufacturers have started slowly integrating Touchscreens into their devices. Today we are taking a look at one of the cheapest full sized laptops with Touchscreen, the ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T 15.6-Inch Laptop.
ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T Review
The Exterior
The ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T has the very thin good looks of all new ASUS Ultrabooks these days. This model has a black brushed aluminum top cover with ASUS written in chrome right in the middle. A lot of laptops have stated using brushed aluminum exterior panels and I think this is a good thing. This finish looks just better, makes it feel more solid and also will last longer than the equivalent plastic finish witch gets scratches very fast. Also on this ASUS the finish is mat so it won’t attract any fingerprints like shiny models do.
On the inside we find the 15.6-Inch capacitive touch panel bordered in black. The screen looks very good just on it’s own. I’m not very sure about the actual ease of use of touch panels on laptops yet, I feel you need to constantly switch between the mouse and panel, and it can become a hassle after a while. Also, I don’t think you will like to have a greasy display after a while.
The rest of the chassis is silver plastic, with a very clean interior design and the bare minimal extra buttons and details. It has a chiclet style keyboard in black, creating a nice contrast with the surrounding silver case. From what I find in my research many people say the quality could be better with the keyboard not being as responsive as it should. Also the fact that it’s a full sized keyboard with numerical keypad is a very good feature. The touchpad uses the very clean design available on most models these days, with no extra click buttons, just clicking the corners of the touchpad.
Also on the inside cover we find the power button in the top right corner, just above the keyboard and the status LEDs on the bottom right edge. Because of the very thin design this device has no optical drive, which is normal for almost all Ultrabooks.
Connectivity
The ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T has all the necessary connectivity options. The only thing missing from the mix is an optical drive and that can be added separately with the help of an external USB optical drive.
It has the Kensignton security slot, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a combo Headphones/Mic jack, and the SD card reader on the left side and the power connector, slim ethernet port, VGA and HDMI out, and 1 USB 3.0 port on the right side. It also comes with high speed Wireless-N WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. It has all the bases covered and also has a VGA out often hard to find on Ultrabooks.
The Performance
The performance delivered by the ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T is actually surprisingly good. I would have expected the added cost of the touch panel to have lowered the specifications quite a bit, but I am happy to report that it comes with the 3rd Generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor running at 1.7 GHz and with Turbo Boost can reach 2.6 GHz. This is a Low Voltage CPU, meaning it will have a maximum power consumption of just 17W compared to the 35W of a regular i5. Even if this might indicate that performance has also been lowered, I can assure you that it hasn’t lost much in this regard. I can tell you with the aid of CPU Benchmark that the i5-3317U has 3124 points, with the regular i5-3320M @ 2.60GHz with 4098. So the low voltage CPU uses 50% less energy with only 25% less performance. This Processor also comes with the integrated tried and tested Intel HD 4000 graphics card. Together they are capable of delivering a good entry level gaming experience.
We also find 6 GB DDR3 RAM installed on this ViVoBook, more than enough by today’s standards. It will handle heavy multitasking and memory intensive applications with ease.
This being an Ultrabook standard device, it has to have either a SSD or hybrid Storage with and HDD and a SSD cache drive. The ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T comes with a 500 GB HDD spinning at 5400 rpm and a 24GB SSD cache drive hybrid Storage. This setup is the best of both worlds, giving you the big storage capacity of a HDD and read speeds close to those of a SSD. The smaller 24GB SSD stores the most used files on it and they will start directly form it with the higher speed. This hybrid storage also offers Intel’s Rapid Start Technology with this device being started and ready to use in mere seconds. ASUS declare that this device has an instant-on of just 2 seconds.
ASUS also offers 32GB x 3years free ASUS cloud storage (valued at $49.99) with this device. Cloud storage is a very interesting proposition letting you access your files from anywhere you have an internet connection.
The Li-Polymer Battery pack offers 44 Whrs of energy. Doing a fast calculation, this means 2.5 Hours if you run the i5 in full load. The declared battery life is up to 5 Hours and seems legitimate. Some users have reported reaching 6 hours on minimal brightness while writing a document.
A very interesting feature on all ASUS models is the 1-Year Accidental Damage Protection covering accidental drops, spills, power surges and fire damage for the first year. I think this feature will be very useful for the more clumsy among you, and of course, power surges are not something you can control.
