ASUS VivoBook S 14X OLED 14.5" S5402ZA-IS74 Midnight Black

The 14.5" 2.8K OLED display is the absolute best part of this laptop, landing in the 97th percentile and making everything look gorgeous. The i7-12700H CPU is a strong performer, but it's held back by a measly 12GB of RAM, which sits in the 24th percentile. It's a $570 refurbished gamble with a terrible 1/5 customer rating, so only bite if the screen is your top priority and you can live with the memory ceiling.

The i7-12700H is the star of the show under the hood, landing in the 77th percentile for CPU performance. That's strong, meaning it'll chew through spreadsheets, coding projects, and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat. We're talking about a 14-core chip with boost clocks up to 4.7GHz, which is serious horsepower for a thin-and-light. But that power is hamstrung by the 12GB of DDR4 RAM. In our database, that's a weak spot, sitting in the 24th percentile. You'll feel that ceiling if you keep dozens of Chrome tabs open or work with large files.

The integrated Iris Xe graphics are what they are, landing in the 48th percentile. You can forget about modern gaming, our "best for" score there is a dismal 15.8 out of 100. It's fine for streaming video and light photo editing, but don't expect to render complex 3D scenes. The 512GB NVMe SSD is about average for storage speed and capacity, so no surprises there. This machine is a CPU-first workhorse with a GPU that's just along for the ride.

Stacked against the competition, the VivoBook's identity gets clearer. The Apple MacBook Pro M5 will demolish it in GPU tasks and battery life, but you'll pay a massive premium for that. The Lenovo Legion 5i 83F00008US is a gaming beast with a dedicated GPU, making the ASUS look silly for anything 3D, though the Legion's screen likely won't touch this OLED. The MSI Prestige PRE13EVOA2088 is a more direct competitor, a thin creator laptop that probably offers a more balanced spec sheet with 16GB or 32GB of RAM. The ASUS wins on pure screen quality for the dollar, but loses on memory and graphics across the board.

At $570 refurbished, the value proposition is a real head-scratcher. You're getting a display that rivals laptops costing twice as much, paired with a CPU that's still a strong performer. But you're also getting a RAM configuration that feels dated and a refurb gamble with a 1-star average from the few people who've weighed in. If you get a good unit, the price-to-screen ratio is off the charts. If you get a dud, you'll wish you'd spent a bit more on something with a warranty and more RAM. It's a high-risk, high-reward play.

The ASUS VivoBook S 14X is a tale of two laptops. On one hand, you get a 14.5" 2.8K OLED display that lands in the 97th percentile for screen quality, which is absolutely stunning for a machine you can grab refurbished for $570. It's bright at 550 nits, covers 100% DCI-P3, and runs at a smooth 120Hz. On the other hand, the 12GB of RAM sits in the 24th percentile, and the integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics are strictly middle of the pack. This is a creator's screen bolted to a mid-range productivity engine.

We're looking at a refurbished unit here, and the customer feedback is rough, a 1 out of 5 from just four reviews. That 4th percentile social proof score tells you to tread carefully. But if you can look past the dice roll on refurb quality, the core specs are intriguing. The 14-core i7-12700H is well above average for CPU grunt, and the port selection is excellent. It's a compact 1.63kg package that screams "multimedia machine" but whispers "don't push it too hard."

Gamers and anyone doing GPU-intensive work should run, not walk, away from this machine. The gaming score of 15.8 out of 100 is one of the worst we've seen for that use case. Content creators who work with video or 3D will also be frustrated by the integrated graphics and the 12GB RAM ceiling. And if you're risk-averse, the 1-star refurbished rating and 4th percentile social proof score are clear signs to look for a new, warrantied laptop with more consistent quality control.

The ASUS VivoBook S 14X is a niche machine for a specific buyer: someone who lives in spreadsheets, code editors, and streaming apps, and who values a world-class display above all else. The CPU is up to the task, but the 12GB of RAM is a constant limitation you'll need to manage. At $570 refurbished, it's tempting, but that 1-star customer rating is a giant red flag. If you're willing to roll the dice on a refurb unit and your workflow doesn't need more than 12GB of memory, the screen alone might justify the risk. For everyone else, there are safer, more balanced options out there.