Asus VivoBook 15 F515EA-AH34 Review | It Only Has One Flaw

Mid-range laptops are the proper solution for those who want to work smoothly and fast in everyday tasks, whether in the office, at home, or even on the on-the-go, thanks to the balanced hardware, balanced connectivity, and portable design, these laptops will generally offer the best bang for your buck.Today we're going to get to know one such laptop in this  review of the ASUS VivoBook 15 F515EA-AH34. 

The latest mid-range notebook from Asus has garnered excellent reviews thanks to its 11th-Gen Intel Core i3 processor, comfy backlit keyboard, top-notch IPS FHD display, respectable RAM, solid battery life, and most importantly, an unbeatable price point.

However, we should note that while this laptop is well suited for professionals, students and casual users alike, it's not a model we would recommend for gamers nor graphic designers since it lacks a dedicated graphics card you would need to perform these tasks smoothly. 

Like most ASUS VivoBook 15's models, this laptop comes with a classic and non-extravagant aesthetic, sporting a sober slate grey chassis made out of plastic and aluminum as it pays special attention to strengthening the hinge and protecting its internal components.

Also, its lightweight design, weighing just under 4 pounds, and its slim design (0.7 inches) allow you to easily carry it along with you, be it while you're traveling abroad or just on your daily commute. 

Regarding the display, it has a NanoEdge 15.6-inch Full HD screen whose IPS technology will benefit you with wider viewing angles and crips images when working on your daily tasks and watching your favorite movies and series with an immersive 16:9 aspect ratio.

Its brightness is reasonably decent to work indoors, while its anti-glare coating assures you a better productivity workflow if you take it outside. 

However, let us not forget that one of the most significant differences between a high-end laptop and a mid-range notebook is the quality of the screen. In that sense, you can't expect a laptop within this price range to offer you a display that rivals that of the recently reviewed Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7420, for example. 

Moving on with the review, there's also a chiclet-type backlit keyboard that is comfortable enough to write for long stretches, adding a number pad on its right side to make your day-to-day spreadsheet editing a swift and easy experience.

Last but not least, it has a multi-gesture touchpad with a fingerprint reader, just like the recently covered ASUS VivoBook 14 F415EA-AS31.

In terms of performance, the F515EA-AH34 packs a power-efficient Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor powered by two cores, four threads, and a TDP of just 28W. Its clock speed oscillates between 3.00 GHz and can go up to 4.10 GHz when pressed with more demanding tasks, thanks to Intel's TurboBoost technology. 

The Core i3 is coupled with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM - which you can upgrade up to 40 GB - allowing you to handle all the basic tasks, including but not limited to web browsing, spreadsheet editing, working on cloud-based software, checking the e-mail, making video calls, and so on. 

Basically, it's good for you if you're going to have several tabs open at the same time, but if you like having literally dozens of tabs open on your browser and a few programs running in the background, then we would encourage you to upgrade the RAM to at least 16 GB by introducing another compatible 8 GB module of RAM. 

To do the RAM upgrade, all you need to do is turn the laptop off, remove the power supply, remove the back cover and introduce the RAM module. However, if you want a more detailed step-by-step guide on this tutorial we walk you through the whole process of upgrading the RAM on the Asus VivoBook 15 F515EA-AH34.

As for the graphic capabilities, its integrated graphics card, the Intel UHD Graphics GPU, is solid and allows you to play some non-demanding games, as well as do some basic photo/video editing. This graphics card also supports 4K resolution content, but you would need to make use of a 4K monitor.

Regarding the storage for your personal data, Asus has opted for a 128 GB NVMe M.2 SSD drive which will exceed your expectations as it comes with faster writing/reading speeds (up to 3000 MB/s) when compared with the 700 Mb/s of the conventional SSD units.

In order to keep you constantly connected, you can find many terrestrial ports on this laptop.

On its left side, there's a USB-C port, an HDMI output, and a single USB-A 3.2 port, while on its right side, you can find two USB-A 2.0 ports, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

It also features Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 5. However, if you need a laptop equipped with the latest Wi-Fi protocol (Wi-Fi 6) to benefit from a faster and steadier internet connection, you should take a look at the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK we reviewed a few days ago, which features a similar set of specs but reduces the amount of installed RAM to 4 GB - that you can upgrade - and opts for the latest connectivity standards.

And if you didn't know about the new Wi-Fi standards, you should know that the previously known Wi-Fi 802.11ac is now Wi-Fi 5, and the latest Wi-Fi 6 corresponds to the 802.11ax protocol. It took a couple of decades, but the WiFi alliance finally decided to switch over to a number-based naming system.

Furthermore, there's a low-resolution VGA webcam and two stereo speakers for enjoying multimedia streaming with decent sound quality. 

This was a bit of a disappointment, but with laptops in this range, you don't typically get the best quality webcams. They're good enough for most users, but they often don't reach the HD resolution we see on more expensive units.

Perhaps the only drawback we found in our review of the Asus VivoBook 15 F515EA-AH34, as stated by its customers, is that the battery life is a bit on the low-end of the scale when compared to other models. Specifically, you can expect battery life on this model to be along the lines of three to four hours. 

We are not particularly happy about this feature, but we understand that Asus had to make some sacrifices in order to keep the price low. 

If battery life is a deal breaker for you and you want a laptop that offers a similar set of specs and performance, then we would recommend you take a look at the Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R74Z. The price is quite similar, but the battery life is better (7-9 hours) as well as storage (256 GB vs 128 GB), and the WiFi connectivity is superior thanks to the WiFi 6 standard. 

Overall, the ASUS VivoBook 15 F515EA-AH34 is a solid option for those looking for a nice budget laptop that features many mid-range specs such as 8 GB of RAM or the 11th generation Core i3 processor. It's a great option if you're looking for a laptop for work or for a student since it has everything this set of users could need. 

Couple that with a Full HD IPS display and a comfortable backlit keyboard, and you've got yourself a pretty great laptop overall. The only drawback for us would be the battery life being a bit on the low-end. Nonetheless, if that's not an issue for you because you're planning to have it plugged for most of the day anyhow, then it's an excellent mid-range notebook at a knockout price. 

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