ASUS Vivobook S16 16" Vivobook Mist Blue 2025

The ASUS Vivobook S16 packs a gorgeous 16-inch OLED and a fast Intel Core Ultra 9 into a light chassis. It's a beast for productivity and content consumption, but the integrated GPU means gaming is a no-go. If you need a portable workhorse with a killer screen, this is it.

The Core Ultra 9 285H is a 16-core monster that boosts up to 5.4GHz. In our CPU benchmarks, it lands in the 88th percentile, meaning it's one of the fastest laptops we've tested for multi-threaded workloads. Video exports, code compilation, and heavy multitasking are handled with ease. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD give you plenty of headroom. The integrated Intel Arc graphics are better than typical integrated chips, but they still can't match even a mid-range discrete GPU. Expect playable frame rates only in older or esports titles at lower settings. The OLED screen is the real highlight: 2880x1800 resolution, 120Hz refresh, 600 nits peak brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 coverage. It's a visual treat, and the 97th percentile ranking confirms it's one of the best displays we've seen.

Compared to the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, the Vivobook S16 offers a better display for the price but falls short on GPU performance and battery life. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a gaming laptop with a discrete GPU, so it'll crush the Vivobook in games, but it's heavier and pricier. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is a lighter alternative with a smaller screen. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is another gaming option. For pure productivity and content creation, the Vivobook S16 holds its own, especially if you value the OLED panel.

The price range across vendors is all over the place, from $1,489 to over $300k (we're guessing that's a listing error). At the lower end, this laptop is a great deal for the specs. You're getting a top-tier OLED, a fast CPU, and 32GB of RAM for under $1,500. That's hard to beat. But if you see it priced above $2,000, you might want to look at competitors with discrete GPUs.

The ASUS Vivobook S16 is a 16-inch laptop that puts a gorgeous OLED panel and a seriously fast CPU into a slim, light chassis. It's aimed at developers, creators, and anyone who spends hours staring at a screen. The 2.8K OLED with 120Hz and 600 nits is a visual treat, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H brings desktop-level multi-core performance. But it's not a gaming machine, and the integrated Arc graphics will disappoint anyone hoping to play modern titles at high settings.

We dug into the specs and benchmark data. The screen ranks in the top 3% of everything we've tested, and the CPU is one of the fastest we've seen. Port selection is generous with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the 1.51kg weight makes it easy to carry. The trade-off is the GPU, which is fine for everyday tasks but falls flat for gaming. If you need a portable workhorse with a killer display, this could be your laptop.

If you're a gamer or need to do heavy 3D rendering, video editing with GPU acceleration, or machine learning training, skip this. The integrated GPU will bottleneck you. Also, if you need all-day battery life, look at something like the MacBook Pro M4 Pro or a laptop with a more efficient chip. And if you're on a tight budget, the price variance means you need to shop carefully.

If you're a developer, a student, or a creative who needs a portable laptop with a gorgeous screen and serious CPU power, the Vivobook S16 is a solid pick. It's not for gamers or anyone who needs heavy GPU acceleration. If you can snag it at the lower end of its price range, it's a steal. Just be aware of the integrated graphics limitation.